Robert J. Wheeler (7 January 1931 – 13 April 2021) was an American ice hockey

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who helped

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reach its first and only (as of 2020) national championship game in

1951 Events January * January 4 – Korean War: Third Battle of Seoul – Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul for the second time (having lost the Second Battle of Seoul in September 1950). * January 9 – The Government of the United ...

Career

Wheeler grew up in

Wakefield Wakefield is a cathedral city in West Yorkshire, England located on the River Calder. The city had a population of 99,251 in the 2011 census.https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/census/2011/ks101ew Census 2011 table KS101EW Usual resident population, ...

but was sent to

Malden Catholic High School Malden Catholic High School is a private, Catholic secondary school located in Malden, Massachusetts. The school was founded by the Congregation of the Brothers of St. Francis Xavier, an international congregation of religious brothers. It is a ...

for a

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education at the insistence of his mother. At Malden Wheeler became a star on the ice, leading his team in scoring during his senior season and helped the Lancers go on a tremendous run in the state tournament. After defeating cross-town rival

Malden High School Malden High School is a public high school in Malden, Massachusetts. Established in 1857, the school is part of the Malden Public Schools and is accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC). A 2013 study conducted ...

in the semifinal in front of a packed house at the

Boston Garden The Boston Garden was an arena in Boston, Massachusetts. Designed by boxing promoter Tex Rickard, who also built the third iteration of New York's Madison Square Garden, it opened on November 17, 1928, as "Boston Madison Square Garden" (late ...

, MC won the Massachusetts state championship over Arlington High. The win gave Malden Catholic a berth into the regional tournament where the team continued to win and captured the New England Championship with Wheeler finishing as the top scorer in all of

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

. Wheeler began attending

Brown University Brown University is a private research university in Providence, Rhode Island. Brown is the seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, founded in 1764 as the College in the English Colony of Rhode Island and Providenc ...

in 1948 and made an impact on the ice hockey team the following year. Wheeler helped the Bears win their first league championship in almost 50 years and set a program record with 11 wins. As a junior he nearly doubled his goal total, finishing with 33, setting another program record. Brown won its second

Pentagonal League The Pentagonal League is a defunct NCAA Division I ice hockey-only conference. The league was formed by Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton and Yale as a way of determining which team, among the oldest ice hockey programs, was the best. The league i ...

championship (the last time Brown won a conference title as of 2020) and finished the regular season with a 17–5 record. Brown received the top eastern seed and made its first appearance in the NCAA tournament where they dominated defending champion Colorado College 8–4 in the first game. The Bears' luck ran out in the final and they were completely swamped by

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

, being outshot 20–52 in the game and losing 1–7. Wheeler assisted on Brown's only goal of the match. In his senior season Wheeler kept scoring for the Bears but several graduations in 1951 caused Brown to slip just enough to miss the tournament. Wheeler finished the year with 36 goals in 22 games, a new program record that stands as of 2020, and 86 goals for his career (another program record as of 2020). He was selected as an AHCA

First Team All-American The All-America designation is an annual honor bestowed upon an amateur sports person from the United States who is considered to be one of the best amateurs in their sport. Individuals receiving this distinction are typically added to an All-Am ...

and was one of the top goal-scorers in the nation. After graduating from Brown Wheeler joined the

army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

and served in

Korea Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...

. After returning he began a career working for IBM. In the fall of 1955, Wheeler attended a training camp for the US National team for the upcoming Winter Olympics and felt that he had a good chance to make the squad. He went to his manager at IBM and requested a 6-month leave to participate but, having worked at the company for only 3 months, Wheeler was denied and his Olympic hopes ended. The missed opportunity remained one of Wheeler's biggest regrets. Wheeler was inducted into the Brown Athletic Hall of Fame in 1971 and the Massachusetts Hockey Hall of Fame in 2007. Later in life, Wheeler became an outstanding golfer under the tutelage of William “Wild Bill” Ezinicki and went on to win the club championship at New Seabury Country Club as well as the senior club championship at Essex County Club.

Personal

Wheeler moved to

Hamilton Hamilton may refer to: People * Hamilton (name), a common British surname and occasional given name, usually of Scottish origin, including a list of persons with the surname ** The Duke of Hamilton, the premier peer of Scotland ** Lord Hamilt ...

in 1969, where he and his wife Diane raised their five children. His oldest son, Bob Jr., played college hockey at

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

and also played on a team that made the championship game in

1983 The year 1983 saw both the official beginning of the Internet and the first mobile cellular telephone call. Events January * January 1 – The migration of the ARPANET to Internet protocol suite, TCP/IP is officially completed (this is consid ...

Statistics

Regular season and playoffs

Awards and honors

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wheeler, Bob 1931 births 2021 deaths Golfers from Massachusetts Ice hockey players from Massachusetts People from Hamilton, Massachusetts Sportspeople from Wakefield, Massachusetts Ice hockey people from Essex County, Massachusetts Ice hockey people from Middlesex County, Massachusetts American ice hockey forwards Brown Bears men's ice hockey players Military personnel from Massachusetts United States Army soldiers United States Army personnel of the Korean War AHCA Division I men's ice hockey All-Americans