A former player and coach with Concord Youth Hockey and Concord High School, Chris Brown, 51, is responsible for creating and organizing the popular 1883 Black Ice Pond Hockey Tournament, whose mission was to honor past hockey history and support recreational projects in the Concord area.
Approximately 700 players take part in the annual event at White Park in Concord, making up nearly 100 teams that compete in eight divisions over a three-day weekend. Over the 11 years the non-profit has donated over $550,000 back to the local community and clubs, local youth organizations and projects, specifically the new skate house at White Park.
Brown began coaching his own children in the Concord Youth Hockey system in the 2008-09 season. He continued coaching both in the house leagues and the travel teams at the various levels of Learn to Skate, Mites, Squirts, Pee Wee and Bantam until 2018.
In 2018, Chris moved on to coaching the New England Wildcats that played out of the Tri-Town Arena in Hooksett, N.H. Those teams have competed throughout New England and qualified for national tournaments several times.
But Brown is best-known for his work in creating the 1883 Black Ice Pond Hockey Tournament, its name deriving from when the first organized game of ice hockey was played in the United States at St. Paul’s School.
Brown took an idea and a challenge from some hockey friends and created a team of dedicated volunteers to make this event not only happen, but flourish for over a decade, while continuously upgrading the participation for players, spectators and the community.
The Black Ice Hockey Association, led by Brown, partnered with the City of Concord from the event’s inception, and The 1883 Black Ice Pond Hockey Championship has become one of the largest outdoor winter events in a state filled with popular outdoor winter events.
While the event provides a wide array of family activities that have included interactive games, bonfires, live entertainment, fireworks, food trucks and ice sculptures, the Black Ice tournament has forever linked Concord to the origin of the American game and has reinforced the history of the black ice ponds of St. Paul’s, where Hobey Baker – who many call the greatest amateur player of all time – played.
Gary Bishop, a former standout player at Lowell Tech who has enjoyed a tremendous career as a high school coach in New Hampshire, winning fi ve state championships at Bishop Guertin, is being inducted into the New Hampshire Legends of Hockey Hall of Fame as a coach.
As a player, Bishop skated for Lowell Tech (now UMass-Lowell) from 1967-71. He led the team in scoring three of his four years there, totaling 156 points in 62 games. He was twice named team MVP and was the captain his senior year in 1970-71.
He was inducted into the UMass-Lowell Athletic Hall of Fame in 1977. In 2009, the first year of its existence, he was inducted into the UMass-Lowell Hockey Hall of Honor.
He graduated from Lowell Tech in 1971 with a B.S. in business management and was inducted into the school’s Hockey Hall of Honor in 2009 along with his mentor, coach Bill Riley.
“Bishop was always hanging around the athletic department, making sure the school didn’t kill varsity hockey or make it a club sport again,” recalled Riley.
But it is as a coach where Bishop has made a greater impact.
He coached varsity hockey and junior varsity lacrosse at Lehigh (Pa.) University from 1971-73, He then moved back to Massachusetts and was hired at Austin Prep in Reading, Mass. where he developed a varsity program that would become one of the best in the Merrimack Valley Conference. From 1973-78, he compiled a record of 79-23-7, reaching the Division 2 final in 1975.
Bishop left Austin Prep in 1978 to become a full-time assistant to Riley at Lowell. During his time there, the team won the Division 2 championship three times, in 1979, ’81 and ’82.
But it was in 1991, when he was hired at Bishop Guertin High School in Nashua, that Bishop found the job that remains his today. Under his leadership, the Cardinals have won the Division 1 state championship five times, including back-to-back championships twice — in 2000 and ’01, and again in ’07 and ’08. The team’s most recent title came in 2015, a season where he was honored as Division 1 Coach of the Year.
At BG, he has compiled a career record of 342-130-13. Only two New Hampshire men have coached their teams to more state championships — Barney LaRoche (12 at Notre Dame) and current Concord coach Duncan Walsh (6).
Bishop was also a teacher and administrator at Billerica Memorial (Mass.) High School until retiring in June 2009. In 1997, he was voted into the school’s Hall of Fame.
Tom Carroll is entering his 18th year as the head coach at New England College in Henniker, continuing to add to his reputation as one of the more successful Division 3 coaches in the region.
A native of Edina, Minn., Carroll played at the University of Wisconsin in the early 1980s under legendary coaches Bob Johnson and Jeff Sauer, playing on two national championship teams and also competing in baseball. After graduation, he earned his Master’s degree from the Mendoza School of Business at the University of Notre Dame.
Carroll spent several seasons as the top assistant coach at Notre Dame, where he recruited and coached 19 NHL draft picks and six players who participated in the World Junior Championships.
Following a stint coaching in Des Moines of the USHL, Carroll arrived in Henniker prior to the 2002-03 season and immediately made an impact, leading the Pilgrims to a 20-6 record and the ECAC East championship.
In 17 seasons at NEC, he has compiled a record of 241-170-43, including trips to the conference postseason every year, five trips to the conference championship game, and an NCAA Tournament bid and trip to the Division 3 Final Four in 2005, when he was named runner-up for the AHCA National Coach of the Year award.
The Pilgrims are now consistently ranked in the USCHO.com top 20 teams in all of Division 3 hockey.
During his tenure at NEC, Carroll has coached four All-American selections, 38 All-conference selections, three Rookies of the Year and three Goaltenders of the Year. His players have also excelled in the classroom, boasting program-record numbers of ECAC East/NEHC All-Academic Team honorees.
An active member of the hockey community, Carroll has coached in the USA Hockey Development program for several years, and recently authored and published “Hockey’s Greatest Drills for Great Practices,” a popular coaching manual for all levels of hockey.
Some of his greatest accolades have come in recent seasons.
In 2016-17, Carroll led the Pilgrims to their best season in a decade with a 19-8 record. The team made it to the NEHC championship game, and goalie Brett Kilar earned All-America honors.
The 2017-18 season was highlighted by defeating reigning national champion Norwich. In 2018-19, the Pilgrims set a program record for the longest unbeaten streak in school history. Stretching from Nov. 20, the date of a 3-0 win at Becker College, until the team fell to Norwich on Feb. 8, NEC was not beaten for 16 games.
Rene grew up in Berlin, known to all as Hockeytown USA, first learning about the game when he was 3 years old.
He graduated from Notre Dame High in 1964 and graduated in 1971 from NH College, now Southern New Hampshire University. He served as Captain his junior (1969-70) and senior (1970-71) seasons. Later, a job transfer landed him in Chicago where his stellar coaching career began. He first became Head Coach at Driscoll, a Parochial High School in Addison, Ill. Driscoll had just 250 boys enrolled, while their rivals, in some cases, had total enrollments of more than 2000. Rene took charge of a team that was 1-13 the previous season and established a contender, finishing in second place. For that accomplishment, the Metropolitan High School Hockey League named him Coach of the Year. Over the next three years, his teams compiled a 79-38-6 record and Rene earned one more Coach of the Year Award.
In 1975, he returned to Manchester, settled in, and became involved in the Manchester Regional Youth Hockey Association, coaching Mites to Midgets, while winning several New.England championships.
Then, in 1987 he was named Assistant Coach at Manchester Central High School and the following year became Head Coach, serving for 12 seasons. Under his tutelage, his teams compiled a 129-101-11 record and made it to the State Tournament finals in 1987 and 1994.
In 1999, he returned to Southern NH University, this time as Head Coach. His teams have been in the conference finals several years. They have amassed a record of 111-80-16.
Rene also spent 20 years as an official beginning in 1971 in Chicago. He worked games for local colleges, the US Hockey League, and the WCHA. Upon returning to NH he officiated the NE Junior Hockey League, as well as ECAC Division I and Division II, calling the Division II National Championships of 1982 and 1983. Also during that span he worked the Beanpot tourney . He also officiated the NHIAA State finals several times and served a two-year term as Association President. In 1980 Rene worked the pre-Olympic Romania-versus-UNH game, and in 1984 UNH-versus-the US Olympic team game.
When the day comes to honor the coaching titans in the world of prep-school hockey, George Akerstrom’s name will be hailed among the very first.
That won’t be because his name begins with an A, but because he left 33 years worth of indelible coaching impressions on the countless young men who played for him at Kimball Union Academy. He was a coach who, as a hockey tactician, innovator and friend, left behind large lessons and memories.
