On the heels of his successful book on the Hobey Baker Award that was published two years ago, Brian Shaughnessy is at it again, this time with “Frozen in Time: A History of the U.S. Men’s College Hockey Championship.”
The book takes a look at the 75-year history of the Frozen Four, though the terms “Frozen Four” and “NCAA” do not appear in the book due to NCAA intellectual property rights. Instead, he useds generic phrases like “semi-finals,” “finals,” “Division I,” and “U.S. collegiate.”
A unique aspect of this book is that 100 percent of its sales will benefit the non-profit Matt Brown Foundation, which provides equipment and other assistance to individuals living with serious spinal cord injuries. Brown was a high school hockey player in Norwood, Mass., who became paralyzed during a game in 2010 when he was checked into the boards. He has gone on to obtain his college degree, author a book, and become a noted motivational speaker.
Brown has a distant connection to the Frozen Four in that his uncle, Peter Brown, was an All-American defenseman for Boston University in the mid-1970s and a key player on three Terriers teams that reached the national semifinals.
The book contains more than 130,000 words and 200 photographs, as every school that has won a Division I title provided photos for the book. In addition, Sports Illustrated and Getty Images donated other rare photographs of past Frozen Fours, “which really enhanced project,” according to Shaughnessy.
“I was inspired to write the book with the passing of Travis Roy in the fall of 2020,” said Shaughnessy. “Travis would have played in at least two Frozen Fours if not for his injury in 1995, and since a book had never been authored about the history of the tournament, I figured, ‘Why not write something about the national tourney?’ I knew it would take me a year or two to write, and that the 2022-23 season would be the 75-year anniversary of the first national championship. Thus, the timing of the project worked out perfectly.
In writing the new book and researching the game, Shaughnessy said he learned new facts about college hockey.
“Many years ago, before I began researching college hockey history, I thought the early NCAA hockey tournaments were dominated solely by Canadian-born players, and that Americans only made their mark on the sport after the 1980 Winter Olympics — this wasn’t the case at all,” Shaughnessy said. “The early years of the tourney featured U.S.-born stars like Wally Grant at Michigan, goalies Roy and Willard Ikola at Colorado College and Michigan, respectively, and the incomparable John Mayasich from the University of Minnesota. Boston College’s 1949 national championship team was comprised entirely of American-born talent, as were Minnesota’s three title-winning teams under Herb Brooks in the 1970s.
“Of course, there was no shortage of Canadian-born superstars in pre-1980 NCAA hockey, including the likes of Frank Chiarelli (RPI), Bill “Red” Hay (Colorado College), Bill Masterton (Denver), Red Berenson (Michigan), Ken Dryden (Cornell), Tony Esposito (Michigan Tech), Peter McNab (Denver), and Keith Magnuson (Denver).”
While the finished product is a must-have for college hockey fans, Shaughnessy said he faced many issues in compiling the more-than-200-page book.
“The biggest challenge I faced was lining up interviews of past players and coaches,” said Shaughnessy. “Since I’m not a reporter or a member of the sports media, my access to people in the college hockey community was somewhat limited. I still had some contacts from a book I wrote about the Hobey Baker Award back in 2019, so that certainly helped. As a Hawaii resident, the five- and six-hour time difference with most individuals I was attempting to contact was also a challenge at times.
“Collecting the more than 200 photographs that appear in the book was also quite time-consuming. I was very fortunate that nearly every school that has won a Division I hockey championship donated photos to the book. I also received numerous rare photographs of past Frozen Fours from Getty Images and Sports Illustrated.”
Overall, Shaughnessy said “Frozen in Time” is about rehashing fun memories of NCAA tournaments of years gone by.
“This book is all about recognizing the great players, coaches, and teams of college hockey’s past, and raising funds for the non-profit Matt Brown Foundation,” Shaughnessy said. “My goal was to blend the characteristics of a coffee-table book with a detailed story on the history of the tournament. The book is packed with statistics, accolades the key players and coaches received during their collegiate careers, and the noteworthy accomplishments of players and coaches in their post-NCAA hockey lives. I also referenced the significant academic achievements of dozens of players in the book.”
The book is available on Amazon.
