During his undergraduate days at Harvard, Joe Cavanagh Jr. appeared as a hockey-player extra in the 1970 Academy Award-nominated movie “LOVE STORY”. So maybe it’s ironic that the Crimson All-American, a member of one of Rhode Island’s outstanding hockey families, is the product of a 1930’s real-life hockey love story.
Joseph V. Cavanagh and Martha Harty grew up in Providence in the 1920s and 30s. They were part of the fledgling Rhode Island hockey community of the time.
Joe was an All-State hockey player for Classical High in 1934. Like his older brother, John (or Jack, as he was known), before him, Joe served as team captain in his senior year.
Martha’s brother, Nat Harty, was an All-State player at Providence’s former Commercial High School. He would go on to stardom at the University of Southern California (USC) in the late 30s where his elusive skating and deft stickwork earned him the moniker of “Fancyfoot”.
Martha and Joe fell in love. They married during his tour as a Naval officer and started raising a large family (9 children) in the Edgewood section of Cranston.
Cranston was a hotbed of hockey in the 1950s and 60s so it’s probably not surprising that several of the male members of the Cavanagh clan became hockey players.
Four of Martha and Joe Cavanagh’s sons played for the Cranston High School East hockey team.
JOE CAVANAGH JR. was a high school hockey star in his first year of varsity competition in the 1963-64 season. He led Cranston East to the state title in that 63-64 campaign, marking the first time a Cranston team had won the state high school title in 23 years. His performance earned Cavanagh first-team All-State honors in the annual Providence Journal poll. It would be the first of Joe Jr’s three consecutive Journal first-team All-State selections. The 63-64 state title was the one of two state titles Cranston East won during Joe Cavanagh’s three-year tenure wearing a Thunderbolt uniform.
In his senior year in 1965-66, Cavanagh was the leading scorer and captain of an East team that won both the state and New England titles. Some veteran hockey observers say that the 65-66 East team, which posted a 29-0-1 record against state and New England high school competition, was the best high school hockey team in Rhode Island history.
After prepping for a year at Phillips Andover, following Cranston East, Joe Cavanagh went to Harvard where he became a Harvard hockey legend.
At a time when college players were only allowed to play three varsity seasons, Cavanagh earned All-American honors in all three of his varsity seasons at Harvard, serving as team captain in his senior year. To this day he remains the Beanpot Tournament’s all-time leading scorer.
In 1994, Cavanagh was named to the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame.
Today, Cavanagh, whose hockey career was ended by an injury shortly after he graduated from Harvard, is a successful lawyer in Providence. He is the senior managing partner of the Providence law firm of Blish & Cavanagh.
DAVE CAVANAGH is 18 months younger than his brother, Joe. He was a member of two Cranston East state championships teams, including the 65-66 state and New England championship sextet. In his senior season in 1966-67 he was captain of the Cranston East hockey team and earned Providence Journal first team All-State honors – after helping the Thunderbolts win the state title.
Dave also went on to play varsity hockey at Harvard and currently is a Roman Catholic priest in the Boston area.
BOB CAVANAGH, one of Joe and Dave’s younger brothers, was a Cranston East hockey player for three seasons from 1973 to 1975.
RICH CAVANAGH, Martha and Joe’s youngest son, also played hockey for Cranston East in the late 1970s. Like his brothers Joe and Dave, Richard also attended Harvard.
The third generation of Cavanagh family hockey players began making their mark in the R.I Interscholastic League ranks in the 1990s.
All five of Joe Jr. and Carol Cavanagh’s five sons were hockey players.
JOE CAVANAGH III was an All-State player and assistant captain of the Toll Gate hockey team in his senior season in 1994. He then went onto to a four-year college hockey career at Holy Cross.
Like his brother, PAUL CAVANAGH also played for Toll Gate for four years before enjoying a four-year career at Holy Cross. Paul, a high-scoring forward, earned first team All-State honors in his senior year at Toll Gate in 1996 after leading the Titans to the title round of the R.I. Interscholastic League DI state tournament. Paul was captain of his teams in his senior seasons in both high school and college.
TOM CAVANAGH, the third oldest of Joe Jr. and Carol Cavanagh’s five sons, was a two-time first-team All-Stater at Toll Gate in 1999 and 2000. He prepped for a year at Phillips Exeter before going on to an outstanding four-year hockey career at Harvard from 2002-05
Drafted in the 6th round of the 2001 NHL draft by the San Jose Sharks, Tom went on to play five years of professional hockey after he graduated from Harvard, including two seasons in the NHL with the Sharks.
Joe and Carol Cavanagh’s son DAVE, was a two-time first team All-State defenseman for Toll Gate in 2004 and 05. In 2004 Dave’s defensive performance played a key role in Toll Gate ending Mt. St. Charles’ historical 26-year reign as Rhode Island high school state champion. As a team captain, Dave also backboned the Titans title run again in 2005 before going on to a four-year career playing for Providence College.
JIM CAVANAGH, the youngest of Joe Jr. and Carol’s hockey playing sons played for Hendricken and was a team captain late in the first decade of the 21st century.
