BU 100: Honoring the 1971 & 1972 National Champs and Legendary Coach Jack Kelley

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Season One ⏩ Season 💯

Tomorrow night at @AgganisArena, the past meets the present. pic.twitter.com/MsXYXeoTod

— BU Men's Hockey (@TerrierHockey) December 9, 2021

As BU continue to celebrate the historic 100^th year of the hockey program, the 1970-71 and 1971-72 national championship teams—the first two of five—will be honored during the first intermission of Friday’s home game against B.C. Players from the two squads will be recognized. [We’ll add a list of those players when available].

Prior to the game, a special ceremony will pay tribute to the head coach of those teams, legendary mentor Jack Kelley who passed away at 93 just over a year ago.

The 1970-71 team went 28-2-1 en route to a championship game win against Minnesota in Syracuse. They set a then program record for goals with 210 (6.77/game) while yielding just 60 for a 1.91 GAA that remains the Terrier record. BU’s lethal power play clicked at 40.2, producing 65 goals—five more than the total yielded all season.

With all but three players returning in 1971-72, BU became the first Eastern school to repeat as national champion with a 26-4-2 mark, climaxing the season with a 4-0 shutout of Cornell in the title game. That group was also the first of three Terrier teams to produce a hat trick of titles: Beanpot, conference title, and Frozen Four championship. The others were 1994-95 and 2008-09.

Jack Kelley with Captain Jake Danby and NCAA Chairman Herb Gallagher at Boston Garden, March 18, 1972

The two squads delivered a combined 54-6-2 mark, two Beanpot championships, one ECAC title, two NCAA titles and four All-Americans—’71 Captain Steve Stirling, ’72 Captain Jake Danby, Dan Brady and Bob Brown, who was All-American both seasons.

The two teams were almost invincible on home ice racking up a 15-0-0 mark at Boston Arena in ’70-’71 and 13-1-1 in ’71-’72. (See below regarding that tie).

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Before Friday’s game against BC, we’ll be honoring and remembering legendary player and coach Jack Kelley, the architect of our first two national titles in 1971 and 1972 who set a standard of excellence for our program during his 10 years as head coach. pic.twitter.com/TGX273Nxbr

— BU Men's Hockey (@TerrierHockey) December 8, 2021

In his ten seasons behind the Terrier bench, Kelley rebuilt a slumping program into a national powerhouse that made four trips to the Frozen Four, winning the final two. His career record of 206-80-8 yields a .714 winning percentage, tops in program history and third best ever for Division 1 head coaches. A former All-East defenseman for the Terriers in the early 1950s, he left BU after the 1972 title to become general manager and head coach of the New England Whalers and won the new league’s first AVCO Cup championship.

● Championship game videos: 1971, 1972

● Team stats 1971, 1972

Looking back to 1971-72: Dec. 8, 1971

This match-up with Harvard had been circled on the BU schedule as a much anticipated game. The Crimson had been responsible for two of the three blemishes on the 1970-71 team’s record: a 4-4 overtime tie at Harvard’s Watson Rink and a 4-2 upset loss in the ECAC semifinals at Boston Garden. A third meeting was BU’s 4-1 win in the Beanpot title game.

The December 1971 game, just the third game ever at Walter Brown and attended by 3,466, matched unbeaten BU (3-0-0) and Harvard (1-0-0). The goaltending match-up had BU’s Brady against future Hockey East Commissioner Joe Bertagna.

BU grabbed a 2-0 lead in the first period with Peter Thornton and Ron Anderson each scoring in a 45-second span. Thornton also assisted on Anderson’s tally.

The Crimson erased the lead with a pair of close apart tallies in the second, with Harry Reynolds and Tom Paul finding the net. It took BU just a minute and half to regain the lead on Anderson’s second, an unassisted effort But Harvard matched it on a Dave Hynes tally for a 3-3 tie after two.

Just eighth into the third, BU took its third lead of the game. Danby won the draw, fed Bob Gryp, took a return pass and fired from the slot. Guy Burrows redirected the past Bertagna for a 4-3 edge. It stood up until the 15:51 mark when Bob McManama scored on a power play forcing overtime.

Both goalies made big-time stops in the extra session and the game ended at 4-4, just as had one day shy of a year earlier.

Anderson played for both Terrier title teams scoring 87 points in two seasons before joining the AHL Boston Braves. He made his NHL debut in 1974-75 with Washington, joining Gryp for the Capitals inaugural season. Anderson would spend 15 seasons as Merrimack’s head coach before joining the Chicago Blackhawks as an amateur scout. In 2008, he became the team’s Director of Player Recruitment.

More Zegras

The Hockey Writers' discussion of Trevor Zegras's remarkable assist from behind the net Tuesday provided an interesting connection to BU hockey. Zegras's puck grab and flip was a new iteration of "The Michigan" made famous by the Wolverines' Mike Legg in a 1996 NCAA playoff game. 

The article notes that "Legg first learned of the move from Bill Armstrong, who scored several goals in this style in the American Hockey League."

Armstrong, now general manager of the Arizona Coyotes, is the father of Terrier sophomore Jamie Armstrong.

● The Hockey Writers: Zegras Continues Calder Push with Assist of the Year