Kimball Union Academy’s hockey history began with the season of 1935-36. George arrived in Meriden in time for the start of the 1944-45 season. By the time he retired in 1978, he had accumulated more than 319 victories. (Unfortunately, the 1973-74 record is not available.) His total tenure at the school was 35 years.
The 1955-56 season was especially sweet. The KUA skaters went undefeated for the first time in the school’s illustrious history: 11-0-1. That lone tie was against the Dartmouth freshmen.
George also had three seasons when his teams finished with just a single loss: 11-1 in 1945-46; 11-1 in 1956-57; and 13-1 in 1958-59-that loss, too, to the Dartmouth freshmen.
In those 33 campaigns that George was on the bench, Kimball Union Academy hockey teams produced 28 winning seasons. He had many superb teams populated by many superb players who went on to great college careers. Just a very few among the very many were: Toot Cahoon (Boston University), Bob Blood (University of New Hampshire), Jim Mullen and Paul Schilling (Boston College), and Eugene Teevens (Dartmouth).
One of the fond memories that recently surfaced about George’s early years as coach is that the first “real” set of Kimball Union Academy hockey uniforms was purchased with funds from the sale of pheasants raised by George. The buyer? The State of New Hampshire. George truly was an innovator and improviser!
In 1988, the rink at Kimball Union Academy was named for George, as he was celebrated for being a man for all seasons.
In 1992, George was the fifth recipient of the American Hockey Coaches Association’s annual John Mariucci Award as the secondary school coach who exemplifies the spirit, dedication and enthusiasm of the “Godfather of US Hockey.” In 1996 George was inducted into the Colgate University Hall of Honor.
His outstanding play in his senior year as a Red Raider earned him a trip to the East-West Shrine football game in January 1935. Gerald Ford (Michigan) who would later become U.S. President wrote: “You were tough competition for the starting spot at center and prevailed, congratulations, I was proud to be your backup.” Although they did not meet often, they remained friends and corresponded over the years on special occasions.
George Akerstrom – Class of 2008.
Please welcome Helen Bronk-Akerstrom accepting for her husband, the late George Akerstrom.
Dick Dodds can appreciate the irony. During his playing days at Hanover High School and later St. Lawrence University, it seemed like he was playing for a different coach every year.
More than a generation of boys growing up in the Upper Valley will never know that feeling. Thanks in part to what he calls a “great connection to the community,” Dodds has been coaching winning hockey at Hanover for more than 30 years, something he couldn’t foresee when then-coach Jack Turco hired him in 1980 to be his assistant and coach the school’s JV team.
“That was probably the farthest thing from my mind at that point, trying to do that,” said Dodds. “It was just something I loved from Day 1.”
Dodds ranks second all-time in New Hampshire high school hockey in wins, compiling an overall record of 430-229-19. He’s guided the Marauders to five Division I Championships, including three during a four-year span last decade. Only Barney LaRoche (’03 Inductee) of Notre Dame (16) and Duncan Walsh (’11 Inductee) of Concord (6) have more.
“On the ice, the state championships obviously stand out, but they weren’t the most important things that happened,” said Dodds, citing the relationships with his former players he has to this day and the pride in what they’ve accomplished. “But the way they happened are things I’ll never forget.”
His first title, in 1993, came when Scotty Turco scored with three seconds remaining in regulation to force overtime against Concord. Mark Turco’s goal in double-overtime gave the Marauders the championship.
Jack Turco, whom he succeeded as the Hanover varsity coach in 1982-83 – and who later joined him on his staff – and current Dartmouth College coach Bob Gaudet are two men he counts as mentors and confidants.
Family has been a big part of his enjoyment at Hanover. His two older brothers also coach at the school. John Dodds coaches the girl’s hockey team and Tom Dodds coaches the ski team. In addition, Dodds has had the pleasure of coaching sons Trevor, Patrick and Alex, as well as nephew Cody.
“I’ve just been blessed with having a family like I do and being in his area, where I have people like Jack and Bob as resources,” said Dodds.
Former players talk about the work ethic and emphasis on preparation he instilled, his attention to detail in practice an indication of how much he loved and respected the game.
“The will to win is important, but the will to prepare is vital,” said Terry Boyle, who played for Hanover in the late 1980s. “It’s a great lesson, and one that I learned playing for Coach Dodds.”
A Hanover native, Dodds will begin his 31st season as Hanover’s head coach this fall, first moving to the community in 1964 at a young age. Now, nearly 50 years later, it’s proven to be a great fit, both for him and the legions of players he’s coached.
In 11 seasons as coach of the girls hockey team at Hanover High School, Dodds has built the state’s preeminent program and will be inducted into the New Hampshire Legends of Hockey Hall of Fame as a coach.
A native of Philadelphia, Dodds has long been involved with coaching hockey in the Upper Valley area, recently concluding his 22nd season. He began in 1994 with the Valley Mites of the Hanover Hockey Association. He was an assistant coach on a Hanover Mites team that won the NH Tier I championship and continued to coach Hanover Youth Hockey through 2003, winning multiple state tournaments and making New England regionals.
He joined the Hanover High School program as an assistant coach in 2003, serving in that capacity for three seasons. He took over as head coach in 2006 and has compiled a record of 20829-8 since then.
In 2007-08, the fi rst season the NHIAA sponsored girls hockey, the Marauders won the championship with a 20-2 record. The team went 11-8 the next year, and starting with the 2009-10 season, has won the last seven state championships. Dodds was named Coach of the Year in 2014-15.
This past season, the Marauders finished in second place in the regular season behind Berlin-Gorham, but earned the right to play that team in the championship game at the Verizon Wireless Arena. Tied 0-0 after two periods, the Marauders got goals from Julia Montgomery, Cate Wagner and Matti Hartman in the opening fi ve minutes of the third period on their way to a 4-1 win and seventh straight championship.
Only Barney LaRoche, with 12 titles at Notre Dame, has won more boys or girls high school state championships than the eight won by Dodds, who has also coached in three Make-a-Wish All-Star games against Vermont, either as the head coach or an assistant.
Several of his players at Hanover have gone or, or are going on, to play Division 1 college hockey, including this season’s state MVP Hartman, who is now playing at Northeastern.
“John’s legacy will be dominated by victories and state titles, but what made him so successful at every level he has coached is his passion for the game, his preparation for games and practices, and his overall commitment to his teams,” said Dick Dodds, the boys hockey coach at Hanover High School and his brother. Dick Dodds was inducted into the N.H. Legends of Hockey Hall of Fame as a coach in 2012.”He has touched the lives of many, many hockey players in the Upper Valley, and each and every one of them is important to John. He has developed/ coached Division 1 and Division 3 college hockey players and also helped turn girls and boys into terrific young ladies and young men.”
Bill Dennehy was an excellent baseball player growing up, helping Springfield College reach the Division 2 College World Series in 1970.
But it was after he arrived at Phillips Exeter Academy shortly thereafter that he began building the career that has landed him in the Legends of Hockey Hall of Fame in the coaches category.
Dennehy coached and taught at Exeter Academy for 42 years, and remains an assistant coach with the boys hockey team. He has coached more than 1,000 games in each of three different sports: soccer, hockey and baseball, and helped advance the careers of scores of young men and women, including Oakland A’s outfielder Sam Fuld of Durham and Division 1 hockey player Russ Bartlett of Windham, among others.
He was a coach first, but one whose door was always open.
“He was very, very approachable,” said Scott Borek, who played hockey for Dennehy at Exeter and is the associate head coach at the University of New Hampshire. “Playing for him was like playing for your older brother. He’s always listened to you. He tried to put people in good situation in the rink and outside the rink.”
Dennehy’s hockey teams went 616-506 before he essentially traded head coach-assistant coach roles with current head coach Dana Barbin in the mid-1990s. They coached Exeter to a New England Division 1 championship in 1999.
“He said to me, ‘You’re younger than me. You have the hockey background. You have to take this now,” said Barbin. “That’s the way he is. He always made me feel, even when I was an assistant, that we were coaching the team together.”
Dennehy arrived in Exeter in the fall of 1971 and, by the 1972-73 season, he began coaching under George Crowe and continued for three seasons. He took over as the head coach for the 1975-76 season and held that position for the next 22 years.
