Harvard hockey Coach Bill Cleary will never forget Johnny Janicek.

Steve janicek '75, Johnny's brother and a Crimson hockey player during the mid-1970's, had invited his family from Canada to see Harvard play in the opening round of the Beanpot Tournament.

Cleary gave Johnny the best seat in Boston Garden: a piece of the Harvard bench.

At the end of the first period, as Harvard was skating off the ice for the locker room, Johnny walked up to the Boston Bruin emblem at mid-ice and stopped.

Without a stick, skates or uniform, Johnny Janicek--in front of a soldout Garden crowd--did his own version of Bobby Orr posing for the cameras.

"There he was saying, 'I'm number four', like there was no one in Boston Garden," Cleary said.

Johnny Janicek is only one of the many hockey-crazed kids to root on the Crimson. This year, like all years, there has been an enthusiastic kiddie corps in attendance at Bright Center.

The kids hang around behind the Harvard bench during the game. They do the "Pee-Wee Herman" dance. They scream out "sieve" with the rest of the crowd.

And when the game ends, they head back to the Crimson locker room to catch a closer glimpse of Cleary, Bright's own ringmaster. Or they'll wait with program and pen in hand, hoping for a Harvard player--any Harvard player--to come out.

The ringmaster and resident child psychologist himself wouldn't have it any other way.

"It's better that these kids emulate this team than other things in life," Cleary said. "I encourage these kids to come here. Life's too short."

These kids have gladly accepted Cleary's invitation. After all, Cleary was once a kid and tiny hockey junkie, too.

Cleary's son, Bill Cleary III '85, who played for the Crimson, used to tag along with his father when he was young. The Clearys have always thought of hockey as a giant family gathering--a huge dinner where everyone's invited. No wonder that tradition goes on at Bright. Coach Cleary is probably the biggest kid of them all.

But this "kid invasion" also has its benefits for the members of the team.

"It's kind of flattering to see these kids all wide-eyed waiting for you," Harvard Captain Steve Armstrong said. "It's kind of fun when a kid asks for an autograph."