'Other' Beanpot hits 25

Harvard favored in women's event

By Susan Bickelhaupt, Globe Staff, 2/4/2003

wenty-five years ago, four coaches of women's hockey teams at Boston-area colleges got together at a pub in Harvard Square. They weren't there to drink but to talk about the Beanpot tournament that had become a part of the sports fabric in Boston -- for the men.

Joe Bertagna, who was the women's hockey coach at Harvard, figured, why not have the women get in on the act, too?

''We thought, how can we give them a special event, with the realization that it wouldn't be the same scope as the men's?'' recalled Bertagna, who is now commissioner of Hockey East. ''Here we are, 25 years later, and the event is still going on.''

This year's tournament begins tonight at Harvard's Bright Hockey Center. The title game and consolation match will be next Tuesday. The women's tournament involves the same four teams -- Harvard, Northeastern, Boston College, and Boston University -- although Northeastern (14 titles) and Harvard (eight) have dominated the event. BU took its only title in 1981, and Brown won the championship in 1993, the one year it played in the tournament.

In tonight's first game, at 5 p.m., BC (9-12-3, 0-6-1 Hockey East) will be looking for its first win over NU (7-15-2, 3-7-11) since the Eagles became a varsity team in 1994. BC is 0-1-1 against NU this season, with a 3-3 tie and 5-4 loss.

Harvard (17-1-0), going for its fifth straight Beanpot, faces BU in the other semifinal, at 8. The Terriers still operate as a club team, not a varsity.

If Harvard and NU wind up playing for the title next week, the showdown will feature three of the 10 candidates for this year's Patty Kazmaier Award as national women's player of the year. Harvard's top two scorers, Jennifer Botterill and Angela Ruggiero, as well as NU goalkeeper Chanda Gunn, were among the finalists announced yesterday. Botterill won the award as a junior in 2001 after leading the nation with 78 points, and Ruggiero has been a candidate twice before.

Carly Haggard of Dartmouth and Kelli Halcisak of Providence also are finalists.

Bertagna, a former goalie at Harvard, will be at the final next week to present the award -- named for him -- to the tournament's best goalie. Not only was he among the tournament's founders, but he also went out and bought a porcelain beanpot on a wooden base -- and it has endured as the tournament's trophy.

It has never been replaced, or silver-plated, said Bertagna, who paid $6 for it at an antique store on the North Shore. According to Bertagna, he hasn't been reimbursed for the trophy, but 25 years later, it was obviously a good investment.

This story ran on page F8 of the Boston Globe on 2/4/2003.
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