Dennehy coached 14 players who were drafted by NHL teams, including three from New Hampshire: Brian Larouchelle from Manchester, Bartlett and Geoff Koch from Exeter.
He was a demanding coach, who could raise his voice when the situation called for it, but also someone they could look up to. Among the players he guided was his son, Pat who is now the head coach at Choate.
“He’s a tough coach,” said Barbin. “He’s honest and fair and demanding, and the kids love him. He’s got an arm around them when he’s kicking them in the butt.’
George has 39 years experience in hockey coaching and camp administration at the prep school and college levels for both men and women’s hockey programs.
George was Head Coach at Albany Academy for Boys (1960-64), Oswego State University (1964-69), Phillips Exeter Academy (1969-75), Dartmouth College (Men’s 1975-84), Dartmouth College (Women’s 1986-98).
Some of his accomplishments at Dartmouth as head coach of the men’s program are competed in three ECAC playoffs, won two Ivy League titles and advanced to the NCAA Division 1 Frozen Four in two consecutive years. In the women’s hockey program won four Ivy League titles and competed in six ECAC playoffs.
George has won numerous awards for his contributions to ice hockey, a selected few are: (1976) New England Division 1 “Coach of the Year”, (1980) National Collegiate Hockey Coach of the Year by Hockey News, (1989) Hockey Hall of Fame Oswego State University, (1996 & 1998) ECAC “Coach of the Year”, (1998) New England Hockey Writers Coach of the Year.
George was: (2001) Inducted into the “Wearers of the Green” for Dartmouth alumni/coaches who have excelled in Ivy League Athletics, (2001) Shaeffer Penn Award for outstanding contributions to New England Collegiate hockey and in (2004) Joe Burke Award for outstanding contributions to girl’s and women’s hockey given by the American Hockey Coaches Association
A Concord, N.H., native who grew up playing on state champion Concord High School teams alongside, among others, Olympic Gold Medalist Tara Mounsey, the late Ryan Frew coached junior hockey in the New Hampshire Junior Monarchs organization from 2004 until his death in 2020, making him among the longest-tenured junior coaches from New Hampshire ever.
As a player, Frew helped Concord to a 62-1 record and three consecutive Division 1 state titles in his high school career. He was an All-State selection, played on the N.H. Make A Wish team, and was named the 1998 CHS Male Athlete of the year. He went on to play four years of college hockey at New Hampshire College/Southern New Hampshire University.
Starting in 2004, Frew coached junior hockey in the New Hampshire Junior Monarchs organization. His teams qualified for the Empire Junior Hockey League, Eastern Hockey League or and United States Premier Hockey League playoffs in fifteen consecutive seasons, amassing a 483-133-16-19 regular-season record and going 54-19-2 in the playoffs.
Under Frew, the Jr. Monarchs won a USA Hockey Junior National Championship in 2012, and he was recognized that same season as Coach of the Year by Hockey Night in Boston. The Jr. Monarchs were USA Hockey national semifinalists in 2008 and ‘09, and national runners-up in 2007 and ‘11.
They won the Empire League playoff championships in 2010 and ‘12 and, most recently, they won the Eastern Hockey League championship in 2016.
During his career as a head coach/GM, Frew was selected to coach All-Star teams five times, was named Executive of the Year by the Eastern Hockey League, and had a hand in placing over 120 players into college programs at the Division 1 and Division 3 levels, many of them performing with distinction.
Off the ice, Frew’s teams engaged annually in a variety of community service projects, including “Cold Ice, Warm Feet” – collecting over 2,500 pairs of socks for the needy and homeless; “Pink In the Rink” – fund-raisers to support cancer research and survivors; Operation “Make Life Better” – helping senior citizens and others who need an extra hand; yard work for military families on duty; honoring veterans and first responders in special ceremonies; regularly reading at elementary schools in the area; and many more.
Of those, the most meaningful to him was the “Make-A-Wish” captains, recognizing children from the Make-A-Wish Foundation, a non-profit that helps fulfill the wishes of kids with a critical illness. Each year, for several years, Frew’s teams had honorary Make-A-Wish kids serve as captains who were recognized at home games and were responsible for delivering inspirational comments at various times to his teams.
Frew passed away at the age of 40. That year, the USPHL renamed its NCDC Coach of The Year Award as the Ryan Frew Memorial Coach of The Year Award.
Dave Flint has been the head coach of the women’s hockey team at Northeastern University since 2008 and has led that program to a 287-137-41 record over thirteen seasons that have included six trips to the NCAA tournament and one trip to the NCAA championship game, making him one of the most successful coaches in women’s hockey.
Flint, 51, grew up in Merrimack and played his college hockey at Division 3 North Adams State College, graduating in 1993.
His coaching career began at St. Anselm College, where he spent thirteen years in various roles. After serving as assistant coach to the men’s hockey team for seven years, Flint was the school’s first ever women’s hockey coach in 2003 and was charged with overseeing the program’s transition to varsity status.
In their first varsity season, the Hawks went 21-3-1 record and won an ECAC Open championship. The Hawks then won back-to-back ECAC Open titles in Flint’s final two seasons (2006-08), and led the nation in scoring defense in three of his four seasons at the helm of the varsity program. Three times he was named ECAC East Coach of the Year.
Flint was named Northeastern’s head coach in 2008. During his tenure, the Huskies have won five Hockey East tournament championships and played in six NCAA tournaments. This past season, they went 31-5-2, won Hockey East and lost to Minnesota-Duluth in double overtime in the NCAA semifinals.
In 2020-21 he was named the national Division 1 Coach of the Year after guiding NU to the national championship game. He has been named the Hockey East Coach of the Year four times (2012, 2019, 2020, 2021) and, under his tutelage, Kendall Coyne won the Patty Kazmaier as the NCAA top player in 2016 and Aerin Frankel won the award in 2021.
Since 2005, Flint has also been a member of the USA Hockey coaching staff. In 2008, he was appointed the goaltending coach and advisor for the women’s national program, where he evaluated and instructed goaltenders at all levels.
He was an assistant coach for the U.S. Women’s National Team that won the Silver Medal at the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver, as well as the Gold Medal winning team at the 2008 World Championship in Harbin, China and the 2009 World Championships in Hameenlinna, Finland. Flint also served as an assistant coach to the U.S. Select Team that participated in the Four Nations Cup in 2009.
Entering his 22nd year as head coach at Dartmouth College, his alma mater, this fall, Gaudet is poised to become the all-time winningest coach in school history. His 305 wins at Dartmouth trail only Eddie Jeremiah (308), and he’s made the Big Green one of the most consistent teams in ECAC Hockey and the Ivy League during his tenure.
Gaudet is only the second coach to have won the ECAC Coach of the Year award at two separate programs (1994-95 at Brown, 2005-06 at Dartmouth), and he led the Big Green to the ECAC Hockey title in 2006 and the Ivy League title a year later.
In three decades as a college head coach, he has worked with and developed several players who have gone on to play in the NHL, including Ben Lovejoy of Canaan, who was a Stanley Cup champion with the Penguins. Several other former student-athletes also played in other professional leagues recently, including the KHL, AHL, ECHL and CHL.
Gaudet’s head coaching career began at age 29 during the 1988-89 season at Brown, when the team went 1-25. But consistent improvement was on the horizon, including three straight winning seasons between 1992 and ‘95, two Ivy League championships in 1991 and ‘95, and an NCAA tournament appearance in 1993.
After nine seasons at Brown (overall record of 93-142-31), Gaudet moved on to Dartmouth, a tenure that is entering its 22nd year. He was named ECAC Hockey Coach of the Year in 2005-06 after guiding the team to its first ECAC Hockey title and a 19-12-2 record.
In the last several seasons, Gaudet has reached several key milestones, earning his 200th win behind the Big Green bench in 2010-11, eclipsing the 300-career win mark in the first game of 2011-12, and reaching 800 career games coached, doing so in a 1-1 tie at Vermont in 2013-14. In 2014-15, Gaudet reached both 250 wins at Dartmouth and 350 career wins.
Entering the 2018-19 campaign, Gaudet has coached 953 games at the Division I level, a figure that ranks among the top 15 all-time in college hockey history. He ranks second all-time at Dartmouth with 305 wins, trailing only Big Green legend Eddie Jeremiah, who racked up 308 victories in 26 seasons with the program.
