May 21, 2015
Last team standing: Your 2015 Providence College NCAA champions
By Joe Carr ’83
After a single eight-game season in 1927, Friar hockey returned for good in 1952, under the guiding hand of a World War II Marine chaplain affectionately known as “Dutch.”
Rev. Herman Damien Schneider, O.P. ’30, (1909-63) is rightfully known as the Father of Friar Hockey, having forged the union between the College and the sport he loved.
Through some combination of design and good fortune, Father Schneider’s program has been reliably strong, winning its share of games and, more important, earning the respect of opponents over six decades.
Along came the 2014-15 team, led by Head Coach Nate Leaman, a program builder who came to PC in 2011 with sights set on winning championships, and national ones at that. An early exit from the Hockey East playoffs imperiled the Friars’ NCAA Tournament hopes, but they made the field, the last at-large team of 16 teams to qualify.
Three tournament wins brought the Friars to the national championship game, a place they had only been once before — 30 years ago — to play long-time rival Boston University.
Gates Orlando ’84 was in Boston’s TD Garden that night of April 11, one of several former Friars hoping to see their successors win that title. It was a goal that had eluded — barely, in 1964, 1983, and 1985 — those who had worn the uniform before.
Orlando, one of the all-time great Friars by any measure, is less than two years removed from a heart transplant. He knows all about character and courage, and he would tell you that playing hockey for PC helped develop his character and make him strong.
He exemplifies a legacy defined by characteristics that make this small Catholic school in Rhode Island formidable — hard work, resilience, and commitment to shared ideals.
The Friars won the NCAA Championship that night, beating BU, 4-3. That win punctuates a legacy that runs through team captain Ross Mauermann ’15 (Janesville, Wisc.) to Gates Orlando to Father Schneider, with so many fine men in between.
The last team in was the last team standing. It was, as PC’s visionary athletic director, Bob Driscoll, said, “a great night to be a Friar.” Dutch would have been proud.
