When Alfred “Al” Thurier was inducted into the Mount St. Charles Hall of Fame in 2013, the hockey legend was characterized as the Academy's “original Flying Frenchman.” As his career developed Thurier was better known as “Fred.” His was a pro career that began in 1937 and ended in 1952. Along the way, he starred [...]
New Englanders know Walter Brown as the former owner of the Boston Bruins, who later founded and owned the Boston Celtics with his close friend and RI Reds’ owner, Lou Pieri. However, Brown’s greatest contribution to sport may have been the development of hockey in the United States, which he influenced for over three decades. [...]
As the R.I. Reds “Player of the Century”, Zellio Toppazzini had little difficulty getting his name on the list of top scorers or professional hockey greats. He had 786 points in 785 American Hockey League games. But Topper had no luck at all getting his picture on hockey trading cards. His “first card” is in [...]
Burrillville High School’s accomplishments on the ice are legendary, not only in Rhode Island but throughout New England, as well. So, too, are many of the players and coaches it has produced. It may be surprising to many that the most successful coach of all whose early contact with the game came with the Broncos [...]
In his 13 seasons in pro hockey, Chuck Scherza of the R.I. Reds earned a reputation as a scorer, fierce checker who could dig the puck out of the corners, and a tough customer who never backed down from a fight. His career penalty totals rank third on the list of all Reds' players in [...]
We know that Brown defeated Harvard 6-0 in the very first organized intercollegiate ice hockey game played in the United States on January 19, 1898. Brown went on to enjoy more success in those early years against collegiate teams from Yale, Harvard, Columbia, the University of Pennsylvania, and club squads such as the Skating Club [...]
The Buffalo Sabres will receive the #1 overall pick in the 2018 NHL draft. Their only other #1 picks became NHL legends - Gilbert Perreault (1970) and Pierre Turgeon (1987). This year, they are expected to select Sweden’s Rasmus Dahlin. It’s doubtful, however, that this occasion will be any more memorable or bizarre than their [...]
Cooperalls were a brand of ice hockey equipment manufactured by Cooper Canada. The name has since become a generic term for all hockey pants featuring a waist-to-ankle outer shell. Cooperalls were marketed from 1972 to 1975. Promoted as "a complete hockey uniform system", it consisted of an elasticated girdle extending from the middle of the [...]
The growth and success of the USA in gymnastics, soccer and other sports, including hockey in the early days, has been helped along and fueled by the talents of coaches from other nations. So it is that China recently came calling to one of Rhode Island’s favorite daughters, Margaret Digidio Murphy, to build its fledgling [...]
In February of 1978, Charles Bard, CEO of the Decathlon Club of Bloomington, MN, attended a convention at the Los Angeles Athletic Club. There, he learned of the development plans for the Wooden Award, created to honor the outstanding collegiate basketball player of the year. He learned about its beginning, how the trophy was designed, [...]
