1923–24 Boston College Eagles men's ice hockey season

1923–24 Boston College Eagles
men's ice hockey season
1923–24 Boston College Eagles; men's ice hockey season
Conference	Independent
Home ice	Boston Arena
Record
Overall	7–10–1
Home	5–7–0
Road	1–0–0
Neutral	1–3–1
Coaches and captains
Head coach	Charles Foote
Captain(s)	Jack Fitzgerald
	Boston College Eagles men's ice hockey seasons; « 1922–23 1924–25 »

The 1923–24 Boston College Eagles men's ice hockey season was the 7th season of play for the program. The Eagles were coached by Charles Foote in his 1st season.

Season

After winning the program's first championship, Fred Rocque resigned as head coach. The school did not settle on his replacement until December when they brought in Charley Foote to be the new bench boss.^[1] While he had several returning players to rely upon, the team barely was able to get in any practice time before the first game.

When the team hit the ice for their first match, the biggest change was on the blueline. Both starting defensemen had graduated so Culhane, who had previously played wing, was deployed alongside Mahoney, who had been a reserve player as a freshman. There was a bit of hand-wringing over the novice defense but the Boston Hockey Club showed that the bigger worry was on offense. The forwards were without star center Leo Hughes and found it difficult to score in the opening loss.^[2] The following week saw those trends continue as the forwards could still only record a single goal, however, the defense was better than advertised and provided the team a win with a 1–0 shutout of McGill. Just as the team was beginning to feel good about its chances, however, the hopes of a repeat championship were dashed by a pair of Canadian colleges after Christmas. The smaller BC team was pushed around by their northern opponents and could only manage 2 goals in 3 consecutive defeats.^[3]

Though the first part of the season would not normally have precluded Boston College from competing for a second championship, the Eagles were scheduled to play just three intercollegiate games all season. This happened in part because the team was unable to afford playing more than a few road games but also because the future Ivy League team would not play against BC. This left BC only able to judge itself against common opponents and many of the teams that they faced were superior in talent, training and experience. Even when they played local teams like the Boston Athletic Association, they were playing against semi-pros, many of whom were former college stars. BC did well to keep the score close in those games but they finished out the month of January with three further losses and sat with a terrible 1–7 record midway through their season. Hampering the efforts of the club was the lack of suitable reserve players that forced the starters to play most of if not all of the time. Several of their games were lost in the final minutes but that fact did little to improve their chances for a title.^[4]

After a match with the B.A.A. at Green Hill Park during the exam break, the team returned home with a renewed fight from the forwards. Groden opened the scoring against the Boston Hockey Club but it was Culhane who was the star. The junior winger netted two goals, including the overtime winner, to give BC its first win in almost two months.^[5] After a pair of close wins over amateur clubs, BC travelled to meet Army for their only intercollegiate match of the season. The Eagles fought bitterly with the Cadets for the win and the two sides needed overtime to settle the score. In the extra session, however, the game completely tilted in favor of Boston College and the Maroons scored three additional goals to take the match. During that stretch, Mahoney had been felled by an injury and was replaced on the blueline by Fitzgerald. Fitz' place in goal was aptly filled by Connell.

With their winning streak up to 4 games, BC headed home with a chance to finish the year above .500. The only problem was that in all 5 of their remaining games, the team would face amateur or semi-pro teams made up of more experience players. The Eagles didn't seem to mind when they dispatched Montreal Le National after a brilliant opening period.^[6] A further win brought the team's record back to even but that was as far as the Eagles could go. The offense sputtered in the final three games of the year, all losses, and even with the return of Mahoney, the defense wasn't able to withstand the attack from their opponents.^[7] To add insult to injury, in the final game of the year a fight broke out in the stands. One man was injured after being pushed down the stone stairs and the police were called in to break up the melee. While The section that contained the students from BC were not a part of the riot, the school was nonetheless censured for the disruption.^[8]

William Kelleher served as team manager.^[9]

Roster

Player	Class	Pos	DoB	Hometown
Connell	Junior	G
John F. Culhane	Junior	D		Cambridge, Massachusetts
John R. Curry	Senior (RS)	F		Cambridge, Massachusetts
John C. Fitzgerald (C)	Junior	G/D		Cambridge, Massachusetts
James H. Foley	Junior	F	1901-10-28	Cambridge, Massachusetts
Henry E. Groden	Junior	F		Cambridge, Massachusetts
Francis X. Mahoney	Sophomore	D		Cambridge, Massachusetts

^[10]

