Plattsburgh State Hockey Pioneer

By Takafumi Wada

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WINTER 2001

When on March 7, 1981, Plattsburgh State men's hockey team defeated Oswego State, 7-6, in the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference Division-II final, team captain Douglas Kimura was not on the ice, but on crutches.

When Plattsburgh State advanced into the National Collegiate Athletic Association tournament for the first time ever, he played only one shift in the championship game against UMass-Lowell, and the Cardinals lost, 5-4. A knee injury sidelined him.

Yet there is no doubt that Kimura was a pioneer of the Plattsburgh State men's hockey history.

Kimura, a Canadian citizen of Japanese origin, was born in Verdun, Quebec, in 1957. He played junior hockey in Montreal, which is the highest stage before becoming professional in Canada, and in Dawson College of Montreal for a year.

While attending Dawson, the Cardinal head coach Lou Frigon asked Kimura, "Would you like to come to Plattsburgh?" Needless to say, he signed up.

The Plattsburgh State hockey team, which formed in the 1975-76 season, was in its third year when Kimura joined the team. The Cardinals, which recorded only a 23-25-1 in its first two years, jumped up to an 18-4 record in his freshman year, when Plattsburgh State appeared in the ECAC D-II West conference playoffs for the first time.

Bob Goetz, who has been the sports editor for the Press-Republican since that era, says Kimura was in first wave of the Cardinal hockey team, and a really good recruit. Kimura was a part of the group, Goetz recalls, a trait that elevated the Plattsburgh State hockey program.

"He [Kimura] had a flare on the ice and off the ice. He was always charismatic." ---Bob Goetz, sports editor Press-Republican.

He had his first highlight as a Cardinal in his sophomore year, 1978-79, when he was named to the All-American team. It was the first time in Cardinals history that the team had earned this distinction.

Looking back at that year, Goetz says Kimura really caught the fans' hearts with his performance at the UMass-Lowell Tournament, where the Cardinals topped two old established teams: Merrimack, 6-5 in overtime, and UMass-Lowell, 3-2. Both of these teams are currently Division I, while Plattsburgh remains in Division II.

"He really frustrated them (his opponents) a lot, with his control and the ability to clear the zone and flip the puck high," Goetz says. "He really shined at that tournament."

After suffering defeats in the semi-finals for two years straight, Kimura and the other Cardinals finally reached the Division II Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference West conference final to play rival Oswego State in the 1979-80 season. But the host Cardinals had to end their season, as they fell behind the Great Lakers, 8-3.

Captain Kimura then returned to the ice as a senior in the 1980-81 season. It was his final season, but injuries sidelined him out of ten games.

He was forced to meet the regular season opener with injury after he got kicked his leg and broke his bone in the exhibition game against Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Then he bounced back, but got hurt again, twisting his knee in the final regular-season game against Middlebury College. That injury eventually kept him out of almost all the post-season games of that year. But, he had no regrets.

"I wanted to be there to help my teammates. I was not able to play, but we had a good enough team," Kimura said. "We would be able to be very competitive even if I did not play, and we were."

Plattsburgh State, who had a 27-4-2 record that year, came back to the conference final to play Oswego State again, only with a different head coach, Herb Hammond, a former head coach of Oswego State, the team that defeated the Cardinals a year before.

Kimura remembered Hammond, and said he and all his teammates had enjoyed playing for "Herby." "He was very innovative with some techniques and the system," Kimura said. "We got used to them."

	photo by The Press-Republican
	Rick Strack, the first N.H.L. player from Plattsburgh State see his profile

The leveled-up 1981 Cardinals, with "six strong defensemen, two very offensive lines, good goaltender Rick Strack and coach Hammond," according to Kimura, came from behind to top the Oswego State Great Lakers, 7-6, in the ECAC D-II West conference final on March 7, 1981, advancing to the NCAA D-II frozen four.

Kimura was on crutches, helping Hammond as "kind of" an assistant coach. Goetz, however, remembers the moment before that game at Oswego.

"The crowd [at Oswego] was anticipating Kimura was playing, and one of the first things I noticed when I went to the rink was the big sign, which said, 'Hey, Kimura, break your leg.' He had that kind of respect, and people knew who he was."

Kimura ended the season and his college hockey life with his second All-American honor and 102 career assists after playing one shift in the NCAA D-II championship against UMass-Lowell on March 14. He still remembers how he played in that one shift.

"They came down, 3-on-1. I was going to be skating backwards, and I broke up the play. [Then] we got the puck, and I passed it up."

Back then, Goetz said, Kimura and Strack were the two players with whom people would identify during those early hockey scenes in Plattsburgh. "He [Kimura] had a flare on the ice and off the ice," Goetz said. "He was always charismatic."

Kimura's hockey life did not come to an end, however. Kimura tried to play in Japan, taking advantage of his Japanese heritage, but unfortunately, he could not get proof that his grandparents were born in Japan, which he needed to play in Japan. The documents were destroyed during World War II. He also had a chance to play in Europe, but he could not come to contract terms. Kimura eventually played in the East Coast Hockey League for a year, and then he decided to come back home and had coached at Dawson College of Montreal for three years. Even now, he plays in a senior league in Montreal.

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