On the ice, passes were still crisp and the goaltending brought cheers. Only the locker room conversations were up to date. "You walked into the locker room, and everyone's strapping on pads, putting on skates, taping sticks, just like always. But everyone's talking about what they're doing these days, how everyone's kids are doing. It was magical," says Chris Callahan '78, a lawyer living in West Windsor, Vt., with wife Anne '80 and their three children.

Dividing the '60s, '70s, and '80s alumni into two teams was a simple matter of "well-thought-out randomness," says Callahan. "Maybe it happened at the Goose the night before." The teams' maroon and white hockey sweaters -- a nice touch thanks to the work of Al Neustadtl '79 and Pat Murphy '79 -- all read "The Old Pucks" on the front.

Special guest for the event was the team's former player-coach, Professor of French Dick Williamson, who quipped that the victorious white team may have been "bolstered by some dubious-looking Gatorade."

"Dick and Wayne [Loosigian '72, also a player-coach] were the guys who brought us from being a lost group to a real team," says Callahan, one of the event's principal organizers. The revered Williamson was a big part of the weekend of good feelings. After the game, he and his wife, Debbie, opened their home to a post-game reception featuring what he describes as "CCC: chocolate, coffee, and cordials."

"We had some legendary parties at his house back in our day," Callahan smiled. "So it was great to have a nostalgic moment hanging out in Dick's kitchen again."

For the alumni, many of whom hadn't seen Bates in years, the campus offered surprises too. "Seeing all the new facilities -- like Underhill -- you realize how much they add to student life," Callahan said. "And for us coming back and being treated so well, it was nice to feel a renewed connection to Bates."

Jetting back across the country to his home in Portland, Ore., Pat Murphy '79 tilted his seat back and closed his eyes, the endorphin rush from the game long since having ebbed away. He replayed everything about the day, every conversation and every detail -- "to etch them in my mind," he says, "for the long haul."

Photos by Phyllis Graber Jensen.