102 days until NESCAC men's hockey opening night

Longtime Connecticut College coach Doug Roberts

If you've been following us on twitter or Facebook (and if you aren't, what's the deal?), you know that we have been doing a countdown until NESCAC men's ice hockey opening night on November 15 with a NESAC related stat, either current or historical, for that day's countdown number.

Today we are at 102, which doesn't seem like a good day to pick to do a full article for; it isn't a nice round number like 100, or particularly close to the season ("10 days left until NESCAC hockey!"). Even the stat itself, Conn College's Doug Roberts Jr. ('91) and his 102 career assists, isn't all that spectacular (it puts him second All-Time on the Camels assist list) in the grand scheme.

But what makes it noteworthy is the time period during which it took place, Conn College in the late 80s/early 90s, and the name of the person that accomplished it.

It wasn't Doug Roberts that got 102 assists in a Camel uniform. It was Roberts Jr. It's an important distinction to make, since he wasn't even the only Doug Roberts in Dayton Arena's locker room. Doug Roberts doubled as little Dougie's father and hockey coach, just as Pat Arena is playing for his father  Jack Arena right now at Amherst.


The Connecticut College men's hockey coaching list begins with Doug Roberts and ends with current coach Jim Ward, with no names in between. Roberts founded the Camels hockey program as a club team in 1979 at the newly constructed Dayton Arena. According to Roberts, "the pay was so bad it was ridiculous."  The fledgling ice Camels weren't particularly strong that season, going 2-17-1 for a .125 winning percentage, landing it as the stat of the day for day 125 of the countdown.

The Camels fared much better in Roberts second year as coach - the school's first as a varsity program - going 12-10-1 in 1980-81. Overall, Roberts had a 252-249-28 record (.503 winning %) in 23 seasons as coach of varsity men's hockey in New London.

Before arriving in the NESCAC, Roberts grew up as a multi-sport athlete in Detroit, Michigan. After a successful hockey career at Michigan State, he went on to a 13 year professional hockey career in five leagues, including 419 games in the NHL with the Detroit Red Wings, California Golden Seals and Boston Bruins. The 6'2" 200 lb. two-way player amassed 147 (43-104-147 ) points in the NHL.  In 1971 he represented the Golden Seals at the NHL All-Star game at a time when few American born players made the NHL, let alone the mid-winter classic.

Part of Roberts' hockey odyssey included two seasons in the Western Hockey Association in the late '70s playing for the New England Whalers. The General Manager of the Whalers at that time? Colby's all-time leading scorer Ron Ryan.

Doug wasn't the only NHLer in the Roberts clan.  His younger brother Gordie Roberts (yes, named after who you think) spent 1,097 games in the NHL with six franchises, though he never made an NHL All-Star game like his brother or first namesake. Gordie spent his first two years in professional hockey on the Whalers with his big bro.  In the next generation, Doug's son David Roberts went to University of Michigan and played 125 games in the NHL with the St. Louis Blues, Edmonton Oilers and Vancouver Canucks.

Back to New London. Doug's other son and namesake helped his father to some of the Camels' most successful puck; Conn. College won 16 games in each of Roberts Jr. 's first three seasons, a win total they haven't been able to reach since. Roberts was helped greatly by Camels' stud defenseman Rand Pecknold ('90).  In Pecknold's senior year (Roberts Jr. was a junior), the Camels won the ECAC South, the only conference crown in school history.

Pecknold, now the coach of Division 1 Quinnipiac and a rising star in the coaching profession, just took the Bobcats to the Frozen Four, where they lost to nearby Connecticut rival Yale. Coach Roberts gave Pecknold, who almost broke out into fisticuffs with Roberts Jr., his start in coaching as a graduate assistant at Conn College.

Doug Jr. would not go on to live up to the professional hockey success of his brother, father or uncle. But he did play parts of five professional seasons in the ECHL, CHL, and WPHL, playing for teams with awesome names like the Tuscon Gila Monsters and Hungtington Blizzard.

On the pop culture front, Doug Roberts was also the name of Paul Newman's character in the 1974 action-disaster firm The Towering Inferno.  The iconic actor played the lead role,Reggie Dunlop, in the equally iconic 1977 hockey film Slap Shot. The movie was written by Nancy Dowd and was inspired by her brother's experience in minor league hockey. Her brother is Bowdoin alum Ned Dowd ('72), who portrayed the infamous Ogie Oglethrope in the film. Dowd played for a season at Bowdoin with Fred Ahern ('74), the only Polar Bear to ever lace his skates in the NHL.

Who knew a random day in August could yield so many 'Cac connections?