Category Archives: Hockey

Tournament time

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Headline atop the sports section in the February 24, 1967, edition of The Heights. Following the win over Providence, the Eagles were in the NCAA Tournament.

Throughout our years at BC, both the basketball and hockey teams finished their seasons in a tournament in March. Basketball was more successful, reaching national tournaments (NCAA or NIT) each year, while hockey played in two NCAA tournaments and four Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference (ECAC) tournaments.

Here’s a rundown by year, with links to articles in The Heights and the Boston Globe.

1965
This was hockey’s big year. BC had won the Beanpot in February and swept through the ECAC tournament in early March, defeating Dartmouth, Clarkson, and Brown, to win the conference tournament. The Heights‘ coverage of the win over Dartmouth, then known as the “Indians,” was a photo feature with the certainly currently politically incorrect headline, “Indians Scalped.” Ouch. The March 19 edition carried coverage of the rest of the ECAC tournament and previewed the upcoming NCAA games. In the April 2 Heights, there was a brief article about the opening win over North Dakota and later loss to Michigan Tech for the championship two weeks earlier.

Basketball finished its regular season by “clobbering” Holy Cross, 111-89, in the finals of the then-basketball Beanpot. The Heights noted that it was the first time Roberts Center had been sold out for a basketball game. BC was clearly a hockey school at the time. BC was also headed to its first National Invitational Tournament. Continuing the use of very active verbs in headlines, but in a different direction, the March 19 Heights reported “Redmen Crush B.C.’s NIT Hopes with 114-92 Win.” The opponent was St. John’s, another sports team nicknamed in reference to Native Americans.

1966
Hockey had a tough ECAC Tournament that year, losing to Cornell, 9-0, in the opener. The Heights used softer terminology in the article headline, “BC Bows in ECAC test.”

All-America John Austin in his last regular season game. Classmate Jim Kissane is #10.

BC basketball had finished the regular season as it always did, at least while we were there :), with a win over Holy Cross. This one was a little unusual, though. The Boston Globe article (BC-HCbrawl1966) called it a “brawl game,” as BC’s Willie Wolters and HC’s Greg Hochstein traded punches after fighting for a rebound and, according to the Globe, “were surrounded by at least 150 . . . players, fans, and what have you.”

The Eagles made their second consecutive appearance in the NIT and the March 13 opening game became a BC classic. The Eagles defeated Louisville and its all-America center, Westley Unseld, 96-90, in triple overtime. BC then lost a heartbreaker to Villanova, 86-85, with Wildcat Bill Melchionni scoring 30. Classmate Reid Oslin did the Heights‘ wrapup “Thrilling Games Highlight NIT.”

Classmate Bob Ryan was at the game. “Unseld had 35 points and 26 rebounds in our game. Doubt we win if he didn’t foul out in the OT. God, he even had lift. I did the game on tape recorder for re-play [on WVBC]. Wish I still had that tape.”

As a sign of the times, I was among the thousands of BC fans who listened to the BC-Louisville game on the radio. I was on a double-date and our dates were less than pleased, as I recall, with the guys’ rapt attention to the broadcast.

1967
Glory days! Hockey finished third in the ECAC Tournament, beating St. Lawrence after “bowing” to that very strong Cornell team of the time, 12-2. But it was the basketball team that went higher/farther than any previous BC team, winning two games in the 23-team NCAA tournament and reaching the regional finals (now termed the Elite Eight) for the first time.

The Eagles, then ranked either #9 or #10 in the national polls, opened their first NCAA tournament against UConn in Kingston, R.I. The Huskies, beaten easily by BC earlier in the season, took advantage of the lack of a shot clock at the time to slow the game down. And, boy, did they. According to my article in the March 15 Heights (a special four-page edition on the tournament) — “Victory over U Conn sends BC to Maryland” — the Huskies took their first shot after holding the ball for two minutes and their second after holding it for another three-and-a-half minutes. The score was 7-7 midway through the first half. In this article in the Boston Globe (UConngame), Coach Bob Cousy called the game a “farce.”

“Here we had a chance to really do something for New England basketball with all this exposure and we got involved in a farce like this,” Cousy told the Globe‘s Will McDonough.

Next up was St. John’s and Sonny Dove. Classmate Kevin O’Malley wrote a BC-St. John’s preview in the March 15 issue. Classmate Bob Ryan looked ahead a little and wrote up a preview of potential BC opponents North Carolina and Princeton (Bill Bradley era).

