Category: Sports
Nickerson Field, Home of the Boston Breakers
Nickerson Field becomes home to the Boston Breakers, the first professional women’s soccer team in Boston. To accommodate the team, the field receives a makeover, including a new artificial surface, a renovated grandstand, and new lighting and sound systems. Due to financial constraints, the Breakers as well as the women’s soccer league later disband.
Beanpot Record Established
The Boston University ice hockey team wins an unprecedented 6th straight Beanpot tournament.
Miracle on Ice
The US Olympic Hockey Team wins the gold medal. Among the team members are four Boston University players: Captain Mike Eruzione, Jim Craig, Dave Silk, and Jack O'Callahan. The winning game is played on February 24, 1980. This game is known as the "Miracle on Ice" and is portrayed in the Disney movie Miracle.
Men’s Hockey First NCAA Championship
The Terrier hockey team wins the NCAA Championship, its first of four over the next quarter-century.
Brown Arena Opens
Walter Brown Arena opens.
First Seven Feet High-Jump
Boston University’s John Thomas becomes the first person to high-jump seven feet.
Harry Agganis Graduates
One memorable Sunday in June 1954, Harry Agganis hits a home run at Fenway Park for the Boston Red Sox and then races up Commonwealth Avenue to receive his Boston University degree. Known as the Golden Greek, Agganis is a Terriers football, baseball, and basketball standout who rejects an offer from football’s Cleveland Browns to play baseball with the Red Sox. Sadly, a vibrant young life and a promising future are cut tragically short a year later when Agganis dies of a massive pulmonary embolism at the age of twenty-six. Boston University is proud of the Agganis Arena in the Student Village, the most recent tribute to this extraordinary individual who left us far too soon.
Braves Field Becomes Nickerson Field
The University purchases Braves Field, which will become the site of Nickerson Field, the Case Athletic Center, and the West Campus residences.
Rhett the Terrier
Boston Terrier becomes the Boston University mascot after students choose him over a moose. The Boston Terrier was first bred in 1869, the year BU was chartered. The mascot is later named "Rhett" after the 1936 book/1939 movie Gone with the Wind because “no one loves Scarlett more than Rhett.”
Boston Terrier Named Unofficial Mascot
The Boston Terrier becomes Boston University’s unofficial school mascot.
