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2019 Massachusetts Hockey Hall of Fame Full of Class

By Mass Hockey, 05/02/19, 4:00PM EDT

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Builders, Coaches & Players Joining the 2019 HOF

At Massachusetts Hockey we are beyond fortunate to have so many builders, coaches, officials, media and volunteers who have helped make hockey in Massachusetts great.

Each year we are able to honor some of those influential leaders with an induction into the Massachusetts Hockey Hall of Fame.

For the event, we are happy to announce that our Master of Ceremonies will be our own Hall of Fame member and Hockey East Commissioner Joe Bertagna.

The Hall of Fame Class of 2019 includes: long time dedicated Massachusetts Hockey volunteer Nick Demarco (Builder), retired Norwich coach Michael H. McShane, former player and current Boston Bruins general manager Don Sweeney and retired UNH coach Dick Umile.

Also, this class includes five posthumous inductees: George V. Brown, John P. Chase, James "Jim" H. Fullerton, Victor "Vic" Heyliger and Edward "Eddie" W. Shore.

For more information on those being inducted into the Hall of Fame, please scroll down below.

Date/Location: Saturday, June 15, 2019 at hotel1620 Plymouth Harbor, 180 Water St, Plymouth, MA 02360.

Time: Cocktail Reception begins at 5 p.m.; Sit-down at 6 p.m. - Evening should conclude by 10 p.m.
 
Cost: $75 per ticket/$750 per 10 tickets (full table)
 
Hall of Fame Website (includes current list and pictures from past ceremonies): https://www.mahockey.org/hof

If you are interested in purchasing tickets and attending, please email us at info@mahockey.org and/or call at (781) 664-2700 x102. Deadline to purchase tickets is Friday, June 7, 2019.


NICK DEMARCO (Builder)

Nick began playing hockey as a youth on the parks in Boston, played club hockey as a teen and into his early twenties. Began coaching in 1971 when his sons decided to become involved in hockey. From that early beginning Nick has coached Learn to Skate, Learn to Play then onto Mites thru Midget Hockey on the House and Travel Team Levels. His coaching roles continued to CYO teams reining a period of twenty plus years.

As a builder Nick witnessed the challenges that the local surrounding town program were having fielding teams and maintaining parity with those that were enrolled. He was instrumental in the merging of nearby Foxboro. That paved the way for other bordering towns which Nick was instrumental to unite which were in three different Mass Hockey Districts.

This laid the foundation and beginning for the Tri-County Saints where Nick served as President. From that activity Nick became President of the Colonials YH, a primarily Midget Program which was followed by his role with the Mass Tier I Cape Cod Whalers serving as its Commissioner.

In the 1980’s he was elected as a District 5 Director actively serving many positions and numerous Committees, some of which include, Mass Tier I league Commissioner, Associate Registrar, Massachusetts Coaching Director, Member Mass Hockey EBoard, Director Mass Hockey Development Camps, and founder of the successful Tier-I Labor Day Tournament attracting teams from across the country.

Adding to his contributions to the sport with his graphic art talents Nick would help out teams, hockey organizations, tournaments designing hockey pins, trophies, t shirts, brochures and logos. In fact, when called upon Nick designed the many logos for Mass Hockey, Player Development Camps, Festivals and the multiple logos for the Annual Guide Covers. The designing all began when the organization operated under the name of A.H.A.C.M. (Amateur Hockey Association Commonwealth of Mass) to its now name of Massachusetts Hockey. In fact, he helped promote and enhance the image of Mass Hockey with the logo that is currently used today.

Now it’s one thing to do all he did as a driven volunteer working on behalf of those he cared about and the sport of hockey, but he did them in such as a professional manner which elevated those around him. His style, smile and work ethic attracted countless volunteers to jump in and give a hand, and they did so.


Michael H. McShane (Coach)

Coach Mike McShane has a long and storied career in men’s college ice hockey.  McShane began his coaching career at Exeter Academy, The New Hampton School, and Dartmouth College.  McShane was hired by St. Lawrence University as its head coach in 1980 and then signed a multi-year contract with Providence College in 1985.  McShane spent nine years at Providence, including four consecutive seasons with at least 21 wins between 1989 and 1992. In 1994, he took a break from coaching and consultant the NHL Ottawa Senators, but the teacher in him drew him back to the locker room.

