It was March 23, 2002, and Bruce Irving had driven to Worcester, Mass., site of the NCAA regionals, to watch Cornell take on Quinnipiac.

Co-owner, president, and CEO of Enpro Services, Inc., an environmental contracting company, Irving had been a Big Red goaltender until his 1985 graduation. Nearly two decades away from Ithaca had done little to diminish his loyalty.

He had always coached high school and summer camps on the side, and he remained a member of the Big Red faithful. But the group with which he was traveling arrived early, so Irving had a chance to catch the noon game: Harvard vs. Maine.

In goal for the Crimson was a freshman named Dov Grumet-Morris.

“I watched that game,” Irving recalls, “and Dov was so incredibly athletic—but so inefficient with his body, so inefficient with his puck control, his rebound control, with playing the puck.

“He really jumped out at me as being a player who needed a coach. To me, it was that glaring—he was making saves, but he looked like an absolute acrobat.”

Maine won the game 2:02 into overtime, 4-3, but Irving didn’t forget what he had seen.

THE PROJECT

At that same time, as coincidence would have it, Joe Bertagna ’73—commissioner of Hockey East, former commissioner of the ECAC, and the first-ever coach of Harvard women’s hockey—suggested that Irving join the American Hockey Coaches Association.

Having worked at Bertagna’s summer camps for years, Irving followed the advice, and shortly thereafter he learned of an opening with the Crimson program.

Harvard needed a volunteer assistant coach, and by the start of the 2002-2003 campaign, Irving was on board.

For three seasons now, Irving has been volunteering with the Crimson goaltenders. He shrugs off the 40-mile drives between his hometown of Newburyport (one of two ENPRO sites) and Cambridge.

“The guys always laugh and think it’s a long way,” he says. “It is a long way, but [at least] it’s a straight shot.”

And one that gives him plenty of time to think about all that awaits him at the Bright Hockey Center.

In addition to other duties, Irving has tutored five Harvard goaltenders during his tenure: Ben Weiss ’03, Will Crothers ’04, Grumet-Morris, junior John Daigneau, and sophomore transfer Justin Tobe.