BUTLER TWP — The Mike Rodgers Memorial Trophy looks like any other trophy.

But its meaning extends far beyond its hardware.

Shawn Fuhr of Slippery Rock recently received the Rodgers trophy, which is given to the most valuable player in the Butler Dek Hockey Adult League championship game, despite not playing a second of the title contest.

In fact, he didn't play a second of the entire season for Iron Will, which edged Gangreen 2-1 in the league finale.

Fuhr, 27, lost his left arm in an industrial accident Oct. 3, right around the start of the dek hockey campaign.

"My arm got caught in a piece of machinery and just got ripped off, basically,"Fuhr said. "My other arm has tendon and ligament damage and still needs surgery. I was in the hospital for a month."

Fuhr's father, Rick Double, is manager of the Butler Dek Hockey League. His younger brother, 15-year-old R.C. Double, is the leading scorer for Iron Will.

"He might be the leading scorer in the entire league,"Fuhr said. "He's an incredible player."

Once out of the hospital, Fuhr attended only three of his team's games during the season. His teammates asked him to come to the title contest.

"I figured it was just because it was the last game," Fuhr said.

Double scored the winning goal in the championship game and seemed certain to earn the Rodgers Trophy, which is awarded by vote of the winning team.

Instead, the trophy was handed to Fuhr.

"Iwas in the team picture after the game, then, suddenly, they hand me the trophy,"Fuhr said. "I couldn't believe it.

"What made it mean so much is that when my brother visited me in the hospital. He promised our team was going to win it all for me. We'd been to the championship game four years in a row and lost."

"His team wanted him to have it,"said Joan Montgomery, grandmother of the late Mike Rodgers.

A former dek hockey player himself, the 19-year-old Rodgers was killed in an automobile accident in 2003.

Montgomery has paid for and presented the trophy at the adult league championship game ever since.

"When I handed him the trophy, there were tears in his eyes,"Montgomery said. "He told me he was sorry about my grandson. That meant a lot to me."

Fuhr faces surgery on his right arm Feb. 9. Eventually, he will be fitted with a prosthetic arm and will undergo rehabilitation.

And he hopes to play dek hockey again.

"I have no idea when. I know I have a long way to go,"Fuhr said. "I was a defenseman and I'm going to ask about playing hockey when I get the arm. I think I can do it."

His father is hopeful he can.

"Shawn has handled this whole thing so well," he said. "He began playing roller hockey in junior high. He's been into the sport since he was a little kid.

"I know he'll stay around the game. When they gave him that trophy, it was touching. It energized him again."

Fuhr's 2-year-old son, Stargell, will begin playing in the Chipmunk League of Butler Dek Hockey in the spring. Fuhr plans to help coach that team.

Unable to return to his factory job, Fuhr said he wants to get into teaching and coaching hockey.

"I'd love to work with disabled kids and kids with learning disabilities," he said.

As for the Rodgers trophy, it sits in his living room by the TVset.

"It's the centerpiece of this house now," he said.

Montgomery is thrilled that it's there.

"Mike's parents wanted me to stop giving the trophy,"she said. "He died three years ago and they figured people playing now wouldn't know who he is.

"I want to keep giving it because it keeps Mike's memory alive and it puts a smile on the person's face who receives it. Only this time, there were tears. ... But they were good tears."