‘The heat’ on ice

‘The heat’ on ice
RUPD
officer Ken Nipe has cool tales from the 2002 Winter Games

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BY DANA BENSON

Rice News Staff

Ken Nipe could
be considered a campus expert on self-defense. He’s
been teaching Rape Aggression Defense (RAD) classes here
since 1995. But Nipe is the person on campus to turn to
for information about another subject as well — curling.

Curling is not
exactly the women’s figure skating of Olympic sports,
but during the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City, it did
have people wondering what was up with that broom.

Nipe knows all
about the broom and the other nuances of curling because
he worked security at the Salt Lake City Olympics, where
he was assigned to the curling venue.

The 2002 Winter
Games was the second Olympics at which Nipe has been a volunteer
on the security detail. Motivated by the desire for new
life experiences, he got just that during his 21-day stay
in Salt Lake City from Feb. 4 to 26 — like working
as personal security for the infamous Jamaican bobsled team.

On a day off,
Nipe and a friend he had met during his stay were visiting
Park City, Utah, when there was a bomb threat. It turned
out to be nothing, but they had put on their police jackets
during the scare. Recognized as law enforcement officials,
who were dubbed “Killer Bees” during the Games
because of their yellow jackets, the two were tapped to
escort the members of the Jamaican two-man team back to
a store where they were to be signing autographs. Nipe ended
up with a T-shirt for his son signed by the bobsledders
with their motto, “Cool Runnings.”

With an autograph
for his son, Nipe couldn’t neglect his daughter. She
coveted a much sought-after Roots beret, but not just any
beret — she wanted an athlete’s beret. He wasn’t
able to get it for her and ended up buying her a regular,
nonathlete’s beret. But he got lucky at the Salt Lake
airport when he was headed home. Again recognized as a law
enforcement officer, or LEO (yet another nickname the locals
and athletes gave them), Nipe agreed to watch a U.S. athlete’s
bags for a few minutes. Nipe told the athlete, whom he didn’t
recognize, how his daughter had wanted an athlete’s
beret, but he couldn’t get one. The athlete walked
off with the beret, put it on his head for a few minutes,
and then returned it to Nipe, saying, “There, now it’s
an athlete’s beret.” Nipe checked the athlete’s
autograph inside that cap: It was John Zimmerman, a U.S.
pairs figure skater.

In addition to
meeting a few athletes, Nipe had the opportunity to attend
some of the events, including a women’s ice hockey
game. He also participated in a long-standing Olympics tradition:
pin collecting. And, of course, he saw some of the curling
action.

Surprisingly,
curling was one aspect of the Olympics that was not new
to Nipe. Growing up in the New York Lawrence River Valley,
Nipe occasionally saw curling on Canadian television stations.
Still, he learned much more about the sport at the Salt
Lake games.

Nipe explained
that curling has elements of shuffleboard, horseshoes and
bowling. It’s played on ice in a lane about 50 yards
long and about 8 or 10 feet wide, and the goal is to get
a 42-pound granite stone — that can only come from
a specific quarry in Scotland — closest to the center
circle at the end of the lane. It’s called curling
because good athletes can make their stone curl — like
a bowling ball — to get around opponents’ stones
and come closest to the circle. So, what is the deal with
the broom? It comes into play because the ice surface is
beaded like an orange peel, and the players use the broom
to smooth out that pebble effect.

The Olympics
weren’t all fun and games, though. Security at the
Salt Lake Games took on greater importance in the wake of
the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Nipe said that after Sept.
11, the Secret Service took control of the security that
had once been in the hands of the Utah Public Safety Command.
But he noted that all of the police officers who were selected
to work the Olympics had years of experience and training.

“The officers
chosen, like myself, are trained so well. Here at Rice,
we get such quality training that we’re as well-trained
as anyone throughout the country,” Nipe said.

Nipe has worked
at Rice for 20 years. His main role with the Rice police
department is as a bicycle patrol officer. He also teaches
RAD classes, including classes for credit for students.
Starting this fall, he will teach RAD for men as a for-credit
gym class.