Throwback Thursday: Nobody Does it Better (The Story of the 1977-78 Bowdoin Polar Bears)

As part of our offseason Throwback Thursdays series, we present a 1978 Bowdoin College student film, set to Carly Simon's 1977 rendition of "Nobody Does it Better," highlighting the Bowdoin 1977-78 men's ice hockey team. Benet Pols gives you the background on that championship team and the 8mm film.

 

by Benet Pols 

Three Championships in four years. In the NFL that is called a dynasty. When you include Bowdoin’s first championship in 1971, Bowdoin’s 17-4, 1972 team prohibited by NESCAC from participating in that year’s ECAC championship (the tournament field was expanded from four to eight teams late in the season requiring an additional week of play. The presidents of the other NESCAC schools balked, so Bowdoin did not play), and the ECAC championship teams of 1975 and 1976, you can see why the 1977-78 team was a little cocky. Championships were expected at Dayton Arena.

But Nobody Does It Better?  Carly Simon’s 1977 re-recording of the classic power ballad, used as the theme song for that year’s Bond flick, “The Spy Who Loved Me” has a vague whiff of campiness. Let’s face it; Roger Moore’s Bond is the ultimate narcissist. Perhaps the film-making quartet, which included hockey player Bob Devaney, ’79, had their tongues planted firmly in cheek.

But maybe not. Let’s examine the record: 
- Two College Division All Americans
- Four New England Hockey Writer’s Association All- New England Selections
- An All-ECAC squad selection
- Three members of Bowdoin’s hallowed 100 point club, each of whom pulled off the feat in just three seasons: freshmen did not compete in varsity sports at Bowdoin until the 75-76 season.
- A record setting goaltender who would snag his second ECAC tournament MVP award.

The team had an 88.4% penalty kill rate, a Bowdoin record that still stands. For many in the stands at the old Dayton Arena the Polar Bears were more fun to watch man-down than at any other time. Speedster Bob Devaney, ’79, whose name appears in the film’s credits, would take the ice with a bounce to his stride and the cheering would start. After all, among his 109 career points were 10 shorthanded goals.  Devaney led the team in scoring in the ‘77-78 season with 22 goals and 20 assists (22-20-42). The winger from Watertown, Mass. earned All-American status that season. He appears wearing number 9 in the film.

Co-Captain Paul Sylvester was right behind, netting the puck 13 times to go with 27 helpers (13-27-40). The Hyde Park, Mass. native’s forty points (of a career 113) earned him first team All-New England honors to go with first team All–ECAC honors. Sylvester shows up often on the film wearing number 4 and carrying the cup around the ice at the end of the game.

The other Co-Captain was Framingham, Mass.’s Dave Leonardo seen wearing number 14 in the film. The New England Hockey Writers included him on the second team All-New England roster after the 77-78 season.

The third member of the 100 point club was blue-liner Gerry Ciarcia. His 24 assists for the season matched with 8 goals (8-24-32) helped him set what were then Bowdoin records for scoring by a defenseman. Both the season points (32) and assists (24) still stand up nicely at sixth and fifth respectively in the all time Bowdoin record book. 

Like Devaney, the junior defenseman from Arlington, Mass. earned All-American honors for the season, an accolade he’d garner again in his senior season, making him Bowdoin Hockey’s first two time All-American. In 2010, he was elected into the Bowdoin College Athletic Hall of Honor.

Ciarcia, wearing number 3 for Bowdoin, ended his Polar Bear career with 101 points, but his hockey career didn’t stop when he picked up his diploma in 1979. In addition to being drafted by the Minnesota North Stars and playing for their EHL affiliate Baltimore Clippers, Ciarcia suited up for 1984 Italian Olympic team in Sarajevo.

The only staged scenes feature the black masked goaltender Rob Menzies glaring menacingly into the camera and leaping to make a glove save, but you can see him in person during the post game celebrations, receiving his second ECAC tournament Championship MVP from Bowdoin’s President Roger Howell. Menzies’s 3-0 shutout of Merrimack in the final wrapped 114:48 minutes of consecutive scoreless tournament play for Bowdoin’s opponents.  Salem State scored an early goal before enduring a 7-1 semi-final drubbing. It is the Vikings who take the ice dressed in orange while Carly Simon warbles, “makes me feel sad for the rest.”

Only Bowdoin’s NESCAC rivals, the Colby Mules managed any offense against Polar Bears, managing four markers in a 7-4 quarterfinal lose.

Menzies 1,891 career saves set a record at the time; he is still second on the all time list.

But the players are only part of the story. No one watching the 3 minute 45 second film will miss the iconic fedora on Coach Sid Watson’s head; the hat itself still sits in a glass case in the foyer of Bowdoin’s Sidney J. Watson Arena. Watson earned the National Small College Coach of the Year award for the third time in 1978.

But still. Nobody Does It Better? Is that a fair statement about a small college team from a conference where rigid academic rules frequently prohibited its members from competing on the national stage?

Ask the Merrimack Warriors of 1977-78. Thom Lawlor’s team, blanked in Brunswick at the Dayton Arena for the ECAC championship, went on as conference runner-up to play in the NCAA Division II tournament that year. The Warriors thumped Mankato State 6-2 in a semi-final, and thrashed Lake Forest 12-2 in a seriously anti-climactic NCAA national championship game. There’s still no word on whether the Warriors shared their championship champagne with NESCAC and Bowdoin.

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