A native of Saugus, Mass., Gaudet starred for Dartmouth in the late 1970s. In 1979 and 1980, he led the team to Ivy League titles and appearances in the NCAA Frozen Four. As a senior, he served as co-captain and was a recipient of the Philip D. McInnis Award for spirit, loyalty and dedication to Dartmouth ice hockey.
Gaudet was first-team All-Ivy in 1978-79 and 1979-80, and was a two-time recipient of the Canterbury Society Award for the best Ivy League goalie. In 76 career games, he made a school-record 2,129 saves, while allowing 299 goals for a 4.00 career goals-against average and an .877 save percentage.
Charlie Holt assumed the head coaching position of the University of New Hampshire hockey team in the fall of 1968. Holt was named the Spencer T. Penrose Award winner, given to the best coach in the nation, three times in his 18-year career with UNH. Holt guided his Wildcats to the NCAA National tournament seven times, the “Frozen Four” four times and in 1974 the ECAC regular season championship. “Mr. UNH Hockey” was inducted into the United States Hockey Hall of Fame in 1997.
A year after playing his last game in the NHL in 1986 for the Pittsburgh Penguins, Bruce Crowder was hired by University of Maine coach Shawn Walsh as an assistant coach.
But it was when he took the head coaching job at UMass-Lowell and took up primary residence in Nashua, where he still lives today, that Crowder began leaving his mark on the state and college hockey landscape as a coach.
In five years at Lowell he was named Hockey East Coach of the Year twice (1994, ’96), took the River Hawks to two NCAA tournaments – their last ones until 2012 – and received the Spencer Penrose Award as NCAA Division 1 Coach of the Year in 1996.
He took over the Northeastern program for the 1996-97 season and spent nine seasons coaching the Huskies, winning another Hockey East Coach of the Year award in 1998 and coaching six All-Americans. He left college coaching with a record of 219-245-55.
After his collegiate coaching career ended, Crowder was hired by the Anaheim Ducks as the assistant coach for the AHL’s Portland Pirates. He spent two seasons with the Pirates before leaving the coaching profession. Several of the players he coached in Portland went on to win a Stanley Cup with Anaheim in 2006-07.
Crowder and his wife, Lucie, a Concord native, have called Nashua home for the last 24 years. Their sons, Kevin and Scott, both played high school hockey at Bishop Guertin High School, helping the program win a state championship in 2001.
It was his hockey that brought Crowder to the Granite State from his native Ontario, earning a scholarship to the University of New Hampshire. During his four years at UNH skating for the late Charlie Holt in the late 1970s, he scored 47 goals and collected 133 points.
His pro career saw him play more 243 games in the NHL with the Penguins and Boston Bruins. Crowder scored 47 goals and 51 assists for a total of 98 points during a four-year NHL career.
USA Hockey’s National Goaltending Coach, David Lassonde previously spent more than three decades as a Division I assistant on teams that reached five Frozen Fours. Lassonde grew up in Rochester, played at Spaulding High School then went on to Providence College, where he played goal for two seasons under Coach Lou Lamoriello, graduating cum laude in 1984 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Education/History.
His coaching career began as an assistant at his high school alma mater which eventually led to his initial stint at UNH (1988-91) and a collegiate career that would span more than thirty years and 1,227 games at the Division I level. Twenty times he helped teams reach the NCAA tournament and five times his teams made the Frozen Four. As an assistant, he was part of 670 wins and a .596 winning percentage.
His career went on to include stops at Wisconsin (1991-94), Miami (1994-97), UNH (1997-2011), Denver (2011-14) and Dartmouth (2014-20).
During his career, he has coached ten Hobey Baker finalists, eight conference Players of the Year and more than thirty All-Americans including goaltenders Jeff Levy, Ty Conklin, Mike Ayers, Kevin Regan, Brian Foster, Sam Brittain, and Juho Olkinuora.
While at UNH, he was a member of the 1998-99 staff that was recognized by the American Hockey Coaches Association as Staff of the Year. In 2007, the AHCA recognized Lassonde with the Terry Flanagan Award, an honor presented annually to an Assistant Coach that has demonstrated a superior body of work throughout his career. That same year, he was also inducted into the Rochester Sports Hall of Fame.
Lassonde joined USA Hockey full-time in 2020 as its National Goaltending Coach and recently served as an Assistant Coach for the 2022 U.S. Olympic Men’s Ice Hockey Team. He has been an assistant coach in support of U.S. teams on the international stage on multiple occasions going back seventeen years, including the U.S. NationalUnder-18 Team which earned a Silver Medal at the 2022 IIHF Under-18 Men’s World Championship.
He has served on the coaching staff of four U.S. National Junior Teams, including the 2013 Gold Medal team andthe 2019 Silver Medal squad. In addition, Lassonde helped lead the U.S. Under-17 Men’s Select Team to the championship of the 2015 Five Nations Cup and the U.S. Under-18 Men’s Select Team to a second-place finish at the 2016 Ivan Hlinka Memorial Cup.
A long-time volunteer at the Stan Mikita School for the Hearing Impaired, he assisted Team USA at the World Deaf Ice Hockey Championships, winning a Gold Medal in 2017.
A native of Danvers, Mass., and a longtime resident of the Seacoast region, Tom Moulton was an assistant coach for the U.S. Sled Hockey Team that won its first gold medal at the Paralympic Games in 2002.
Moulton, 67, has been a supporter of youth hockey, men’s leagues and sled hockey in New Hampshire and the U.S. for decades. But it’s his role on the 2002 U.S. team at the Paralympic Games, as an assistant to head coach Rick Middleton, the former Boston Bruins great, that cemented his hockey legacy.
After finishing in last place at the 1998 and 2000 World Championships, Team USA entered the 2002 Paralympic Games ranked sixth out of six teams.
“The reasons Tom Moulton deserves to be inducted into the NH Legends of Hockey are the same reasons why I asked him to be my assistant coach on the U.S. National Sled Hockey Team for the 2002 Paralympics,” said Middleton. “I’ve been around hockey people for six decades now and I have never met anyone that is more passionate about the game of hockey than Tom.”
Moulton continued to assist Middleton with the National Sled Hockey Team and helped alter the course of the program. He received the USA Hockey Bob Johnson Award in 2002, and the four straight Paralympic gold medals (2010, 14, 18, 22) won by Team USA spurred greater interest in the sport, both in New Hampshire and across the country.
“I have fond memories of Coach Moulton as an outstanding coach that every day brought to the rink his enthusiasm and passion for the game,” said Kip St. Germaine, a player on that 2002 gold-medal team. “As athletes he challenged us and expected our best efforts. I cannot thank him for his generosity, giving of his time and energy in helping us achieve our ‘golden’ dream.”
A player his entire life, Moulton has been a big supporter of sled hockey, youth hockey and men’s league hockey. He has sponsored multiple adult amateur teams, helping them pay for jerseys, ice time, etc.
“And he continues to do so,” said Middleton. “He was always the consummate organizer and made sure that everyone got a chance to play who wanted to. All anyone had to do was show up at the rink and have fun. That passion and knowledge for the game of hockey is what I wanted the U.S. National sled hockey players to see. I knew that once they got to know him and see his passion they would respect him and come to love him as a coach.”
Bill graduated in 1961 from St. Paul’s School where he played varsity hockey, soccer and baseball.
He enrolled at Bowdoin College and was a three-year varsity starter in hockey, football, and baseball. He also excelled in those three sports as a freshman. In 1965, as a senior, he was elected varsity hockey Captain and named co-recipient of the Hugh Monroe, Jr., hockey trophy as Bowdoin’s Most Valuable Player. He earned nine varsity letters between 1962 and 1965.
Begining in 1973, Bill took over as Head Coach of the St. Paul’s School boys’ ice hockey program and remained on the bench for 17 seasons. In 1984, his team was the Independent School League Champion. His undefeated record of 14-0-0 remains as the only undefeated-untied record in League history. Between December 1983 and February 1985, his teams won 34 consecutive games. His career wins total 204, with a winning percentage of .609.
Two of his notable players who went on to NHL careers are Jeff Guiliano of the Manchester Monarchs and Los Angeles Kings, and Don Sweeney of the Boston Bruins.
Additionally, Bill coached girls’ ice hockey at St. Paul’s School for 2 years (1992-1994). His teams complied an overall record of 20-11-4, for a .571 winning percentage.
