A characteristic that is synonymous with DU hockey is the fierce rivalry with Colorado College. While many fascinating stories have emerged over the years between the two programs, one game that took place at the Broadmoor in February 1966 may go down as perhaps the most symbolic of this long-standing rivalry. And one of the players at the center of it all was Peers.
“Well, it was a black part I guess. “Badger” Bob Johnson was the first or second year coach at Colorado College at the time. This was a league game that took place before the playoffs. At the end of the second period of this game, there was an incident between myself and another (CC) player named Davey Palm. It broiled into one of those brouhahas and the I-did-you-did sort of thing, so I ended up getting a penalty and he didn’t. Really, it’s hard to explain but it makes you more mad because it should’ve been both of us off, but instead one guy gets penalized and the other doesn’t. I felt that he was laughing at me. Of course everything is subjective. So at the end of the period, I skated over and drilled him and he fell to the ice. I pummeled him and everything and then the crowd went crazy. They brought out the fire hoses and pushed people back into their seats, but we finished the game. The interesting thing, and it’s because all of these stories come out, is that we were all talking about it in the dressing room today when Murray always gave this little speech. And I’m a bit of a locker room talker, so somebody asked me “Peers, what was your most memorable thing about Murray?” and I said “well, the first one is he used to say you go out on the ice with a silent resolve, so that you don’t leave your game in the dressing room. You go out with the intent to win and play hard.” But then I said “actually the one game that I remember the most was after that DU-CC game down at the Broadmoor.” This incident happened at the end of the second period, so there was still a period to play. They didn’t know what to do. They finally restored order and Jim Eagle was throwing buckets of water up into the stands. So it was one of those things where it was almost out of control at that time. So I got a game misconduct. At that time, usually when you get one of those, you go to the dressing room, shower and go back out into the stands. So the team was going out to start the third and Murray hung back and he said to me “Bob, you know what? I think it would be best if you just kind of stayed in here for the whole period.” (Laughs) So I said ok.
The incident happened in 65-66 in my senior year, and anybody that I’ve ever talked to about it always says, “Oh, you’re the guy.” Anyway, DU and CC didn’t play against each other the following year. We did play them again in the playoffs and for that game, Davey Palm and myself weren’t allow to play. At the end of the season, they sat down and I think it was CC that wanted to make a statement. They said that because of this incident, they felt that there should have been some type of sanction on Denver. And the sanction was that they refused to play Denver in WCHA play for one season. So that’s kind of the story.”
