LinkedIn: Friday the 13th Edition

Here are some links from various sources around the web that pertain to NESCAC hockey.

Middlebury G.O.A.T. elected to Vermont Sports Hall of Fame 

Photo Credit: Middlebury College Athletic Communications)

We've talked about Middlebury alum Phil Latreille ('61) AKA the Greatest of All Time (GOAT) before . On September 9th, the Vermont Sports Hall of Fame announced that Latreille - the most prolific goal scorer in NCAA hockey history - will be part of its second class of inductees. The induction ceremony and dinner will be held on Sunday, November 17, 2013 at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Burlington. Ray Fisher ('10), the first of two Middlebury baseball players to ever make it to the MLB, will also be inducted. Tickets will be available to the public and can be purchased at www.vermontsportshall.com.


Read More: Vermont Sports Hall of Fame - - Phil Latreille

Read More: Middlebury Athletics - - Latreille & FIsher Earn Vermont Sports Hall of Fame Nods

Former Bowdoin Legend C. Nels Corey ('39) passes away
Former Bowdoin hockey goalie, coach and all around Polar Bear legend C. Nels Corey ('39) passed away on August 11th at the tender age of 98. At a time when freshmen weren't allowed to play varsity sports, Corey earned nine varsity letters in three years in football, hockey and lacrosse. Nels storied playing career in Brunswick included All-American honors in football and All-New England honors in hockey.

After earning a BS from Bowdoin, Neels would go on to teach/coach high school, before serving in the U.S. Navy in the South Pacific for 25 months during WWII, earning the rank of lieutenant. After the war, he would return to teaching and coaching, eventually ending up as the head football and hockey coach at Colby from 1950-52 as well as a stint at Williams after that.

In 1955 he returned to Bowdoin where he became the hockey coach (1957), then football coach (1959), then the first collegiate lacrosse coach in the state of Maine. Corey coached the hockey team for one season, then co-coached the team with Sid Watson in 58-59. Since then, only Watson and current coach Terry Meagher have held the head whistle for the Polar Bears in 54 seasons.

Nels left Bowdoin in 1965 and would go on to a distinguished career as a prep school athletic director and coach. He was elected into the Maine Sports Hall of Fame in 1997 and was a member of the first class inducted into the Bowdoin College Athletic Hall of Honor in 2002. As the grandson of a WWII vet/multi-sport collegiate athlete from the 30s who dedicated his life to coaching and teaching, I have a special place in my heart for members of the "Greatest Generation" like C. Nels Corey.

Read More: Bowdoin Athletics - - Bowdoin Mourns the Passing of Legendary Athlete and Coach C. Neels Corey '39 

Read More: Tom Chard, Portland Press Herald - - Remembering C. Nels Corey, a can-do-it-all coach, player 

Drill of the Month Club 
If you haven't already, you should check out www.coachchrishall.com, where Colby Assistant Coach Chris Hall explains a hockey drill each week in his "Drill of the Week." Yesterday, Hall proposed a "Drill of the Month Club" where you would sign up each month to submit one drill explanation and then coach would send all of the submissions to everyone on the list. As Halls puts it, "The math works great = Submit 1, Get 10? 20?"

Read More: Chris Hall - - Drill of the Month Club? 


Saturday Night Lights 
It's not hockey, but it's still an interesting bit of NESCAC athletic news: Tufts and Wesleyan will play the first night football game in the history of the NESCAC on Saturday, September 21, at 6 P.M. in the season opener for both schools. Temporary lighting will be installed at Wesleyan's Argus Field, the oldest college football field in the country. Admission will be free of charge and the game will be webcast.

Read More: Kate Carlisle, The Wesleyan Connection - - First Night Football Game in the History of NESCAC to be Played Sept. 21

Throwback Thursday: The Gaffneys

Only 64 more days until the opening of the 2013-14 NESCAC men's hockey season

1995 Bowdoin Polar Bears (courtesy of Bowdoin) 

(#IsItNovember15thYet?). Charlie Gaffney's 64 points in the 1992-93 season puts him third on the all-time Bowdoin single-season scoring list behind Charlie Gaffney's 65 in 93-94 and Charlie Gaffney's 67 in 94-95.

