70 years ago, Brown became Maroon to help win Gold & Glory for Rhode Island hockey

2022-04-06T15:42:28-04:00March 9th, 2022|

Over the years, Rhode Island has captured 10 USA national hockey titles. Its first came in 1948, at a time when USA Hockey was known as AHAUS, the Amateur Hockey Association of the United States. That year, the Rhode Island Scarlets captured the “Memorial Cup”, the trophy of the US National Seniors Championships, by defeating [...]

It Seemed like a Dream – the night Pawtucket’s Bob Ricci suited up against Gordie Howe and the Whalers

2022-01-23T16:22:06-05:00January 23rd, 2022|

Bob Ricci's done all right for himself. The 62-year-old Pawtucket native lives in California, working as a Strategic Account Manager for the Industrial Division of Sherwin-Williams Paint. It's a good job with an important company that has commercial and retail customers around the globe. Maybe it's not what you dream of as a kid, but [...]

Here’s how Football and a Brown Undergrad Gave Birth to RI Schoolboy Hockey

2023-04-16T19:25:09-04:00November 15th, 2021|

The New Brunswick campus of Rutgers University is widely recognized as the site of the first college football game in the USA. The Rutgers game, played in 1869 against Princeton (then known as the College of New Jersey), was reported to have more resembled the game of soccer than the “football” we know today. Two [...]

The Long and Lasting Legend of 17-Year-Old Norm Desaulniers

2021-10-23T18:13:44-04:00October 22nd, 2021|

It’s every sports-minded young person’s dream to hit the home run that wins the game…nail the shot that beats the buzzer…score that sudden death goal. The ultimate thrill, however, as improbable as it might be, would be to someday “play in the bigs.” If you grew up in Rhode Island in the early and mid [...]

Greg Britz – the First Bishop Hendricken Player to reach the National Hockey League

2021-07-07T10:07:50-04:00July 6th, 2021|

Bishop Hendricken’s future Hobey Baker Award winner, David Emma, made it to the NHL in 1993, the same year as Steven King, one of the stars of the Providence Bruins’ Calder Cup run in 1999. But there was another Hawk who made it to the big show well before both and few know his name. [...]

Post-War Hockey at Brown: Wes Moulton’s “Miracle on Ice”

2021-05-10T11:53:01-04:00May 4th, 2021|

Since its historic beginnings in 1898, Brown men’s hockey has endured two dormant periods. The first began in 1906, and play was not resumed until 1926. The second iceless stretch began after the 1938-39 season, when along with wrestling, hockey fell victim to the budget axe at the end of the Great Depression. Fortunately, a [...]

RI’s Hockey Coaches: A Legacy of Stardom and then Paying it Forward

2021-04-07T10:19:36-04:00April 6th, 2021|

Many ex-RI Reds coached at all levels of the game all over the continent after their time in Providence - names like Bessone, Blake, Cook, Flaman, Polano, Reardon, Schmidt, and Sinden, to name just a few. Fortunately, many of those Reds we cheered for settled in Rhode Island and paid the favors forward by coaching [...]

In 1955, LaSalle’s hockey team went “Gaga” meeting Tenley Albright at St George’s rink

2021-04-06T12:15:31-04:00March 20th, 2021|

On Dec. 10th, 1955, it was a jubilee of sorts at St. George’s school in Middletown. The school’s Cabot Memorial Rink was surrounded rows deep with all ages straining for a glimpse of Tenley Albright, perhaps the most famous woman in American sports over the decade. Indeed, two years earlier she became the first American [...]

Miracles: The Miracle on Ice and the One that Came Next

2020-10-12T11:29:18-04:00October 12th, 2020|

Virtually every single American knows the ever-so-famous “Miracle On Ice” story of the 1980 USA ice hockey team during that year’s Winter Olympics, held in Lake Placid, NY. However, few are familiar with the events that followed for Team USA, as a country and the world’s ice hockey community wondered if the Americans could do [...]

The 1963 Ice Bowl All-Stars: Ambassadors for our Nation & an Audience with a King

2020-08-26T14:17:33-04:00August 25th, 2020|

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 [...]