Voices of the 1971-72 Terriers

Head Coach Jack Kelley
Q. Was the week in March 1972 when BU defeated Cornell on consecutive Saturday nights for the ECAC and NCAA championships the most satisfying moment of your college coaching career?

A. Its certainly ranks right up there, however there were other moments that were pretty special too. That 1972 team was the most talented team that I coached, so my expectations for them were always high. Talent? Start with the goalies. Tim Regan was M.O.P. of the NCAA tournament while Dan Brady was an All-American. Bob Brown and Ric Jordan anchored the defense and then you had John Danby—voted all everything that year. Then you surround the with players like Toot Cahoon, Bobby Gryp, Ron Anderson, Paul Giandomenico, Steve Dolloff, Bob Murray, Mike LaGarde, Larry Abbott, etc.

I often hear people saying the 1978 team was BU’s best. Chances are they never saw the 1972 team play.

Captain John Danby
Q. With 15 of 18 regulars returning from the 1971 national championship team and a new on-campus arena, BU was hands-down the favorite to repeat in 1972. How did the team approach the season, these high expectations and the goal of being the first Eastern team to repeat?

A. This was a resilient group of players. With a nucleus of those 18 returning players coming in together as freshman and being the only undefeated/untied freshman team in BU history, these guys were used to winning. We had endured taking taxis from Commonwealth Ave to play at the old Boston Arena (now Matthews) and taking vans to Harvard while the new facility was being completed, so nothing fazed this team. Interesting in some ways, some of that senior group (myself included) were in the School of Education and had to student teach that first semester. As a result, many of us only saw each other on the ice and afterwards, rather than in the classrooms as we were spread amongst different local schools completing our requirements.

We approached our senior year with confidence, knowing we were the pre-season favorite and aiming to go wire-to-wire as the national poll's number one team. We never lost sight of that goal. As a person who has been around the game for many years--and I have stated to many teams I have coached along the way-- a team can't just "turn it on" at any time (a phrase I heard over and over from both freshman coach Bob Crocker and Head Coach Jack Kelley. But that team could turn it up a notch when needed and could dominate games. As far as being captain, I had followed the likes of Larry Davenport (1970) and Steve Stirling (1971) so I had great models to follow as captain.

When you think about that 1971-72 team, with all that offensive firepower, a shutdown defense and two standout goalies, who wouldn't want to be captain on that team! It was an honor!

Ron Anderson
Q. After losing twice to Cornell during the regular season, why was BU able to handle the Big Red so well in two tournament championship games, yielding just one goal while ringing up eight?
A. We had great goaltending and we never doubted ourselves. Having won as much as we had over two seasons, we were still full of confidence and believed in each other. I'm sure playing in Boston contributed but we were a grizzled group and showed up every night ready to go. You're not going to win every game but the odds were in our favor.

Chris Henes, Team Manager
Q. You’ve followed BU hockey for more than 40 years. Have you seen a better performance in post-season tournament games than John Danby’s eight goals –and two hattricks—in five games? What made him such a great clutch performer?

A: Without a doubt John Danby's playoff run was the best playoff performance I have ever seen. He had the hat trick in the 3-1 win over Harvard in the ECAC semi final (which is where we had stumbled in 1971) and broke the 1-1 tie in the National semifinal with the hat trick against Wisconsin.

He had great hockey sense and was able to position himself where he could make the most of his scoring chances. He was far from flashy but was certainly a goal scorer as he led the team in goals all three varsity seasons and amassed 79 goals in 89 games. He had a nose for the net and was deceptively strong. He also was patient which is a quality that is hard to teach but his was innate.

He also could eat like a horse and never gain weight and my guess is today he is probably still around his playing weight after 40 years.