Bill writes: >> in 1988, along with four Beanpots and several ECAC titles. > ^^^^^^^ >During Flaman's tenure at Northeastern, the Huskies won one ECAC champion- >ship, in 1982, and made one other appearance in the playoffs in 1981. Bill is, of course, correct in noting this. The Huskies won the East region of the ECAC (ECAC New England) in 1982 along with the ECAC playoff title. Here's how Flaman's Huntington Hounds did under his guidance: Year W-L-T Pct. Rank Overall Playoff Finish -------------------------------------------------------- 1970-71 3-16-0 .158 16th 7-22-0 .241 1971-72 3-17-0 .150 16th 6-20-0 .231 1972-73 10-11-0 .476 10th 17-12-0 .586 1973-74 7-10-2 .421 12th 10-13-4 .444 1974-75 10-11-1 .477 9th 15-11-2 .571 1975-76 6-16-1 .283 14th 9-16-1 .365 1976-77 9-13-0 .409 13th 11-16-0 .407 1977-78 7-16-1 .313 15th 10-17-1 .375 1978-79 11-11-0 .500 9th 12-15-0 .444 ECAC split into three regions, NU in 6-team East 1979-80 5-16-0 .238 6th 7-20-0 .259 1980-81 12-9-0 .571 2nd 13-13-0 .500 7th ECACs 1981-82 14-6-1 .500 1st 25-11-2 .684 ECAC Champion, 3rd NCAAs 1982-83 9-11-1 .450 5th 13-14-1 .481 1983-84 10-10-1 .500 5th 16-12-1 .569 NU entered 7-team Hockey East w/interlocking schedule v. WCHA 1984-85 11-22-1 .338 6th 13-24-1 .355 6th 1985-86 18-14-2 .559 3rd 20-17-2 .538 5th 1986-87 11-18-3 .391 5th 13-21-3 .392 4th 1987-88 13-9-4 .577 2nd 20-13-4 .595 Hockey East Champion, 9th NCAAs 1988-89 13-11-2 .538 3rd 18-16-2 .528 4th -------------------------------------------------------- 582 games: 255-301-24 .460 31st on all-time list In 1982 Flaman was selected as the Spencer Penrose Coach of the Year. It was in 1980 that the Huskies began their rise from perennial also-ran to legitimate national championship contenders under the direction of Flaman and former Bruins' teammate (and current Huskie head man) Don McKenney. Despite their 7-20 record, Northeastern shocked the Boston hockey community by winning the Beanpot tournament. Wayne Turner's overtime goal changed the face of Northeastern hockey forever. 27 Beanpots had been played for the "championship of Boston" with Boston College, Boston University, and Harvard all winning their share of titles - and the Huskies were completely shut out. In fact, Northeastern SID Jack Grinold was jokingly called "6:15 Grinold" because his team inevitably wound up in the consolation game. And, something which many people do not know is that the Northeastern alumni were pressuring the school to withdraw from the Beanpot because of the team's apparent inability to compete with the other three teams. The University of New Hampshire was being considered as a replacement for the Huskies as Charlie Holt's Wildcats were one of the top teams in the ECAC at the time. But Turner's goal changed all that. The lure of the Beanpot just cannot be measured. Now, some of the local stars who had wanted to go to BC or BU wanted to go to Northeastern and hear 15,000 people cheer as they stepped on the ice. The old Boston Arena was purchased from the city and refurbished into Matthews Arena, my favorite place to watch a hockey game. The Huskies roared out to a 12-0 start in 1980-81 and earned a spread in Sports Illustrated, a copy of which graced the walls of the Northeastern locker room for a while. They finished, however, by losing their last 12 and were knocked out of the ECACs in the first round. It set them up for 1982, though, and Northeastern steamrolled its way to its first and only ECAC championship and an NCAA berth, falling in the semifinals to eventual national champion North Dakota. After being shut out for nearly three decades, Flaman would direct the Hounds to four Beanpots in the 1980s (1980, 1984, 1985, 1988) - more than BU...more than BC...more than Harvard. One of the most memorable moments in Beanpot history came with the Huskies' 1984 win, after which the team carried the trophy over to where Flaman's son sat in his wheelchair; they held the trophy high while his son clenched his fist. The young man died of cancer not long afterward. The team's successes and renewed financial commitments from alumni and the administration allowed Flaman to attract better and better players each year, and most of the school's best players were recruited in the mid-80s - Rod Isbister, Stew Emerson, Jay Heinbuck, Bruce Racine, Kevin Heffernan, Claude Lodin, Dave