Revisit the 1950s
Enjoy these stories from historians and hockey fans.
Jed Scala–1950-51
My father, Jim Scala, played hockey at both Clinton High School and Hamilton College in the 1940s and 1950s. The uploaded photo shows my father with his coach, Greg Batt, whom he greatly admired. My father used to always say that Greg was the best skater he had ever seen. The caption states that my father was the 7th Hamilton College Hockey Captain from Clinton, NY.
1954 Comets At Rest
Clinton Comets (l-r) Coach Bob Williams, Greg Batt and Mike Nardello have a seat in the dressing room.
1950 – Gill Goering
Played on Youth Hockey (Pee Wee) NY State Championship teams 2 years in a row. Coached by my father, Wilfred (Red) Goering…
1952-53 Game Program
The program for the Clinton Comets vs. Inkerman Rockets game during the 1952-53 season.
1954 – Mary Donovan
In 1954, a group of 10th grade Clinton girls decided we wanted to play hockey. The group included Jane Burdick, Marylouise Burdick, Jane Buckley, Lizann Mitchell, Arlene Hoare, Mary Suppe, and a few others. The Clinton boys refused to play us…
1954-55 Game Program
The program for the Clinton Comets vs. Washington Lions game during the 1954-55 season.
1954 – George Gennings
Four of us left from Niagara Falls, Ont., Canada en route to Clinton to join the Comets. We were advised to get off the Thruway in Westmoreland, turn left on Rte. 233, and would be in 20 minutes No one told us to turn left on College Hill Rd.! We ended up in Deansboro, stopped at the Hotel…
1955 – Rick Burns
A photo of my Dad in the 1948 Hamilton Alumni Review magazine (to be downloaded separately due to file size limitations), was taken just prior to the season beginning. He was captain that year. Without my Dad’s love for the game, who knows whether my brother Rod and I would have…
1955-56 Game Program
The program for the Clinton Comets vs. Washington Lions during the 1955-56 season.
1957 – Jim Burns
In 1957, I was part of the Clinton Pee Wee Team that traveled to Boston for the Nationals after winning the states in Lake Placid. For many of us, it was our first trip away from Clinton…
1957 – Jim Burns
We have 4 generations of Clinton High School Hockey players in my family, hope the tradition continues on…
1958 – Rick Burns
Unless you’re a Clinton Baby Boomer, you would not appreciate the importance of the backyard rinks in Clinton during the 1960s. The winters then were incredibly cold and snowy. When the first snow held in late November, chances were it would stay on the ground until late March…
1958 – Don Spencer
At Hamilton I played 4 years, captained the 1958-1959 team, received All-East Small College recognition in 2 seasons, received a personal invitation to try out for the 1960 Olympic Team from Jack Riley, and worked with with Gene Long in his development of the first form-fitting fiberglass facemask in 1959…
1959 – Rick Burns
I started playing hockey in 1959. At that time “Red” Goering ran the Clinton pee-wee hockey program. This was a big deal to me at 8 years old, never having held a hockey stick. When I walked into the rink for the first time that…
1959 – David Rose
My Dad, Art Rose (#11), a forward for the Comets from 1959-64, taught me to skate at the Clinton Arena. I still have my skates from probably around 1970 when I was 3 or so, and can still remember stepping onto that ice where my Dad had been a star player just under a decade earlier…
1959-60 Game Program
The program for the Clinton Comets vs. New Haven Blades game during the 1959-60 season.
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