The Boston Globe also did a brief preview of the St. John’s game, “B.C. Spawns ‘New Breed’ of Hoop Fans” (BChoopsfans_BGlobe) quoting then BC hockey captain Jerry York ’67 as saying, “These basketball fans are nuts.”

I don’t remember exactly why, but there are no Heights articles I can find about the St. John’s game and the subsequent game against North Carolina. The games took place on March 17 (another Rector’s Day) and March 18 at Cole Field House, University of Maryland. The Heights was not published until April 7. May well have been news that was just too old.

You can read about BC’s exciting 63-62 win over St. John’s in this Boston Globe article (BCStJohns_BGlobe). I remember watching the game on TV in the dorms and the result brought about a spontaneous “party” . . . but a limited one, as it was sans females. The next day’s game, against #4 North Carolina in the final of the Eastern regionals was anticlimactic. The Tarheels shot 56 percent (to the Eagles’ 40 percent) and won convincingly, 96-80. Here are the Globe‘s game article (BCTarheels_BGlobe), a Bob Cousy post-game interview (BCTarheelsbest), and interviews with players (BCTarheelspostgame).

“It feels funny,” Billy Evans told the Globe. “You play a whole season and then, in one night, you die. That game was all that mattered. Oh boy. I just can’t stop thinking about it.”

1968
Both hockey and basketball went to their respective NCAA tournaments. Such seasons! But, because of previous successes, the feeling overall was that both seasons ended disappointingly.

The Eagles won 19 hockey games, but lost to old nemesis Cornell in the ECAC finals and then lost the two games they played in the NCAA Tournament, to Denver, 4-1, and to the Big Red, 6-1.

BC basketball started the season ranked in the Top Ten, but dropped out after losing four out of five in December/January (see previous post re BC-UCLA). A six-game win streak to finish the regular season 15-7 brought them up against #3 St. Bonaventure and Bob Lanier in the NCAA Tournament opener on March 9. Bob Ryan wrote a preview. The Bonnies won 102-93. Classmate Tom Pacynski made his last game one of his best as an Eagle, scoring 13 points and grabbing five rebounds.

Bob Ryan wrote an overview of basketball at BC while we were there in a column in the March 19, 1968, Heights — “The Hoop Scene.” Bob called BC basketball “a first class program run by first class people involving fine student athletes to represent BC.” A fitting end to four exciting seasons.

First . . . and best . . . Beanpot

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MVP John Cunniff ’66 is at right, future BC coach Jerry York ’67 at left.

On this date in 1965, the Eagles won their 3rd straight Beanpot title, beating BU 5-4. It was, however, the only Beanpot crown BC would win during our years at BC. As the Syracuse football game in 1964 was our first and best football game, our first Beanpot was also our best.

The game article in the February 19, 1965, Heights refers to the “computer” used by the Boston Traveler (!) to predict a Terrier victory. John Cunniff, the best BC hockey player of our era, was the (super?)human who led the Eagles to the win.

BC fell behind BU, 2-0, early in the 2nd period. Then, as the Boston Globe (BCBU1965) reported, BU goalie Jack Ferreira “made like Dick Stuart,” letting a shot by BC’s Bob Kupka bounce off his glove into the net. BC tied the score less than a minute later on an assist from Cunniff. Later in the period, Cunniff scored a short-handed goal. The teams entered the 3rd period tied at 3 goals each.

In the 3rd, Cunniff deflected a shot from Jim Mullen past the BU goalie. Less than 2 minutes later, BC’s John Moylan stole the puck at the BU blue line and sent a slap shot into the net for what would prove to be the game-winner.

BC goalie Pat Murphy was superb, making 42 saves, 19 in the final period.

A column by the Globe‘s Bud Collins (BudCollins_Cunniff) described what he termed the “madness” of the Beanpot. “The hypertensive roar when Bob Kupka started the Eagles’ scoring in the second period would have shattered windows in the Soviet embassy in Washington if the wind had been right.” Leading “madman, according to Collins, was Cunniff. “It is ever dangerous for Cunniff to make his people so insanely happy.”

John Cunniff receives congratulations from BU players on being named 1965 Beanpot MVP.

