The Stanley Cup's Crimson connections

Three Harvard alumni played front-office roles in building the Boston Bruins team that won ice hockey's 2011 Stanley Cup.

The Bruins' Don Sweeney '88 hoists the Stanley Cup.

The Bruins' Don Sweeney '88 hoists the Stanley Cup. | Photograph by Brian Babineau/Boston Bruins

The Boston Bruins of the National Hockey League celebrated on the ice in Vancouver, Canada, on June 15 when they won the seventh game of the finals over the Vancouver Canucks and so captured ice hockey's coveted Stanley Cup. The Bruins had not won the Cup since 1972. Three Harvard alumni, all ice hockey players themselves, were in the Bruins' front office and helped build the championship team. General manager Peter Chiarelli ’87 hired Bruins head coach Claude Julien in 2007 and has shaped the roster for more than five years with signings and trades. Assistant general manager Don Sweeney ’88 and director of collegiate scouting John Weisbrod ’91, both of whom have also logged five years with the Bruins, worked alongside Chiarelli in the team's front office to construct the squad that now owns the bragging rights on ice.

Related topics

You might also like

Rassey returns to Cambridge from Ann Arbor, Michigan.

How Women Are Changing the NBA

From coaching staffs to front offices, female leaders are bringing new strategies to men’s basketball.

How a Harvard Hockey Legend Became a Needlepoint Artist

Joe Bertagna’s retirement project recreates figures from Boston sports history.

Most popular

The Supreme Court Affirmative Action Rulings: An Analysis

The underlying arguments project clashing worldviews of race and appropriate remedies.

Dani Rodrik profiled by Marina Bolotnikova

Dani Rodrik’s views on trade, development, and democracy enter the mainstream.

An animal’s journey from grief to love shows how much humans need each other, too.

Explore More From Current Issue

Massachusetts Hall at Harvard Red brick building with a large clock on top, surrounded by green trees.

With a grade inflation vote and in the courts, the University argued that it’s taking steps to change.

A blue refrigerator covered with animal pictures, notes, and drawings, surrounded by greenery.

An animal’s journey from grief to love shows how much humans need each other, too.

Singer performing on stage with a guitar, wearing a hat, and surrounded by band instruments.

Singer Elisa Smith’s whiskey-soaked voice and subversive feminism is part of the genre’s urban shift.