It was 50 years ago this week that the Winthrop High hockey team completed an undefeated season of 26-0-1 (a 4-4 tie with Saugus was their lone blemish) with a 4-1 victory over Western Mass. champion Springfield Catholic to capture the Massachusetts Division 1 state championship.
That was an era when the Boston Bruins had reigned supreme on the Boston sports scene thanks to Bobby Orr in the late 1960s and early ‘70s, when the Viking varsity players were playing with Winthrop Youth Hockey.
The Winthrop varsity hockey program itself was only 10 years old and Larsen Rink had just opened a few years earlier.
The Vikings’ path to the championship was both dramatic and highly-memorable.
The Vikings opened the Eastern Mass. tournament with a 4-2 victory over Malden Catholic, the defending state champion.
The next Winthrop victory would prove to be one of the most incredible wins in the annals of Winthrop High sports. The Vikings took on Norwood and finally emerged with a 4-3 victory in triple overtime in a contest that had started early Thursday evening and finally ended at 12:45 AM on Friday. WHS goalie Ramon Diaz was sensational in net with more than 50 saves. The late Jackie Burke, who passed away all-too-young in 2014, notched the game-winner three hours after the contest had begun.
Needless to say, there were no shootouts in those days!
That brought the Vikings into an EMass semifinal match-up the following day on Saturday vs. perennial powerhouse Arlington, whose coach was the legendary Eddie Burns. However, the Vikings stunned the schoolboy hockey world with a 4-1 win.
Winthrop then took on Braintree in the title game before 13,648 fans in the old Boston Garden in which Winthrop prevailed, 4-2. WHS netminder Ramon Diaz was superb in goal, turning aside 35 enemy shots. Jackie Burke scored two goals, including the eventual game-winner, and linemate Bobby McDonald added a goal.
The Vikings scored 183 goals during the season. The first line of captain Bobby MacDonald (57 goals), Jackie Burke, and Joe MacDonald (Bobby’s younger brother) totaled 212 points. Co-captain Steve Goddard was named the top defenseman in Division One. Danny Brugman was named tourney and Hockey Night in Boston Most Valuable Player.
Coach Bill Falasca was named Boston Globe Coach of the Year.
Danny Brugman played at Yale, Bob MacDonald and Jackie Burke played at Harvard, and defenseman Kevin McGee played at Northeastern.
Our brave soldiers once again are defending freedom
Regardless of whether one agrees with the undertaking of an undeclared war with Iran that ignited over the weekend, these hostilities once again have placed the lives of American soldiers at immediate risk on the front line.
However, as our men and women in uniform have done throughout our history, they are answering the call to perform their duty with the utmost skill and bravery.
The news that three of our soldiers died and five more were seriously injured in an Iranian missile attack on a U.S. military base in Kuwait over the weekend brought on a profound sense of sadness to the nation.
Equally heartbreaking are the reports that more than 150 Iranian children were killed when a missile struck their elementary school, a staggering loss of innocent life. Similarly, the news of the deaths of nine Israeli civilians, including three teenage siblings, when a missile landed on their bomb-shelter, has been heart-rending.
Every parent, regardless of nationality, can relate to these tragic events deeply and profoundly.
As for the war itself, no one will be shedding any tears for Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamanei, who perished on Saturday morning when his compound was bombed by Israeli missiles.
The violent demise of Khamanei and many of his generals brings to mind the biblical directive, “As ye sow, so shall ye reap.”
Under Khamanei’s 36-year rule, the Iranian regime not only has murdered, tortured, and imprisoned tens of thousands of its own citizens, but it also has spread its message of hate throughout the world.
Iran has provided arms to terrorist organizations in the Middle East and elsewhere with the directive, “Death to America, Death to Israel.” One of those terrorist groups, Hamas, launched the attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, that resulted in the cold-blooded murder of more than 1200 Israeli citizens, precipitating the current conflict.
More ominously, Iran’s persistent effort to develop a nuclear weapon threatens not only Israel, but civilization as we know it.
Ever since the Iranian theocrats took power in January, 1979, and seized the U.S. embassy a few months later, the Iranian regime has been an obstacle to the attainment of world peace, not only in the Middle East, but also across the globe.
American foreign policy with Iran up to this point essentially has been one of appeasement. But as history has shown, trying to achieve “peace” with zealous, murderous dictators who only care about enlarging their power is a fool’s mission.
America finally has taken Khamenei and Iran’s authoritarian leaders at their word — and their message of hate at last has been met with an appropriate response.
We know we join with all Americans in praying for a speedy end to the conflict and for the safety of our military men and women and innocent civilians throughout the Middle East.