November 8, 2004
PENN 6
Rider 2
November 9, 2004
PENN 10
Lafayette 1
NEWS AND NOTES
The first ACHA
ranking of the year came out on Sunday. Penn is currently ranked 8th
in the Northeast region, the highest position they have held since 2002.
This past weekend's wins over Rider and Lafayette improved the Quakers MACHA
record to 5-0-0. Penn is currently atop the standings
with 10 points in league play.
A history of the Penn varsity ice hockey program was featured on USCHO.com
over the weekend, read the article below.
| PENN HOCKEY LINKS |
November 12 @ 7:00pm
PENN vs. William Paterson
Class of 1923 Ice Rink
Philadelphia, PA
November 14 @ 5:00pm
PENN vs. Wagner
Staten Island Pavilion
Staten Island, NY
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The
Missing Ivy
By
David Kensa (November 6, 2004)
www.USCHO.com
Fans
of Division I college hockey in general, and ECAC hockey in specific, are very
familiar with the six Ivy League schools that make up half of that conference.
What few may know is, there used to be a seventh Ivy playing hockey alongside
its academically gifted peers.
The
University of Pennsylvania, whose hockey origins date back as far as the late
1890s, fielded teams in the sport through the 1970s. Joining the ECAC Division I
conference in the 1966-67 season, the Quakers played 12 seasons of varsity
hockey in the league until the school's administration pulled the plug
immediately following the 1977-78 season.
Granted,
Penn isn't the only Ivy missing at the varsity level in hockey, a sport the Ivy
League, long before it was given the Ivy moniker, started on the intercollegiate
level in the late 1890s. It's probably not a great surprise that Columbia
University is also absent from the fold. Penn, however, began its participation
in the sport in 1898 with a 2 wins, 1 loss season under the leadership of a team
captain as coach. Seasons were brief and little was recorded back then, and the
team kept competing through the 1920s playing their final season in 1929-30
before a nearly 35-year absence. The team was re-assembled for the 1964-65
season at the club level under head coach Jim Salfi.
Salfi,
a varsity letter-winning skater who graduated from St.
Lawrence in the spring of 1964, took the reigns of the Red and Blue that
fall.
"I
had just graduated the semester before, and had never been a head coach. The
salary wasn't good, but they let me take graduate courses for free, so I took
the job," said Salfi. "My first year, we were still a club team. In my
second year we went varsity but still had some Division II schools on the
schedule. The third year, which was 1966-67, we won our first game against an
Ivy League opponent, Dartmouth.
That was a big win because Dartmouth had always been a good team and their
program had a lot of history."
The
1965-66 season, in which Penn began varsity play, was the Quakers best season
under coach Salfi. The team went 16-8 followed by a 13-11 season in 1966-67. The
next few years saw the team finish under .500, but in 1970-71 they finished at
14-11, and the following year, 1971-72, saw them reach the 16-9 mark. Coach
Salfi recalls some of the more memorable games of his tenure.
"I
remember in one of my first years coaching, a group of alumni from Harvard
and Penn got together and sponsored a hockey game at a skating club in north
Philly. Back then freshmen weren't allowed to play varsity. We had a terrific
freshmen team that we thought would win against Harvard's freshmen. All the Penn
alums were excited to hopefully see these young guys beat the Crimson,"
said Salfi. "The freshmen played first. I had 10 recruits at the game that
I was hoping would come to Penn if they saw them win, but the freshmen ended up
losing. All the alums were devastated. Harvard was, of course, expected to win
the varsity game, since they had a great team. Well, we won that one! Our
varsity team beat Harvard's varsity!"
A
great win, indeed. And a not a bad display for the recruits.
"I
ended up getting nine of the 10 recruits to come to Penn," Salfi added.
"The one recruit I didn't get was Bob Goodenow, who is now the executive
director of the NHL Players' Association. He went to Harvard."
Recruiting
top-notch athletes to an Ivy League university is probably not the easiest job
in the world. With no athletic scholarships to offer, and a great academic
standard to be maintained, it wouldn't be surprising to see potential blue-chip
prospects go elsewhere. Luckily, the reputation of the University and its
Wharton School proved to be a helpful factor, and the coaches managed to secure
some great, and interesting, recruits.
