John "Jack" Kirrane Jr. * 1960 Olympic Team

1987 United States Hockey Hall of Fame Enshrinee
United States Olympic Team 1948
United States National Team 1957
United States Olympic Team 1960
United States National Team 1963
Various Senior Teams
Defenseman
Born: August 20, 1928, Brookline, Massachusetts

Jack Kirrane practically grew up on skates. His father, the late John J. Kirrane, Sr., a captain in the Brookline, Massachusetts Fire Department, was an ardent hockey enthusiast who annually flooded the backyard of the family's Clyde Street residence. The elder Kirrane was the expert who made sure the ice was right and the hockey sticks shellacked to make them last longer.
It was in such a tradition that Jack and his brothers learned the game. Jack progressed on to Brookline High School where he was All Scholastic and Most Valuable Player in the Eastern Schoolboy Hockey League. After high school it was on to the Boston Junior Olympics and a subsequent spot on the 1948 Olympic Team. Only 17 at the time, Kirrane was a teammate of United States Hockey Hall of Fame enshrinees Jack Garrity, Jack Riley, and Manager Walter Brown as the team finished fourth with a 5-3 record.
However, it was to be the 1960 Olympics for which Jack Kirrane would be remembered. Before the "Miracle of Lake Placid" there was the "Miracle of Squaw Valley". An equally underdog United States team stunned the hockey world by upsetting Canada and the Soviet Union to bring America its then greatest hockey success since the 1933 World Tournament victory. In the 3-2 victory over the Soviets it was said of Jack Kirrane that heedless of personal safety he threw his body into the path of Russian shots time after time in order to take the heat off goalie Jack McCartan. His defensive partner John Mayasich commented: "He was a team player and catalyst of the '60 Olympic team. He was one of the older players on that team and he was all serious. Defensively he was one of the best."
Kirrane also played on the 1957 and 1963 National Teams and continued his local hockey career with such Massachusetts senior teams as the Wetzell Club of Brockton, Lynn, Estes, and Lowell. The Wetzells were the 1956-57 Amateur Hockey Association of the United States National Senior