Hockey, Commons, and more hockey
Letters: From Our Readers
Commons Memories
Vishwas Kulkarni ’96
Mumbai, India
Remembering hockey
The hockey team photo in the last issue is not the 1974 team. I’m sending a photo of that team with Coach Bill McCutcheon that was published with an article about the team in the March 19, 1974 issue of The Round Table. Sports during that time were not an emphasis for the college or the student body. It was instead an intellectually/academic oriented era.
My imperfect recollection is the team was at best the equivalent of an intramural team, with some outstanding players, and then the rest of us. Folks didn’t go to Beloit then to play sports, unlike the apparent emphasis today with so much talk about varsity sports. So the hockey team was an unusual group for the early 1970’s.
The Round Table of the time was very important, along with the college radio station. It was full of campus and town news then (the issue I noted was eight full pages for that week).
Chris Carlin ’78
Laguna Niguel, California
What was that image then?
Credit: Beloit College Archives
The photo in the last issue is the 1981-1982 hockey team. I believe that’s Steve Gregg ’80 in the back row on the far right in the dark jersey. He may have been coaching the team that year. He worked for the college, and then for the city of Beloit.
Fred Burwell ’86
Beloit, Wisconsin
Back in business
I was interested in the note regarding Beloit’s hockey teams in the late 60s and early 70s. When I applied and was accepted to Beloit, I believed they had a hockey team based on the catalog I’d received. I knew about Beloit because my brother was a ’64 graduate and at that time they did not have a team. I was looking for a smaller school and was excited when I read about the hockey team and the many teams they played around the midwest.
When I arrived on campus, I noticed a “rink” next to the athletic building which was slightly weathered but probably still functional. I went to see Bill Knapton, the athletic director, and asked when they started making ice. He looked at me for a minute and then told me that Beloit hadn’t had a hockey team for at least five years. Needless to say, my decision to decline an offer to attend the University of Vermont and play hockey for them felt like a major “teaching moment.”
A couple of months later, I got a job with the city department of recreation as a skating guard at the public rinks, which were all outdoors. The manager of the recreation department put me in touch with some local teams. I joined their group for a while and then decided to see if we could put together a Beloit College team. In the early 70’s, Beloit had recruited heavily from the East and Northeast and specifically the prep schools, which usually had hockey teams. I put up posters around campus and I started getting calls at my dorm.
We put together a team and I went back to Coach Knapton to see if there was any equipment left over from the previous teams. He let us have jerseys and some equipment that had been left in the attic of the old athletic building. We were allowed to use the city outdoor rinks for free during the day and sometimes we played at the Wagon Wheel rink in Rockton. The teams we played were mostly hockey clubs around the city and the area, and I remember playing one of the University of Wisconsin schools in Janesville.
I didn’t stay in touch with the team after I left. I do remember Alan Kornhauser, who was an avid hockey player and master beer brewer at Beloit. After I graduated, Beloit did create an official club team with uniforms, rosters, and a competitive schedule. Alan told me he was going to stay another semester or two to play for the official Beloit College Hockey Club. It’s good to see that with the addition of the Northland team, Beloit will again be in the ice hockey business.
Tom Benedict ’72
Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida
More hockey memories
I came from Rhode Island, and we had the crew from the Boston area — Toby Dewey, Bobby Perkins, Rob Mailey (he went on to be a tennis pro at some club and taught [Boston Bruin’s legend] Johnny Bucyk’s kids), and Joel Friedman. Mike Salter, who was from Minnesota, was our goalie. We used money from the defunct ECO Club to buy a mask to replace his street hockey mask!
I stopped playing when I left San Francisco. I still skate at the rink in Kyoto which is only open in the winter, and in Hong Kong and Macau on my way to and from work in China.
Alan Kornhauser ’72
Kyoto-Shi, Japan
Remember this?
Credit: Beloit College Archives
Tell us about your favorite Coughy-Haus memory.
Talk to us
Tell us what you think about this issue, or anything Beloit College related, by contacting belmag@beloit.edu. (We reserve the right to edit letters for length and clarity.)
