Don Sennott, shown during his college playing days, was in his glory at Brown.

Brown University

PROVIDENCE — Hockey must have been in Don Sennott’s blood. His father, a letter carrier in Boston, spent so much time hanging around ice rinks after delivering mail that he picked up the nickname “Rinks.”

When Rinks’ kid went off to Brown, he became a hockey star, the center on one of the best lines in Brown hockey history, a leader of the team that lost to Michigan in the 1951 NCAA championship game.

And when Rinks’ kid married Claire Fredette, a Pembroke girl, and raised his own family, he remained a staunch supporter of Brown hockey, holding court at games, coaching the alumni, even donning a pair of skates for his 50th reunion.

Don Sennott, a familiar figure in Providence for decades, died on July 18 at the age of 79. Many Rhode Islanders knew him as a special-projects assistant to the late Sen. John H. Chafee, for whom he worked for 25 years. A few can recall his glory days as a hockey player.

“He was a terrible skater. He skated on his ankles,” Bob Borah, a Brown freshman in 1951 when Sennott was a senior, said with a laugh.

“But he was one of the smartest players I’ve ever seen. He was like Wayne Gretzky. He could anticipate. He was always in the right place at the right time, and he was a very good passer, a playmaker,” said Borah, the longtime Providence-based pension consultant from his summer home in Truro on Cape Cod.

Sennott skated on the line with classmates Bob Wheeler and co-captain Al Gubbins.

“Wheeler was a beautiful skater and had a big shot,” Borah said.

So for three memorable years Sennott set the table, and Wheeler served the goals. In 1950, they led the Bears to an 11-9 record, an 8-2 romp over Princeton in the season finale at Baker Rink and their first Pentagonal League championship. In 1951, they successfully defended their Pentagonal title by beating Harvard at Watson Rink, were selected for the fourth NCAA hockey championship, beat Colorado College in the semifinal, and lost to Michigan for the title. In 1952, they were 13-7-1. One of their games that season was a 22-2 rout of Springfield, in which Wheeler had eight goals and three assists and Sennott had nine assists.

Sennott’s teams were 42-22-1 in his three years. In 1950, Sennott and Warren Priestly shared the team lead in goals (25), assists (16) and points (41). In 1951 Sennott led in assists (46) and points (70) and Wheeler in goals (33). In 1952 Sennott was the assists leader again (31), but Wheeler led in goals (36) and points (54).

Sennott and Wheeler are still in the Brown record book. Sennott is third in career points (159) and Wheeler fourth (149). Wheeler leads in career goals (86); Sennott is seventh (66). Sennott is third in career assists (93).

Wheeler still holds the record for goals in a season (36 in 1952), and Sennott is still tied for sixth (25 in 1950). Sennott is second in assists in a season (46 in 1951). His record stood for 25 years until Bill Gilligan broke it with 54 assists in 1976. Sennott (70 in 1951) is also second to Gilligan (79 in 1976) in points in a season. Wheeler is tied for fifth on the season points list (54 in 1952).

Borah met Sennott at the old East Side Skating Club, an outdoor rink at the corner of Cole Avenue and Sessions Street, a few blocks from Brown Stadium.

“Sennott and Wheeler and the guys from the 1951 team would show up and skate. They had the R.I. Auditorium only twice a week,” said Borah, a hockey player and baseball player at Hope High at the time. Borah learned to skate at the East Side Skating Club and with the Providence Figure Skating Club.

“We’d practice, and the Brown hockey players would drift down and scrounge their way onto the ice,” Borah said. He recalled that Sennott was cocky.

“He had a swagger to him. There was nothing negative about it. He liked being a hockey player.”

After graduating from Brown, Sennott served with the Marines in Korea. When he got out, he started attending Brown games as a fan.

“He was Mr. Brown Hockey,” said Dick Ernst, a Cranston schoolboy at the time who later played at Providence College.

Ernst also attended Brown games when his sons Bob and Gordie played for the Bears from 1986 to 1989.

Sennott “would be at every game and holding court on Brown hockey and all the great players. He brought that flair right down through the generations. He always talked of the glory days,” Ernst said.

“Absolutely,” Borah said with a laugh. “And he did the color when the Brown games were on the radio. He’d grab me and say, ‘These kids, we’d beat ’em every time.’ ‘I don’t think so,’ I’d say. ‘They’re bigger and faster and they’ve played a lot more hockey than we did.’ ”

Sennott suffered a back injury at some point and never skated with Borah and other college hockey alums when they played at the old R.I. Auditorium and later at the new Meehan Auditorium on the Brown campus. He couldn’t lace them up for alumni games against the varsity, but he did “coach” the alums, changing lines and shouting orders.

“He was so competitive he’d get out there between periods and say let’s score a few more goals and rough them up a little bit. I’d have to say wait a minute. I worked hard to recruit these kids to Brown, and I don’t want them to get hurt. I don’t want to get hurt,” Borah said, laughing again.

Sennott did shock everybody when he skated for his 50th reunion.

“That’s the type of macho guy he was,” Borah said.

They don’t make hockey players like Don Sennott any more. Today a kid who “skated on his ankles” would have a tough time making his high school team. But it wasn’t physical talent that made Sennott a Brown Hall of Famer.

“His big strength was that he had great hockey sense,” Borah, also a Brown Hall of Famer, said. “There’s an intangible. I can’t see it in other sports, but I can see it in hockey. Being in the right place at the right time. Making the right decision. Hockey is so fast, you need that innate ability.”

Don Sennott, Rinks’ kid, had it in his blood.

A summer resident of Martha’s Vineyard, Sennott was buried there on July 24. A Memorial Mass will be celebrated at 11 a.m. on Aug. 25 at the Church of St. Sebastian on Cole Avenue, Providence.

mszostak@projo.com