Bill also found time to serve 11 seasons as Assistant football coach and four seasons as Head baseball coach St. Paul’s School. From 1981 to 1984, he served on the Board of Directors of the Concord Youth Hockey Association.
Bill has served as a teacher, coach and administrator for 40 years at St. Paul’s School. On January 10, 2006, he became the twelfth Rector (Head of School).
The institution currently is celebrating its 150th Anniversary.
Rick Middleton is known to a generation of Boston Bruins fans as a skilled right winger whose play embodied his nickname – “Nifty” – and who scored nearly 1,000 points in his NHL career, but he’ll enter the Hall of Fame as a coach thanks to one amazing triumph in 2002.
In 2001, Middleton had been out of pro hockey for 13 years when he was contacted by a friend of his from the U.S. National Ski Team. The friend mentioned that the U.S. National Sled Hockey Team was seeking a coach for the 2002 Paralympic Games in Salt Lake City.
Middleton applied for the job and got it, knowing he had an enormous task. The Americans had only won one game – a consolation game – four years earlier in Nagano, and had fared poorly at the recent World Championships. They would be seeded sixth of six teams at the 2002 Games, where Norway and Canada were considered big favorites.
“It was an eye-opener for me,” said Middleton. “I’d never really been around disabled people in my life. I wondered things like, ‘Should I hold the door for them?’ In fact, it was the opposite that was true. They were so able, it’s scary.”
Middleton, who has called Hampton home since 1997, needed to build team chemistry and get his team to play better positional hockey. He wanted his team to get better at cycling the puck on offense to extend possessions and play an ‘I’ formation on defense to reduce the number of breakaways allowed.
“Rick did a remarkable job in bringing the players together, rebuilding their self-confidence, and devising new offenses and defensive strategies,” said Rich DeGlopper, then the president of the U.S. Sled Hockey Association.
The Americans outscored their six opponents 26-6, beating Norway, 4-3, in a shootout in the gold-medal game with Kip St. Germaine scoring the winning goal. The Americans have since medaled in every Paralympics, becoming the first country to win back-to-back gold medals in 2010 and ’14.
In Boston, playing on some excellent Bruins teams, he had five straight seasons of at least 40 goals and 90 points. In 1981-82 he scored a career-high 51 goals and won the Lady Byng Trophy for excellence and sportsmanship.
During a coaching career that spanned more than half a century, Bruce Parker helped oversee the glory days at Berlin High School in the 1960s, and later coached other scholastic and collegiate championship teams in Massachusetts and New Jersey.
After growing up in Wakefield and Reading, Mass., where he helped found the varsity hockey program, Parker went on to Bowdoin College, where he set a program record for goals by a defenseman (15) during his senior year of 1962-63.
He played six years with the Berlin Maroons after graduation, including the AHA national championship seasons of 1966-67 and 1967-68. He also skated with the Manchester Blackhawks, the Concord Eastern Olympics and the Concord Budmen.
It was as a coach where Parker left his biggest mark. At Berlin High School, which won its first state championship in 1963 after years of playing runner-up to crosstown rival Notre Dame, he was on the coaching staff when the Mountaineers won five state titles in six seasons including New England Championship in 1966-67. As head coach his last two seasons, he guided the teams to a 34-15-1 record, two state championships and two runner-up finishes in the NE tournament.
From Berlin, Parker moved down to Massachusetts, spending five years as the head coach at Acton-Boxborough High School – winning a Division 2 state championship during the perfect season of 1973-74 after finishing as runner-up the year before – and four more at Methuen High School, which were the first four in program history and saw steady growth to respectability.
He coached five years at Merrimack College, winning an ECAC Division 2 championship in 1979-80 and going 100-76-6 overall, with one-third of those games played against Division 1 opponents. Three of his players were NCAA All-Americans.
From there, Parker moved on to New Jersey, winning back-to-back state championships at Montclair High School in 1987-88 and 1988-89. His career also included stints at Bourne (Mass.) High School and Framingham (Mass.) High School, where he guided both teams to the state tournament in all ten seasons. At Bourne they won EMASS Division 3 championship in 1989-90 and a Division 1 championship at Framingham in 1991-92.
Parker had a second tenure of coaching at Montclair High School from 1999-2009 and finished up at Seton Hall (N.J.) Prep in 2013. All of his NJ teams qualified for the state tournament each year.
He has retired from teaching AP Calculus, directing athletics and from coaching a variety of sports.
From growing up in Bedford and skating for Manchester West High School, to building one of the top college programs in the country, Rand Pecknold has impacted the game at both state and national levels.
After playing for two years at West and two more at Lawrence Academy, Pecknold attended Division 3 Connecticut College, where he was a standout player. As a senior, he led the Camels to the ECAC South championship. He set school single-season records for goals (17) and points (47) by a defenseman.
He earned first-team All-ECAC South honors and a spot on the Division 3 All-England Team as a senior. Playing as a forward in his first three collegiate seasons, he led the Camels in goals as a sophomore (19) and junior (23). Overall, Pecknold scored 59 goals and 64 assists for 123 points, the eighth-most in program history.
But it’s as the head coach at Quinnipiac that he has achieved national renown, and is currently in his 23rd season. Twice in the last four seasons, he has led the Bobcats to the Frozen Four and NCAA championship game.
To date, Pecknold owns a career head coaching record of 446-26483 and currently ranks sixth among all active Division 1 coaches in career victories. Since Quinnipiac qualified for the NCAA tournament in 2012-13 — the first of four straight times it would make the NCAAs — and advanced to the national championship game, the Bobcats have the second-most wins (109) among all Division 1 programs in the country, behind only North Dakota (110). In addition, over the last fi ve years in the NCAA, Quinnipiac is #1 in Power Play, #1 in Penalty Kill and #2 in Wins.
In 2015-16 Quinnipiac won a program-record 32 games while winning the ECAC Hockey regular-season (Cleary Cup) and tournament (Whitelaw Cup) championships. The Bobcats’ 32-4-7 record made them the first team since Michigan in 1997 to finish the season with only four losses for the year.
Quinnipiac then went on to win the NCAA East Regional with wins against RIT and UMass-Lowell before advancing to its second Frozen Four. The Bobcats defeated perennial power Boston College before falling to North Dakota in the national championship game.
Pecknold has the most wins of any coach in Quinnipiac hockey history (446). He is a four-time Spencer Penrose Award finalist, given to the national Coach of the Year (2002, 2005, 2013, 2016), and the award winner in 2016.
He was hired at Quinnipiac on May 5, 1994, following three years as an assistant coach at his alma mater, Connecticut College. He has overseen the program during its move from Division 2 to Division 1 (for the 1998-99 season), from the MAAC to ECAC Hockey (for the 2005-06 season) and into the TD Bank Sports Center, regarded as one of the top rinks in college hockey.
The late Howell P. Campbell left a legacy at St. Paul’s School, where he played, captained and coached the hockey team, and remained on the academic staff until his death in 1953.
Born at the school in 1888, Campbell skated for the school’s Isthmian (first) team from 1905-07 and the varsity team as a senior in 1906-07, playing the “cover-point” position. He captained both teams his senior year, when one of the teammates on the varsity was the legendary Hobey Baker, a forward, who would go on to captain that team the following year.
Baker, whose name graces the top individual award in college hockey, went on to star in hockey and football at Princeton, and later enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Service. He died in December 1918 after a plane he was test-piloting crashed, shortly before he was scheduled to leave France and return to
America.
“Howell’s daughter, my mother, recalls dinner table conversations of Howell’s admiration for Hobey’s skill on the ice, and his overall excitement
to have played with such talent,” said Campbell’s grandson, Bob Diefendorf.
Campbell is listed as a coach/manager for the St. Paul’s first team in 1917-18, before joining the Army and leaving for World War I himself, being
involved in the final three months of the campaign. After returning from World War I, he coached the first team at St. Paul’s for 17 years on and off beginning in 1919-20. He stepped down from that position permanently in 1941 but remained assistant director of studies at the school until he passed away in 1953 at the age of 65.
In all, Campbell spent eight years (1899-1907) at the school as a student, and 46 years there as part of the faculty (1907-53).
The Howell P. Campbell Hockey Award is presented annually to the boy who, throughout the school year, has contributed the most to the spirit and traditions of St. Paul’s hockey.
