Beanpot (ice hockey)

The Beanpot

Tournament information
Sport	Ice hockey
Location	Boston
Month played	February
Established	1952
Teams	4
Current champion
Northeastern University

The Beanpot is an ice hockey tournament among the four major college hockey schools of the Boston, Massachusetts area, held annually since the 1952–53 season.^[1] The tournament gives the winner bragging rights over its cross-town rivals, and the quest for this highly sought-after trophy is contested in front of fanatic crowds from all four schools in annual sellouts.^[2]

Format

The competitors are:

• Boston University Terriers (53-time finalists, 30-time winners; last championship in 2015)
• Boston College Eagles (35-time finalists, 20-time winners; last championship in 2016)
• Harvard University Crimson (25-time finalists, 11-time winners; last championship in 2017)
• Northeastern University Huskies (18-time finalists, 5-time winners; last championship in 2018)^[3]

The tournament lasts two rounds, with first-round opponents being rotated from year to year. The second round features the consolation game and the championship game.

In addition to the tournament trophy, two individual awards are given out each year. The Eberly Trophy^[4] goes to the goaltender with the highest save percentage who plays in both of his team's games, while the Beanpot MVP^[5] is awarded to tournament's most valuable player.

History

The first Beanpot was contested at Boston Arena in December 1952. No tournament was played during the 1953 calendar year. The next two tournaments were held in January (1954 and 1955). All subsequent Beanpot games have been played in February (except 1978; see below).

The second through 43rd Beanpots (1954 through 1995) were held at the old Boston Garden. Since 1996, the Beanpot has been held at the Garden's replacement, currently called the TD Garden. The competition generally takes place on the first and second Mondays in February and often draws one of the largest crowds of the college hockey season outside of the Frozen Four.

The 1978 Beanpot has taken a mythic place in Boston sports lore, as several hundred fans were stuck in the Garden for several days after the Blizzard of 1978 dumped more than two feet of snow during the night of the first-round games. The championship and consolation games were moved to Wednesday, March 1.

Every championship game to date has featured either Boston College or Boston University, or both—Harvard and Northeastern have never met in the Beanpot final.

Boston College controlled the early years of the Beanpot, winning eight titles in the first thirteen tournaments, with Harvard taking four and BU just one. Between 1966 and 2009, however, the Boston University Terriers historically dominated the Beanpot, winning 28 out of 43 titles, prompting fans to nickname the contest the "BU Invitational". An apt name, as BU has made it to the title game 53 of 66 years (as of 2018), only missing 13 times. However, in recent years, the balance of power has again tipped towards the Eagles of Boston College, who have won six titles in seven years between 2010–2016. In that stretch, BC won five consecutive titles from 2010-2014, losing out in the first round in 2015, and regaining the title most recently in 2016.

The beginning of BU's Beanpot dominance was also the first year on the ice for Jack Parker. Parker won titles in each of the three years he played for the Terriers, and after taking over as head coach in 1973–74, Parker won 21 more championships.

Wayne Turner with 1980 Beanpot

Northeastern, the only Beanpot team that has never won an NCAA hockey title, failed to win a Beanpot until 1980, when an overtime goal by Wayne Turner against Boston College gave the Huskies a win. Turner's wrist shot has often been called the most important goal in Northeastern history, and is generally considered the marquee sporting moment for the university. It is also known as the "Shot Heard Round the Beanpot".^[6]

Northeastern won three more titles in the 1980s, but failed to capture the Beanpot for 30 years until breaking their streak in 2018. The Huskies came close to winning their fifth title in 2005 when they rallied from a 2–0 goal deficit to tie BU, but fell in overtime when Chris Bourque—son of former Boston Bruin Ray Bourque—scored the winning goal. They have made it to championship game five times in the past eight years (2011, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2018) but fell to Boston College in 2011, 2013, and 2014 and to Boston University in 2015. The 2015 installment saw another close Northeastern loss, coming back from a 3–1 deficit in the 3rd to force overtime, but were defeated only 51 seconds into the extra period off a power play goal by Matt Grzelcyk. Northeastern won their latest championship in 2018 with a dominating 5–2 victory over BU, in a rare year where the Huskies were the strongest team in the field, having come into the tournament ranked highest in the pairwise over the other three Beanpot schools.

Harvard shared some success with Boston College in the early years of the tournament, winning four titles in the first 10 years, as well as making the title game each of the first four tournaments and winning the very first title game. However, they have only seen sporadic success since (albeit more than Northeastern), winning 11 titles in the 65 years of the tournament, most recently capturing their first title since 1993 in 2017. They had only made the title game three times in between, in 1994, 1998, and 2008.

