Memorable and Influential Players
Seven years prior to the first noted New Hampshire Interscholastic Athletic Association (NHIAA) hockey champions getting recorded, the 1940 Inde noted that Hanover was NH co-champion with Dover High School. That season Hanover finished with an impressive 12-1 record with wins over Kimball Union Academy, Vermont Academy, Dover, Proctor Academy, Clark School, Bellows Falls, and Hanover Inn. There were two players, James “Jimmy” Campion, and Wendell “Wendy” Barwood, from the decade of the 1940’s that would become influential members of the Upper Valley community. James Campion played hockey at HHS from 1942 to 1946. After HHS James would go on to attend the University of New Hampshire before returning to Hanover in 1951. He and his brother Ron would take over the family clothing business in 1968. James served on the town’s select board and was also a member of the Hanover Improvement Society. In recognition of his tireless efforts to serve the youth in the area, the James W. Campion Rink was named after him.
A second notable player from this era was Wendell Barwood who played hockey at Hanover High School from 1939 thru 1943. Wendell would go on to coach youth hockey in both Hanover and Hartford, Vermont after graduating from the University of Vermont. Wendell was an initial supporter and principal-fundraiser to build and maintain BOR Arena in Hartford. The arena was renamed Wendall A. Barwood Arena (WABA) in 2009. Wendell also managed the Hanover Storm Kings (an adult hockey league) in the 1950’s with home games played at Davis Ice Rink.
From 1946-1950 Lo-Yi Chan became the first minority player in HHS hockey history. Born in China and having arrived in Hanover from Hawaii at the age of only ten his story and travels are remarkable given the time in history.
Many of the teams that Hanover played in the 1930’s would remain their opponents in the 1940’s, but in the 1943/1944 season Hanover traveled to Manchester Central to play a first game with that high school. “Hanover was handicapped the whole game by bad ice and poor ‘reffing’,” and was defeated 14-1. In 1946 a first game with Concord appeared on the schedule, but it was in the 1949/1950 season that Hanover would first match up with the mighty Berlin and Notre Dame teams from the famed northern New Hampshire hockey outpost. Hanover would lose twice to Notre Dame by scores of 10-3, and 14-0, but fare better against Berlin where they were defeated twice by scores of 4-3, and 5-4. Lo-Yi Chan, a senior member on the 1949/1950 team recalls how physical the games were against the Berlin teams, especially at their rink! It was in the late 1940’s though that Hanover got its first taste of NHIAA hockey competition as champions were determined starting in 1947.
1940/1941 HHS Hockety
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