1967. Hugo Belanger was the catalyst in the game, and the tournament's MVP. His hat-trick
goal at 43 seconds of the third period gave the Golden Knights a 5-4 advantage that stood up.
Clarkson placed four players on the ECAC All-Tournament Team: Chris Rogles (goal), Dave
Tretowicz (defense), Scott Thomas and Hugo Belanger (forwards).
They may have won that title but because of strange politicking behind the scenes, they
were ranked only fourth in the East behind Maine (#1), Boston University (#2), and Boston
College (#3). That meant that they had to win the best out of three against their comparably
ranked team in the western division, Wisconsin, last year's NCAA champions. However,
Clarkson had home-ice advantage for that series. And what an advantage! The 1990-91 Golden
Knights had not been defeated on home ice all year long, and had been tied but once. On Friday
and Saturday, March 15-16, 1991, the Golden Knights were not kind to their visitors from the
Badger State, winning 8-3 and 5-4. Those were the last games played in the Walker Arena-a
fitting final chapter in the 48-year history of that structure which has been so important to
Clarkson.
Those wins led the team into the quarter finals, this time against the number one team in
the nation, Lake Superior State University. On the weekend of March 22, 23, and 24, the
Knights journeyed to Sault St. Marie, Michigan, to play against a supposedly awesome foe, and
showed the Michiganders that they weren't the number one team after all. Friday evening,
Clarkson posted an 8-3 win; Saturday, they lost 6-2, but on Sunday, the Knights were not to be
ignored, and took and held the lead during the entire game, bringing back to Potsdam with them
the right to play in the semifinals in St. Paul, Minnesota, on March 28, against an old foe,
Boston University.
When the team returned from the quarter-finals, their plane was met at the Massena
airport at 3:30 a.m. by over 100 elated Clarkson students. On their entry into Potsdam, they
were given a police escort through town to the Arena where a horde of over 600 enthusiastic
fans screamed their support and approval of the team's efforts in a pre-dawn welcome-home
celebration.
The semifinals against BU proved to be the team's downfall. Playing on a larger ice
surface, suffering the fatigue of a hectic playoff schedule, and feeling over-confident from the
knowledge that they had beaten BU earlier in the year in Boston, the team was outplayed and
outscored, and lost 7-3.
WAC Replaced WPE.
The much maligned Writing Proficiency Examination (WPE) finally
was phased out. It had been instituted over 10 years earlier to ascertain that all graduating
seniors could write. Like Prohibition, this "Noble Experiment" did not live up to its lofty goal.
It was replaced by Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC)-a program established to
ensure that students experienced significant writing in their courses during their four years of
residency at Clarkson. Ostensibly, in addition to the Liberal Studies courses, most of which
required extensive writing assignments, and whatever additional Technical Communications
courses the student might elect, each student was required to take a course taught by his or her
major department or field during his or her senior year in which writing played a significant
role. In other words, as seniors, the students were to be taught by their own departmental
faculty how to communicate effectively in their own unique and separate disciplines.
As this was a university-wide requirement, each department's compliance was
monitored by a special Writing Instructional Support Committee (WISC) made up of the four
academic deans, four tenured faculty (one from each school), and an undergraduate.
