In working on the Jordan and Marcus Messier story, I thought I'd done my due diligence in finding other brother pairs who had played together for the Americans. I said there weren't any, but a couple of longtime and loyal fans have told me different.
Jill Williams and Nancy Wogman both let me know that Mike and Mark Hurley, and Dan and Steve O'Rourke also suited up at the same time.
I ran across these guys in my Americans record book that Dan Mulhausen works hard on every year to bring us everything you could want to know. I could have assumed, but then again ...
I went to my favorite hockey site: hockeydb.com to look them up. This site is a gold mine of information on players. In trying to determine brothers, I looked for hometowns, then googled the players to see if I could find a connection. I didn't. This is what I found.
Mark Hurley: Where and when he played, but no personal information.
Matt Hurley: RW, born Nov. 17, 1977. hometown of Sherwood Park, Alberta. 6-1, 180. List of teams where and when he played.
Dan O'Rourke: LW, born Aug. 31, 1972, hometown of Calgary, Alberta. 6-3, 195. Shoots L. List of teams where and when he played.
Steve O'Rourke: Defense, born Sept. 11, 1974, hometown of Summerland, BC. 6-1, 195. Shoots L. List of teams where and when he played.
It's all relative. We can never find everything we look for. Next time, I'm calling Jill and Nancy.