Cunniff was named MVP of the 1965 Beanpot, repeating his 1964 MVP award and becoming the first player to be named MVP in successive years. It was 39 years before that feat was repeated.

‘No one worked harder’

Former Heights sports editor, sports information director at BC for 23 years, BC administrator for 41 years, BC sports historian, and classmate Reid Oslin recently wrote this appreciation of John Cunniff:

“No one worked harder in Coach John ‘Snooks’ Kelley’s exhausting practices than John Cunniff, a young man who grew up in a poor family living in a three-decker home on East 2nd Street of South Boston. ‘You never had to motivate John,’ said his brother Ted of the two-time collegiate All-America player who was BC’s all-time leading scorer (151 points in 75 games) in his 3-year varsity career (1963-66) and later became an Olympian, professional player, and NHL head coach.

“As a youngster, Cunniff never had the advantage of playing organized hockey, but would never pass up the opportunity to improve his skills by playing in the one of the frequent pick-up games going on in Southie’s playground rinks.

“Cunniff, whose family could not afford skates until he was a teenager, worked tirelessly with ankle weights and body weights and even practiced shooting a weighted puck to build up his endurance and skill. His mother insisted that he go to Boston’s Don Bosco Trade School to learn a work skill, but when he realized that he might have a future in college hockey, Cunniff took a post-graduate year at New Prep in Cambridge, a school that not only sharpened students’ academic skills, but produced dozens of Division I hockey players. He came to BC without benefit of a hockey scholarship, but that situation did not last long when Kelley realized the immense skills and work ethic of his new recruit.

“Cunniff was assigned to a line with crafty center Phil Dyer of Melrose and Rhode Island product Jim Mullen, another goal-scoring sniper. The trio became known as the ‘Production Line’ for their steady offensive output, but Cunniff was the definite leader.

“’He could change speeds like no one else,’ said linemate Mullen. ‘If he saw an opening, no one could catch him.’

“Cunniff was especially impressive in the Beanpot Tournament spotlight. The Eagles won rare back-to-back championships in 1964 and 1965 as the quiet man from Southie tallied 4 goals and 9 points in the two tournaments.

“Following the 1964-65 regular season, the Eagles advanced to the ECAC championship with consecutive playoff victories over Dartmouth, Clarkson, and Brown. The championship earned BC a slot in the NCAA Championship playoffs held at the new Meehan Arena at Brown. ‘I was the only non-Massachusetts kid on the team,’ recalled Mullen, who was from nearby Warwick, R.I. ‘When I came to BC, I had dreams of playing for a national championship in Minnesota or Denver. Where did I get to go? The city where I was born.’

“With the powerful scoring line of Cunniff-Dyer-Mullen, the top-scoring line in all of college hockey that year, and some acrobatic goaltending by Pat Murphy, a superb athlete from Wellesley, Mass., the Eagles were ready for the semifinal game against North Dakota. The star of BC’s 4-3 victory that night, however, was a young sophomore center who not only showed a nice scoring touch on his two goals, but the leadership skills that would eventually carry him to an even loftier place in the college hockey profession: Jerry York.

“In the championship game played on March 20, the Eagles were stonewalled by Michigan Tech, 8-2, a team lead by their talented goaltender, future Chicago Blackhawk and Hockey Hall of Famer Tony Esposito.

“As a senior, Cunniff was sidelined when blindsided by a vicious hit from Brown’s rugged forward Dennis Macks. The collision separated Cunniff’s shoulder and put him on the bench for eight games –and nearly ignited a riot in the packed McHugh Forum that night, as Eagle hockey fans were horrified at the mayhem inflicted on their star player by the rough-and-tumble Macks.

“Cunniff continued his impressive hockey accomplishments long after graduating from the Heights. He was a member of the 1968 U.S. Olympic Team that competed in Grenoble, France, and later played professional hockey for the WHA’s New England Whalers. A great student of the game as well, he twice assisted Herb Brooks on the Team USA coaching staff (in 1998 and 2002) and was head coach of the New Jersey Devils from 1989 to 1991. He died from cancer at age 57 in 2002. He was inducted into the US Hockey Hall of Fame in 2003. His Boston College sweater is retired and hangs in a place of honor in the Conte Forum rafters.”

Oslin is also the author of three books on Boston College football and co-author (with Tom Burke) of another on the history of Boston College hockey.