As you may have guessed, Charlie Gaffney ('95) is the Polar Bears all time leading scorer with 228 points (84-144). He's not the Bowdoin All-Time goal scorer though, as that distinction goes to linemate Marcello Gentille ('95) and his 101 career goals. Also on that formidable Polar Bear line from the early 90s? Charlie's twin brother, Joe Gaffney, who co-captained the team with Charlie their senior season and who sits second on the All-Time scoring list behind his brother with 183 points (70-113). 

Charlie Gaffney raked up a slew of honors during his time in Brunswick, including becoming just the third Polar Bear to garner three All-American honors and the first and only Bowdoin player to ever win AHCA's D-III Player of the Year Award when he did it 1995.  In 2006, Bowdoin elected Charlie to its Athletic Hall of Honor. 

Both of the Gaffney Twinstars went on to have brief minor league careers. Charlie had 40 points (18-22) in 64 career ECHL games with the Nashville Knights and Birmingham Bulls. Joe played with Charlie on the Knights in 1995-96 and then skated for the Nashville Nighthawks of the CHL in 1996-97. Overall, he had 29 points (14-15) in 78 professional games.

If the twins weren't enough Gaffney for Bowdoin, their sister Susan Gaffney Rowley ('97) is an alumna as well. Jon Gaffney, who earned an assist on Utica's game winning goal over Bowdoin in the 2013 NCAA tournament quarterfinals, is not related. 

Bowdoin Coach Terry Meagher remembers former Polar Bear and 9/11 victim Frank Doyle ('85)

Pearl Harbor, JFK's assassination, September 11, 2001.

Susan Walsh, AP

There are certain dates that as an American citizen or resident- regardless of your background - that you remember. I wasn't alive when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, or when JFK was killed in Dallas, but I was a high school senior in the Bronx, NY on that horrific late summer day in 2001. I vividly remember hearing about a plane crash at the World Trade Center in first period Calculus, though we weren't sure if it was purposeful or an accident at that point. My English teacher opted for a media blackout - this was before smartphones, remember- in favor of his lecture on Grendel, a 1971 interpretation of the epic Anglo-Saxon poem Boewulf. The novel deals with what were soon to be topical issues of finding meaning in the world and good vs. evil. 

By third period, the reality of the outside world could not be denied, and school was cancelled. On the ride out from campus, a billow of dark smoke emanating from southern Manhattan some 17 miles away was clearly visible. The rest of the day, from finding out if friends and loved ones were ok to witnessing acts of heroism, is still seared into my cortex. If ever the cliche "seems like it was yesterday" applies, it is to that day 12 years ago.

Hardly anyone was untouched by the vicious attacks in New York City, Washington, D.C. and Western Pennsylvania that day. Certainly the NESCAC generally, and the eleven member schools specifically, were profoundly affected. As one example, then recent Williams grad Lindsay Morehouse ('00), an assiduous and affable member of the Ephs tennis team, had her life cut tragically short at her job in the World Trade Center .  Williams has a memorial for the 1998-99 All-American at their tennis court and the lady Ephs will open the season with the Morehouse Invitational this weekend. 

Even the ultra-specific world of NESCAC hockey did not go unscathed. Former Bowdoin goalie Frank Doyle (1985) had an office on the 89th floor of the South Tower. Doyle was the head of equity trading at Keefe, Bruyette& Woods, the same firm that employed Lindsay Morehouse. After the second plane hit, the 39 year old Doyle was able to call his wife Kimmey (herself a Middlebury alum) to tell her that he loved her and their two sons, Zoe and Garrett, before Frank ultimately perished.  Bowdoin President Barry Mills recounted Doyle's story at Bowdoin's 9/11 10th anniversary memorial. 

