Lane MacDonald ’89: Olympian, Harvard Hockey Star, Investor

If you’re a Harvard hockey fan, pay a visit to the Bright-Landry Hockey Center on any Sunday morning after the renovation crew moves out in the next few months. You may be treated to a reunion game with some of your favorite players, from Ed Krayer ’89-'90 to the Fusco brothers. Don Sweeney ’88 might even make an appearance.

Of course, there’s no guarantee that you’ll recognize any of them out on the ice. Well, except maybe one skater.

“We’ve all gotten a bit slower,” says former Crimson forward Andrew Janfaza ’88. Then he pauses.

“Except for Lane.”

Twenty-five years after captaining Harvard to the University’s first NCAA-sanctioned championship in a team sport, B. Lane MacDonald ’88-'89 is still the fastest guy on the rink.

The Crimson’s all-time leading goal scorer has maintained his seemingly effortless skating stride while smoothly transitioning into coaching, investing, and fatherhood. Yet his glide into Harvard Athletics lore was far from easy.

PLAYING THROUGH THE FEAR

As the Star Spangled Banner played, MacDonald felt an overwhelming sense of relief. He was standing on the ice with his Team USA teammates before their first game in the 1988 Winter Olympics.

“I still remember the tingles up and down my spine, kind of feeling, ‘Ok, I made it,’ after all the various issues,” MacDonald says.

MacDonald’s journey to the Olympics started with his Canadian father, Lowell, who played 13 seasons in the NHL before coaching Lane and his brother as prep school players in Milwaukee. Harvard coach Bill Cleary ’56, who had captured gold and silver medals for Team USA as a star forward in 1960 and 1956, also inspired MacDonald.

The Harvard men’s hockey team celebrates its first and only NCAA Championship after beating Minnesota, 4-3, on April 1, 1989. By Crimson file photo

Realizing his lifelong dream, however, was not the only thing that made MacDonald emotional during the national anthem. Three weeks before the Opening Ceremonies, MacDonald had seriously considered withdrawing from Team USA.

The numbness. The loss of vision. The struggle to turn on a shower, button a shirt, or remember a name. MacDonald experienced traumatic migraines and concussion-like symptoms throughout his college career, and the symptoms only became worse as MacDonald deferred his senior year at Harvard to train for the Olympics.

“There were times when he was visibly shaken,” Janfaza recalls, “and next thing I know he’s back on the ice performing at a really high level.”

MacDonald continued to stun defenses as he quietly played through the increasing fear of worsening symptoms. In Calgary, Team USA missed the medal rounds with a seventh-place finish, yet MacDonald finished the tournament tied for the team lead in goals with six in six games, including two strikes in a tight loss to the Soviet Union.

MacDonald reached a new breaking point, however, after he experienced symptoms in his first game back at Harvard the next fall. He credits the University’s resources for helping him finish his final year in a Crimson uniform.

“I really got to the point where physically and emotionally I was just a little exhausted, just in terms of all the worries, all the fears,” MacDonald says. “Fortunately, I was in an environment like Harvard where there were people like Bill Cleary, [assistant coach] Ronn Tomassoni, and [former Athletic Director] Jack Reardon [ ’60] who could help with some of these issues.”

Top Harvard neurologists monitored MacDonald’s condition, and a resident sports psychologist helped MacDonald. With the fastest man in college hockey back on the ice with new confidence, the Crimson had all the pieces in play for a championship run.

AN UNQUESTIONED LEADER

MacDonald proceeded to dominate the NCAA in his final year. During the season, he broke Harvard’s all-time marks for career goals, power play goals, and shorthanded goals and led the Crimson to its first Beanpot win in eight years with an MVP performance. At the season’s end, he became Harvard’s third and most recent athlete to accept the Hobey Baker Award as the nation’s top college hockey player.

“He was just so smooth,” says John Connolly, a longtime college hockey writer for the Boston Herald. “He was like an NBA player who you just know is going to cash in that three-point shot when he gets the ball. He would just get the puck in the goal, and [it was] effortless.”

MacDonald made his high expectations for his last season clear in his first team meeting as captain, yet he preferred not to give rousing locker room speeches. Rather, he inspired his teammates with humble leadership and an indomitable work ethic.

“Lane was the consummate captain,” says former Crimson defenseman Scott Farden ’88. “He led by example and nobody worked harder than him, nobody was more selfless. When the best player is also the hardest worker, everyone else tends to fall in line, and that’s how he led. Lane was our unquestioned leader.”

Reardon, who traveled frequently with the team during the 1988-89 season, noticed MacDonald’s ability to connect with the underclassmen and communicate with Cleary.

“Basically, it was like having another coach out there,” Reardon says. “Lane helped keep everybody together all the time.”

In the national championship game, MacDonald put Harvard up on Minnesota midway through the second period with a classic MacDonald goal. Gathering speed up the wing, he split a pair of defensemen and threaded a low shot between the pads of opposing goaltender Robb Stauber.

Later, an overtime goal from Krayer would cement MacDonald’s place in Harvard history. After all the fear and doubt, the captain could finally celebrate.

“People jump off the bench, throwing gloves, piling on people, and you have the emotion of having achieved,” MacDonald says. “The chance to share it with 25 people who sacrificed, fought, and worked together for a long period of time with one objective—rarely in life do you get that one group of people.”

CAPTAIN CONSISTENCY

MacDonald currently lives with his wife, Wendy, who played college hockey for Cornell, and his children: Catherine, 13; Ben, 10; and Madeline, 8.

After graduating cum laude out of Kirkland House with a degree in economics, MacDonald turned down NHL opportunities because of health concerns and played briefly for a Swiss professional team and the U.S. national team. He came back to Harvard as an assistant coach for the 1990-91 season and with Janfaza founded the Crimson Hockey School, a summer program they ran for 10 years.

MacDonald also dabbled in broadcasting, serving as a hockey analyst for TNT’s daytime coverage of the 1992 and 1994 Olympics.

Yet MacDonald found his ultimate vocation in investing. Janfaza feels that the same characteristics that made MacDonald a successful captain have made him a successful businessman.

“He’s had great success in business and has accumulated a wealth of knowledge,” Janfaza says. “He is very thoughtful, and people like him and trust him to make good decisions.”

Earlier this year, MacDonald left his new post as Harvard’s Managing Director of Private Equity after five years with the Harvard Management Company to become president of Crosby Advisors—a small group of investors that handles the wealth of Fidelity Investments chief Edward C. Johnson III ’54 and his family.

“It was an incredibly difficult decision to make,” MacDonald says. “I really love Harvard Management Company.... I felt like you were there to make money for a great cause, particularly for admissions and financial aid.”

MacDonald recently finished his term as President of the Harvard Varsity Club. He coaches his son’s team, and he plays non-contact pick-up games with former teammates and a collection of older and younger alums from other hockey programs on Sunday mornings.

According to Janfaza, MacDonald can keep up with the 25-year-olds. In the last quarter century, not much has changed about MacDonald, from his conditioning to his character.

“I’ve seen most of the body of work, and he’s been so consistent for so long at such a high level,” Janfaza says. “He never surprises me.”

—Staff writer Michael D. Ledecky can be reached at mledecky@college.harvard.edu.