"Team captain Mike Siegel, a history major, also thought nothing of it.

"I've seen a hit like that a thousand times," Siegel said. "He was off-balance when he got hit, but we expected him to get up. When he didn't get up, that's when we got scared."

Siegel's mind flashed to Travis Roy, the Boston University hockey player who became a quadriplegic after being hit 11 seconds into the first shift of his college career. "Then Sean started to move his upper body, so we thought he had just gotten his wind knocked out," Siegel said. "Then they came to take out on a stretcher, and that's when the panic started."

Gjos also sensed nothing ominous about the hit. "I remember skating into the corner after the puck with another guy," he said. "We were probably six feet away from the boards. We body-checked each other. It was a clean hit. He just caught me off balance. I went into the boards - I don't remember how I went into the boards. I just remember the numbness swept up from my toes. I don't remember much after that."

He was fortunate an orthopedic surgeon was in the crowd to provide rapid and appropriate treatment before an ambulance arrived. At Latter-Day Saints hospital, he underwent a seven hour operation to insert two 18-inch rods on either side of his vertebra, essentially reconstructing it and easing the pressure on his spinal cord.

"The only 'why me?' I've ever heard from Sean was right after the surgery," teammate Ralph Vogel said. "He said to me, 'I really started to have it all. I really started to have it together.'"

After the surgery, Gjos was given less than a 5% chance of walking again. After intensive therapy three times a week and exercising with the help of his girlfriend, Roz Emmett, he believes his odds have improved. He won't ask what they are. He's intent on walking again and he's sure that day will come, in part because of recent research sparked by the accident that left actor Christopher Reeve a quadriplegic.

"If you really want to look at it, there's been some amazing things in research," said Gjos, who has some sensation in his hips and gluteal muscles but is disappointed by the weakness in his quadriceps. "It's quite conceivable I need to wait seven years before they make advances that fix my medical condition. If that's my worst case, it's not great, but it's not that bad. I don't want to give away seven years. In the meantime, I going to keep working hard."

Said Emmett, who develops educational software for children: "Maybe there's only a 3% chance, but he's been in that 3% is so many ways throughout his life. We don't care what the doctors are saying."

After a few days in the hospital in Salt Lake City, he was moved to UCLA Medical Center for five weeks. His parents, Rick, a retired policeman, and Gail, a nurse, were by his side. "They're doing OK," Gjos said. "It's been difficult for my dad. He's always been such a strong supporter of my athletics." Next Page

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