Fred Willis 1947-2023

Former NFL running back and college hockey player Fred Willis (Boston College) passed away on July 4 at the age of 75.

A native of Natick, Mass., the same hometown as fellow BC football great Doug Flutie, Willis played one year of varsity hockey at BC, tallying nine goals and 19 points in 24 games during the 1968-69 season as the Eagles went 19-7-0 overall and finished second in the ECAC with a 16-5-0 mark.

It was on the gridiron where Willis made his biggest athletic mark, as a halfback, as he became the first player in BC history to rush for over 1,000 yards in a single season when he accumulated 1,107 yards on the ground in 1970. He earned All-America and All-East accolades as a senior, and also played in both the Senior Bowl and Blue-Gray Game that year. He rushed for a then-BC career record of 2,115 yards in only three varsity seasons, earned his bachelor's degree in business administration, and was later inducted into the Boston College Varsity Club Hall of Fame in 1977.

Willis then went to play six years of professional football, two with the Cincinnati Bengals, who drafted him 93rd overall in 1971, and then four with the Houston Oilers. In 77 career NFL regular-season games, he ran the ball 780 times for 2,831 yards and 18 touchdowns. He also caught 203 passes for 1,380 yards and five touchdowns. As a rookie with Cincinnati, he rushed for a career-high 590 yards and seven scores, before catching a career-high and AFC-leading 57 passes for a personal-best 371 yards two years later in his first full season with Houston.

A successful restaurateur with several chains following the completion of his football career, Willis also went on to serve as the founder, president and CEO of NeuroSport, which assisted athletes with evaluation of concussions, risk assessment, and returning to play, and as founder and executive director of NFL Player Brains Matter. where he advocated for former players who suffered from the effects of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE).

Faceoff on the Lake Coming Feb. 2023

College hockey will head outdoors again early next year, with a Big Ten battle at FirstEnergy Stadium in Cleveland, Ohio, home of the NFL's Browns, on Lake Erie.

The University of Michigan will face rival Ohio State University on Feb. 18 in the “Faceoff on the Lake.” It will be the ninth time Michigan will have played outdoors since the inaugural NCAA outdoor contest, the Cold War, on Oct. 6, 2001 at Michigan State University. Ohio State will be appearing outdoors for the fourth time in program history, according to collegehockeyinc.com. A list of all NCAA Division I men's hockey outdoor games to date in the modern era, 40 in all since 2001, can be found here.

It will be the second time the Wolverines and Buckeyes have faced off outdoors, both times in Cleveland. U-M defeated OSU by a 4-1 count on Jan. 15. 2012, before 25,864 on-lookers at the Frozen Diamond Faceoff at Progressive Field, home of the MLB's Guardians. 

Winter Olympics Getting Under Way

 

The Winter Olympic Games in Sochi, Russia got underway last night, with the opening ceremonies set for tonight, followed by a fortnight of competition until the closing ceremonies are held on Feb. 23.

The ice hockey competition starts next week, but surprisingly, I’m not at all stoked for it like I was four years ago for Vancouver. Maybe it’s because the Games were closer to home, or at least in North America. Maybe it’s the time difference between here and the former Soviet Union (U.S. men’s games will start at 7:30 a.m.)

Or maybe it’s because as a diehard Seattle Seahawks fan for the last 37 years, I’m still quietly celebrating their Super Bowl XLVIII win on Sunday, and counting down the days until the 2014 NFL Draft.

Oh well. The NHL itself shuts down for two weeks after tomorrow night, although NCAA hockey will continue. Monday will see Boston College, the new No. 1 team in the Pairwise Rankings, shoot for its fifth straight Beanpot Tournament crown on at TD Garden against Northeastern, which is seeking its first title since 1988.

Here We Go Again

It begins once more.

Following last week’s slate of exhibition games against Canadian schools, along with a couple of non-conference outings, the 2013-14 NCAA Division I Men’s Ice Hockey campaign swings into full gear this weekend starting tonight, when Colgate visits RIT and Boston College drops in on Michigan. The schedule then picks up on Friday and Saturday with the Mariucci Classic in Minneapolis and the Kendall Classic in Anchorage, plus a slew of non-conference contests that will extend through Sunday afternoon when Rensselaer visits B.C.

Hard to believe it’s college hockey season again, with the MLB postseason and the NFL regular season both in full swing, and the NHL having just gotten underway itself. Still, just 184 days from now, a new Division I national champion will be crowned in Philadelphia.

The last six years have seen Yale, B.C., Minnesota-Duluth, B.C., Boston University, and B.C. skate off with the NCAA trophy. We’ll see if that trend continues, or if someone else will break through this time out in an even-numbered season. After last year’s national tournament, whereby Yale literally came out of nowhere to win it all, anything can—and most likely will—happen.

Buckle up.