Two Players, One Purpose

Harvard hockey Coach Bill Cleary is always free with a compliment.

But during the 1987-88 season, whenever Cleary complimented one of his senior defensemen--Don Sweeney and Jerry Pawloski--he would wind up taking about the other one. Then, he would talk about both in the same breath.

To Cleary, it was always Don and Jerry.

To Harvard fans, it was always Don and Jerry.

To Don and Jerry, it was always... well, you know by now.

"It was a situation where I knew that Jerry could help me and I thought that I could help Jerry," Sweeney says. "We just pushed each other and had a lot of fun doing it. No matter where I play hockey, no matter where [Jerry] plays hockey, we're always going to wish that we play together again."

"We both wanted to be in the same position. We both wanted to play as much as we could," Pawloski says. "Just from that, we had the same goal, to play as much we could, to play as well as we could, to play all the time. I think it brought us together as far as everything we did."

And this duo has done a lot in its four years at Harvard. Pawloski and Sweeney are part of a unique senior class of hockey players. A class that made the NCAA tournament in all its four years at Harvard. A class that has gotten used to winning a lot of hockey games.

A class that also has put the Crimson in a most enviable position: that of a national hockey power house. Sweeney and Pawloski helped build the foundation of that powerhouse.

"When people start out the season now," Sweeney says, "they just don't look to Minnesota, they look to Harvard to see who they got. That's an awful good feeling."

"It's a good feeling to see that our class has had such an affection our program," Pawloski says. "It feels pretty good to play such a role in that. People don't overlook Harvard hockey any more."

People have rarely overlooked the play of Sweeney and Pawloski. At first glance, it is difficult to see what binds this duo together. Sweeney skates. Pawloski hits. It's as simple as that. Right?

"He hits just as hard as I do," Pawloski says. "He carries the puck more often. I carry the puck also but it's more graceful, more natural for him. It's not as natural for me, but maybe hitting is more natural for me. But we play the same way."

"We're both so damn intense on the ice. We lose it on the ice," Sweeney says. "Sure, Jerry might hit a little bit more than I do, I may skate a little bit more than he does. But we both enjoy those aspects of the game. It may seem on a first basis level that we have contrasting styles, but we're not that contrasting at all."

Pawloski and Sweeney have made people notice their style of play. Harvard gave up the fewest goals in the ECAC last year, much of that due to this senior duo. Both earned league honors.

But probably the most fitting award, the one that explains it all, was when Sweeney and Pawloski were named co-MVPs of this year's team.

"I don't think they could give an award to one of us separately just because of how we've done everything together," Pawloski says.

"When we came back, we knew that it was going to be our year," Sweeney says. "We were going to get a lot of ice time, more than we wanted. With everybody saying Don and Jerry, it couldn't have finished up any better than the way it did."

And although this year's finish, a first-round NCAA loss to Michigan State, did not equal the previous two Final Four appearances of the last two Crimson teams, this duo can look back at its accomplishments and realize that not many graduating seniors on other teams in the nation could boast of such a resume.

Sweeney will bring his resume to the Boston Bruins this year. The senior has signed a three-year contract with Boston and will give the pro scene a shot.

Pawloski says that he wants to continue playing hockey, although he doesn't know where. But, just like his defensive partner, Pawloski will give hockey a shot.

It's probably a good bet that people will still be talking about Don and Jerry a couple of years from now.