St Sebastians School - Arrow Yearbook (Newton, MA)

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joyce and Wally MacKinnon were excellent insurance, while up front Paul Corcoran, Paul Sullivan, Murray Regan, john Doherty, Kevin Lane, Eddie Carroll, Paul Carey, john Sherry and Ken McArdle could be relied upon to keep the tempo of our attack at a peak. As understudy to Bruce, Brookline Dave O'Connor also gave promise of develop- ing into a fine goalie. Despairing of ever seeing ice in our rink, we hnally opened our season very belatedly and indoors at that, when we met Browne and Nichols in an early morning contest at the Skating Club on january 21st. The Cambridge sextet provided stubborn opposition all during the first period and it was only shortly before the buzzer that Freshman Ed Carroll scored the season's first goal on a cleverly egcecuted feed from Paul Corcoran, In the second stanza, however, BSLN lost no time in getting the I-1 equalizer, but, as the game progressed, it became evident that our depth would win the day. To break the deadlock, jimmy Cotter found the range on a pass from Bob Murphy who then proceeded to tally in turn with an assist from Bill Gibbons, Shortly thereafter, the rival defenseman, Graham, soloed to make it 3-2, but Gibby got it back before the second chapter ended, Murph getting credit for the pass. Coach Murphy made frequent substitutions all during the game and, in the third period, replacements Johnny Doherty and Murray Regan dented the strings with assistance from Paul Corcoran, Bob Joyce and Sophomore Charlie Coan. While this 6-2 victory was indicative enough of our potentialities, the entire squad felt that, with a few more games behind them, this Red and Black sextet would rival the achievements of the School's greatest ice teams of the past. Two days later we were pleasantly surprised to learn that Middlesex School had playable ice on one of its ponds and we made the Sunday afternoon trip to Concord in the best of spirits. Upon arrival, we noted that the edges of the frozen surface were a bit soft, although the main body of ice was good and fast. As soon as the opening whistle blew, we realized that our hosts were using a close-covering technique that hampered us for the lirst two minutes of play. At that juncture, Bill Gibbons found Billy Maguire free and set him up with a lead pass that the Newton boy rammed home for our first score. That was the signal for Middlesex to abandon its defensive play and, when the home sextet began to press, we were quick enough to capitalize on the situation and get two more fast tallies, all in the third minute of play. Fifteen seconds GETTING IT OFF Tom Greene Unleashes A l-lard Shot. -1 136 I-

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We . I-Q 'r' I' 1 N ' i ,af All during the Fall, there had been much speculation in our minds as to what the Hockey season would bring in the way of competition. After several seasons of participa- tion in the Catholic League, St. Sebastian's had resigned its membership and the student body was quite naturally curious about the future of the ice sport at the School. Many leading questions were proposed to the members of the Faculty, but they met with Delphic replies until, one day after dinner, Monsignor Mclnnis announced that the construction of a rink was about to get under way. The ovation he received on that occasion was a memorable one and, when the cheering had died down, the Headmaster went on to say that, in order to finance the project at least partially, the students would be asked to co-operate with the members of St. Sebastian's Association in conducting a raffle. Even that news was cheered to the echo and, when the chance books made their appearance sometime later, they were enthusiastically taken and sold. To heighten the rivalry between the various classes, a chart with four thermometers was hung in the refectory and each day Senior Bill O'Brien made the appropriate changes in the red lines that denoted the peak to which each class' returns had climbed. The raffle took place on December 22nd and the TV set which was drawn off proved to be a magnet that brought in almost 364,000 In the meantime, work on the rink had begun and each day we formed a brigade of sidewalk superintendents who studied the progress with critical eyes. As a preliminary, the steep grade to the right of the gymnasium had to be reduced and an enormous amount of clearing had to be done. When this was finished, we could begin to visualize what was in store for us, and presently we realized that our skating surface would cover an area larger and wider than any indoor arena we had seen. After what seemed an inter- minable interval, the boards were set in place and we suddenly developed an acute interest in the weather reports and the prospects of freezing weather. To our discour, agement, the early Winter proved unseasonably mild and there were very few nights on which it was feasible to attempt to make ice. On these rare occasions, Father Keating found himself with a plethora of helpers, since the Hockey team was only too anxious to co-operate in what they regarded as a labor of love. Christmas came and went before we knew it and still there was no ice. Optimistically enough, the School had arranged the finest schedule in its Hockey history, and it broke our hearts to see game after game postponed and eventually can- celled. To keep up interest, Coach Vin Murphy held frequent blackboard sessions and we were fortunate enough to have indoor practice from time to time at the Garden and Arena, These workouts were enough to convince us that we had the makings of the finest team ever to take the ice in Red and Black uniforms, On the whole, it promised to be a veteran sextet with peerless Bruce Harrigan in the nets, a stalwart defense com- posed of Bob Murphy and Bill Gibbons, and Captain Henry Lane sure of a place in the forward line. The two vacancies were quickly filled by juniors Jim Cotter and Billy Maguire, and the sextet began to function smoothly as a unit, In past seasons of ice play, our weakness had been a lack of reserves, but this year Vin's heart warmed as he noted the presence of many fine replacements. At the defense posts, Tom Green, Bob z-1135 1-I

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