Jim Grip

Let’s get the accolades out of the way right up front:

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                              Four years SHS Varsity Hockey 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966

                              Captain SHS Varsity Hockey, 1966

                              South Shore League All-Star selection, 1966

                              Leading point scorer, Norwich University, 1969

                              Leading goal scorer, Norwich University, 1970

                              ECAC Division II All-Star selection, Norwich University, 1970

                              Vermont All-State Collegiate All-Star, 1970

                              Captain Norwich University Hockey, 1971

                              Leading goal scorer, Norwich University, 1971

                              ECAC Division II All-Star selection, Norwich University, 1971

                              Vermont All-State Collegiate All-Star, 1971

                              Dean Loring Hart Award, Most Outstanding Athlete, Norwich Univ. 1971

                              College Hockey All-American, 1971

                              126 points (55 goals, 71 assists) over three years, Norwich University

                              Fourth total point scorer in team history, Norwich University

 

These accomplishments are the legacy of a young man from Scituate who developed a passion for the game of hockey early in life.  He spent countless hours practicing in pursuit of a singular goal - to make himself into a hockey player.  And he succeeded.  These awards and statistics represent his remarkable athletic output in the sport of hockey, but they most certainly weren’t handed out.  They were earned.  Talent and passion are absolute requirements for success in sports, but only through hard work does an athlete turn that talent and passion into success.

 

Highly skilled hockey players know that years of practice are the only way to hone one’s skills.  It takes a huge commitment involving hundreds of hours of skating, stickhandling, and shooting over a period of years to develop true hockey skills.  It goes without saying that you also must love the sport.  In this case, there’s only one man responsible for amassing such eye-popping achievements in the game of hockey.  You’ve probably heard of him.  His name is Jim Grip.

 

Jim Grip was one of the most talented high school hockey players to emerge on the South Shore during the mid-1960s.  He grew up on Indian Trail playing pond hockey like many other kids in those North Scituate neighborhoods.  His older brother Donnie, SHS Class of 1959, preceded him into the game of ice hockey.  As an original member of Scituate High School’s inaugural varsity hockey team, Donnie Grip cast a lengthy shadow over his younger brother, leaving him with big skates to fill.  Jim, who was always close to his brother, didn’t disappoint. 

 

Jim was a natural from the beginning, following in his brother’s footsteps.  He learned to skate at a very young age, mimicking his brother, a very skilled skater and puckhandler.  There was no formal hockey instruction in the late 1950s, so Jim laced up his skates every winter and found a decent surface of ice.  Most of his skating was done on a small pond behind his parents’ house on Indian Trail.  There was a small area in the woods that flooded in the winter.  Donnie and his friends skated there as kids and played hockey nearly every day in the winter.  Jim was recruited by the older kids to play goalie and stop pucks.  It wasn’t long before they found another goalie and Jim got the chance to shoot the puck, rather than stop it. 

 

As he got older, Jim played on Musquashicut pond, Greenbush pond, and the cranberry bogs off Old Oaken Bucket.  The more he played, the better he became.  There was public skating up at the Weymouth Skating Club but ice time purely for hockey was difficult to secure in those days.  Especially since every South Shore town without its own rink had its teams lined up to practice and play there.

 

Jim got to high school in the fall of 1962 as a ninety-nine pound freshman.  He had some hockey talent but had not yet played against high school-caliber teams.  Scituate High School played a tough schedule in a tough league and suffered more losses than wins.  But interest in hockey grew.  Scituate kids who had been skating on the ponds since grade school were excited to play hockey for their school.  They were still a new program, but that didn’t diminish expectations for a winning record as the skating, puckhandling, and coaching consistently improved.

 

Jim Grip played four years of varsity hockey at Scituate High School.  He was named captain in 1965-1966 and made the South Shore League All-Star team.  He played center and was known for his deft stickhandling and his accurate shooting.  Jim also played for the high school golf team, lettering four times.  After graduating, Jim spent a year at Bridgton Academy in North Bridgton, Maine.  In the spring of 1967, he was admitted to Norwich University.  The letter of acceptance from University President Gen. Barksdale Hamlett, USA (Ret.) reads in part: “Your college years will be the most significant years of your life, for in them you will form the habits of work and relaxation that will determine your approach to the complexities of life and society.  My advice is to develop a curious mind and the resolution to satisfy your curiosity.  If you can do this, you will find the future most rewarding.”