"I
recruited from all over — Minnesota, New England, and Ontario, Canada,"
said Salfi. "I had Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall's son, Stephen, play
for me. We had Lauren Bacall at a few of our games. One of my guys, Steve
Connett, dated Candice Bergen, and another, Tommy Braun, dated figure skater
Peggy Fleming. Probably my greatest player was Tim Cutter, an amazing recruit
out of Milton Academy in Massachusetts. Tim was heavily recruited by a number of
schools. But his father and grandfather went to Harvard, so they were a little
upset that he chose Penn."
After
finishing at Penn, Cutter was selected for the 1972 U.S. Olympic team.
A
major disadvantage of the Penn program was the lack of an on-campus facility.
"We
played in an arena on 45th and Market, next door to where they used to tape Dick
Clark's 'American Bandstand,' but that rink burned down and we started using a
rink in Cherry Hill [New Jersey]," said Salfi. "The team would get
dressed to play, get on a bus that took us across the river to the rink. They'd
practice or play a game, then get back on the bus in their gear and go back to
the campus to shower."
Tough
times for the skating Quakers.
"It
was at a cocktail party that I met Howard Butcher III," Salfi added,
"He was the president of the Class of 1923, and a major benefactor to Penn.
I convinced him to build a hockey rink. It was completed in 1970 in time for the
1970-71 season."
The
Class of 1923 rink opened in the fall of 1970. One of the Penn skaters on that
1970-71 team that christened the facility was senior defensemen Bob Finke, who
later coached the Quakers for their final two seasons of existence.
"The
rink opened for the 1970-71 season and cost about $3.2 million," said
Finke. "Enthusiasm was really high, and crowd support was great. We made
the ECAC playoffs that year, but lost to Clarkson
in the first round, in Potsdam."
Reminiscing
on the Quakers' previous homes, Finke added, "Before the Class of '23 rink
was built, we played our home games at the old Philadelphia Arena, which was
where Philadelphia's roller derby team played, and then the Cherry Hill Arena
across the river in south Jersey. The Jersey Devils of the Eastern Hockey League
played there back then. The new rink was a great addition to the program, and a
really nice facility. The Flyers even used it quite a bit for training
camp."
Jim
Salfi left Penn after the 1971-72 season and took the head coaching job at RPI.
Uncertain of the level of commitment the athletic department had for the hockey
program, he thought a move might be best.
"The
A.D. at the time was a really big basketball fan, but maybe not so much into
hockey," Salfi said. "Penn was hosting the Philadelphia 'Big 5'
tournament, with LaSalle, St. Joe's, Temple and Villanova. The games were
usually packed for the other schools, but the turnout for Penn wasn't that good.
The hockey games would draw more fans!" said Salfi, "But I could tell
the support wasn't quite what it could have been. When the RPI position became
available, I felt it was the right move."
Robert
Crocker, who took the helm of the Quaker team for four seasons beginning in
1972-73, succeeded Coach Salfi. In his first season as head coach he led the
team to a 16-9-2 record, one of the best in Penn hockey's history.
"I
took the Penn job after having been the assistant coach at Boston
University, my alma mater, under Jack Kelley," said Crocker. "When
Kelley left, and I wasn't offered the head coach position, I felt it was time to
move on. In my first year at Penn, we had a really good team. Back then there
were 17 Division I teams in the east, and all of them were in the ECAC. The top
eight teams made the playoffs. We finished the year in fourth place, and drew BU
in the first round of the playoffs. They were the defending national champs with
a much more storied program than us, and even though we should have gotten home
ice, it was given to them, so we had to go to Boston to play. We ended up
beating them, 7-3, in front of a packed house!"
Yet
another highlight in Quaker hockey history. Unfortunately, things started to
take a bit of a downturn.
"Things
started to get tight with the program. They began cutting away at our budget.
The program was starting to dissolve," added Crocker. "I was bringing
in lots of potential recruits, but they would only accept two or three. It was
becoming very hard to run the team and keep them competitive. I did a lot of my
recruiting from the juniors around New England and Canada. In all honesty I
probably should have recruited more from the prep schools, since those students
may have been a better fit."
