Jack Parker's Wiseguys : the national champion BU Terriers, the blizzard of 78, and the miracle on ice / Tim Rappleye.

Includes bibliographical references.

Foreword / by Mike Eruzione -- Prologue : the debacle in Denver -- Jackie Parker -- Brian and Jimmy -- The education of Mark Fidler -- The dugout -- Finding themselves -- Wiseguys -- Road trip! -- The town -- Dog -- Media darlings -- North country -- The battle of Commonwealth Avenue -- The Worcester heist -- L'Affaire de Silk -- The Blizzard of '78 -- A Fidler returns to Chestnut Hill -- Miracle at the Whale -- Beanpot brawlers -- Black Friday -- Terriers reboot -- Slaying the Badger -- Best of enemies : the 1978 NCAA Championship game.

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Over the winter of 1977-78, anyone within shouting distance of a two-mile stretch of Boston's Commonwealth Avenue--from Fenway Park to the trolley curve at Packard's Corner--found themselves pulled into the orbit of college hockey. The hottest ticket in a sports-mad city was Boston University's Terriers, a team so tough it was said they didn't have fans--they took hostages. Eschewing the usual recruiting pools in Canada, Jack Parker and his coaching staff assembled a squad that included three stars from nearby Charlestown, then known as the "armed robbery capital of America." Jack Parker's Wiseguys is the story of a high-flying, headline-dominating, national championship squad led by three future stars of the "Miracle on Ice," the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team that beat the heavily favored Soviet Union. Now retired, Parker is a thoughtful statesman for the sport, a revered figure who held the longest tenure of any coach in Boston sports history. But during the 1977-78 season, he was just five years into his reign--and only a decade or so older than his players. Fiery, mercurial, as tough as any of his tough guys, Parker and his team were to face the pressure-cooker expectations of four previous also-ran seasons, further heightened by barroom brawls, off-the-ice shenanigans, and the citywide shutdown caused by the biggest blizzard to ever hit the Northeast. The '78 season was to be Parker's watershed, a roller-coaster ride of nail-biting victories and unimaginable tragedy, played out in increasingly strident headlines as his team opened the season with an unprecedented twenty-one straight wins. The first loss of the year eliminated the Terriers from their league playoffs and possibly from national contention; hours later Parker's wife died from cancer. The story of how the team responded--coming back to win the national championship a week after Parker buried his wife--makes a compelling tale for Boston sports fans and everyone else who feels a thrill of pride at America's unlikely win over the Soviet national team--a victory forged on Commonwealth Avenue in that bitter, beautiful winter of '78.

WorldCat record variable field(s) change: 072