Seems perfectly clear and understandable to me why Bill Cleary has
consistently favored amateur hockey, encouraged his players to aspire
to the Olympics, and maybe even bad-mouthed the NHL (as Mike mentioned).
 
But my view is shaped by the hockey culture I grew up in, playing
schoolboy hockey against some fine Canadians at Univ of Toronto School,
Ridley, St. Andrews, Trinity, and American prep schools in the Northeast.
In other words: hockey in a context of being gently raised, not pampered
but lucky to have opportunities others do not have. I remember Brian
Conacher at UTS, descendent of NHL stars; he was a horse, he could have
played in the NHL. But he didn't have to and in fact saw it as a waste of
time. Anyone remember NHL salaries in the sixties? The idea was that if you
could avoid playing professional hockey to achieve any kind of success, you
certainly would. That's just one example.
 
Cleary's personal experience of Squaw Valley in 1960 of course helps to
explain his feeling about the Olympics and amateur hockey. But it's more than
that. Playing for Harvard, the Cleary's (don't forget Bob) learned the Ivy
League culture; they learned a different kind of perspective on the game as
a sport that enhances without being allowed to dominate one's life. I
confess, this is the old-time schoolboy attitude, and we live in changed
world from that of Tom Brown. Hockey, like football and b-ball, has become
a career to shoot for, if you've got some skills. The money is now there,
right? And only a few come from silk stocking, silver spoon backgrounds--
professional sport is the great North American vehicle for socio-economic
upward mobility. But when you live your life around a place like Harvard
(as has Cleary--he used to skate with us in practices in the early sixties)
you take on the values of that culture. And at Harvard you are tempted to
believe that you can go anywhere and do anything, and that you should. And
that you can make a lot more out of yourself than *merely* pursuing a
chancy, brief career in hockey, no matter how good you are. That culture
(and is it not found in a lot of places, not just Harvard?) gives you
"the vision thing." Harvard made Cleary what he is, and in the process
gave him that attitude.
 
These thoughts may be echoing what I've read on the list about the ECAC
versus the HE culture, and I'd be curious to hear what others feel about
the Cleary attitude, which seems sane and civilized to me ("IMHO," as
Mike took time to let me know what this means).
 
Devastated by the Harvard loss to Minnesota-Duluth--are we still paying
a price for the Crimson sportswriter's untimely bashing of the good
citizens of Duluth back in (1984?),
 
Kevin Lewis, Harvard '65
 
Quietly, modestly proud of the fine young men and women who represent that
fine old New England school, occasionally winning a championship.