St Sebastians School - Arrow Yearbook (Newton, MA)

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The eagle-eyed Mul studies the foes tactic before pouncing on H IVIIIQ poked the puck by his rival, Mulhern the play of the yearf -Hank's pass from in front of our cage to the liberated Mul who made sure he was onside and then carried unopposed to feint Stoneham's goalie out of position and score, thereby giving us a 2-I verdict. In addition to Catholic League contests, the neophyte icemen in their first year of competition also made highly successful sallies into private school circles. Clean-cut wins over such veteran sextets at St. Mark's Q8-lj, Browne and Nichols C14-OD and Noble and Greenough C4-25 did much to put St. Sebastian's on the athletic map and made our experiment with the ice game pre-eminently successful. The prestige and glory won by our first skaters whetted the School's appetite for renown and glory, and a large group of can- didates vied for places on the team that represented St. Sebastian's in ourjunior year. The lettermen of the previous year had made a natural choice in their election of Jack Mulhern to the captaincy, and he and Coach Murphy kept the pre-season practices at an intensive tempo. With the Catholic League scheduled to begin operation on December 9th, we learned that a change had been made in the complexion of the loop, Mission having withdrawn in favor of St. Mary's of Lynn. With live members of the sextet veterans of experience, the only new Red and Black regular was Bob Murphy, a thirteen-year-old freshman who filled the vacancy created by jimmy Collins' departure for the Navy. Unlike our start of the previous year, we opened the 1944-45 campaign with a series of impressive conquests. Waltham, Somer- ville, Stoneham and Lynn succumbed to a barrage of 32 goals scored in four games, and WATCHFUL WAITING it was evident to League fans that the racc was between Malden Catholic and St. Sebastian's. The Mulhern-Phillips-Barry line was faster, if possible, than the year before, and it was a treat to watch the two leading scorers of the circuit, Mulhern and Phillips, feeding passes to each other with a magni- ficent unselfishness that showed they placed their team far above individual conquests. In the Lynn game on January 13th, both our aces established League records: Mul by the disc HE'S OFF follows it in hot pursuit

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AMW ', .- - ex, f I ,f- , X. J ST. Sebastian's fielded the first hockey team in its history in the winter of 1943-44, the year in which we had reached the status of Sophomores. Under the captaincy of Junior Dan O'Brien, who had been the prime mover behind the experiment, twenty-five candidates sharpened up their eyes by shooting here in our gym and then, during the Christmas holidays, moved to outdoor ice. just at that time the Catholic Hockey League was being formed and our School was invited to become a charter member together with Malden Catholic, St. Patrick's of Stoneham, St. Mary's of Waltham, St. Clement's of Somerville and Mission High. Fr. Mclnnis' approval having been obtained, Fr. Collins accepted the invitation and com- mitted us to a ten-game schedule, the con- tests to be played at the Skating Club. Our Sophomore Class placed two members on the regular sextet that wore the Red and Black that first season, Paul McGrath and Jack Mulhern, and they gave us every reason to be proud of them: Paul by his net-minding and Jack by his spectacular stick-handling and play-making. The rest of that first year line-up had Hank Barry and Ed Phillips with Mul in the forward line and Captain Dan O'Brien and jimmy Collins at the defense posts. Although our debut in the newly-formed circuit was rather inauspicious, incurring a stage-fright 2-O defeat at the hands of St. St. Mary's of Waltham, we were highly im- portant factors in the league race. After a few games it was evident enough to all that Malden, St. Patrick's of Stoneham and St. Sebastian's were the contenders for the crown. The first half of the schedule saw us split exactly even, winning two, losing two and submitting to a 1-1 tie with Malden. Our defeats were at the hands of Waltham and Stoneham C5-45, and our wins were 10-O over Mission and 6-2 over St. Clement's. In the last half we were considerably more im- pressive, garnering four victories and going down to defeat only in the game with Malden, and that by a 2-1 razor-edge. Revenge was exacted 5-1 from Waltham and 2-1 from Stoneham, and we repeated our previous con- quests of Mission and St. Clement's, this time 6-2 and 7-1, respectively. When the tabulated scores became official, the final standing of the teams gave us third place, behind top-place Malden and runner-up Stoneham. Our record stood as six Wins, three losses and one tie. Statistics revealed that we had turned on the red light forty-two times and had been scored on only seventeen. In the post-season selection of stars and titles, our Sophomore Jack Mulhern was unan- imously voted the outstanding player of the Catholic League. In addition he was found to be the circuit's high scorer, having won the palm over his team-mate,Ed Phillips. Our other class representative on the ice, Our Paul duelled all year with Roche of Malden for the distinction of being the league's leading goalie. Memories of those scenes on Saturday nights at the Skating Club are still fresh and vivid in our minds: I-Iank's solo score in the first Malden tilt, the furious tempo of the 5-4 Stoneham engagement, Phillips' head-on crash into the metal support of the Mission cage, Malden's two scores in the last two minutes of our second meeting, when our boys were in a state of helpless exhaustion,

