The first time I met Jimmy Bermingham was at a hockey game in LR, AR. He was playing against his little brother there.

I managed to sneak in a note from a “secret admirer” into the away team’s locker room, telling him to call her at 867-5309, a number he continued to repeat all nite thinking it sounded familiar, which of course I thought was the most hilarious thing ever. That was the beginning of my kid sister he never had, relationship with Jimmy, and we never stopped laughing.

To know Jimmy was to love him, the larger than life gentle giant, large in stature and in personality, you couldn’t forget him. He was big in all ways, his laugh was big, he was big in personality, had big love for his family and friends with even bigger love for his one true love, hockey.

Some might say hockey broke his heart, as much joy it brought, he had a hard time moving on when it was over. Jimmy struggled to see his purpose after his time on the ice, that was his true calling. What all of us knew, he found hard to comprehend. Jimmy’s friends and family knew he could succeed at anything he might do, but he had his own doubts, he couldn’t adopt the confidence his family and friends had in him to succeed in the future. He searched for the peace that was brought to him with hockey and that never stopped.

He was a huge force, Jimmy Bermingham, one that many, including me never thought could be stopped. He had that way about him, he was great at convincing everyone he was unstoppable, almost invincible. As much as a force that he was, there was, unfortunately something even bigger that proved to be his toughest opponent yet. Jimmy didn’t back down to much, and I think that’s true to this day, he just underestimated the power of his competition.

I hope we can all remember him the way I and his family & friends will, an incredible force with a huge heart, he adored his family, loved his animals, and truly saw the good in us all.

To the best inherited big brother a girl could have, here’s to Jimmy!!

The hockey community mourns the loss of former Member Jim Bermingham, who has passed away at the age of 51.

Bermingham skated in 500 career games with Toledo, Wheeling, Huntington, Jackson and Pensacola from 1992-2001. He ranks 11th in ECHL history with 588 points, 14th with 362 assists and tied for 16th with 226 goals. Bermingham scored at least 29 goals in five of his nine ECHL seasons, and over the course of his career, he was selected to play in three ECHL All-Star Games (1996, 1998 and 1999) which is tied for the fifth most in league history.

He was inducted into the ECHL Hall of Fame as part of the class of 2019. Following his retirement as a player, he served as head coach of the Southern Professional Hockey League’s Knoxville Ice Bears from 2003-07.