O'Brien, Harry Mews, Dave Buda. The last six were members of what was probably Flaman and Northeastern's greatest team ever, the 1988 squad that won the Beanpot easily and came from behind to defeat #1 ranked Maine for the Hockey East championship before getting upset in the NCAA First Round by independent upstart Merrimack. The Huskies led the two-game, total goals series 8-3 with six minutes left in the second period of Game Two when Merrimack erupted for seven unanswered goals to win the series. I still think that Northeastern team could have won it all if they had taken Merrimack more seriously. Flaman announced his retirement in the middle of his 19th season, in February 1989, and his Huskies could not gain him a third NCAA berth though he was named the Hockey East Coach of the Year. The Huskies fell to Maine, 3-2, in a Hockey East semifinal overtime game that didn't end until after 1 am due to the double-ot game that preceded it. After NU scored twice in the last seven minutes to tie it, Luke Vitale got the game-winner to dash Flaman's hopes of repeating as Hockey East champion. In Flaman's last game as coach, with a trip to the NCAAs on the line, Providence eked out a 3-2 win. The next day, the Friars, with a record identical to Northeastern's, were awarded a bid and the Huskies were left at the altar. > I'm >certainly not trying to detract from Flaman's Hall-of-Fame credentials, >since it's been obvious in several situations that the number of champion- >ships won is not the only, or even best, criteria for judging a coach's >ability. Very true. Also, Flaman was not selected to the Hall of Fame because of his college coaching record. He was selected because of his great pro career. But most of us here, including myself, know him or of him through the job he did at Northeastern. I don't think he was *entirely* responsible for the Huskies' sudden rise to the top in the 80s, but he persevered through extremely difficult times to bring Northeastern hockey into "the modern age". He was the guy behind the bench and he dedicated his time and effort at first to help his kids be the best they could be and then to ice the best team he could for the university. I will always remember two incidents involving Flaman. The first came when I was a journalism major (briefly) and needed to do an interview story for a newswriting class, and I decided to interview him. He put aside whatever he was doing (as he always would when I came in to talk to him) and allowed me to interview him for a while on a variety of subjects, some dealing with his career as a player and some dealing with his coaching career and methods. (I wish I hadn't erased the tape I used.) After we were finished he asked me to get him a copy of the story; I got the story back with a B or something like that, then gave it to him, and a couple of days later I was walking by when he grabbed me and said, "A 'B'!? She should have given you at least an 'A-' on that!" Then, in 1988 when I was all set to take over as full-time manager of the Huskies, I discovered that I was going to have to remain on co-op through the fall, so I couldn't take the job (it worked out better that way anyway). I went to see him, and he said that I had to do what was best for me, and he added, "When you graduate and get a good job, and you're all set, just come see me and say hi or take me for dinner. That's all I want you to do for me - be successful at whatever you do." I was pretty impressed at his attitude and I remember this whenever I hear about college coaches being only out for the money and the wins. Maybe years of coaching a struggling team taught him that some things were more important. I know not everyone was happy with his coaching (especially those players who weren't playing), and I wouldn't put him in a class with a Bob Johnson or a Bill Cleary, but I thought he did a remarkable job with what he had and to the best of my knowledge, he never compromised his values to get a player or win a game. I guess that's what this article is all about. Congratulations, Fernie. You deserve it. - mike -- [log in to unmask] UUCP: {uw-beaver,mit-eddie,yale}!apollo!mike_m NORTHEASTERN HUSKIES --> 1988 Beanpot & Hockey East Champions MERRIMACK WARRIORS --> 1995 Hockey East Champions ********************************cmk********************************