Dick played hockey at St. Paul’s School during the 1943-44 and 1944-45 seasons, and during his senior-year vacations traveled south to play for the Jamaica Hawks in the New York Metropolitan League. He also played football and baseball and track and was awarded the Gordon Medal for the Best All-Around Athlete and Sportsman.
After his 1945 graduation from St. Paul’s School, Dick served in the US Armed Forces for two years.
After his honorable discharge, he enrolled at Princeton University and played hockey during the 1947-48 season and part of the 1948-49 season. After leaving Princeton, he played three seasons for the Schenectady Generals of the New York State League. In 1952-53, he began teaching and coaching at the Berkshire School where he played hockey for the New Milford Tomahawks for two of his three years. The Tomahawks, during his tenure, were runners-up in the A.H.A. National Championships. In 1955-56, he returned to school, enrolling at Wesleyan University where he played hockey and graduated in 1958.
In 1958-59, he began a 12-year stay at the Tilton School in New Hampshire as a history teacher, serving also as head hockey coach and athletic director. His teams in the very competitive Lakes Region League played against New Hampton, Holderness, Proctor, Brewster, Berwick, Fryeburg Academy and Vermont Academy. In 12 seasons, Tilton won five Lakes Region Championships. In addition, they played Middlebury, UNH, Bowdoin and Dartmouth freshman teams.
In the early to mid-Sixties, while working at the Tilton School, Dick played forward for the Laconia Lakers in the Granite State Hockey League.
In 1970, he began a tenure at Concord High School as Assistant Hockey Coach while teaching at Rundlett Junior High School in the Capital City. In 1973, he became Head Hockey Coach, overseeing the program for the next six seasons. Ultimately, Dick led the Crimson Tide to two state championships. In 1977, Concord defeated Bishop Guertin,
3-2, and in 1979 defeated Bishop Brady, 6-1. In 1975 and 1978, his teams were runners-up.
He was named Coach of the Year in New Hampshire in 1977 and 1979.
He also coached in the Concord Youth Hockey system at all levels and coached at the Exeter Summer Hockey School for more than 10 years.
Longtime Exeter High School Jim Tufts has fond memories of his early days coaching high school hockey in New Hampshire in the late 1970s, and of looking up to established coaches like Dick Ryerson (’06 Inductee) of Concord, Hubie McDonough Jr. (’04 Inductee) of Manchester Memorial, Albie Brodeur (’03 Inductee) of Berlin and the late Bud Luckern (’07 Inductee) of Bishop Brady.
Now, years later, looking back, he can appreciate those moments even more. “I kind of feel like the bridge to those outstanding men,” said Tufts. “As a 25-year-old, coaching with those guys, I just soaked it up any way I could. Now I’m at the other end of it.”
No other high school coach in state history has won as many games as Tufts, who played at Phillips Exeter Academy in his younger days but who focused his athletic energies on soccer during four years at the University of New Hampshire.
In 35 years coaching at Exeter High School, Tufts has won 444 games, in addition to a Division I championship in 1982-83 and two more titles in Division 2, in 2000-01 and 2001-02.
Since Exeter rejoined Division I prior to the 2002-03 season, it had never finished outside the top eight during the regular season until last year. Four times in that span it reached the semifinals, and in 2010 it advanced to the championship game, where it lost 1-0 to Concord.
In 2009, Tufts became the first New Hampshire coach to reach 400 wins. His teams have reached the semifinals 11 times and championship games five times.
As a player, Tufts played two years of varsity for George Crowe at Phillips Exeter Academy before moving on to UNH and playing three years of varsity soccer. He was also skating for the senior amateur Amesbury (MA.) Maple Leafs and coaching in the Exeter Youth Hockey program. One of the first teams he coached was the Squirts Travel team, which included Peter Maher, another of this year’s inductees.
The next year he coached the Bantam Travel team. Exeter was led by Dana Barbin (’11 inductee) who would eventually go on to become the head coach at Phillips Exeter Academy. For the past 20 years, Tufts and Barbin have held the same coaching position in town, Barbin at the prep ranks, Tufts in the public ranks.
After graduating from UNH, Tufts spent the next two years as an assistant coach at Winnacunnet High School in nearby Hampton before moving over to Exeter for good.
Another of Tufts’ passions is the Learn To Play Hockey Program that he has run since its inception in 1983. Established by the Jim Houston Committee and originally run through the Exeter Recreation Department, it is now a staple at The Rinks at Exeter and that program has introduced hundreds of youngsters to the joy of ice hockey.
He has coached a handful of players who went on to Division I, most recently center Jon Higgins, who played at the University of Vermont from 2006-10. Several others went on to careers at Division III colleges.
Tufts career record is 444-322-23 which ranks first in all-time wins. He said he has no plans to rest on what he’s already accomplished. “I don’t feel that way; it’s so much fun,” said Tufts, who’s also the longtime boys soccer coach at Exeter. “It’s great to compete with the guys. I don’t want to stop.”
Talk to Wally about his hometown coaching career and you’re apt to hear him tell you that he is the answer to the trivia question: Who is the only man, over 27 years, who coached varsity boy’s hockey at all three Manchester’s public high schools and won five State titles?
His record:
2 seasons West (1966-67 and 1967-68)
9 seasons Central (1979-80 to 1987-88)
16 seasons Memorial (1988-89 to 2003-04)
State titles:
Central 1980, 1981
Memorial 1989, 1991, 1995
Wally’s teams, by the time he retired as coach in 2004, had accumulated 356 wins.
Born, raised and schooled in Manchester, Wally also spent 35 years as an educator, teaching business education at both West and Central high schools. He retired in 2002. The interesting facet to his dedicated career is that for the entire 16 years he had the hockey helm at Manchester Memorial HS, he was teaching across town at Manchester Central HS, his alma mater. He was class of 1958.
Wally also, in 1984, coached the Manchester Flames to the National Junior “Cs” Championship. Jeff Serowik, one of today’s inductees, was a defenseman on that team.
Wally traces his keen hockey interest to age 5 when he began skating. Later, came the outdoor games on Lake Massabesic and Dorr’s Pond. During his high school years, though, Central HS had no hockey program but his enthusiasm never waned.
In the fall of 1958, he enrolled at Brewster Academy where, under the tutelage of Paul “Pop” Whalen-another of today’s inductees-he finally was able to use those natural hockey skills as a varsity player. He also captained the baseball team to the 1959 Prep School Championship.
In the fall of 1959, Wally enrolled at Providence College and graduated in 1963. He played varsity baseball there but not hockey. Three years after leaving Providence College he arrived back in Manchester and began crafting his enviable coaching and teaching record.
Notable bits and pieces: won New England Intermediate Golf Championship (1959); NH Hockey Coach of the Year (1991); coach on the All-NH Millennium Team (1991); inducted Queen City Hall of Fame (1999).
He and his wife Alice live in Manchester. They have three children: Matthew, Michael and Melanie; and 5 grandchildren.
The Dick Umile hockey story is packed with 50-carat nuggets, gathered first when he was a player, then later a coach. For instance, during his sophomore, junior and senior high school years at Melrose, Massachusetts, the hockey team won three straight Middlesex League hockey titles-not an easy feat given the talent found in that league. There also were appearances in the state and New England hockey tournaments. In his senior year, he skated as team captain and after a stellar season was named to the All-Scholastic (ie, All State) team.
Then came the fall of 1967. Dick drove an hour north to Durham and over the next four years at UNH enlarged his rink reputation. Some notable moments: received as a sophomore the Roger LeClerc Trophy (MVP); elected senior team captain; played 87 career games, with 60 goals/84 assists.
Then began his outstanding coaching career. After graduation (1972), he landed at Wakefield (MA) High School for one year as an assistant, moving over to Melrose (MA) High School for one year as freshman coach and then on to Watertown (MA) High School as head coach for 11 seasons. Along the way, he won two Middlesex League titles and a Division I Coach of the Year award (1984) from the Boston Globe. He also, for two years, scouted for the NHL’s St. Louis Blues and eventually moved on to Providence College as an assistant for two seasons.
Then came the magical moment. In 1988, Dick returned to Durham, becoming an assistant and later the associate head coach under the late Bob Kullen. Then Dick, on December 6, 1990, was named the 12th UNH head hockey coach. His 19th season is about to begin.
