At 9:45 PM this past Saturday, Garry Galley’s cell phone starting lighting up. Even though he was in the midst of calling an NHL game for Hockey Night in Canada, the messages rolling in were all about college hockey. His alma mater—Bowling Green—had finally returned to the NCAA Tournament, after a 29-year absence.

“I am absolutely thrilled for the players,” said Galley, a stalwart defenseman on the Falcons’ 1984 national championship team, the school’s only Division I NCAA title. “It’s been a long time, for sure.” Galley was the most visible member of the BGSU NHL alums that helped rescue the program nine years ago, when it was rumored to be on the verge of relegation to club status in 2009.

“All of a sudden, [hockey] was looked down upon as an anchor, that they needed to get rid of it to save money,” said Galley, who was part of a grassroots movement that came from every corner of the Falcon hockey family. Their mission was simple—to return the program to solid footing. The turning point came when Galley met with Bowling Green’s then president Carol Cartwright.

“She flew into Ottawa and met with me for a couple of days,” Galley said. “When she saw the groundswell of commitment and passion, to her credit, she made a 180.” Cartwright worked closely with the hockey alums, seeking out wealthy donors for major contributions knowing that these Falcons would match. The first task sounded like a metaphor—to repair the leaky roof. From there it was overhauling the refrigeration plant, and then a coaching search. Four years after the debut of the Chris Bergeron era, the Falcons returned to their winning ways. Galley maintains that the NHL alums have been getting too much credit for saving the program. 

“I look at a guy like Mike Pikul and Jack Vivian [BGSU’s first coach] who really put their souls into it. The NHL guys get a lot of credit, but in reality, there were a lot of [non-NHL] players who loved that program and what it did for them, and felt it was important to have a voice. Their presence was maybe even more important.”

Galley can empathize with the current Falcons who have come tantalizingly close to the tournament known as the “Big Dance,” only to be turned away at the ballroom door. 

“I know that sometimes there has to be pain before victory,” Galley said. His Falcon club was rudely denied in 1983, in a process much more subjective than today’s Pairwise. “We went through a ton of pain my sophomore year. We had been No. 1 in the nation,” said Galley, still incredulous to this day over his team being snubbed. 

Current Boston College coach Jerry York was the skipper of that 1982-83 Bowling Green squad, and according to the Boston Globe, missing that NCAA Tournament produced the only tantrum York has ever thrown in his own home. “He took a dozen [jelly] doughnuts, squished them, and threw them into the wastebasket,” his wife Bobbie recalled. That anger—from coach to player to trainer—helped produce a champion. 

“That’s what drove us the following year,” Galley said. “A lot of times in losing, you can find answers to success. The fact that you can never feel sorry for yourself, and keep moving forward, is a strong attribute.”

Bowling Green’s 1984 NCAA championship victory over Minnesota Duluth stands alone because its duration: a body-numbing four-overtime marathon. Unofficially, Galley played more than 60 minutes that night in Lake Placid’s Olympic Arena. “The game just kept on going and going,” Galley said. “We only played four defensemen. I remember getting to the bench, exhausted.” 

Then Galley gave a play-by-play of the winning goal, one that has been immortalized in the book Cavallini From Kane. “I still see it in my head, Bob Lakso [Minnesota Duluth] came down to the outside and ripped a shot, in that big huge barn. He missed the net and it went all the way around, and all the players driving to the net got caught, and it was a 3-on-2 the other way. [Dan] Kane unbelievable play to Gino’s [Cavallini] stick. It was a moment.” 

He recalled their triumphant return to the quaint Ohio town. “Driving down Wooster Street, all the businesses flicking the lights off and on; coming into the [arena] with 3,000 people in it. A small farming community that just won a national championship. It was crazy.”

And now, 35 years after that historic title, Bowling Green hockey has returned to the NCAAs after a 29-year drought. The one-and-done format leaves much to chance.

“I know how hard it is to win college hockey,” Galley said. “There are so many variables that sometimes the better team doesn’t always win, the hockey gods aren’t on your side.” Galley then recited a formula that the current Falcons seem to be following.

“Put yourself in position, get yourself there, and crazy things can happen,” Galley said. “We’re certainly proof of that. A small school in Ohio could jump up and knock down all the big boys, and win a national championship. To bring that back to Bowling Green was a real thrill, something you hope every player gets a chance to have in your pocket.”

That was Galley’s only championship, despite playing 17 NHL seasons for six different clubs. “I went to the Stanley Cup Finals, lost to Edmonton. Went to the World Championships, but best I could get there was silver, never gold.” Galley claims that the title he won 35 years ago with the Falcons, “was the top of the list.” But it isn’t because of the miniature NCAA trophy on display in his home. “The friendships that I made through those players—still in contact with today—will never go away.” Nearly all of that clan will be gathering in Cleveland this July to celebrate the anniversary of their championship moment.

And then the NHL broadcaster shared a thirty-five-year-old “golden nugget” for the college hockey audience. “Did you see who Bowling Green is playing in the NCAAs?” he asked rhetorically. “Minnesota Duluth. Maybe it will go into overtime.”

Author Tim Rappleye just released his latest book: Hobey Baker, Upon Further Review (Mission Point Press, 2018). He can be reached on Twitter @TeeRaps.