 

Auburn, Maine native Lee Royer met Jim Grip in 1967 as a senior in high school.  Lee explains: “I went to Edward Little High School in Maine.  As a policy, we played a few hockey games each year against the preps in the Auburn area.  During my senior year we played against Bridgton Academy.  Jimmy was at Bridgton that year, playing center.  I didn’t know who he was then, of course, but I could tell that he was talented.  Bridgton was pretty good but we beat them something like 6 to 4.  By coincidence, we both enrolled at Norwich in the fall of that year.  After getting assigned to the freshman barracks, we got our heads shaved and started talking and that’s when we realized that we had played against each other earlier that winter.  It was the start of a great, great friendship that lasted over fifty years."

 

Lee continues: “Jim was the best friend I had at Norwich.  We played hockey as freshmen.  We hung around together.  We’d go to Bermuda on spring break.  In the summers, I’d come down to Scituate from my house in Maine and I’d stay at his parents’ house.  We’d play golf at Hatherly and hang out at the Minot Light Inn.  It was great.  Just great.  Years later, when I got a job down here, I would stay with Jim and Merry before I got my own place.  Ironically, when he was traveling through Maine for work, he would stay at my parents’ house in Auburn.  When I got married in 1979, Jim was my best man.  It goes without saying that Jimmy was a great friend and I miss him.”

 

Lee remembers their years at Norwich: “In college, Jim was tall and skinny.  He had thin arms, but hands like you wouldn’t believe.  He wasn’t very fast, but he was quick on skates and elusive.  They just couldn’t hit him.  His passing ability was almost perfect.  Jim, when he passed the puck, always put it right on the tape.  It was like magic.  His peripheral vision was outstanding.  And around the net, he could do what he pleased with the puck.  Jimmy could put it absolutely anywhere he wanted, which was usually past the goalie.  Just look at his numbers.  That’s all you need to know.  His numbers at Norwich still stand.

 

“I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention all the hockey we played together after college.  When I came down here from Maine, we played in the executive league at Hingham’s Pilgrim Arena.  It was a couple nights a week.  The league was mostly college hockey-caliber players.  Our team was the Falcons.  We were pretty well known.  We also had a traveling team in those days called the Atlantic Flames.  We played out of Waltham.  There was a good league up there.  We also used to drive to Beverly every Sunday night to play in a hockey league there.  We played a lot of hockey back in the ‘70s and ‘80s.  We played until we were fifty years old.

 

“My daughter got married last September in North Conway, NH.  Jimmy and I played golf at the North Conway Country Club the Friday before the wedding.  It was the last round of golf he played.  Unfortunately, Jim’s health began to deteriorate shortly after this.  But it never changed his demeanor.  Never.  He was steady as a rock.  Jim Grip had a great hockey career, which most people probably know, but it must be said that the great gift of Jim Grip, the thing he’ll be remembered for the most, is the way he treated people.  He was interested in only helping people...making a positive impact on people.  He would sacrifice his own time to help others.  I know it sounds too good to be true, but in Jim’s case, I can honestly say that as good a hockey player he was, he was a better person.  That’s the Jimmy Grip that I miss and I’ll always remember.”

 

After playing freshman hockey in 1967-1968, Jim began to emerge as a special talent during his sophomore year on the Norwich campus, his first on varsity.  In fact, he led the team in scoring as a sophomore in 1968-1969.  Jim compiled 12 goals and 21 assists and led the team to the ECAC Division II Championship game after a strong win against Merrimack in the semi-finals.  Norwich lost a shootout to A.I.C., 7-6.  Two other Scituate natives played for Norwich that year – Dave Hunt and Mike Gately.  Hunt, a 1964 Scituate High School graduate attending the university on a hockey scholarship, put up 20 points playing wing for Norwich that season – 8 goals and 12 assists.  Defenseman Mike Gately, a 1966 Archbishop Williams High School grad, had a goal and six assists for the Cadets.

 

Although they came up one goal short of winning the division championship, it was an outstanding year for Norwich University and Jim Grip personally.  He had started on the varsity hockey team as a sophomore and proved he could play at a high level.  His teammates named him most valuable player in only his sophomore year.  But he was just getting started.  During his next two years Jim would make his mark for the school and himself.