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scoring six goals and getting three assistsg Phillips by tallying three times and assisting on six other occasions. First half competition reached its climax when we crossed sticks with Malden Catholic. Like ourselves they had won four straight, although they had not demonstrated the terrific scoring power of the Red and Black. Getting a quick jump, our adversaries regis- tered twice in the first three minutes of play. That, however, was not as bad as the blow that robbed us of the services of Eddie Phillips. Unable to check his momentum, our ace crashed for a second time into an iron post that supported the Malden cage. With Ed out, Murph went up to the forward line and Ellard took over the defense berth. Meanwhile the Fellsway lads scored still another in the first period and added their fourth and final marker in the second. Our only consolation came half-way through the final stanza when Mul found the range and scored on the superb Roche. Undaunted by its one defeat, but weakened by Phillips' absence, the Red and Black sextet went to on achieve unparalleled glory in the second round. Waltham was much improved over the early season, but it bowed to us 5-3, when Mul's three tallies nullified the heroic efforts of Bourque and McCusker. Against Somerville and Lynn it was Hank who led the attack to light the lamp three times in each contest. The Stoneham fray was a tight battle at first, because the op- position resorted to a six-man defense that could not be lured out from behind its own blue line. Dan O'Brien found the long-shot formula, however, and Mul and Murph put the tilt on ice with single scores. Malden, all this time, had kept pace with our second-half triumphs and was leading the league by virtue of its early season win at our expense. The return game between the two top teams was staged on the 24th of February, and Malden was quite definitely the favorite. From the opening whistle, the battle raged at fever pitch. Once again our opponents beat us to the punch when Pete McQuaid won xi face-off, weaved through the defense and put the puck p2lSI Paul at 2:04 of the opening period. Unlike the first contest, COMING, PAUL Gibbons roars in to break up a Malden attack however, this time we roared back to the fray with a surge that refused to be denied, and Hank knotted the count two minutes later when he collected a Mulhern rebound and snapped it past Bill Roche. From that point the two sextets made heroic attempts on the rival citadels, but insuperable goal- tending on the part of both netmen left the issue still deadlocked. The impasse continued until the third chapter when Freshman Bob Murphy corralled a cleared puck in front of the Malden net and sent it home to give us a 2-1 margin. The eight remaining minutes of play saw us dominating the situation but unable to add to our score. The outcome of our victory was that both St. Sebastian's and Malden occupied the top rung of the league ladder with records of nine wins and one loss apiece. Even though the goals for and goals against totals gave us the edge, it was ruled that Malden should enjoy co- championship status, League rules failing to provide for the dissolution of a tie. Outside of the Catholic circuit, our skaters proved their right to championship rating also. Against competition of the calibre afforded by well-drilled teams such as St. Mark's, Middlesex, Rivers, Belmont, Brookline, Waltham and Malden, we came away with an enviable record, bowing only to Middlesex by a 4-3 hair. Thus our record for the ice games of 1944- 45 climbed to the fabulous success of 17 wins and 2 defeats, and made the grand totals for our two years of hockey competition read: