Ralph Baer said:
 
"Every once in a while, a name comes up on Hockey-L that I have long
forgotten, but brings back memories.  Murray Death is certainly one of
those.  The reason that I am writing is to ask if anyone can either
verify or refute the following story that I heard several times while
an undergraduate at Rensselaer (then called RPI :-) ).  Ned Harkness
left RPI after the 1962-63 season after already recruiting what was to
have become the class of '67 at RPI.  He took these student athletes
with him to Cornell.  They included the previously mentioned Murray
Death as well as about 16 players named Ferguson (well, maybe 3), and
perhaps others.  Had these players gone to RPI (and had not Rube
Bjorkman skipped town for UNH after one successful year), I would not
have been able to claim that my undergraduate years (64-65 - 67-68)
combined for the worst record of any class at RPI.
 
Anyway, does anyone know if Death, et al. really had intended to go
to RPI?"
 
Here's the answer, straight from the horse's mouth...or at least the
horse's keyboard...
 
>Date: Thu, 16 Mar 1995 08:46:03 -0500
>X-Sender: [log in to unmask]
>Mime-Version: 1.0
>To: [log in to unmask] (Arthur C. Mintz)
>From: [log in to unmask] (Murray Death)
>Subject: Re: Something on the college hockey discussion list
>
>
>Art--I see thay have list serves for everything!!!---I do use email but am
>not into it in a big way except for work.
>
>The story from my perspective is only partially correct. Ned brought three
>or four players who actually transferred from RPI to Cornell in the fall of
>'63--Alan McNally(goalie), Bob Leaf and Jim Wallace--they were the class of
>'66.
>I personally was never recruited by Ned before he had made the move, but I
>wasn't on his priority list either I don't think. I can't answer the
>question for the Fergusons or others. I do know that in our large freshman
>class, I can't ever remember having that discussion.
>I remember in that freshman year '63/'64 (freshman had there own team then
>and we couldn't play with varsity), Ned did an unbelivable job with 2 lines
>and 3 defenseman---I think they beat RPI once. We(the freshman) thought we
>were pretty
>hot stuff. At the end of the year we had a red-white game against the
>varsity-big crowd etc.----They beat us bad and Ned really had them fired up
>to prove that we still had a long way to go!!!!
>Thanks for the memories!!
>
>Murray A. Death
 
 
----------
Arthur C. Mintz          [log in to unmask]          (607) 255-1487
Operations Officer (Acting)
Cornell Information Technologies / Information Resources
 
"There's only two things in life, but I forget what they are." - John Hiatt