When the RI Auditorium opened in 1926 it was the state’s very first indoor rink. With it, the game’s popularity exploded. Before too long there were too many players, too many teams and too many leagues for the available arena ice time. In order to meet their expanding needs, high schools, colleges and local amateur [...]
We call them “hockey” rinks because, well, we play hockey. They’re really “ice” rinks, a playground for all sorts of recreation, not the least of which is figure skating, which most certainly preceded hockey as a recreational pastime. Patricia and Betty Ann Farrell grew up on figure skates. Their father, the late Dr. Charles Farrell, [...]
In the late sixties and early seventies, there were only a few stations on our television dials. Over our New England winters, three and sometimes four times a week, when 7 pm rolled around, households throughout the region tuned to UHF channel 38 in Boston. The Bruins were on and, through often grainy images, Bobby [...]
Everyone remembers where they played their first organized hockey. Clark Donatelli sure does. It was the brand-new rink in his hometown of North Providence. “I grew up playing there in mites and first-year squirts. Back then you played house league and travel. It was a perfect location. It was right there, five minutes from the [...]
For a young hockey player several accomplishments are achieved during their pee-wee days. Some of these milestones might include scoring their first goal, lifting the puck, winning their first game, or for one bunch of Rhode Island pee-wee players - meeting the King of Sweden! If after reading that last sentence you thought to yourself [...]
From youth leagues through college in the late fifties and sixties, Woonsocket’s Roger G. Guillemette was one of New England’s most highly accomplished hockey talents. A super-quick forward, Guillemette enrolled at nearby Mount St. Charles before transferring to LaSalle Academy for his sophomore year. The All-State forward would go on to lead the Rams in [...]
For the smallest state in the country, Rhode Island has certainly turned out more than its fair share of great hockey figures – on ice and off. And behind the scenes there have been a number of key figures who ensured our players got the competitive edge they needed. To the Rhode Islanders who chose [...]
When visiting the Boston University athletics website, the entry on their Terrier hall-of-fame goalie, long-time NHL executive and Rhode Island native, Jack Ferreira, reads: “Ferreira, who was legally blind and nicknamed ‘Mr. Magoo’ by his teammates, gave up just 2.0 goals a game and recorded eight shutouts.” While his stats are exceptional and indisputable, the [...]
Rhode Island’s Margaret “Digit” Murphy, one of the most victorious coaches in NCAA women’s hockey over her 22 seasons at Brown University, has been announced as the president of Toronto’s new (yet to be named) franchise in the National Women’s Hockey League. Digit, a Cranston, RI, native, who also coached the Boston Blades to two [...]
Like so many other Rhode Islanders whose hockey careers are highlighted by both on- and of-ice achievement, it is impossible to categorize Henry J. Coupe, Jr. as simply either a “Player” or “Pillar” member of our nation’s hockey community for he excelled at both. Born in 1921 in Cranston, “Hank”, as he was known, was [...]