 

As a junior in the 1969-1970 hockey season, Jim produced 40 points on 21 goals and 19 assists.  He was named to the ECAC Division II All-Star team and the Vermont All-State Collegiate Hockey All-Star team.  His teammates named him captain of the 1970-1971 squad, his senior year.

 

As impressive as Jim’s junior season was, he really broke out during his last year at school.  Playing on a 11-13 team, Jim scored 22 goals and added 31 assists for 53 total points.  He had two three-goal games.  He centered a line that scored an unbelievable 144 points in a single season.  He repeated as an ECAC Division II All-Star and as a Vermont All-State Collegiate All-Star.  Bob Priestly, head hockey coach at Norwich University, remarked more than once that Jim was one of the best players of his generation to play intercollegiate hockey. 

 

Norwich University teammate Jim Marr: “I was a junior right wing on a line with Jimmy Grip in 1971, Jim’s senior year.  He was an unbelievable goal scorer and the best linemate you could ask for.  In one game, Jim laid out a pass for me which I quickly fired at the net.  I immediately looked back expecting Jim to bang home the rebound, but to my surprise he’s got his arms up in the air rushing towards me.  My shot found the back of the net and the look on Jim’s face told me all I needed to know about him.  He was the best goal scorer we had, but he was just as thrilled when any of his teammates contributed to the scoring sheet.  He was an unselfish hockey player and a great friend and the guys on that team were lucky to play with him.”

 

Jim Marr continues: “That year we played twenty-four games.  Played against Division I teams like The University of Vermont, Dartmouth, West Point, A.I.C., Merrimack, and UMass Amherst.  Division II colleges we played were Bowdoin, Amherst, Williams, Middlebury, and Colby College.  Jim had twenty-two goals and thirty-one assists for a total of fifty-three points.  In twenty-four games.  The left wing on that line was Bill “Jim” Tait.  The three of us had a lot of fun that year and we played a lot of good hockey against a lot of good hockey teams.  Games were played either Friday or Saturday night and we practiced pretty much every day except Sunday.  We had a rink right there on the Norwich campus, making it easy to practice often.  Our rink was packed for those home games.  Everyone in the corps would go to those games.  Girls from a neighboring college would turn out for our hockey games.  It was always an event and we loved it.”

 

For his college career, Jim totaled 126 points on 55 goals and 71 assists over 68 games.  These point totals place him fourth in total team scoring all time.  Impressively, he was named to the All-America College Hockey Squad in 1971, a tremendous honor.  To be named an All-American in any sport is a very big deal and Jim fully deserved it.  At the time, he was the only hockey All-American ever from Norwich University.  To top it off, Jim Grip was presented the Dean Loring Hart Award by Norwich University.  This award is made annually to the most outstanding athlete in the graduating class of the military college.  Jim Grip graduated Norwich with a degree in business administration.  Only a broken wrist prevented him from a commission as second lieutenant in the U.S. Army Reserve.

 

Jim Marr: “I grew up in Malden and went to Malden High School.  The Norwich coach, Bob Priestly, was from Melrose.  When I was playing high school hockey, I had never heard of Scituate.  We thought it was all sandy beaches south of Quincy.  I was surprised to learn that Jim Grip came from Scituate.  We didn’t know they had good hockey players down there.  He stood out.  He could skate, he could stickhandle, and he could shoot.  He had it all in a perfect package for a hockey player.  He was one of those guys who had a head for the game of hockey.  He had that sixth sense that some guys have.  He was smart.  Hockey smart.”

 

Marr: “Jimmy Grip was one of the greatest guys I ever met in my life.  Always had a smile on his face.  Never moody or bad tempered.  I like to say that Jim never had a bad moment.  He was a natural leader in the locker room and on the ice and, of course, the other hockey players looked up to him.  How couldn’t they?  He was a great goal scorer and always had a smile on his face.  How couldn’t you look up to someone like that?  Everybody I know became good friends with Jimmy almost from the moment they met him.  He worked at the mess hall all four years at Norwich, so everybody knew him.  I believe he played soccer his freshman year in addition to freshman hockey.  You weren’t allowed to play varsity sports as a freshman.  Jim was also on the Honor Committee, a type of disciplinary committee staffed by the cadets.  This committee was responsible for looking into charges of cheating or plagiarizing or other issues at odds with the school’s honor code.  Jim had a personality perfectly suited for the committee – he was fair and open-minded.  I always thought that, because of his intelligence and demeanor, Jim would have made an excellent attorney.”  Then Jim Marr gets right to the heart of it: “You just always felt good when you were around Jimmy.”

