Look Back to the 1940s

  After WWII service in the US Navy, Ole enjoyed a brief injury-shortened professional career in baseball with the Boston Braves and hockey (including a stint in Clinton) before doing graduate work at St Lawrence University. While there, Ole guided the hockey team to it’s first two appearances in the NCAA tournament before heading back to Colgate where he re-established the Red Raiders Varsity hockey team and helped create the ECAC. Leaving Colgate in 1965, … Continued

Albert Prettyman was the ultimate gentleman. He could come across a bit gruff, but he was a fair-minded coach and administrator, and was particularly firm when it came to his beloved hockey. He will always be known for starting the hockey program at Hamilton College…

Any story on Clinton-Hamilton hockey should include more than a passing mention of kids’ hockey rivalries in the 1940s. What may appear at first blush as one more manifestation of the “town-gown” rivalry was far more than that…

I lived in the Clinton area from 1942 to 1974, skated and played hockey on the outdoor rink, and 1st and 2nd Arenas in Pee Wee and high school hockey. In 1953, our Pee Wee team won the NYS Championship…

My father, John Calder ‘43, played for Albert Prettyman. He was provided a copy of the rules and later went on to officiate college hockey for a number of years. The copy of the rules in The Official Ice Hockey Guide, which I still have, lists the NCAA…

My father, Dana Babcock, was class of 1944-49, played a couple years with the Clinton Stars, was a lifelong friend of Greg Batt, all the Burns brothers, and lots of Hamilton Hockey players. He was a youth hockey coach in Clinton in the 1960’s…

Bill Hameline Jr. (right, with tape on his broken nose) didn’t let a little injury stop him from playing on an outdoor rink in this undated photo….

Bill Hameline Jr. is pictured in this Clarkson University team photo from 1946…

Before 1947, the High School hockey team traveled to Lake Placid via milk train. That meant stopping many times along the trip to pick up milk. I was very excited to finally get the chance to ride the train! Unfortunately, beginning in 1947…

Claire went to her first hockey game ever, by herself, as a new teacher at Clinton Elementary School. She had been a good athlete, yet had never seen a hockey game. She left after the game, and the next day at school brought up in conversation…

We at the Clinton Historical Society have found the winner of the baby contest fund raiser for the building of the arena in 1948. She was Carol Ann Dorr, daughter of Harry and Dorothy Dorr of Fountain St., and is now Mrs. Edward Kaufmann of Arden, North Carolina…

The program for Clinton Hockey during the 1949 season.

The program for the Clinton Comets vs. Buffalo Frontiers game during the 1949-50 season.