Standings

1923–24 Eastern Collegiate ice hockey standings v t e
	Intercollegiate							Overall
	GP	W	L	T	Pct.	GF	GA	GP	W	L	T	GF	GA
Amherst	11	5	5	1	.500	16	17	11	5	5	1	16	17
Army	6	3	3	0	.500	15	13	8	3	5	0	23	30
Bates	8	8	0	0	1.000	31	3	11	9	2	0	34	9
Boston College	1	1	0	0	1.000	6	3	18	7	10	1	32	45
Boston University	7	1	6	0	.143	10	34	9	1	8	0	11	42
Bowdoin	5	1	2	2	.400	10	17	6	1	3	2	10	24
Clarkson	4	1	3	0	.250	8	12	7	3	4	0	12	19
Colby	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	8	1	5	2	–	–
Cornell	4	2	2	0	.500	22	11	4	2	2	0	22	11
Dartmouth	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	17	10	5	2	81	32
Hamilton	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	12	7	3	2	–	–
Harvard	9	6	3	0	.667	35	19	14	6	7	1	–	–
Maine	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	12	4	8	0	–	–
Massachusetts Agricultural	8	2	6	0	.250	18	38	9	3	6	0	20	38
Middlebury	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	7	0	6	1	–	–
MIT	4	0	4	0	.000	2	27	4	0	4	0	2	27
Pennsylvania	6	1	4	1	.250	6	23	8	1	5	2	8	28
Princeton	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	18	12	6	0	–	–
Rensselaer	5	2	3	0	.400	5	31	5	2	3	0	5	31
Saint Michael's	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
Syracuse	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–	–
Union	4	2	2	0	.500	13	10	5	3	2	0	18	12
Williams	11	2	7	2	.273	11	22	13	4	7	2	18	24
Yale	15	14	1	0	.933	60	12	23	18	4	1	80	33
YMCA College	6	1	5	0	.167	6	39	7	2	5	0	11	39

Schedule and results

Date	Opponent	Site	Result	Record
Regular Season
December 13	vs. Boston Hockey Club*	Boston Arena • Boston, Massachusetts	L 1–5	0–1–0
December 20	McGill*	Boston Arena • Boston, Massachusetts	W 1–0	1–1–0
December 27	New Brunswick*	Boston Arena • Boston, Massachusetts	L 1–3	1–2–0
December 28	Toronto*	Boston Arena • Boston, Massachusetts	L 1–3	1–3–0
January 1	Toronto*	Boston Arena • Boston, Massachusetts	L 0–3	1–4–0
January 15	vs. Boston Athletic Association*	Boston Arena • Boston, Massachusetts	L 1–3	1–5–0
January 17	Berlin Hockey Club*	Boston Arena • Boston, Massachusetts	L 1–3	1–6–0
January 21	Maple Athletic Association*	Boston Arena • Boston, Massachusetts	L 1–2 ^OT	1–7–0
February 2	vs. Boston Athletic Association*	Green Hill Park • Worcester, Massachusetts	T 0–0	1–7–1
February 7	vs. Boston Hockey Club*	Boston Arena • Boston, Massachusetts	W 4–3 ^2OT	2–7–1
February 15	Abegweits*	Boston Arena • Boston, Massachusetts	W 2–1	3–7–1
February 20	Maple Athletic Association*	Boston Arena • Boston, Massachusetts	W 1–0	4–7–1
February 23	at Army*	Stuart Rink • West Point, New York	W 6–3 ^OT	5–7–1
February 29	Montreal Le National*	Boston Arena • Boston, Massachusetts	W 3–1	6–7–1
March 5	Nashua Nationals*	Boston Arena • Boston, Massachusetts	W 7–3	7–7–1
March 7	Ottawa Shamrocks*	Boston Arena • Boston, Massachusetts	L 0–3	7–8–1
March 12	vs. Boston Athletic Association*	Boston Arena • Boston, Massachusetts	L 1–3	7–8–1
March 14	Montreal Victorias*	Boston Arena • Boston, Massachusetts	L 1–6	7–10–1
*Non-conference game.

^[11]

References

^ "Hockey Team Begins Season". The Heights. December 11, 1923. Retrieved August 15, 2023.
^ "HOCKEY CLUB TOPPLES B. C." The Heights. December 18, 1923. Retrieved August 15, 2023.
^ "CANADIAN INVASION OF HUB PROVES DISASTROUS TO B. C. HOCKEY HOPES". The Heights. January 8, 1924. Retrieved August 15, 2023.
^ "HOCKEY TEAM INVITED TO QUEBEC". The Heights. January 22, 1924. Retrieved August 15, 2023.
^ "HOCKEY CLUB BOWS TO EAGLE SEXTET". The Heights. February 12, 1924. Retrieved August 15, 2023.
^ "MONTREAL FALLS PREY TO EAGLES". The Heights. March 4, 1924. Retrieved August 15, 2023.
^ "SHAMROCKS TRIM EAGLES, 3 TO 0". The Heights. March 11, 1924. Retrieved August 15, 2023.
^ "RIOTS AND OTHERWISE". The Heights. March 18, 1924. Retrieved August 15, 2023.
^ "Sub Turri 1924". Boston College. Retrieved August 15, 2023.
^ "1923-1924 Roster". Elite Prospects. Retrieved August 20, 2020.
^ "Boston College men's Hockey 2017-18 Record Book" (PDF). Boston College Eagles. Retrieved August 28, 2018.