For Ken Hammond, the magic and mystique of winning a national championship didn’t hit him until well after the fact. “You don’t have a clue what’s happened until after you left; you don’t have the time to grasp everything with the academic and athletic pressures.”
The athletic pressures were indeed very intense for the 1984-1985 RPI Engineers, as they catapulted Troy, N.Y., to national fame by running up a 35-2-1 record en route to a national championship and college hockey immortality. The mere two losses were the fewest for a whole season since Boston University finished with two in 1978, and wouldn’t be surpassed until Maine finished 42-1-2 in 1993.
There was clearly something special about this RPI squad. It was a robustly talent-laden team; the likes of which were rarely seen in college hockey.
There was Adam Oates, the nation’s assist leader, who had Gretzkyesque ice vision and went on to have a hall of fame NHL career. There was Daren Puppa, the rock-solid backstop who played over a decade in the NHL.
There was Mike Sadeghpour, who was described by Hammond as “our Mike Eruzione.” There were John Carter, George Servinis, Tim Friday, Mike Dark, and Kraig Nienhuis, who laced up with the pros.
Then there was Hammond; the rugged defenseman who went on to play for seven different NHL teams, the assistant captain who embodied the spirit and solidarity of that championship squad. “There was a lot of camaraderie…we were all easily accepted by the student body. We hung out with everyone. We supported other sports teams and brought the athletic teams together,” said Hammond.
After that 1985 season, many of the players left Rensselaer and went their separate ways. For Hammond, though, nothing ever quite matched the RPI experience. “There is nothing like playing with the pep band behind you and for all the students and your friends,” he related, even going so far as to say that the professional atmosphere was a bit of a letdown.
“It just wasn’t the same environment. You were on your own, there was no camaraderie. You were a professional; you came and did what you were supposed to do. There was some adjustment there, but RPI prepares you so well, so I felt pretty comfortable.” Hammond even joked about the rigors of the academics an RPI student faces: “Nothing compares to thermodynamics, where a 40 out of 200 gets you a B.”
The championship team was honored at this weekend’s Big Red Freakout! It represented a homecoming of sorts for many players, and offered many a perspective on the nature of change. “The campus has changed a lot,” remarked Hammond, “there has been a transformation of sorts with the building of the tech center [the VCC] and the JEC. It has become a world class university. It has gone from the best kept secret to having all of its attributes publicized.”
The 1985 team was no doubt a special one. The players were teammates and friends. The championship banner hangs proudly from Houston Field House to this day; the team left their mark on RPI forever, but it’s obvious that RPI has left an indelible mark on every member.