Sadly,
as the funding started to dwindle, the level of play suffered, and fan interest
dropped. The axe finally fell on the Penn program near the end of the 1977-78
season. Considering that Penn has a rich history of success in athletics, it
probably came as quite a surprise to some that it was canning its hockey
program. Most surprising may have been the manner in which the coaches and team
were informed about their impending closure.
"We
found out with four games left to play on the season," said Bob Finke.
"The administration needed to trim the athletics budget and decided to drop
hockey and gymnastics. They've since reinstated gymnastics. The sad thing was,
the last year or two we were operating with an annual budget of $60,000. That's
pretty low, even for back then."
And
the players?
"A
lot of the guys transferred to other schools," added Finke. "Tom
Cullity, a sophomore standout from Massachusetts, transferred to Vermont.
Defensemen, Tim Strawman and Geoff Roeszler, and forwards, Doug Berk and Tom
Whitehead all went to Cornell, and Graham Carter, who played defense and wing,
transferred to Harvard. I remember there was a freshman, Dave Akre, that decided
to forego hockey and stay at Penn, but most left."
"The
whole thing was a strange experience for me," said David Akre. "I came
from Grand Rapids High School in Minnesota,
and my high school games were usually sold out. Suddenly I was playing in front
of 500 or less people. I wasn't used to that at all. What's worse, I think coach
Finke found out the team was being dropped by reading it in the school newspaper
with a few games left in the season. We weren't even given the chance to try and
prevent it."
Along
with hockey and gymnastics, Penn also eliminated golf and squash. All the
programs would eventually be revived, except for the icers. A little advance
warning would have been nice, considering Skidmore
College, of the ECAC East division III hockey conference, faced a similar
situation in the 2003-04 season, but was able to raise $2.5 million in two
months to save the program. The money was raised by alumni, parents of players,
and friends of Skidmore hockey, a truly impressive accomplishment.
Akre
added, "I decided to stay at Penn. I hadn't planned on making a career out
of hockey, so I figured it was time to give it up and stay put. I graduated from
Wharton in 1981 with a B.S. in economics."
A
wise decision, as the Wharton school ranks among the nation's best business
schools. Dave Akre now owns and operates his own wholesale wine company in
southern New Jersey.
As
for Penn's former hockey coaches, most continue to work in some aspect of the
sport to this day. James Salfi has been head coach of the Capital District
Selects junior hockey team, in Clifton Park, N.Y., for several years. The
Selects play in the Eastern Junior Hockey League, and send many young players to
Division I and II/III hockey programs.
Robert
Crocker is now a scout for the New York Rangers organization. He and his wife
live near Boston.
After
coaching Penn, Robert Finke returned to his native Minnesota. He is now the
executive director of the Center for Sports Medicine and Rehab, in Northfield,
Minn., and lives with his family near the Twin Cities.
As
for the Class of 1923 rink, it still stands on the northeast corner of the Penn
campus. With a seating capacity of about 3,000, it's a facility that rivals many
of the current Ivy League and ECAC hockey arenas. It is mainly used for public
skating sessions and open hockey, as well as by the Penn men and women's club
teams, and the club hockey teams of neighboring Drexel University.
Maybe
one day in the not too distant future, we will again find Penn among the ranks
of Division I college hockey. Philadelphia is a city not without its hockey
faithful, as many Flyers fans will attest. It would be even more welcome now
with the current NHL lockout.
"I
could see Penn getting a team together again in the future," said Crocker.
"The school is certainly poised for it, and the facility is intact, but it
would have to be under the leadership of an athletic director that was very,
very supportive. A 'hockey guy.'"
Whit
Matthews, a coach and former player for the Penn club hockey team added,
"There's a lot of youth and club hockey in eastern Pennsylvania and the
Philadelphia area, so there's an appreciation for the sport. Philly is a bit of
a pro sports town, and support for the college teams can sometimes suffer as a
result, but I think that with a supportive athletic department, a varsity team
could thrive. The rink needs some minor, cosmetic repairs, but apart from that,
it's a great facility. A great place to watch a game."
Who
knows? Maybe we'll again see the day when students descend upon the Class of
1923 rink to cheer their Red and Blue skaters to victory. Hockey fans and alumni
of the University of Pennsylvania can only hope.
Photo of Penn playing the US National Team in
1975 at the Class of 1923 Ice Rink and a logo from the varsity program.