It should also be noted that none of the four competing teams have won the NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Championship without first winning the Beanpot trophy that season. With the exception of the 1949 Boston College Eagles (as the tournament had yet to be created), all five Boston University NCAA championships (1971, 1972, 1978, 1995, 2009), Boston College's four other NCAA championships (2001, 2008, 2010, 2012), and Harvard's sole 1989 NCAA championship, were all accompanied by a victory in the Beanpot title game. Northeastern has not yet won an NCAA championship. This phenomenon has led fans of the Beanpot schools to believe dreams for a national title hold water if they indeed succeed in February. Boston College head coach Jerry York has often referred to the beginning of February as "Trophy Season," in which the Beanpot title is the first of three trophies that he wishes his team to attain, the others being the Hockey East tournament trophy, and the NCAA tournament trophy.

Other Beanpots

The success of the men's ice hockey tournament has spawned "Beanpot" tournaments in other sports, including basketball, for 14 years ending in 1976, women's ice hockey, baseball (with the University of Massachusetts Amherst replacing Boston University, which does not offer varsity baseball), softball, men's and women's soccer, women's rowing (which also features MIT) and cycling.

The Women's Ice Hockey Beanpot takes place each year on the first two Tuesdays in February, one day after their male counterparts. Northeastern and Harvard have historically dominated the tournament, with 14 and 11 titles respectively, but Boston College has won the title two years in a row. Notably, they advanced to the 2007 final with a 4–3, triple overtime victory over nationally ranked Harvard, in a game that drew national attention. BC's freshman goalie Molly Schaus set an NCAA record with 73 saves in the contest. In recent years, an informal "Pep Band" beanpot has been held between the two games of the first round of the women's beanpot, with the bands from each school performing a unique piece.

The final round of the baseball Beanpot is played at Fenway Park.

A Beanpot for women's rowing was established in 2007, with the crews from Boston College, Boston University, Harvard University (Radcliffe), the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Northeastern University competing.

The first Men's Lacrosse Beanpot was held October 19, 2008 at Harvard University. Harvard's Men's Club Team hosted Boston University, Boston College and Northeastern University.

There are also many non-athletic events attached to the Beanpot. These typically occur the same time of year as the hockey beanpot. There is a Concert Band Beanpot, Pep Band Beanpot, Beanpot of Comedy, and a Rice and Beanpot burrito-eating contest, sponsored by Qdoba. The Concert Band Beanpot and Beanpot of Comedy are non-competitive events.

Also, there is the B-School Beanpot Competition, an annual case analysis competition held at Boston University's School of Management since 1996. Undergraduate business schools from the Greater Boston area participate for cash prizes.

The Concert Band Beanpot and Rice and Beanpot participants are the same schools as the men's hockey tournament. The Beanpot of Comedy, hosted by NU & Improv'd of Northeastern University, features sketch and improvisational comedy groups from different schools each year. Past participants have included Boston College, Boston University, Salem State College, Suffolk University, Clark University, and Tufts University. The Business Beanpot participants are Babson College, Boston University, Bentley College, Northeastern University, and Suffolk University. Northeastern University has won ten of the twelve Business Beanpots since 1996, and has taken the top two spots four times. The most recent 1–2 sweep for Northeastern was in 2008.

The Boston College Office of Undergraduate Admission and the Boston University Office of Undergraduate Admission also play in the annual Beancan softball tournament, usually held in July.

On September 26, 2014, the BBC reported that Boston mayor Marty Walsh announced publicly during an official visit to Belfast (Boston's sister city since 2014) that he was supporting a bid to hold a future Beanpot tournament at Odyssey Area in Belfast and that Walsh reportedly will be hosting a delegation from Belfast alongside representatives from the NCAA and the four beanpot schools in October 2014 to further discuss the possibility.^[7] However, after a large negative outcry from the Boston media, Walsh later stated that the idea of moving the tournament to a non-Boston venue was taken out of context, and that he only supported "the hosting of a "Beanpot-like" tournament in Belfast that would feature Massachusetts colleges." ^[8]

All-time results

Four games are listed for each Beanpot, in the order they were played. There are two opening round games, a consolation game featuring the losers of the first two games, and a championship game featuring the winners of the first two games. The teams rotate opening round opponents on a 3-year cycle, so over history every team faces the others an equal number of times during the opening round. Each row represents one Beanpot. Champions are listed in bold. Games requiring one overtime are in pink  , while games requiring two or three overtimes are in chartreuse   and cyan  , respectively.

Source: Game information obtained from Beanpot official site.

Note: During the 2004–05 season, following Fleet's acquisition by Bank of America and the bank's decision to terminate the naming rights to the arena, there was no permanent naming rights sponsor for that season. It was known as "YourGarden" that year.

Team statistics

Through the 2018 Beanpot, the four teams have amassed the following statistics:

Source:^[9]

Individual awards

Two awards are presented annually: the Most Valuable Player award and the Eberly Award. The Eberly Award, first presented in 1974, is given annually to the goalie with the best save percentage. The winning goalie must participate in two games to qualify. The award is named after Glen and Dan Eberly, former Beanpot goaltenders at Boston University and Northeastern University, respectively.

Source:^[13]

See also

• College rivalry
• Boston College Eagles
• Boston University Terriers
• Harvard University Crimson
• Northeastern University Huskies

References

External links

• Beanpot Tournament
• Beanpot Tournament History and Timeline
• Beanpot trophy history