One of Paul Cavanagh’s teammates on that Toll Gate team that pushed Mount St. Charles to a deciding third game in the 1996 state title series was his cousin, STEVE HAUN. Steve is the son of Martha (Cavanagh) Haun, the daughter of Joe (Sr.) and Martha Cavanagh. Steve went on to play college hockey at Wentworth Institute.
Steve and Martha Haun’s other son PAUL HAUN played four years for the Pilgrim High hockey team and served as team captain in his senior year. He also played for Williston-North Hampton School
The three sons of Bob Cavanagh, Bob, Mark and John, all were star players for Toll Gate High.
BOB CAVANAGH Jr. was a three-time Journal All-State selection for the Titans in 1999, 2000, 2001 and team captain in 2001. He went onto an outstanding collegiate hockey career at Bowdoin College then played professional hockey in Germany.
MARK CAVANAGH played for Toll Gate from 1999 to 2003 then played four years of varsity hockey at Wentworth Institute in Boston. As a senior, he served as captain of both his high school and college teams.
JOHN CAVANAGH joined his cousin Dave in leading Toll Gate to the historical victory over Mt. St. Charles in 2004 Interscholastic League state title series. John, a high scoring forward, earned first team All-State honors for his performance in the 03-04 season and earned another All-State honor and serve as team captain in 2005 when he led the Titans to another state title. After prepping for a year at the Salisbury School, he enjoyed a four-year career playing for Providence College where he was a two-year captain.
The first female member of the Cavanagh hockey-playing clan was SUSIE CAVANAGH, Rich Cavanagh’s daughter. Although there was a Warwick public school Interscholastic League girls’ team when Susie was a student at Pilgrim High at the start of the second decade of the 21st century, Susie took-on the greater challenge of playing for the Pilgrim High boys’ team. She played a regular shift for the Patriots for three years from 2010-12.
She then prepped at Cushing Academy where she was the captain of the Cushing girl’s hockey team in 2013. She enrolled at the University of Connecticut the following year and was a member of both the Huskies women’s hockey and golf teams. However, after one year at UConn, Susie transferred to Oregon State University to focus on golf. Now a professional golfer she won the 2024 Connecticut Open Women’s championship.
Susie’s younger sister, PAULA, was the star of the Pilgrim High 2017 DII state championship field hockey team and also played hockey for the Pilgrim girls hockey team.
DANNY CAVANAGH, Susie’s young brother, played two years for the Hendricken hockey team before transferring to Winchendon Academy where he played for three years and was the team captain in each of his final two seasons. In the 2024-25 season Danny was in his third season playing for the Babson College varsity hockey team.
Another of Rich Cavanagh’s daughters, ELIZABETH, played for the Pilgrim girls hockey team for four years and was an assistant captain in her senior year.
RICH CAVANAGH Jr. played three years for the Pilgrim High hockey team before transferring to Pomfret Academy where he is playing for the varsity hockey team in the 2024-25 season.
The fourth generation of Cavanagh Providence Journal All-State hockey selections went on the books in 2023 when WILL CAVANAGH, Paul Cavanagh’s son, earned first team All-State honors after leading the Hawks, which he served as a two-time team captain, to the state title. The following year Will transferred to Phillips Exeter where he was playing his senior year during the 2024-25 season
SAMMIE HAUN, the daughter of Steve Haun Jr. and the great grand-daughter of the late Joseph and Martha Cavanagh, was selected as an All-Stater by the RIIL’s girl’s hockey coaches in the 2023-24 season. A junior, she starred with the South County Storm Co-Op team. In the 24-25 season Sammie was the Storm’s leading scorer, assistant captain, and cover girl for the promotion of the RI Hockey Hall of Fame’s annual High School All-Star Showcase.
Also, in the 2024-25 RIIL season, LUKE CAVANAGH, the son of Joe Cavanagh III, was a sophomore forward for the Prout School hockey team and KOLBY KANELOS, son of Alyssa Haun and grandson of Martha (Cavanagh) Haun, was a sophomore forward for the Bishop Hendricken High varsity hockey team.
Twenty-three (and still counting) descendants of the late Joseph and Martha Cavanagh have played in the RI Interscholastic League hockey ranks; 17 have earned Providence Journal All-State selections and 13 have gone-on to play college hockey.
The participation numbers and individual honors are impressive, but for Joe Cavanagh Jr., the most significant characteristic of the Cavanagh hockey story is leadership.
A quick review of the Cavanagh family hockey resumes reveals that in 21 high school and college hockey seasons through the decades, descendants of the late Joe and Martha Cavanagh have worn a “C” or an “A”, symbolic of their role as either team captain or assistant captain, on their game jerseys.
“I think it shows what playing hockey can mean in a person’s life,” said Joe Cavanagh, the three-time Harvard All-American. “It teaches you the value of hard-work; the importance of teamwork and how to work with people to achieve a goal.”
It is the hockey legacy of the Martha and Joe Cavanagh “Love Story”.
By John Gillooly