With a “new version” of the Belmont hockey rink in the works, there is an opportunity ahead to honor a Belmont High School graduate who became a professional hockey player and United States Olympian, according to the BHS Sporting Director Adam Pritchard.
Bruce Mather, raised in Belmont, BHS Class of 1943, was a tri-sport athlete and student involved at BHS.
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“Belmont has a very deep history with hockey; it’s a great hockey community,” Pritchard said. “There have been a lot of great players who have established themselves. I don’t know if there is anyone more accomplished than Bruce Mather.
A 1943 Belmont Citizen article following a 4–2 win over Cambridge Latin described the then-senior Mather as an integral part of the school’s starting lineup.
“Speedy Bruce Mather has become an excellent stickhandler, setting up plays every time for a goal and doing an excellent job on the right wing,” the article reads.
After graduating, Mather enrolled at Dartmouth College, scoring 127 points in 34 career games with the Big Green. His performance there earned him a spot on the United States roster for the 1948 Olympics in St. Moritz, Switzerland. Mather has registered 15 goals and eight assists in eight total games in Switzerland.
He then played for the Boston Olympics, the now-defunct feeder team of the Boston Bruins.
Mather studied at Boston University Law School while playing professionally and earned a master’s degree in business administration from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
He then worked for AT&T as director of customer service training.
In 1975, at the age of 49, Mather died of an apparent heart attack. His wife, Virginia, lived 43 years longer. Their three children, Carol, Craig and David remained in the Boston area as of 2018.
At the height of Mather’s career, the Boston Olympics held “Bruce Mather Day” at the Boston Garden to celebrate the player. Belmont Citizen reporter Andy Kelleher wrote in early February 1950 about Mather and the then-coming event.
“Quiet by nature and not the type of player who gets involved in dirty play or grandstanding, he has nonetheless earned the admiration of fans, teammates and opponents,” Kelleher wrote.
Jenna VanSickle is a Boston University journalism student who reports as part of a collaboration between the Belmont-Citizen Herald, The Watertown Tab and the Boston University News Service. Boston University professor Tina M. McDuffie oversees the program, along with Joanna Tzouvelis, Wicked Local’s senior multimedia journalist.
