Greg Ambrose wrote -

> I certainly have to defer to you since you were there but I always thought
> the 1976 NCAA was in St. Louis.  As I recall, wasn't the BU-Minnesota
> semi-final marred by some altercation spurred on by the fact that Minnesota
> was all US (actually all Minnesota) kids while BU was "tainted" by
> Canadians?  I recall listening to the game on the radio and hearing a
> description of a battle between Terry Meagher (in the penalty box) and the
> Minnesota trainer (on the bench next to the penalty box).

    The 1975 FF was the one at the old St. Louis Arena (Minnesota, Michigan
Tech, Harvard & B. U.).  I didn't go, but I remember that was the last time
that the ACHCA annual meeting of college hockey coaches was held in
conjunction with the tournament.

    As for the B. U.-Minnesota fray at D. U. Arena in '76, the details have
been recounted many times, but suffice to say, I will always blame Coach
Herb Brooks for intentionally (with malice aforethought a.k.a win at any
cost) having one of his spares (Russ Anderson) incite a brawl with the
Terriers' best forward, All-America Terry Meagher, resulting in both players
being ejected in the first five minutes of play.  And yes, the Minnesota
trainer got into it as well, (I recall that it was claimed he spit in
Meagher's face) trying to goad Meagher even more when the tussle ended up
near the Gopher bench.  It remains, in my view, the best example of blatant,
premeditated goonery the NCAA FF has ever been witness to.  The shame of it
was that the plan succeeded in having the best B. U. scoring threat banished
to the locker room while Minnesota lost a little-used defenseman in the
bargain.  Needless to say, even though the Minnesota 'All-American' team
went on to defeat Michigan Tech (6-4) in the championship final, it was
clearly not the Gophers' finest hour.

>My pick for the worst venue has to be the Olympia in Detroit (1977 & 1979).

    You're right.  It was a rundown arena in its last days, with the JLA
blueprints already on the drawing board.  Except that back then, what passed
for squalor in an NHL barn was chalked up to tradition and color (see Boston
Gahden).


Bill Corrigan

LET'S GO BRUNO!