Harvard's Enforcer on the Ice

When Bob Lobel visited The Stadium last fall, he was looking for a story on the Harvard football squad.

But Neil Sheehy was convinced the local television sportscaster was looking for none other than Neil Sheehy. After all, that's what his Harvard hockey teammates had told him.

So the Crimson's senior defenseman quickly introduced himself, and asked Lobel when he would like the interview. Lobel quickly introduced himself and asked Sheehy if he wasn't just a little crazy.

"I've never seen anyone with such a red face." Tony Visone recalls of Sheehy.

But the International Falls, Minn. native hasn't been the butt of too many of his teammate's jokes lately. At 6-ft., 2-in and 210 Ibs. Sheehy has made sure by throwing his weight around all season long. And as both teammates and opponents have learned. Sheehy means business.

Because Neil Sheehy--or "Mclonhead," if you will--is Harvard's "enforcer" on the ice.

As the Crimson's largest skater, the team often looks to Sheehy to stop its usually larger opposition.

"Neil knows he's got to be a sort of enforcer out there," says Mitch Olson, who skates on the team's second defensive shift with Sheehy. "He uses his size very well and that's one of the reasons we've been playing so well."

But it hasn't been an easy road to the top for one of the Crimson's few big hitters. On a team filled with more flashy defensemen. Sheehy has often found himself unnoticed, with the spotlight shining on Mark Fusco, Ken Code and Olson.

Through his aggressive style of play and his steady defensive work. Sheehy has quietly emerged as one of the key reasons this year's Crimson squad remains involved in a mad race for its first-ever NCAA championship.

"When he came to Harvard, he came as a forward," Crimson Coach Bill Cleary says. "But we agreed to move him back and what he's done ever since speaks for itself. He's developed into a great hockey player."

Dubbed "Melonhead" by his teammates because of one pre-game warmup that involved jumping up and down and hitting his head against the ceiling in the locker room, and, as Olson says, "because he's a little slow," Sheehy doesn't quite see himself as the squad's "big bruiser."

"I like to hit, but not just for the sake of hitting," the soft-spoken Sheehy says. "My whole purpose of hitting someone is to take him out of the play. Now, if I have a chance to rail someone, I'll do it."

"I'd like to consider myself more a finesse player, someone just trying to get the puck up to the front line," adds Sheehy, an All-Ivy Honorable-Mention selection last year.

Regardless of how Sheehy, the nephew of Bronco Nagurski of NFL fame, perceives himself, he nevertheless remains the odd person out on a team characterized by its small size and its emphasis on skating over body-checking.

"We're probably not as big as the other teams." Cleary says. "But it's good to have someone like Neil that can keep those teams honest. Neil's size adds an extra dimension to our team."

Sheehy, et al.

The youngest member of an extremely hockey-oriented family. Sheehy learned his skills from several older brothers. And when he enrolled at Harvard. Sheehy brought an already familiar name back to Boston hockey.

While Neil was the first Sheehy to play at Harvard, three brothers had already made the family name famous at Boston College. Brother Tim (B.C. '70) earned All-American honors as an Eagle, before moving on to nine years of professional hockey.

"I came here to play and everyone's talking about Tim Sheehy," Neil recalls. "It sort of put me in the limelight right from the start."

And ever since Tim retired from the pros two years ago, he has acted as Neil's unofficial coach. Neil often calls his older brother, who rarely misses a Harvard game, for a quick analysis of his play in a recent game.

Tim still has no verdict on his brother's play last weekend in the ECAC tournament, but the younger Sheehy is happy with his performance.

While he didn't match last year's hat trick feat (in the semi-final game against Clarkson). Sheehy feels he "played as strongly as ever in those two ECAC playoff games."

"I'd have to say winning that tournament is my biggest highlight," Sheehy says. "I wanted Providence all the way and we got them. I love beating those scholarship schools. We want to be here [at Harvard] because we want to be here. All those other players are bought and paid for."

Sheehy hopes to become one of those players bought and paid for--but only after he completes his Harvard education. "I'd like to get invited to try out for the Olympics and then eventually I'd like to give the pros a shot," he says. The Hartford Whalers have already scouted the four-year Crimson veteran.

"But if I don't make it. I won't be a frustrated hockey player." Sheehy says. "I'll just go on to other things."

Certainly, Sheehy has had plenty of practice at "other things." Finding ways to finance his college education. Sheehy has been involved in business ventures ranging from selling shirts to selling hockey hats to throwing parties at local discos.

"I started peddling papers when I was about six and I realized I liked to count money," Sheehy says. "In fact, I love to count money. You know, I've always been good at counting money.

"So when I came to Boston, I realized there were 50,000 college kids, and I started looking for ways to make some money. One thing led to another and, well, hey, I say whatever pays the bills, goes," he adds. "Now everyone always says go find Sheehy for a deal."

The only project Sheehy is currently working on, however, is finding a way to win that elusive NCAA championship. "There's no doubt in my mind we can do it," Sheehy says of the national title. "All we have to do is keep skating like we have been."

But even if no NCAA flag flies in Bright Center after this season, Sheehy says he will have enough memories from the ECAC flag. "Now I can understand why all the alumni are so thrilled when they come back and talk about how great that Billy Cleary was," he says. "When I come back and look up at that flag that says 'ECAC Champs, 1983. I'll be able to talk about Mark Fusco's tremendous slapshot from the point or Scott Fusco's amazing goal while he's sliding on the ice.

"I've been a part of that and that's something I'll always remember."