Books for the Hockey Fan in Your Life

Author Jeff Mauro will keep you on the edge of your seat with stories and photographs of some of the biggest coaches, players, and teams in Pennsylvania high school hockey championship history.

For seven decades, the Boston Garden functioned as both a de facto community center and the indoor entertainment hub of New England.

Known to millions as the home of the Bruins and Celtics, the Garden was also home to a variety of other events. The Boston Garden was truly a ""people's palace,"" serving as a venue for events both grand and humble, monumental and mundane. It was nothing less than the city's playpen, music hall, political clubhouse, tavern, cathedral, and living room. The Boston Garden opened on November 17, 1928, to an overflow audience who witnessed local boxer Dick ""Honeyboy"" Finnegan defeat reigning world featherweight champion Andre Routis in a non-title bout. Three days later, the Bruins greeted a crowd that fire department officials estimated was nearly four thousand above maximum capacity. The Boston Garden captures these moments and the unique relationship that was forged with the city right from the beginning. During the Great Depression, the Garden hosted countless community events, such as free public skating and religious services. It was Boston's main attraction with concerts, wrestling, school sports, and the ever popular Bruins. Later years saw the birth of the Boston Celtics in 1946 and their unsurpassed record of sixteen world championships. Following World War II and through the baby boomer years, performers as diverse as Liberace, Elvis, and the Rolling Stones also packed fans in. The Boston Garden was demolished in 1998 to make room for the Central Artery and private development, but it lives on in the hearts of New Englanders.

Boston University Hockey chronicles the many National Collegiate Athletic Association Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference, Hockey East, and Beanpot championship team moments; the myriad accomplishments of individual players and coaches, such as Rick Meagher, the "BU Four," Jack Kelley, and Jack Parker; and the overall legacy of achievement by the long line of skaters who have donned the scarlet-and-white sweaters. The illustrations in Boston University Hockey (including many that have never been published elsewhere) offer a compelling view of a team that has won more national titles than any other eastern college hockey school.

Nashville may be located in the country music capital of the world ... but local hockey fans know it simply as "Smashville."

The Nashville Predators adopted their name from the bones of a saber-toothed tiger found beneath a local building. Craig Leipold first purchased the expansion rights in 1997, and the team quickly built a loyal following. It won 28 games in the inaugural season. Twelve seasons later, the team finished second in the Central Division and appeared in its first-ever conference semifinals. One year later, it finally dispatched its long-standing rival Detroit Red Wings 4-1 in the opening round of the playoffs. Author and award-winning reporter Justin Bradford details the fascinating history through unique player anecdotes and perspectives from those involved in the team's rise to prominence.

Few schools have a reverence for their hockey history as Cornell University. Perfect for fans of Cornell University, hockey, and New York sports history.

The tradition of Cornell University Hockeyis largely a winning one, punctuated by the only perfect season of the modern era, a 29-0 mark in the 1969-1970 season. Started on a frozen pond in 1900, Cornellhockey was revitalized in the late 1950s with the completion of the campus's first indoor facility, Lynah Rink. Since then, names like Ken Dryden, Ned Harkness, Lance Nethery, Joe Nieuwendyk, Daren Eliot, Mike Schafer, and David LeNeveu have won championship after championship.

Their stories are expertly recounted in Cornell University Hockeyby authors Adam Wodon, who has covered Cornell hockey since 1988, and Arthur Mintz, sports columnist for the Ithaca Times for seventeen years.

Wildcat Hockey includes photographs of the colorful players, whose success was enhanced by the installation of the first artificial ice rink in 1955 and the opening of Snively Arena in 1965. The hiring of coach Charlie Holt in 1968 and the transition to Division I marked a new era in ice hockey at UNH, as did the creation of its first women's ice hockey team in 1977. Wildcat Hockey provides a visual record of the exploits of the men and women who have put UNH on the collegiate ice hockey map. Their efforts are marked by the move to the Whittemore Center in 1995, to the 1998 Women's National Championship, and to regular trips to the Frozen Four for both teams. This collection draws on the rich photographic sources in the university archives and the campus photographic services.