So, in 1995 McShane was named Norwich University’s 10th Men’s Ice Hockey Coach.  During his tenure he guided Norwich University to four NCAA Division III National Championships in 2017, 2010, 2003 and 2000.  Under his guidance, Norwich made 16 NCAA Tournament appearances and 12 NCAA Frozen four appearances and won 19 of 20 New England Hockey Conference (NEHC) regular season titles, including an unprecedented 17 in a row. 

McShane was honored with 25 coach of the year awards and tallied an impressive 741-348-69 career record, ranking him the 7th winningest college hockey coach of all-time.

McShane grew up in Wakefield, MA and attended Wakefield High School and Tabor Academy. He graduated from University of New Hampshire in 1971 where he served as the assistant captain, becoming the third-leading scorer in Wildcat history. McShane earned his master’s degree from Boston University.

Coach McShane and his wife Shawn reside in Montpelier, VT, but they are here in Estero, FL this winter spending time with Mike’s daughter Megan, grandson Max, and son Dan.


Don Sweeney (Player)

Don Sweeney is in his fourth season as the Bruins General Manager, as he was named to that position on May 20, 2015. He oversees all aspects of the team's hockey operations and he also serves the club as an Alternate Governor on the NHL's Board of Governors.

He is the eighth man to hold that position, is the fourth who also played for the team (joining Hap Emms, Milt Schmidt and Mike O'Connell) and is the first former Boston draft pick to rise to that post.

Sweeney's ascension to the head of the club's hockey operations continues his long legacy with the club, as he began as the team's eighth pick, 166th overall, in the 1984 NHL Entry Draft and moved through the organization as a player for 15 seasons and in various front office capacities for nine years prior to assuming his current position.

Sweeney played four seasons of college hockey at Harvard University. He earned both NCAA East All-American and ECAC First Team All-Star honors with the Crimson and played in the 1986 NCAA Finals before graduating with a degree in Economics.

The defenseman played 16 seasons in the National Hockey League, including 15 in a Bruins uniform. He is one of five players, and just the second defenseman, in team history to play over 1,000 games in a Boston sweater, and he still ranks third on the team's all-time games played list. He also ranks in the top ten on the club's all-time list in career assists by a defenseman. He played his final NHL season with the Dallas Stars in 2003-04.

Sweeney and his wife Christine have twin sons, Jarrod and Tyler.


Dick Umile (Coach)

Coach Dick Umile’s hockey career is full of stories gathered first when he was a player, then later a coach. During his sophomore, junior and senior high school years at Melrose, Massachusetts, the hockey team won three straight Middlesex League hockey titles. There also were appearances in the state and New England hockey tournaments. In his senior year, he skated as team captain and after a stellar season was named to the All-Scholastic (ie, All State) team.

Then in 1967, Dick joined UNH. Some notable moments: received as a sophomore the Roger LeClerc Trophy (MVP); elected senior team captain; played 87 career games, with 60 goals/84 assists.

After graduation (1972), he landed at Wakefield (MA) High School for one year as an assistant, moving over to Melrose (MA) High School for one year as freshman coach and then on to Watertown (MA) High School as head coach for 11 seasons. Along the way, he won two Middlesex League titles and a Division I Coach of the Year award (1984) from the Boston Globe. He also, for two years, scouted for the NHL’s St. Louis Blues and eventually moved on to Providence College as an assistant for two seasons.

In 1988, Dick returned to Durham, becoming an assistant and later the associate head coach under the late Bob Kullen. Then Dick, on December 6, 1990, was named the 12th UNH head hockey coach. His 19th season is about to begin.

During his first 18 years, Dick fashioned the UNH hockey program into a premiere Division I winter attraction. There have been 18 Hockey East championship tournaments, 14 NCAA tournaments and four Frozen Four appearances. For 17 years-13 of them consecutive-his teams have won at least 20 games. His career record of wins/losses/ties is 444-220-71, ranking him numero uno at UNH, far ahead of the fabled Charlie Holt who won 347 games and ranks #2.