During his first 18 years, Dick fashioned the UNH hockey program into a premiere Division I winter attraction. There have been 18 Hockey East championship tournaments, 14 NCAA tournaments and four Frozen Four appearances. For 17 years-13 of them consecutive-his teams have won at least 20 games. His career record of wins/losses/ties is 444-220-71, ranking him numero uno at UNH, far ahead of the fabled Charlie Holt who won 347 games and ranks #2.
Dick also has coached eight Hobey Baker finalists and one winner; 23 All-Americas; plus 12 players have reached the National Hockey League. Among active NCAA coaches, he ranks third with a .653 winning percentage and his 444 victories rank him eighth among all NCAA hockey coaches. He has been named Coach of the Year 10 times, New England Coach of the Year four times, and Hockey East Coach of the Year five times (an all-time league best.)
Dick and his wife, Rose, have three daughters: Katie, Kristin (Haggerty) and Courtney (Cook), and seven grandchildren.
The Bishop Brady High grad that went on to turn its cross-town rival into a Division I power, Dunc has been a fixture on the ice in Concord for over 40 years.
Dunc grew up on the frozen sheet at Everett Arena, playing at all levels in the Concord Youth Hockey Association. A playmaker with a keen eye for the net, Dunc took his talents to Brady in the fall of 1977, where he became an instant factor for the Green Giants. As a sophomore, he played an integral part in leading the Green Giants to the Division I state championship game against Concord High. The two teams had split their two meetings in the regular season, with Dunc scoring the winner in a 2-0 victory over the Crimson Tide in the second meeting. Unfortunately, “we didn’t play very well,” according to Walsh, and Brady fell to Concord, 6-1, in what still stands as the only meeting the two teams have ever had in a state championship game. It was just the second title game appearance for Brady in its history.
“The atmosphere was unbelievable,” he said. “The build-up for the whole city was incredible with all the newspaper articles and everything. There must have been 3,000 people at Snively Arena. It was just one of those games, they got up early on us and we didn’t bring our best game. But that’s an atmosphere and a game that I will never forget.”
Dunc and the Green Giants returned to the finals again the following season, but were met by a strong Manchester Central team. Brady got there again the following season, this time against Manchester Central, but fell by the identical 6-1 score in what was the first of back-to-back championships for the Little Green.
After graduating from Brady in 1981, Dunc headed north to play for Plymouth State College (now Plymouth State University). He still ranks first in goals in a season (29), assists in a season (37) and points in a season (66) – all of which came during his senior year (1985-86).
It was during his senior year that he guided the Panthers all the way to the ECAC North championship game. And while Plymouth State fell to Curry College, 5-2, the 19-6-0 record still stands as the best season in team history.
In four years at Plymouth State – the final two he served as its captain – Dunc racked up 62 goals, 75 assists and 137 points, ranking second on the all-time list. Dunc was inducted into the Panthers Athletic Hall of Fame in 1999.
It didnt take long for Dunc to find a job coaching the sport he spent most of his life playing. After graduating Plymouth State, Dunc was named the assistant coach to Tom Walton at Concord for the 1986-87 season. His served as an assistant for the Crimson Tide for four years before taking over as head coach for the 1990-91 season.
About to begin his 22nd season behind the bench, Dunc has accumulated an overall record of 364-116-14. He’s led the Crimson Tide to a total of 14 semifinal appearances and six state championships.
Dunc won his first championship in only his second season as Concord’s bench boss, beating St. Thomas, 3-2, in overtime. He made a return trip with the Tide in 1993 and 1995, falling short on each occasion to Hanover (in double overtime) and Manchester Memorial, respectively.
Dunc taking the Tide to the finals became a regular occurrence for the rest of the decade. Concord won the state championship in 1996, 1997, 1998 and 1999. He also led the Tide to the title game in 2000, but fell to archrival Bishop Guertin by a goal.
Two years ago he picked up his sixth plaque when Concord pulled off an upset of Exeter, 1-0.
His parents named him Cecil Bernard, but everyone else everywhere else called him “Bud.”
First schooled in Portland Maine, “Bud” Luckern later became a student at Portsmouth (NH) High School. He often told the story of PHS’s first and only hockey game back then which was a fight-filled affair and led to the season promptly being cancelled. “Bud” later began working high-rise construction throughout New England. In 1960, he arrived in the Capital City area, first living in Suncook, then later planting his roots in Concord. Once Everett Arena opened in 1965, it became “Bud’s” second home.
In the mid 1960s, “Bud” began coaching in the Concord Youth Hockey house league. In the winter of 1967-68, he and “Tarzan” Healy jointly began working with the first Mite travel team.
Later, “Bud” became Head Coach at Bishop Brady High School, serving two hitches over 13 years. His tenures were: 1974-75 through 1980-81; and 1985-86 through 1990-91. Craig Lawrence served as “Bud’s” Assistant Coach for all 13 years. In addition, during “Bud’s” second tenure, his middle son Tom served as an Assistant Coach.
Although Bishop Brady, year after year, had the lowest student enrollment in Division I, “Bud” was always able to get the most out of the few players who formed his teams. For that ability, he was widely known and acclaimed. Bishop Brady went to two State finals, losing in 1979 to cross-town rival Concord, 6-1; and the following year losing to Manchester Central by that identical score. Bishop Brady also played in two division semi-finals, and two quarterfinals.
“Bud’s” overall Bishop Brady record is 181 wins, 120 losses and 1 tie.
“Bud” Luckern – Class of 2007
Please welcome Cecil Luckern, accepting for his late father.
The beloved Paul Whalen, so the story goes, was christened Pop sometime in the middle 1950s, perhaps when he was 27 years old. He became a father figure to many of the teenage Brewster Academy hockey players he was coaching and they looked at him through reverent, admiring eyes. At first, they called him Dad. He felt, though, the name was inappropriate because each player already had a dad. Then someone offered up Pop as a substitute name and it stuck. To this day, just mention Paul Whalen to older New England hockey players and fans and you’ll hear, “Oh, you mean Pop!”
Paul Whalen was a player, a coach and mentor, a friend to many far and wide, and he greatly loved the game of hockey. He grew up in Massachusetts, in the cities of Somerville and Medford. At Medford High School, he played varsity hockey, graduating in 1945. He then served in the US Navy and in the fall of 1949 enrolled at Boston University as a 22-year-old freshman. A degree was on his mind but so, too, was hockey. Among other things, he played in the first Bean Pot Tournament in 1952, losing to Harvard, 7-4, in the final round. In 1953, BU won the Eastern College title and Pop was named an all-star center and an MVP. He also received the Ray Speare Award as an outstanding scholar-athlete before graduating in 1953. Later, he played with the Berlin Maroons and the Laconia Lakers of the Granite State Hockey League.
Pop arrived in Wolfeboro with his wife Wini in 1954 and for the next 17 years was Mister Everything at Brewster Academy. He taught physical education, history, psychology and accounting. Then he became Brewster’s first Athletic Director and later the Assistant Headmaster.
It was as hockey coach, though, that he left his most indelible mark. He first revived the hockey program for the 1956-57 season and then won the Lakes Region title 11 of his 16 coaching years.
In 1971, Pop moved across the state line to Maine to become a faculty member and coach at Berwick Academy. In 1973, he was named Athletic Director and Director of Admissions. Later, he was named Assistant Headmaster.
His Berwick Academy hockey teams became legendary. Notable nuggets: four Lakes Region League titles, two New England titles, a 1974 NE Junior A title with a #4 national ranking, a 4th-place finish in a National Junior AHA tournament, and a stellar tour of Scandanavia. Also, more than 50 graduates from Pop’s era went on to play college hockey. One of the more familiar names is Eruzione.
In 1980, Pop left Berwick Academy to become principal of Windsor High School and in 1990 retired, ending a stunning 36-year career in education. He died on October 10, 2008.
In 1977, the Skating Center in Wolfeboro was named in his honor.
“Red,” this afternoon, might well be the only guy you meet who has his name etched on the Trophy of All Trophies – the Stanley Cup. That happened in 1995 when the New Jersey Devils won it all. Red then was an Assistant Coach (’94, ’95, ’96) who, game after game that season, had one of the best seats in the house.
“Red” didn’t just jump behind an NHL bench, though. It took a lot of ice time, a lot of learning and a lot of love for the game. His history and credentials go back to his younger days in Berlin as a defenseman. Youth hockey led him to the Junior Maroons (’72-’74), and later at Berlin High School, the Mountaineers in his senior year (’75) won the State title.