 

As Jim Marr points out, Norwich University freshmen were ineligible to play varsity sports.  Jim Grip played three years of varsity hockey at Norwich, not four.  That puts his scoring totals in a different light.  He put up a total of 126 points playing in sixty-eight games.  He was the leading goal scorer at Norwich in both his junior (1970) and senior years (1971).  He led the team in total points (33) as a sophomore.

 

Roslindale native and longtime Humarock resident Gene Lydon met Jim Grip in 1978 at the Cohasset Winter Garden.  Gene explains: “I came down to Cohasset from Dorchester where I was living at the time hoping to meet Garrett Reagan.  My brother knew Garrett and I thought he could help me get into a men’s hockey league.  I had been playing hockey through high school and college and I was looking for a chance to play in a skilled league.  Garrett found a spot for me on Jimmy’s team.  I played a few years at the Winter Garden with these guys and then we went up to Hingham to play.  It was an over-thirty league with six teams playing every Thursday night.  Mostly South Shore guys, lots of B.U. and B.C. guys, and it was good competitive hockey. 

 

“I was fortunate to fall in with these guys.  They were just the best group of guys to play hockey with.  Just the best.  I wasn’t from here.  I didn’t know anybody from Scituate.  But within a year, we were best friends.  We had Christmas parties together.  Our spouses socialized.  It was just a great group of guys.  We played together for twenty years.  And I was happy to be part of it.  Of course, Jimmy Grip was at the core of it.  Jimmy and I rode together to those Hingham games.  I would pick him up in Scituate then we’d take the back roads to the Hingham rink.  After our games, we’d hit the Aloha for Chinese food and beers and it was great.  We had a lot of laughs after games.  And that was largely because of Jimmy.  He was the glue.”

 

Gene continues: “Jimmy was a special guy.  Everyone he ever met just loved him.  That’s the type of guy he was.  In his business, he was a natural, just a great salesman.  He was completely at ease with people, especially his customers.  At the hockey rink, he was no different.  A gentleman on and off the ice.  Everyone in the league admired and respected him, not just the guys on our team.  As I got to know him better, I began to understand him.  He was easily the best person you would ever want to be around.  He had an infectious personality.  Jimmy was naturally good-natured, never had a negative word about anyone.  Just an all-round great, great guy.  That’s what Jimmy was to me and, as far as I know, to everyone else who knew him.”

 

Jim Grip grew up playing pond hockey in Scituate.  He stood out in high school as a skilled, dependable teammate with a talent for finding the back of the net.  He made himself into a complete hockey player by the time he entered college.  By the time he left the school in 1971, he was firmly established as not only one of the greatest hockey players in school history, but as one of its greatest athletes, period.  But those accolades hide a bit behind the impact Jim made on everyone he encountered in and out of the sport.  There’s truly no one like him.  You know you’ve done well when you’re immediately recognized wherever you go for your hockey or golf exploits and all everyone talks about is your character as opposed to your accomplishments. 

 

Jim truly loved the game of hockey and the town he grew up in.  In addition to his work and raising a family, Jim still found time to play and coach the sport.  Every kid from Scituate lucky enough to have Jim and Lee Royer as bantam coaches back in the mid-1970s didn’t know it at the time, but they were getting instruction from the best the sport has to offer.  It’s no surprise that many of those kids played college hockey and are still skating in leagues today, carrying on what they learned when they were young men.

 

The 20th Annual Allen Doyle Golf Classic was held this past August in Woodstock, VT.  During the dinner portion of the event on Monday August 12th, the Norwich University men’s hockey team announced that, starting this season, its annual Most Valuable Player Award will be renamed in honor of Jim Grip.

 

Merry, Leah, and Laura Grip live in Scituate.  As much as Merry misses her husband and Leah and Laura miss their father, they have found immeasurable support in the friendships Jim developed over the whole of his life.  Those friendships have found new strength. 

 

Edited October 21, 2019