Pardon us old folks reminiscing, but Ralph's post made me recall an
interesting RPI-AIC matchup the following year.  Instead of 17-0, RPI won
by a relative squeaker of a score, only 17-2 in 1961-62, and I recall it
vividly as a sort of farce.  If you can believe it, the score was 15-0
midway thru the second period when a huge fight broke out. I don't recall
the details, but something like 10 players from RPI were thrown out along
with about 6 or so from AIC. This strategy worked great as RPI suited up
waterboys, pep leaders, etc, and AIC held their own 2-2 for the rest of
the game!  A most amazing happening that kept most of the RPI student body
there for the rest of the game, when they were just about falling asleep,
exhausted from cheering after each goal, and about to head home for a brew!
 
 
===========================
On Mon, 17 Jul 1995, Ralph Baer wrote:
 
> RPI made the NCAA tournament that year.  (This was before it became the
> NC$$ tournament :-) .)  I wonder if Middlebury would have been chosen
> instead of RPI had they won that game.  They weren't using anything as
> scientific as the RPI index to determine the invitees, and I do not
> know if there were any scheduling criteria for inviting teams, but
> Middlebury did beat a number of teams that are now Div-I including
> Clarkson.  (Perhaps the deciding factor was that Middlebury beat AIC
> "only" 16-0 while RPI beat them 17-0  :-) .)
===========================
 
Abou the NCAA in 1960-61, Phil L's last season at Middlebury, the picks
were much more qualitative.  No RPI or anything, but the sense was
usually one of the Clarkson-RPI-St Lawrence group and another Boston area
school would go.  As I have said before, it was really a moot question
because both western teams would win by large margins.
 
That year RPI was 16-5-1 and 13-2-1 in "NCAA EAST Varsity matches" and St
Lawrence, the other NCAA team from the East was 17-5-0 and 9-3-0
respectively.  Middlebury is on top of the list but was not selected, I
think because of perceived weaker schedule.  RPI was 2nd in the east
rankings, but there was Harvard, Williams, Colby, BC, Bowdoin between them
and St. Lawrence.    I don't have a clue as to why St. Lawrence was
picked, say over Harvard.
 
If you people think the current selection procedures are a bit mysterious,
back then it was truly a black art, IMHO!
 
That year (March 1961), they did one of those all Eastern semi things so
as to guarantee one eastern team in the finals. St. Lawrence beat RPI 6-3
and Denver beat Minn 6-1 then in the consy Minn beat RPI 4-3 for 3rd and
 Denver edged SLU 12-2, all games at Denver University Arena.
 
As I perused the records, I came across another guy who might make for
some interesting discussion, another high scorer for a small eastern team,
Colby, guy by the name of Ron Ryan, who scored 48-56-104 in 27 games for
Colby in 1961-2 as they went 19-6-2.  He was second to Phil L in 1960-61
with 34-58-92 in 22 games as Colby went 17-5.  He scored only22-27-49 in
Colby's 16-7 1959-60 season!  He finished second to Phil L in the nation
in scoring in 1960-61 and then won it in 1961-62 when Phil was gone.  A
quick persual of those years show that neither Middlebury or Colby made
the NCAA.
 
One of the interesting thing that pops out of the individual scoring stats
was that the top spots were more or less dominated by eastern guys, even
tho they played about six games less.  The competition was decidely
territorial at that time, much more than now, as west teams rarely
ventured eastward or vice versa, soa lot of eastern points were racked up
against fairly weak squads.  The RPI loss to Minn above, 4-3, I recall was
viewed as a very strong moral victory!
 
Anyone out there with more of a memory than me??
 
Tony Buffa
RPI '64