Dick also has coached eight Hobey Baker finalists and one winner; 23 All-Americas; plus 12 players have reached the National Hockey League. Among active NCAA coaches, he ranks third with a .653 winning percentage and his 444 victories rank him eighth among all NCAA hockey coaches. He has been named Coach of the Year 10 times, New England Coach of the Year four times, and Hockey East Coach of the Year five times (an all-time league best.)

Dick and his wife, Rose, have three daughters: Katie, Kristin (Haggerty) and Courtney (Cook), and seven grandchildren.


Posthumous Inductees:

George V. Brown

George V. Brown (1880-1937) was a driving force in the Boston Arena being built and with it the Boston Athletic Association hockey team was founded. Continuing his role as an American hockey pioneer, he brought hockey to Boston University in 1917 when he served there as Athletic Director. BU’s MVP hockey award is the George V. Brown Award.

When the Arena burned down in 1918, Brown formed the corporation which built the new Arena, and continued to manage both the new arena and the BAA team. This club formed the core of the 1924 U.S. Olympic Team with seven of the ten players being BAA members, thus bringing American hockey to the Olympics.  The United States won the Silver Medal.

He helped organize the Canadian-American League, a forerunner to the American Hockey League, and entered the Boston Tigers in the league. Brown became General Manager of both the Arena and Boston Garden in 1934.

He was part of an Arena Management group that brought Sonja Henie and world class figure skating to the United States, and along with that, the Ice Capades ice show.

He coached or officiated track at every Olympics from 1908-1936. He was known as one of the area’s best football officials. His most memorable football experienced was in 1912, when he officiated the game between West Point and the well-known Carlisle Indians team, featuring star player, Jim Thorpe, and West Point’s Dwight D. Eisenhower.

He was responsible for placing the starting line of the Boston Marathon in Hopkinton, A Brown family member has been the starter of the marathon every year, but one, since 1905 with George serving in that role from 1905- 1937. The sculpture of George V. Brown, named THE STARTER, was erected on Hopkinton Common in his honor.

He was elected to the Hockey of Fame in Toronto in 1961 and U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame in 1973.


John P. Chase

John P. Chase (1906-1994) began his hockey career playing at Milton Academy, transferred to Exeter Academy and then entered Harvard. Senior year Chase was named captain of the hockey team, while he also excelled at baseball at Harvard. 

Chase was sought after by professional teams, but chose instead to pursue a business career.  He did, however, continue his local hockey career with such teams as the Boston Athletic Association and Brae Burn Hockey Club. In 1932 he captained the United States Olympic Team which captured the Silver Medal at Lake Placid.

In 1940 USA Hockey, then known as AHAUS, hosted its first ever non-adult National Championship. Classified as the U.S. Junior National Championship, it was held at Boston Arena, and featured eight teams of varying ages. Its headliners included John P. Chase, then 35 years old, and already a veteran of Olympic play. Eight years after leading USA to the Silver Medal in Lake Placid he scored three times in the 8-6 win for the “Boston 97 Club,” which made them the first-ever USA Hockey National “Junior” Champions.

When his playing days were over Chase coached the Harvard varsity for eight years, from 1942 through 1950 with time away during the war. Mr. Chase took time away from coaching to serve in World War II. He served in the European Theater, and was responsible for all radar countermeasures for Allied Forces. He was awarded two Purple Hearts during his service.

The John P. Chase Skating Rink at the Hayden Recreation Center in Lexington Mass. is named in his honor. He was elected to the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame in 1974.


Victor "Vic" Heyliger

Victor “Vic” Heyliger (1915-2006) played high school hockey in Concord, then played for a year at Lawrence Academy, where he continued on to University of Michigan. He starred for the Wolverines through 1937, earning All-American honors, while scoring a school 116 goals. Following graduation in 1937, Heyliger played for the Chicago Blackhawks in 1938 and again in 1944 while sandwiching in a coaching stint at University of Illinois.

