In 1965, following what can only be described as an embarrassing showing by the US hockey team at the 1964 Games, New England took what many believe was one of the first real steps in drawing up the successful blueprint we have today for developing the best talent and teams to compete on the world [...]
John Zifcak was the eldest of Phillip and Frances Zifcak's sons. With ten siblings to help take care of, he didn't have a lot of time for sports, but was athletic enough to join the Rhode Island State Police where he had distinguished career, retiring as a Lieutenant specializing in arson investigation and then being [...]
The Gaudreaus are unique among Rhode Island’s prominent hockey families. Theirs is the only family tree that includes a father who was an Olympian and a son who was an NHL player. The patriarch, Robert Gaudreau Sr., skated for the United States in the 1968 Olympics in Grenoble, France, after a brilliant career at Brown [...]
Four years before the outbreak of World War I, Phillip Zifcak emigrated from the Slovakian region of the teetering Austro-Hungarian Empire. His wife to be, Frances, followed two years later. They met working in a textile mill in Uxbridge, Massachusetts, married, and soon welcomed the first of 13 children. Phillip and Frances moved to neighboring [...]
Considering that we are the smallest state in the nation, Rhode Island has developed and contributed an incredible number of on- and off-ice talents to the game of hockey. None are more noteworthy than the host of coaches we have developed. The current crop of those head coaches is showcased in the May issue of [...]
It was 1941 and Boston Olympics General Manager Walter Brown came to the dressing room to congratulate Don Mellor on scoring a goal in his first game with the team. Don deflected the praise. “The puck was right in front of me on my stick, and all I had to do was tap it in, [...]
The story of the Belisle family and its accomplishments at Mount St. Charles is almost too incredible to be true. But it is, even if at times it reads like fiction. Normand B. “Bill” Belisle is the architect and backbone of one of the most famous families in Rhode Island hockey history. Bill grew up [...]
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 [...]
(Providence, RI) The names of five local hockey greats who represent the RI Hockey Hall of Fame’s “Class of 2022” were unveiled on February 25th between periods of the Providence Bruins vs Charlotte Checkers “Hall of Fame Game” at the Dunkin’ Donuts Center in Providence. Vin Cimini, founding chairman of the Hall of Fame, noted [...]
Inducted into the Providence College Athletic Hall of Fame in 1984 Inducted into the RI Interscholastic League Hall of Fame in 2012 Bob Bellemore was born in Smithfield, RI and became a standout goaltender at LaSalle Academy, earning All-State honors in both 1958 and 1959. In 1964, as a sophomore at Providence College, he backboned [...]