At New England College, he played four varsity seasons and earned several team honors. As a freshman defenseman, he led all team scorers with 25 points (11 G/14 A) and concluded his career with 89 points (21 G/68 A) in 92 games. For three seasons, he was team Captain.
In 1979, “Red” came home to the North Country and became Assistant Coach at Berlin High School. In 1981, he moved on to be Head Coach at Bellows Free Academy in St. Albans, VT, where his teams won four State Championships. Along the way, he twice was named Vermont Coach of the Year. By then, he knew hockey and coaching were in his blood and he knew the only thing he could do was look at loftier heights.
So, he moved on to the highly successful and acclaimed program at the University of Maine and served as Assistant Coach for three seasons (’90-’93.) During his tenure there, Maine three times made it to the NCAA Frozen Four, winning the National Title in 1993. Additionally, during his three seasons, Maine won a pair of Hockey East Championships.
“Red” continued his ascendancy and for the 1993-94 season he served as Technological Specialist for the New Jersey Devils, followed by his Devils’ Assistant Coach job. Between ’96 and ’00, “Red” was Assistant Coach of the Albany River Rats in the AHL, and then between ’00 and ’02, he served as a Devils’ scout. He returned to the Albany River Rats, but this time as head coach for the ’02, ’03 and ’04 seasons. He later became head coach of the Indiana Ice in the United States Hockey League. “Red” also worked with the national and coaching education programs of USA Hockey. He served as an assistant coach with three US National Junior teams (’93, ’00, ’01), and coached several national select (16- and 17-year old) teams as both a head and assistant coach. In the early 90’s, he served as director of the coaching program for the NE District of USA Hockey and continues today as a speaker.
He has written a book, Coaching Hockey Successfully, which is used by USA Hockey. Last summer, he received the Walter Yaciuk Award from USA Hockey for long-term coaching education service.
Today, he is Assistant Coach at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst.
Dennis “Red” Gendron – Class of 2007
Albert “Barney” LaRoche was born in Berlin, New Hampshire, on July 10, 1916. Also known as the “Rocket,” he played 22 years for the various town teams, and in 1937, they became known as the Berlin Maroons. He won six team scoring titles as the Maroons won five (senior) New England AHA titles, in 1941, ’48, ’49, ’51 and again in ’54. They won their first of three (senior) National AHA Championships in 1953-54 over Housatonic, Conn. He finished his playing career in 1956.
Barney coached Notre Dame (Rams) High School for 13 seasons and during that time, their record was 161-79-17. During his tenure, the Rams never lost a single game to another New Hampshire high school. He won an unprecedented 13 NHIAA championships while outscoring their opponents 83-11. The Rams played in two New England championships, finishing as runner-up to Hamden, Conn., in 1954 before returning the favor to Hamden in 1957.
Barney also went on to coach the Maroons four seasons, beginning in 1964-65, ’65-66, ’66-67 and again in 1970-71. During those four years, Berlin’s record was 61-37-7. The Maroons won their second National AHA Championship in 1966-67 over Muskegon, Mich. Of note, the Maroons also won their third and final AHA championship the following season, besting Walpole Mass,, although LaRoche was not coaching.
He was known far and wide as “Ingy,” and when he was 76 years old back in 1992 he received an official plaque from his alma mater, Bowdoin College, proclaiming him the school’s Number One Hockey Fan; citing, too, his undying loyalty and high enthusiasm for Bowdoin hockey.
It was, over the years, just one of the many hockey-related plaques he accumulated from appreciative groups. If the raw truth be known, though, had he received a plaque for every single achievement during his hockey lifetime, Ingy easily could have shingled his roof.
By his own admission, hockey-after his family-was his greatest love. The affair began early on, out on the ponds in and around his not-so-big hometown of Woodbridge, CT, a few miles northwest of New Haven. There were no coaches or organized programs back then, just a lot of black ice to skate on.
Then came his high-school years at Morristown-Beard School (class of 1935) in Morristown, NJ where he found a formal hockey program. For four seasons, he excelled. He also played baseball, and ran cross country and track. In April, 1994 at age 78, he was inducted into that school’s Athletic Hall of Fame. Teammates recall he was a skater, playmaker and stick handler, all said with the word superb as a prefix.
Then came his four years (1935-39) at Bowdoin College where he was the first freshman to play on the varsity hockey team. When it was over, he owned a BA in math and a burnished hockey reputation.
He went on to Yale graduate school (1939-41), earning a masters in forestry while playing for two Senior Hockey teams, one of which almost won the 1940 National Invitational Tournament at Lake Placid.
During WWII, he served with the US Army (1943-47) as an officer. He was awarded a Purple Heart but still managed to play hockey, skating in Europe on an Army team that won the 1946 ETO championship. For that, he received a commemorative wristwatch that remains among his family’s treasures.
Ingy’s first appearance in New Hampshire was in 1948. He arrived with hockey on his mind and played one season with Concord’s legendary Sacred Heart team. A year later, he left, to take a position at Michigan State University as an instructor and director of the forestry program. By 1957 was back in Concord where he was about to begin a stellar tenure as a player, referee and, most importantly, a coach.
His commitment to coaching began in 1959 when he learned there existed a keen interest in creating the Concord Youth Hockey Association. He joined founder Russ Martin and several other local men, and between 1959 and 1985 devoted his skills, energies and time to young skaters.
At the end of those 25 consecutive seasons, he stepped down-not due to waning interest but because of a nagging leg injury. He was then nearly 71 years old. The Concord Youth Hockey Association immediately honored him with a plaque for his 25 years of commitment, having worked closely and mostly with the mite and squirt divisions. In 2005, the CYHA inaugurated the annual Ingy Arnold Good Sportsmanship trophy for members of the Mite travel team. A tuition scholarship for Mites and for first-year travel-team players also has Ingy’s name on it.
Away from the rink, Ingy for several years was a coach of another sort. He volunteered as a teacher of woodworking/carpentry for a large number of kids in grades 1 to 4 in two area school systems. His work life was devoted to forestry and for 24 years he was director of the New Hampshire Forestry Nursery in Gerrish. He retired in 1981 at age 66.
For many years he and his wife, Dorothy, now deceased, resided in Hopkinton. His daughter Anne (Missy) Field, his granddaughter, Alice, and son-in-law, Walter, reside in Concord.
Attended Notre Dame High School from 1944 to 1948 and was a member of the first hockey team and they won the High School State Championships in 1947 and 1948. He was voted the Most Valuable Player of the 1948 State Championship.
Husky was named in the “Who’s Who” publication for High School Athletics for his abilities in Ice Hockey and Baseball for the year 1948.
Husky was a member of the Berlin Maroons from 1948 to 1962. In 1949 and 1954, the Maroons won the AHA New England Hockey Championships. Also, in 1954 the Maroons won the National AHAUS Hockey Tournament.
Husky was instrumental in organizing the youth hockey program in Berlin by forming and coaching teams at all levels of the youth hockey program from 1963 through 1972.
In 1963, Husky organized and played in the Berlin City Hockey League. He also organized a traveling All-Star team that played in tournaments.
Husky was instrumental in the cleanup and rebuilding of the Notre Dame Arena when the original building collapsed in 1969.
Husky has received many awards for his efforts as a player, coach and builder of the sport of ice hockey in Berlin, NH.
The late Ed Jeremiah’s contributions to New Hampshire hockey are unparalleled. After a successful professional hockey career which saw him make stops in areas ranging from New Haven and Boston to Philadelphia and Cleveland, Jeremiah returned to Dartmouth College where he had previously earned seven letters in football, hockey and baseball. Under his direction as head coach, Dartmouth won the Pentagonal League championship in seven of nine years. During one incredible stretch from 1942 to 1946, his Indian squad set an intercollegiate record of 46 games without a defeat. Jeremiah was recognized posthumously by the National Hockey League with the Lester Patrick Award for outstanding service to hockey in the United States.
The New Hampshire Legends of Hockey actively solicits historical, hockey-related artifacts for preservation and display to the general public.
Help support the NH Legends of Hockey and the great work we do. Click here to become a supporter today.
Click Here for the 2024 New Hampshire Legends of Hockey Supporter’s Brochure.
© Copyright 2024 – NH Legends of Hockey | Site by ROI | Hosted by Host Fortress