COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. - Even as Bob Boeser and his teammates on the 1948 U.S. Olympic hockey team set sail for Europe, they weren't entirely sure they'd be the group representing their country in the games.
 
Boeser – who went on to play and coach hockey at Saint John's – is believed to be the first of just two Johnnie athletes to compete in the Olympic Games, preceding Matt Schnobrich '01, who represented the U.S. in rowing in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.
 
But how he and the rest of the U.S. roster ended up taking ice in St. Moritz, Switzerland is a wild story all to itself.
 
A dispute between governing bodies actually resulted in two American teams being sent to that year's winter games, which were held from Jan. 30 to Feb. 8.
 
The Amateur Hockey Association of the United States (AHAUS) – now known as USA Hockey - put together a roster including Boeser, a Minneapolis native and graduate of DeLaSalle High School. The team was coached by John Garrison, a former Harvard and U.S. Olympic standout himself.
 
But the controversial Avery Brundage, longtime president of the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) and future president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), opposed allowing that group to represent the U.S., contending they were "professionally tainted," according to an article from the Associated Press that ran in the Jan. 10, 1948, edition of the Duluth News Tribune. 
 
AHAUS was run by building owners like Walter Brown, the general manager of the Boston Garden, whose facilities housed professional teams. That rankled the prickly Brundage, who spent his career extolling the virtues of amateurism.

But as recounted in a 1991 Sports Illustrated story, the AHAUS was backed by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), the sport's governing body. 
 
The USOC, in turn, was backing a team put together by the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU), a situation Brown – the owner of basketball's Boston Celtics who also went on to become co-owner and president of the NHL's Boston Bruins – decried prior to the games' opening.
 
"The AAU has been absolutely inept," Brown, the AUHUS vice president, was reported as saying by the AP. "They have neglected hockey. I had to go to the Swiss Organizing Committee to obtain blanks for the AHA (AHAUS) team. The U.S. Olympic Committee turned us down. Then, after we picked our team, the AAU approached 12 of our 15 players to represent them, which in itself is impossible because the LIHG (Ligue Internationale de Hockey sur Glace, now known as the International Ice Hockey Federation) has expelled the AAU."
 
The dispute was not settled until the eve of the games when – after back-and-forth squabbling and threats of boycotts – the AHAUS team was allowed to compete in the tournament, though the IOC did not recognize them as an official entrant.
 
And it was the AAU team who actually marched in the opening ceremonies.
 
"My dad never really talked about that stuff a lot," recalled Boeser's son Jeff, who went on to become a star at St. Thomas and was the last player cut from the 1976 U.S. Olympic team just before the start of that year's games in Innsbruck, Austria.
 
"But that was one thing he did tell me. Two teams went over and neither knew which one would play until they got there. Eventually, my dad's team got picked."
 
Indeed, Boeser did get his moment in the Olympic spotlight, playing on the second line and helping lead the U.S. to a 5-3 record, which would have placed fourth overall had the results been recognized. 
 
The team's biggest victory was a 31-1 thrashing of Italy in which Boeser had five goals and an assist.
   
Not that any of this was widely covered in the U.S. in that pre-television broadcast era.
 
"My folks went to the theater to look at the newsreel," Boeser said in that 1991 Sports Illustrated story.

"They got a couple glimpses of me."

Those who did see Boeser play, though, got a glimpse of a talented player who – while still young – was already well-seasoned.

"He went to DeLaSalle, but they didn't have a hockey team at the time, said Jeff, who eventually became the head men's hockey coach at St. Thomas from 2010 to 2021. "He started playing semi-pro and those guys took him under his wing. I think that's where he gained a lot of his talent.
 
"He went into the service for a couple of years. But mom (Shirley) was a Bennie and that may have been how he landed at Saint John's."
 
Indeed, after traveling with amateur teams in Europe, and a brief stint at the University of Minnesota, Boeser – the youngest of 12 children - played hockey for the Johnnies in the early 1950s – joining the team during the 1951-52 season and serving as SJU's player-coach the following year.
 
"Boeser coaches one of the most successful sports in recent Jay history, and if early practices and eight returning lettermen mean anything, the (Johnnies) are to be reckoned with in the conference race again this year," wrote Tom McKeown in The Record in early January of 1952.
 
The Johnnies finished that season 6-3 overall. Boeser led the way with 20 goals and 13 assists, including 13 goals and five assists in one three-game stretch.
 
"What can you do about Bob Boeser?" asked the St. Cloud Times following SJU's win at Minnesota-Duluth (then known as Duluth Branch). "That's fast becoming a big puzzle in state college hockey circles as the former Olympic ace leads the Saint John's sextet in lopsided wins. 
 
"The Johnnie player-coach, who is a practice-what-he-preaches mentor of the first degree, slapped in four more goals Saturday night as the Jays rapped Duluth Branch 9-0 at the Duluth Curling Club for their first conference win."
 
Boeser – who also played baseball for the Johnnies –  went on to earn his master's degree in education from St. Thomas and taught at Assumption School in Richfield for nine years before going on to spend 26 years in the Bloomington public school district. 

He was the head hockey coach at the old Bloomington Lincoln High School (which closed in 1982) and led his team to the 1965 state championship game before falling to International Falls.
 
Along the way, he passed his love of the game along to the next generation before his passing at age 68 in 1995.
 
"He put me on skates when I was 3 or 4," said Jeff Boeser, one of five siblings. "We had rinks in the backyard growing up. My sister Annie would have been an Olympian had there been women's hockey in those days. She was really incredible. 
 
"We were definitely a hockey family."