I just finished reading two recent posts -- by Ralph Baer and Tonny
Buffa, respectively -- concerning Middlebury College hockey and Phil
Latreille. I was eight years old in the winter of 1960-61 and, as the son of
a Middlebury College professor, I was right there at all home games. I guess
you could say that this was the team that made me fall in love with college
hockey. It was Latreille's senior year, and the team went 19-2. Before me
now I have a copy of the Middlebury College yearbook for that year with a
listing of the team's scores. But there's a mistake here
somewhere: the yearbook has them finishing at 20-1, so I imagine one of
these scores is wrong. I should remember which one, but don't. I'm hoping
someone will help. Anyway, here's what the yearbook shows:
Middlebury 3, CMR 2
Middlebury 10, CMR 2
Middlebury 7, Princeton 6 (OT)
Middlebury 5, Colgate 4
Middlebury 2, Clarkson 0
Middlebury 9, Hamilton 0
Middlebury 16, AIC 0
Middlebury 11, Army 2
Middlebury 7, Yale 6
Middlebury 10, Dartmouth 7
Middlebury 6, Northeastern 1
Middlebury 9, MacDonald 4
Middlebury 6, Bishops 3
Middlebury 16, Amherst 1
Middlebury 16, Norwich 5
Middlebury 6, St. Nicholas HC 1
RPI 5, Middlebury 4
Middlebury 17, Norwich 3
Middlebury 8, Williams 1
Middlebury 17, Dartmouth 3
Middlebury 7, Hamilton 3
So there it is, an odd schedule by today's standards. CMR stands for
College Militaire Royale (Canada's West Point). MacDonald and
Bishops are also Canadian schools, and the St Nicholas Hockey Club, long
defunct, was a collection of former college players based in New York. Hobey
Baker once packed arenas playing for St. Nick's and the team had a
distinctly Ivy cast to it. In other words, lots of bankers and businessmen
playing hockey on nights hgts and weekends. Anyway, at the very least, it's fair
to say Middlebury, at various times in the fifties and very early sixties,
could give any eastern school a good game. Often, as in '60-'61, they'd beat
them handily. It's just too bad there were so many creampuffs on the
schedule -- makes it hard to get a definitive read on the team. And while it's
So what about Latreille? In those 21 games the Montreal native
scored 80 goals, assisted on 28 others, for a point total of 108. That's
better than five points a game. In his career he scored a hot trick or
better in 42 games. In his junior year he scored ten goals in a game at
Colgate. In his senior year he reacked up 7 goals and 4 assists in a game
versus Dartmouth on March 1st. A couple of weeks after that he joined the
New York Rangers for at least two games, possibly three or four. I beleive
they were the last games of the Rangers' season; I know they were the *only*
games of Latreille's NHL career. What he does now, or where he is now, I
have no idea.
The '60-61 Middlebury team also boasted the three Fryburger
brothers, from Duluth, Minnesota. I believe that was the only year all three
played together, but I may be wrong. At any rate, when Latreille was racking
up 108 points, the youngest and best of the Fy
ppp
--
C.C. Warner
Cambridge, Mass.
|
