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Hockey keeps Rhody Oldies feeling 59 again

05/22/2013, 4:15pm MDT
By Mike Scandura - Special to USAHockey.com

The requirements to play for the Rhody Oldies include the ability to skate, stick handle, pass and shoot the puck. But there’s one more: Each player must be 60 years of age or older.

The requirements to play for the Rhody Oldies include the ability to skate, stick handle, pass and shoot the puck. But there’s one other requirement that makes this league, which was founded in 1986, a bit different from others of its nature: a minimum age requirement.

In this case each player must be 60 years of age or older.

“One reason why this league has lasted so long is because there are a lot of hockey players in Rhode Island and it gives older guys something to do,” Oldies President Mickey Glennon said during a break from playing for the Chicago-based Illinois Iceholes in the USA Hockey Adult Classic in Brandon, Fla. “Way back when, there were a half-dozen guys who played hockey at a competitive level. They were hockey players who didn’t have anywhere to go.”

Initially this sextet played at Pawtucket’s Dennis M. Lynch Arena, which was run by one of its members, the late Andy Ferland.

“They got together and first skated,” Glennon said. “Then, through word of mouth, it got around to guys who played high school and college hockey. You only needed $2 and nobody used ice in the morning. The city of Pawtucket owned the rink and it was a place for seniors to play hockey.

“It kept growing and growing and we got more and more guys. That’s how the Rhody Oldies got started, and now we skate in Smithfield [at the Smithfield Municipal Rink].”

Glennon’s predecessor, 72-year-old Dick Lamontagne, served three years as league president and played college hockey at New Hampshire. Glennon credits Lamontagne with encouraging more men to join once the ranks began to dwindle.

“Back about four years ago, we couldn’t get enough guys to come and play,” Glennon said. “We only had about six or seven guys on a side and we only skated an hour at a time [currently the Oldies skate 90 minutes twice a week, on Wednesday and Friday mornings]. We ran an ad in a newspaper asking for guys who were retired and wanted to play to join us.

“During Dick Lamontagne’s three-year tenure he built it up and new we have nearly 40 guys. We even have some guys from Massachusetts, but most are from Rhode Island.”

While there’s a minimum age requirement to play for the Oldies, the maximum age is open-ended. For example, the two oldest players are each 85 years old, Norm Finucane and George McClellan, who’s a retired Lincoln police officer.

“They’ll play against guys at or near their own age,” Glennon said. “We let them skate by and take a shot on goal or skate them wide.

“You have to cut them some slack but we want them to have fun. Otherwise, why bother doing it?”

While some Oldies are retired, others still work at their chosen profession. And those professions include a wide variety. For example:

  • Glennon, 66, retired after running a cesspool pumping company.
  • Dick Cleary, 76, is a retired FBI agent who played college hockey at Brown University.
  • Bobby LeDuc and Serge Boudreault played for the now-defunct Rhode Island Reds of the American Hockey League (Boudreault also was a high school hockey coach).
  • Bob McMahon, 82, was the vice president of a small dental company.
  • George Gallagher,71, was a pipe fitter.
  • Russ Wagenfield, 70, worked for the Defense Intelligence Agency in Washington, D.C.
  • Dr. David Carter still runs a general practice and is the team physician for the AHL’s Providence Bruins.
  • Jim Hennigan teaches at New England Tech.
  • Glen Haspar is a retired prison guard.
  • Len Clarkin still practices law.

“It’s an interesting cast of characters,” Glennon said. “We don’t talk about [the players’ professions] most of the time. We just talk hockey.”

Aside from the fact these senior citizens are able to play a competitive brand of hockey there’s more to the Oldies than just scoring goals and blocking shots.

“Every year in Smithfield we do two things,” Glennon said. “We give a $500 scholarship to a male or female high school hockey player who’s going to college. Stevie Keach was a past president of the Rhody Oldies who passed away so we decided to establish the scholarship in his honor. It’s the Stevie Keach Memorial Scholarship.

“At the beginning of summer, we get a couple hours of ice, get all of our guys and play a regular game with a white side and a blue side. It’s called the Food Bank Game. You have to bring something in, and we get enough [food items] to fill a pickup truck and give it to the town of Smithfield. We’ve done it for the last two years.”

At the risk of stating the obvious, the Rhody Oldies will continue to play hockey until they’re no longer physically able to do so.

“They love the game of hockey,” Glennon said. “There isn’t another reason, plus it’s definitely great exercise. There isn’t anybody playing here in this tournament [the Adult Classic] that doesn’t love this game.”

Story from Red Line Editorial, Inc.

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