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It was 70 years ago the fever first hit.
On Feb. 9, 1923, a sunny Friday afternoon in Orono, the University of Maine hockey team played its first official varsity intercollegiate contest.
The opponent was Colby College. Judging by pictures of the day, there were no helmets and not much padding worn by the players. Stocking caps were the order of the day. An account in the Bangor Daily News described Maine’s new uniforms as “a snappy looking outfit, with dark blue tights and jersey with light blue trunks.”
The game was played on an open-air rink on what was then Alumni Field (currently the parking lot between Corbett Hall and the Memorial Gym). The Maine team, coached by Joseph T. “Cuddy” Murphy, had barely seen the surface. Thanks to a combination of thaws, freezes, and at least one blizzard, most practices were held on a cleared off area on the frozen Stillwater River.
Maybe it was a fluke. Maybe it was some cosmic lightning bolt, a glimpse through a time warp to an era that wouldn’t be seen for another three generations. Maine skated to a 3-2 victory over Colby that day.
The BDN account of the contest read in part:
“Maine’s teamwork was superior to that of Colby in every period of the game. Only three penalties were imposed, two on Colby and one on Maine.”
Scoring goals for Maine were right wing Roger Stone, who had two, and left wing C.N. Stover. William Elliot, a Montreal native and the team’s best player, was a standout on defense. Drew Stearns, a junior center from Hebron and the team captain, also played well.
Thus was “Go Blue” born.
It’s conception, however, came earlier.
Hockey had been seen before on the Orono campus. According to a UM Sports History compiled by Shelley Danforth, Jennifer Crotty, Jessica Carpenter, and Shannon Danforth, a hockey club team had made its first appearance on campus in 1906-07. That team played local high school and club teams, also facing a club from Bowdoin College.
But Maine’s unpredictable winter weather coupled with the natural attrition of students with hockey experience kept the club team on tentative footing, at best.
A turning point came in February of 1922. The University held its first annual winter carnival that year and, thanks to a particularly strong club hockey team, a game with Colby’s varsity was scheduled as part of the program.
The exhibition contest attracted more than 1,500 fans, enough so bleachers were imported and set up around the UM makeshift rink. Elliot kept Maine in the game with a goal and his superior skating, but Colby skated to a 5-3 victory.
Enough excitement was generated by the 1922 contest to inspire a vote by the student body the following fall to decide whether Maine should embrace hockey as a varsity sport. The vote was resoundingly positive, and hockey was given varsity status.
Forty candidates reported for the first official varsity hockey practice on Jan. 4, 1923. Typically, the rink was unusable and drills took place on the ever handy Stillwater.
It didn’t take long for Murphy to find his lineup. Unfortunately, the same could not be said for actually starting the season.
The Jan. 20 opener scheduled with Bates was postponed because of poor ice conditions on Maine’s rink (games could not be played on the Stillwater because of the lack of dasher boards). A scrimmage against a Lewiston all-star squad had to be postponed the following weekend for the same reason.
After finally opening with the win over Colby, Maine did succeed in playing four more games in 1923, all in February. The last, a 4-3 loss to Bowdoin on Feb. 24, was recounted in the BDN as follows:
“The ice was in poor condition and both teams, it could be clearly seen, were way off their usual form.”
Maine had posted a respectable 2-3 record in its first season. But the problems with its outdoor rink had already surfaced as a threat to the program’s viability.
The next season, according to the UM Sports History, Maine upgraded its schedule to 12 games. Coached by a young trainer and professor named Stanley Wallace, the Bears finished with a 4-8 record, posting impressive wins over Bowdoin and Boston University.
The increased number of games, however, were not enough to quiet growing concern about constant scheduling changes and the safety of the players skating on Maine’s rough ice surface.
Following completion of the season in March of 1924, the UM Athletic Board decided the risk to the players outweighed the need for a varsity program. Citing the major problems in maintaining a suitable, playable, safe ice surface, the board recommended the hockey program be discontinued.
At the same time, the Athletic Board recommended that as soon as an indoor facility could be constructed, hockey should be restored as a varsity sport.
Little did they know a nine-year-old boy in Swampscott, Mass., would one day build such a facility, thereby resurrecting Maine hockey and the fever. The kid was Harold Alfond.
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