Alley (top) could often be found by the net as the Badgers battled their way to the 1977 NCAA title.
on Northwestern University's first NCAA champi- onship lacrosse team in 1985. Her younger sister, Hilary, played on the next four national lacrosse champions at Northwestern, while Hannah Alley forged her own path in the sport and competed at Boston College. "I wear my rings,'' Steve Alley said, "and the girls wear theirs.''
"The icing on the cake for me will be Nov. 2 when they name the ice surface at the Kohl Center after Bob Johnson, who will always be viewed as one of the top people in the history of U.S. hockey," Alley said.
How he earned the '77 ring still resonates with
Alley, especially those 23 seconds of overtime. "The key play was the faceoff at the beginning of the overtime,'' said Alley, transitioning into a play-by- play. "Mike Eaves took the draw and the puck kind of moved towards me and Kris Manery, the right
winger for Michigan. He stepped in front of me and was trying to get the puck to dump it into our zone, but I lifted his stick and took the puck away and took it down the left wing boards. Their defense- man rode me into the corner and that's where the puck was frozen for a faceoff. "The fact that we got possession of the puck and
got it into their end first was the key point. I can remember all of this like it was yesterday. I was standing behind Mike on the top of the circle on the next draw and he tried to pull it back to me for a shot. But nobody won the faceoff and the puck went towards the boards. I went in there and had a big collision with a Michigan defenseman and the puck came loose. Tom Ulseth swept into the corner and took it around the net; he tried to come all the way around and stuff it. "By now Mike Eaves was going towards the front of the net. The loose puck was there and he was lick- ing his chops because he was going to knock it in but the Michigan defenseman knocked him down before he could get a stick on it. By now I had got- ten up off my knees in the corner after the collision and the puck came right on my stick, and I knocked it in.''
A picture worth framing, and preserving. 33
