(dramatic music)
- Oh, my goodness, I played, I
guess you might say, forever.
Probably about 1931 is
when I first started.
It'd be 85 years approximately
that I've been playin' hockey.
I'm Mark Sertich.
I'm the oldest ice hockey
player in the world.
(uptempo, rhythmic music)
I'm 95 years old, hope
to be 96 on July 18th.
I'm still playin' hockey
three times a week.
I get up at 6:00 in the morning,
I do my sit ups, my push
ups and a few other things
that kinda loosen me up and
then I'm ready to go, yeah.
(uptempo, rhythmic music)
I only live about a mile away,
but I do drive down by
myself and it's funny,
but I'm usually the last one there
and I'm the one that lives
the closest (laughing).
The group consists mostly
of some former firefighters
and also, of course, the current ones,
so there's quite a
different mixture there.
I think about my age and once in a while
I say to myself, “Well, you know
you're only 59, you're not 95.”
I just turn the numbers around
to make myself feel better.
My love for hockey is hard to explain.
You're skatin' with the puck,
you're shootin' the puck,
you're tryin' to take the
puck away from the other guy,
there are so many different
things you're doin'
that it just keeps ya goin' there.
- Everybody's got a role.
I'll keep dishin' to you and
you just keep finishing it.
- Yeah, I'll try.
If the coach keeps puttin' us out there,
we're doin' somethin' right.
(dramatic music)
They're the greatest bunch of
guys I've ever played with.
They set me up all the time
and sometimes it gets to a point
where I'm almost embarrassed
that I'm not scoring more
because they're always givin'
me the puck (laughing).
A group of the players,
right after hockey,
they'll come over to my home
and we sit down in the kitchen
and discuss who did what on
the ice and so on and so forth.
At my age, it's a wonderful way
of bein' connected with younger people,
and I think that's very
important for an older person.
I'm so fortunate that it gives
me a chance to be involved.
It's really the best thing
that's every happened to me.
