Keefe and his buddy Tom Jennings took a semester off in their junior year at college and went to Amsterdam to try out for the Holland National Team. After skating with the best, they didn’t make the cut, but were picked up by an “Industrial League” team; after that they hitchhiked around England and Greece and other parts of Europe.

Keefe and Margaret Romeo married and raised two very successful, athletic daughters, Emily and Anna.

Then their son Conor arrived and has been playing hockey since the time he could walk — see other photo.

Conor went from his hometown team at Massena High to play his 11th and 12th grade hockey with Albany Academy.

Conor Riley — 1995 (Photo provided)

Then to the Junior Valley Warriors in Haverhill, Massachusetts, in 2011 and ’12. His Haverhill coach was an alum from the University of Maine and obtained a full sports scholarship for Conor to UM, where he played Division I hockey with the Black Bears until he graduated in 2016.

He has been playing with the East Coast Hockey League team, the Adirondack Thunder, from 2016 to the present, with many call-ups to other teams over the years.

He played with the Australian Canberra Brave team from May to September 2019. Remember, our summer is their winter.

Later the coach of the San Diego Gulls, farm team for the Anaheim Ducks, called his brother, the coach for the Adirondack Thunder, and inquired as to the whereabouts of Conor Riley, “who he was always bragging about.”

Conor’s coach told him he was landing in LA the next day on his return from Australia. He was pucked up (sorry, I meant picked up) at the airport by a Ducks rep and spent two weeks training with the Anaheim Ducks.

Conor Riley, Canberra, Australia, August 2019 — Jeez, Conor don’t shoot! (Photo provided)

There is a lot more details to this great hockey story but no space for it now.

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Bob Goetz at the sports desk

I’ll tell you that the Enterprise sports pages covered local sports in great detail back then — all because of a hotshot sports editor by the name of Bob Goetz.

He was a great guy to work with and covered more than sports. Myself and our colleague Bill McLaughlin were quite a team at the Enterprise. We even teamed up a couple of times to cover the races at Saratoga … Bob was the ultimate “railbird.”

I know he will remember some of the intense news days when 10-year old Douglass Legg disappeared from the family summer home, the Santanoni Estates in Newcomb, and was never found. Bill was on the job 24/7.

Bob wrote a sports column entitled Play-by-Play; here are just a few words from that 3,000-word space from so long ago …

“The rush is on for the numerous medals and ribbons that will be distributed this weekend during Saranac Lake’s busiest week of the season. Even before this paper gets to its readers, many of the local skaters will have copped a prize in the annual PTA skating races which kicked-off the Winter Carnival today at 1:00 p.m.

“The tempo will increase on Saturday, the second leg of the big three day weekend, when the snowshoes run for the roses.

“If you prefer indoor sports, the Paul Smith’s Bobcats will be home for two encounters tonight and tomorrow night. The Lake Placid Roamers will be at their weekly abode tomorrow night after the Canton-Lake Placid High skaters face off.

“The play-off fever runs high in Gouverneur and it’s got to a point where even George Doty, my mutual fund-selling uncle has gotten into the act. George, whose winter sports agenda consists of wrestling and more wrestling, suddenly came out with a statement last night in Gouverneur that the Wildcats will make the playoffs.

“The Redskins further George’s prediction by losing to Gouverneur, 78-38. The G-men now have a 8-6 record with two to go and are a half game out of fourth place.”

Of course, Bob covered the game in another story on the sports page, reporting that the Redskins had 11 losses in 14 starts.

It is probably not fair quoting those little excerpts because his writing and reporting skills eventually made him sports editor of the Plattsburgh Press-Republican. Years later, Bob and I met up often at games when my granddaughter Emily Riley was a star on the Plattsburgh State soccer team.

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Northwoods Invitational

And no, it is not a hockey tournament …

“On Friday, Saturday and Sunday, February 10, 11 and 12, Northwood School of Lake Placid will host the Northwood School Invitational Ski Meet on Whiteface Mountain starting at 10 a.m. each day.

“The Slalom, Giant Slalom and Downhill Races, will see invited juniors from all parts of New York State in the New York qualifying event for the New York State Eastern team. The event is sanctioned by the United States Eastern Ski Association. Entries will reach about 60 in number.”

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Four-man bob races canceled

An Associated Press story from Alpe D’Huez, France:

“Athletes from seven countries started home today following the cancellation of the 1967 four-man World Bobsledding Championships.

“The decision to call off the event was made by the technical committee of the FIBT. Chairman Johann Stuerer of Austria said the ice chute was unsafe in its present state because of insufficient ice coating in several stretches of the course.

“James Lamy of Saranac Lake, N.Y., coach of the United States team was shocked by the news. ‘We crossed the ocean to come here to compete and nothing happened. What a waste of time and money,’ Lamy snapped. ‘Some of my people did not even have a chance to slide down in a bob for just a few meters.'”

Jim Lamy was a friend of mine, and I’ll bet you he said a few more words than quoted in the story. We met as students at St. Bernard’s School, and then we served together in the National Guard — he had already served in the Navy and the Marine Corps. He was a great big guy, and unfortunately, I was sometimes present when Jim had ‘discussions’ with others that turned into close encounters of the third person — me.