John Whelan wrote:
>
> George Downing saith:
>
> > The NCAA did indeed have a 6-page advertising feature in
> The Hockey News. I
> > didn't read it, because it had the magic words "advertising
> feature" on it.
> > But I dug it out of the recycle bin to check out the part
> John mentions.
> > Here is the excerpt about the origins of Hockey East:
>
> > "Several Eastern College Athletic Conference teams, led by
> the Ivy League
> > institutions, decided to branch off and form their own
> league and that left
> > several schools in a predicament. Those schools banded
> together, forming
> > Hockey East..."
>
> > Although it's simplified, that seems correct, at least to my memory.
>
> It is at least misleading, since whether Lamoriello & co feared it or
> not, no Ivy defection ever happened.  To read this account you'd think
> those mean old Ivies and their elitist friends pulled out of the ECAC,
> leaving a half-dozen poor refugees to pick up the pieces and form
> Hockey East.  Coupled with the presumably coincidental lack of an ECAC
> page in the insert, readers unfamiliar with College Hockey might get
> the impression that the ECAC ceased to exist in 1984.
>
 
While the Ivy defection didn't happen, there were serious discussions far down
the road to reality to do just exactly that.  That would appear to be
historical fact based on the first-hand accounts I have heard.
 
Hockey East has included a rough approximation of this history for many years
in its media guide, so this is nothing new.
 
It should be pointed out that if there were really any factual dispute about
this, this part of the history would likely have been removed when Joe Bertagna
became Hockey East commissioner since he was a long-time ECAC guy and one who
has since worked hard to have the two leagues cooperate on many ventures.
 
But any part of a league's history is to explain how it was formed and this is
simply telling it.
 
Dave Hendrickson
 
HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey;  send information to
[log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.