Throwback Thursday: 4/25/13

Social media outlets, ever the forum for historical perspective and alliteration, have a tradition of #ThrowbackThursdays, when users post pictures or videos of yesteryear on Thursdays (though hipsters might post with the hashtag on Wednesday).

In this spirit, we are going to post a throwback video, picture and/or game on Thursdays to give you a fix for your NESCAC hockey off-season jonesing. Today we have video from Trinity/Wesleyan's outdoor game in 2011 and pictures of the oldest active rink in not only the NESCAC, but all of D-III hockey.

Throwback Video: Wesleyan/Trinity 2011 Outdoor Game
When the New York Rangers AHL affiliate Connecticut Whale had their HockeyFest in 2011, NESCAC rivals Trinity and Wesleyan got to play an outdoor game at UConn's Renstschler Field in East Hartford, CT on February 15, 2011. The Bantams won, 3-1, and 2012-13 NESCAC puckers Larry Bero (Trinity), Keith Buehler (Wesleyan) and Donald Kleckner (Wesleyan) all had assists. 

With many prep schools participating in the two week festival, current 'Cac players that were still in high school at the time also participated in pond hockey: football stadium edition. One such game between Avon Old Farms and Kingswood-Oxford, featured five Avon NESCAC players:  Michael Flynn and Morgan Mullen of Trinity, Connor Doyle and Eric Naclerio (brother of Brown's Mark Naclerio) of Conn. College and Dylan Shamburger of Bowdoin. Mullen scored the fourth goal and Shamburger scored the eighth goal for an Avon team that routed K-O, 8-1. The lone goal for K-O came from Brett Buccigross, son of ESPN sportscaster John Buccigross. 

As for the Trinity-Wesleyan game, TrinTV provided highlights of the contest, which include cinematic references to Black Swan and Mighty Ducks, as well as some trash talking between Bantam and Cardinals fan(s). Find the embed below. 



Throwback Picture: Sage Rink

Middlebury's Kenyon Arena and Bowdoin's Sidney J. Watson Arena are the nicest in the NESCAC, but Hamilton's Sage Rink has the most history of any building in the conference. Built in 1921, Sage is the second oldest indoor college hockey rink in use, behind only D-I Northeastern's Matthews Arena. The rink was renovated in 1993, when it received structural enhancements as well as upgrades to the lighting system and ice-making equipment.

The Utica Observer-Dispatch has a cool photo gallery of Sage back in the 1920s and now, including pictures of the building's construction. Roaming the Rinks, a website dedicated to visiting the hockey rinks of North America, made a stop at Sage in 2010 and posted a write-up as well as a photo gallery for the visit.

Below, find Sage Rink in 1921 and in 2010. If you take the virtual tour of Hamilton's campus, you can see that structures such as the Scott Field house, which houses the team's indoor track and basketball/volleyball courts, have been built since Sage's completion to connect to the rink.