St. Thomas men’s hockey coach Jeff “Duke” Boeser guided his team to an undefeated conference record and 2014 regular season championship, but for the former Tommie, hockey excellence has spanned more than three decades and included an Olympic run.

Boeser moved from playing hockey as kid in Bloomington, Minn., to playing for the 1976 Olympic team and eventually landing in the head coaching role at his alma mater.

Boeser got the opportunity to play in 41 exhibition games as a member of the United States men’s Olympic hockey team, but was cut the day before the start of the 1976 games in Austria.

Bearing the United States red, white and blue for the Olympics is an experience Boeser shares with his father. Bob Boeser represented the United States in the 1948 Winter Games.

For Boeser though, the path to the U.S. men’s Olympic hockey team started when he graduated from St. Thomas in 1975. At that time, before professional athletes like Zach Parise and T.J Oshie started representing their nations, the U.S. hockey team used open tryouts around the country to find the right young, talented college players.

“I made the final 30 to go to Madison to try and make the team. At the end of that weekend they told me that they were going to Czechoslovakia for two weeks and taking 20 players—you’re like 21,” Boeser said.

Boeser said he stayed in shape for a couple weeks while the coaches had the chance to look at players and make final decisions. They called him back a few weeks later to tell him he had made the cut and would be traveling to Czechoslovakia.

“We played an exhibition schedule. I played in about 40 games,” Boeser said. “I was kind of a role player–never on the power-play. You know, fourth-line kind of a guy.”

While playing for St. Thomas, Boeser dislocated his shoulder so he had to wear a brace during exhibition games. When he thought the brace was hindering his performance too he took it off for a game and ended up dislocating it again.

“It was kind of becoming chronic, and I was having some problems, and my strength wasn’t there,” Boeser said. “I don’t know if that would have made a difference. It definitely affected my play towards the end of the Olympic year.”

Eventually, rules about the number of players on each Olympic team ended in a tough break for Boeser and Mike Randolph, who’s now the Duluth East head coach.

“We went to Finland to play a couple exhibition games before the Olympics, and we were just sitting there at the Denmark Airport,” Boeser said. “At that point we had 22 (players), and they were battling to get us both to go, and it didn’t work out, so we had to go home.”

After U.S. head coach Bob Johnson told him the news, the U.S. team left Boeser and Randolph behind, and traveled straight from Denmark to the Olympics in Austria.

Boeser immediately flew home and had surgery on his shoulder. He said his shoulder affected his playing, so he didn’t take the news of being off the final roster “that hard.”

Still fighting to keep playing after the surgery, Boeser connected with an old friend who had recently been in touch with a team in Finland. He went back to Europe to try and pursue the game as long as he could.

“I went there, but the money … wasn’t even enough to pay my school loans or car payment back home,” Boeser said. “I was trying to get to Germany the following year, and it didn’t work out, so I came home and went on with my life.”

Once Boeser returned home, he took a job as an assistant coach at St. Cloud State.

“There was about three years in the late 70s where I didn’t coach,” Boeser said. “But I’ve been coaching pretty much since ‘81.”

Boeser has another claim to fame: he was one of the few men to turn down a spot on a squad led by Herb Brooks, who called Tom Vannelli, (St. Thomas Academy) coach and former (University of Minnesota) player, and Boeser to play in an international league.

“It was one of those things where it was a great fit for (me in) ‘76 because I just got done playing and was in shape, but that league he wanted us to play in was a fighting league, and it just wasn’t suited for myself and Tommy,” Boeser said.

Even after being one of the last two players cut from the 1976 Olympic team, Boeser has never taken it personally, and said he still loves watching any Olympic event.

“I just really enjoy whatever Olympics it is because I know how hard those people worked to get to that point,” Boeser said. “It doesn’t matter if I like the sport or not—they put their heart and soul into something. Even if you don’t medal, it’s still emotional.”

Senior Tyler Gubb, captain of the St. Thomas men’s hockey team, said he respects Boeser’s experience.

“Hearing those things about your coach coming in … he’s obviously been there before and played a higher level of hockey than any of us, so it gives credibility to everything he says and how he leads the team.” Gubb said.

Co-captain Alex Niestrom said Boeser doesn’t often talk about his accomplishments as a player, but his legacy in St. Thomas’ hockey program and place in St. Thomas’ Athletic Hall of Fame is widely-known.

“(He has the) scoring record and his jersey’s retired–stuff like that, so it’s just well known that he was a really good player here at St. Thomas,” Niestrom said.

With a long list of accomplishments in his time as a hockey player, Boeser said his time as a member of the U.S. hockey team was an honor he won’t soon forget.

“It was a lot of fun, and a great experience that not too many people can say they’ve had, so I was pretty fortunate,” Boeser said.

Joey Anderson can be reached at ande9008@stthomas.edu.