MKL Icons - Kurt Irvine
Kurt Irvine was born in Birmingham 1976 and played his first professional game of hockey in the 1993 for the Solihull Barons. HIs career lasted 15 years and he only played for two organizations the Solihull Barons (who changed to Blaze and then moved to Coventry) and the Milton Keynes Lightning and collected over 2000 minutes in penalties.
Incredibly loyal to his team mates Kurt quickly earned the reputation for a player that would not back down from any confrontation on the ice. Never mind the fact that he would have more than likely started the confrontation in the first place. He flirted with the laws of the game on a nightly basis and although slight in stature (155 lbs) he carried a lot of presence on the ice. In the 1997-98 season he amassed 325 penalty minutes in just 50 games and became loathed by opposing fans and players alike up and down the country. His penalty minutes never dipped below 100 minutes a season for the rest of his career that ended in 2008.
In the 2003-04 season he moved from Coventry to Milton Keynes much to the upset of both Coventry and MK fans. However, within weeks he had become a fan favorite in MK and helped the team to back to back league titles in his first two seasons and playoff titles in his first three seasons.
Kurt was a major factor in the third of these playoff titles (2005/06) as he single-handedly got the Lightning to the Playoff final by executing his role as agitator to perfection. He managed to get key players on the opposition teams ejected in both the crucial last playoff group game (Sheffield) and Playoff Semi-Final (Guildford).
Kurt controversially played his last game in 2007/08 when the police were called to the rink . Charges were filed and later dropped.