30 year Bowdoin head coach Terry Meagher may be a living legend today, but Doyle played for him in the nascent stages of the bench boss' coaching career. In fact, Doyle spent the first half of his collegiate days under an already living legend in the fedora-clad Sid Watson, before Meagher took over in 1983. On the 12th anniversary of Frank's death, we asked Coach Meagher to offer a remembrance for Doyle, and he was nice enough to oblige. Below are Meagher's thoughtful words:

Today is a difficult one for so many families. Bowdoin was impacted significantly by the terrorist acts of September 11th.

First and foremost Frank was a gentleman, committed student and solid campus citizen. I will be forever grateful to the special group of young men in Frank’s class who welcomed and supported a young Coach as he navigated the challenges that come in following a legend. This program is so very rich in tradition because of men of character like Frank Doyle.

I can close my eyes and see Frank skating to the bench during a delayed penalty. He may have been the fastest goaltender I have coached or had as a teammate. With the benefit of experience today I may be trying to find a way to use that skating game of Frank’s as a sixth attacker.  He could fly.

It is a day of remembrance. Our hearts go out to Frank’s family and all who lost loved ones on that tragic day. We will never forget. Thank you for honoring Frank’s memory

Bowdoin and Williams join Middlebury on the Northeast Sports Network

Bowdoin and Williams have officially announced that they will use Northeast Sports Network (NSN) to broadcast athletic events (including hockey) starting in the 2013-14 season. Middlebury is already a member of the NSN lineup.

The Northeast Sports Network, based in Lyndonville, Vermont, was founded in 2006 on a single premise, according to their website: "to provide local athletes the same coverage as provided to top collegiate and professional athletes." As the Williams announcement says, NSN  "will provide top of the line equipment, professional production support, and experienced broadcast talent." 

The NSN partnership will provide an upgrade from the grainy, student announced webcasts the Ephs and Polar Bears previously have offered (no offense to the student announcers doing yoeman's work). In Williams' case, they will have an interesting broadcasting duo for hockey games (and most other sports) that pairs a professional announcer with a student. Dick Quinn, Director of Sports Information for the Ephs, said they did this because Williams has the Aaron Pinksy '06 Award, presented each year to the top student broadcaster. Pinksy, a beloved student broadcaster for football and men's/women's basketball, lost his two year battle with brain cancer in 2010. 

Bowdoin, NSN's first Pine Tree state partner, already kicked off their NSN coverage with the men's soccer team's 5-0 victory over Southern Maine on September 3rd. Williams coverage will also start with men's soccer, when the Ephs hosts Westfield State on September 11th.

Full schedules for both the Ephs and Polar Bears can be found at their respective NSN pages here: Bowdoin and Williams. Archives of games will be put up on the NSN site 48 hours after completion of the contest, and will remain viewable for another 48 hours. At the end of the season, all archives will be re-posted, as well as the option to purchase DVDs of individual games. 

Read More: Bowdoin Athletics - - Bowdoin Athletics Announces Webcasting Agreement With Northeast Sports Network

Read More: Williams Athletics - - Northeast Sports Network to PRovide Live Webcasts of Williams College Athletics Events 

Throwback Thursday: The Founding of the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC)

from Princeton University Press

Today marks 71 days until the start of the 2013-14 NESCAC men's ice hockey season on November 15th. In 1971, Bowdoin won its first ECAC hockey championship and future Conn College program founder and head coach Doug Roberts represented the California Golden Seals in the NHL All-Star game.

71 was also the year the New England Small College Athletic Conference, or NESCAC, was founded. As the 'Cac's official site says:

Founded in 1971, the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) is a group of eleven highly selective liberal arts colleges and universities that share a similar philosophy for intercollegiate athletics. The Conference was created out of a concern for the direction of intercollegiate athletic programs, and remains committed to keeping a proper perspective on the role of sport in higher education.

The league had eleven members in 1971, only Union College was a charter member while Connecticut College was not. Williams' President John Sawyer, the first chair of the NESCAC Presidents' Conference Committee, articulated the philosophy of the league: "The largest feasible participation in a wide variety of sports well coached by high-quality people who remain genuinely interested in the students' personal growth and genuinely mindful of the educational goals of the enterprise."