> Subject: Hockey NIT
>
> Lee Urton wrote:
>
> >What I would like to see is *another* post-season tournament, similar to=20
> >the NIT for basketball. This tournament could take the next eight (which=20
> >covers the four that normally would have gone to the NCAAs, and four=20
> >others) and could do much like the NIT does: use regional sites to help=20
> >generate $$ and fan support for the respective teams.=20
>
> Hockey had for one year a second tournament, I think actually called the
> NIT.  This was in the early 70s; if I had to guess 1974.  I know that RPI
> was invited and chose not to attend.  I can't remember any details,
> perhaps someone else does.
>
> Ralph Baer
> RPI '68, '70, '74
> ------------------------------Mr. Baer is quite right; it was 1974 - Vermont's last year in D-II.  Vermont
was invited after winning the eastern D-II championship (there was no
national tourney for any division other than D-I at the time).   The NIHT was
held in Duluth, Minn.  I can recall three of the four teams - Vermont, Lake
Superior State, and the host team Minn-Duluth.  Vermont beat LSSU by one goal
(3-2 I think) on a Thursday night (I don't think Frank Cole officiated) and
played UM-D on Saturday afternoon and got beat 5-3 in a game that was not as
close as the final score indicated.
 
A couple of us decided to drive from Burlington to Duluth to see the finals.
We listened to the third period of the LSSU-UVM game on the way to Montreal,
and headed west.  We crossed back into the US in Sault Ste. Marie and drove
across the UP into Wisconsin and then to Duluth.  Spent Friday night in a
hotel, went to the game on Saturday and hopped back in the van and drove
home.  We found a guy who owned a gas station on the upper penninsula who
told us to wake him if we came through at night and needed gas (this was
during the energy crisis of the 1970's and I had a big Ford van) and we took
him up on the offer.  We hit snow around North Bay and crawled home in time
to make it to work Monday morning.  Ah youth ...
 
As for the Frank Cole situation, I did not see the game here in Rhode island.
I called my Mother during the second period to check on the progress and she
told me it was tied.   I asked her about the level of play and she said LSSU
had the edge but the officiating was not especially good because "Lake
Superior seems to be getting away with murder."  I guess everything does
depend on one's frame of reference.
 
David Ketcham
UVM - 1978
 
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