Publication: A Princeton Companion
Ice hockey came into prominence at Princeton at the turn of the century. In those early days, the game consisted of two twenty-minute halves, and play was slower (there was a good deal of high lofting of the puck by the defense men), but according to Gresham Poe '02, one of the first Varsity players, much excitement was generated by bodychecking, ``which was immensely enjoyed by the customers.'' The teams worked out on Stony Brook whenever it froze over but, because of the milder New Jersey winters, they had fewer chances for practice than their New England rivals.
Princeton was one of the founding members of an intercollegiate hockey league, which started in 1899. The first three championships of this league were won by Yale, the next three by Harvard. In 1907, when newly completed Lake Carnegie provided a better place for practice, Princeton gave Harvard its first defeat in four years, and won its first championship. Princeton won its second championship in 1910, when goaltender Clarence N. Peacock '10 allowed league opponents only two goals in five games, and rover Alfred G. Kay '12 scored half of Princeton's twelve goals.
Princeton took the championship again in 1912 and 1914, narrowly missing out in 1913, when it lost two out of three games to Harvard. This was Princeton's golden age of hockey, highlighted by the brilliant play of Hobey Baker '14, universally recognized at that time as the greatest amateur hockey player ever developed in the United States. Playing rover (a position eliminated in 1921, when hockey teams were reduced from seven to six players), he thrilled spectators with his ability to weave his way through the opposing team, change his pace and direction, and send the puck speeding into the net.
Baker, who served with distinction as a pilot and squadron commander with the A.E.F. in the First World War, was killed in an airplane crash soon after the armistice and just before his scheduled return to America. With funds contributed by his Princeton friends and admirers from many other colleges, Princeton built the Hobart Baker Memorial Rink, which was dedicated on January 6, 1923.
Princeton had many fine teams in the twenties and thirties, especially those in 1923 (12 victories, 5 defeats, and one tie), 1924 (11-6), 1929 (15-3-1), 1931 (14-5), 1932 (13-4-1) and 1933 (15-4); but it had to wait until 1941 for another championship. That year Princeton took first place in the Quadrangular League over Dartmouth, Harvard, and Yale, and the Hobey Baker Memorial Trophy came home for the first time since it was put up in 1934. Dan Stuckey '42 was the leading scorer on a team that was further remarkable for having in its line-up two sets of brothers: Captain George Young '41 and Don Young '43, and twins Bill and Jim Sloane '43.
Hockey suffered a four-year hiatus when Baker Rink was boarded over for use as a gym between the loss of the University Gymnasium by fire in 1944 and the completion of Dillon in 1947. Six years later Princeton had sufficiently recovered its momentum to win the Pentagonal League championship over Brown, Dartmouth, Harvard, and Yale.
The 1953 championship was due, in no small part, to the leadership of the captain, All-American center Hank Bothfeld, who set a three-year Princeton record of 103 points (i.e., the total of goals and assists), while drawing only three penalties. This team also included two brothers, Bill Gall '53, who set a one-season Princeton record of 40 points in 1951, and Peter Gall '54.
Bothfeld's career record was broken in 1960 by John McBride '60, who made 118 points in three years; he also bettered Gall's one-season record twice, raising it in 1959 to 44 points, and in 1960 to 54 points. McBride s three-year record was surpassed in 1963 by Johnny Cook '63, who during his varsity career made a total of 132 goals and assists.
In the sixties the 1968 team was out ~standing; it had a 13-10-1 record and qualified for the E.C.A.C. post-season tournament, but lost there to Cornell, whose All-American goalie was the renowned Ken Dryden.
Keene Fitzpatrick, well-known track coach and football trainer, was Princeton's first hockey coach; he directed the three teams that Hobey Baker played on. Best known of his successors were three Ivy League products: Pudge Neidlinger, Dartmouth '23; Dick Vaughan, Yale '28; and Norm Wood, Harvard '54. Vaughan coached from 1935 through 1959, far longer than anyone else. A devoted student of the game, in 1939 he published a book on hockey that has been widely used by other coaches. In recent years two former professional players have been coaches: John Wilson of Detroit and the New York Rangers, from 1965 to 1967, and Bill Quackenbush of Detroit and Boston, from 1967 to 1973. Jack Semler, University of Vermont '68, was coach from 1973 to 1977 and was succeeded by Jim Higgins, Boston University '63, previously coach at Colgate.
A women's ice hockey team, first organized in 1972-1973, improved steadily and in 1977 finished second in the Ivy League.
From Alexander Leitch, A Princeton Companion, copyright Princeton University Press (1978).