Vic forged an outstanding coaching record at Michigan, as well as at the University of Illinois and the United States Air Force Academy. In 1940-41 his Illinois team posted a 17-3-1 record, becoming unofficial national champion. The following two seasons the team had a combined record of 19-5-2. His greatest years were at Michigan, however. Starting with the first NCAA Championships ever staged in 1948, at Colorado Springs, they went on to capture six national titles.

After retiring from Michigan, he returned to coaching by overseeing the startup hockey program at the U.S. Air Force Academy.  Heyliger came to the Academy in 1966 to coach the club team, and in ‘68-‘69 he became the Falcons’ first varsity head coach. In 1971-72, the fourth season of varsity hockey, he led the Falcons to a 25-6 season.

Heyliger helped revolutionize college hockey as the first coach to actively recruit players. He was also instrumental in organizing the first NCAA Championship and the formation of a conference that became the WCHA. At the international level he played a major role in helping to organize the only U.S.-hosted IIHF World Championship in 1962, which was held in Colorado Springs. He also served as head coach of the 1966 U.S. National Team. Vic was elected to the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame in 1974.


James "Jim" H. Fullerton

James “Jim”H. Fullerton (1909-1991) starred at Beverly H.S. and went on to play football and hockey at Norwich University. He turned down the opportunity to play professional hockey as a Boston Bruin in order to accept a teaching and coaching job at Northwood School in Lake Placid. He remained there for 24 years and worked as an official, and from 1933-55 he refereed professional, college and high school games in the Lake Placid area. 

Jim Fullerton became the first full-time coach at Brown University in 1955. In the span of a decade and in 1965 his team won the Ivy League Title and went to the NCAA Final Four and he was awarded the Spencer Penrose Award as the nation’s coach of the year. He became president and founder for the American Hockey Coaches Association. The organization now awards the Jim Fullerton Trophy in his honor every year. He was a four-time recipient of the New England Coach of the Year. He was named to the U.S. Collegiate Hall of Fame in 1971 and Brown University’s Hall of Fame in 1974.

He coached the US in the World Games in 1972. He was, also, a member of the US Olympic Committee for that same year. He later scouted for the Chicago Blackhawks and the New York Islanders.

He hired the first female assistant coach in Laura Stamm to teach power skating, and in 1964 Brown co-ed, Nancy Schieffelin, suited up and practiced with the men. She was an organizer of the Pembroke Pandas, the first recognized American women’s college hockey team. Mr. Fullerton was given the Hobey Baker Legend of Hockey Award in 1989 elected to the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame in 1992.


Edward "Eddie" W. Shore

Edward “Eddie” W. Shore (1902-1985) was a longtime National Hockey League defenseman for the Boston Bruins, helping them win the Stanley Cup in 1929 and 1939. Also, he was a longtime owner of the Springfield Indians of the American Hockey League. In 2017, Shore was named one of the '100 Greatest NHL Players' in history. Shore won the Hart Trophy as the NHL's most valuable player four times, the most of any defenseman; only Wayne Gretzky and Gordie Howe have won it more often. A bruiser known for his violence, Shore set a then-NHL record for 165 penalty minutes in his second season.

In 1940, Shore and eight other arena managers organized the Ice Capades ice show.  Mr. Shore’s Springfield Indians played a significant role in the continuing development and enthusiasm for Youth Hockey in the Greater Springfield area. He instituted a Youth Hockey Program, and started the Greater Springfield Amateur Hockey League for which he donated the ice time so that more kids could learn to play hockey. The Indians prospered under Mr. Shore’s ownership, making the playoffs 12 times while winning three Calder Cups in a row from 1960 to 1962.

For his contributions to the game of hockey in Massachusetts, Eddie Shore was awarded the vanity license plate "MR HOCKEY" by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. He was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1947, the same year that his #2 was retired by the Boston Bruins. In 1970 he was awarded the Lester Patrick Trophy for contributions to U.S. Hockey, and in 1975 he was elected to Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame.