Featured Flashback: 1932-33 Yale Bulldogs

Hockey will be back in action on the Yale campus this upcoming fall after the Ivy League cancelled winter sports last season due to COVID concerns. The 2020-21 season was the first time the Yale Bulldogs did not field an ice hockey team since its inception in 1895. That is quite an impressive run for the school that played the very first intercollegiate game in the history of the sport.

Today we’re taking a look back at the Yale squad from the 1932-33 season. It was the third season with Holcomb York at the helm and was the last Independent season for the Bulldogs before the Quadrangular League was formed. This precursor to the Ivy League included Yale, Harvard, Princeton and Dartmouth. The 1932-33 team was coming off of an 11-7-2 record the previous season. With hopes for a fast start, the team ended up 5-4 after the first nine games. However, an impressive 12-0 victory over Middlebury followed by an 11-0 shutout of Brown the next game jumpstarted the team into a four-game winning streak. As was tradition at the time, the team met Harvard in the final games of the season. Yale won the first game 4-1 at home. The final two games took place at Boston Garden with the Crimson defeating the Bulldogs 4-1 on March 4 and again 4-3 (in overtime) on March 8. At the end of the season, Yale ended up with an 11-8-0 record.

In the accompanying team photo, the players are wearing the white sweaters with Yale Blue trim. The player in the center of the photo who is the only one wearing the Y logo is presumably the captain, Alexander Fletcher.

Photo Credit: Yale Athletics Photographs (RU 691). Manuscripts and Archives, Yale University Library.