75 Years Ago: The First-Ever Youth Nationals - USA Hockey
Seventy-five years ago this week, in 1940, USA Hockey (then known as AHAUS) hosted its first-ever youth national championship. Classified as the United States Junior National Championship, it was held at the Boston Arena (now known as Matthews Arena) and featured eight teams of varying ages, many of them comprised of players in their late teens. One such team, the Boston Junior Olympics, clawed its way to the final on the strength of 18-year-old left wing Dick Rondeau and 19-year-old goaltender John Meoli, but then they ran into a grizzled Boston buzzsaw called the 97 Club. The former Harvard star captained Team USA to silver at Lake Placid in 1932, and eight years later, bested Meoli three times en route to an 8-6 win for the Boston 97 Club which made them the first-ever USA Hockey "junior" national champions. Rondeau would eventually captain Dartmouth College to 41 consecutive wins and three Ivy League championships. As a sophomore in 1942, he was named to the Boston Globe All-Pentagonal Team, inspiring one hockey observer to declare Rondeau as “possessing the qualities to develop into the nearest approach yet seen in American college hockey to the immortal... Source: www.usahockey.com
