Posted: Mar 22, 2022
Black Becomes Program’s First Concannon Award Winner Since Jamie Murray ’16 in 2016
BOSTON—Babson College senior Ryan Black (Pomfret, Conn.) was announced as the co-winner of the 21st Joe Concannon Award by The Greater Gridiron Club of Greater Boston president Cheryl Duddy-Schoenfield on Tuesday morning.
The prestigious award is presented annually to the top American-born college hockey player in New England at the Division II/III level. Black, who was selected as the co-winner with Conor O’Brien of Endicott College, joins 2015 and 2016 honoree Jamie Murray ’16 as the only players in program history to claim the award.
Black produced career highs of 19 goals and 20 assists for 39 points over 27 games this winter as the Beavers captured their first New England Hockey Conference (NEHC) Tournament championship since 2014 and advanced to the NCAA quarterfinals. He was selected as the NEHC Player of the Year and recorded the most goals and points by a Babson player since Johnny Kim ’06 back in 2004-05 and the most assists since PT Donato ’13 finished with 23 back in 2012-13. Additionally, Black’s 39 points are good for the sixth most by any player in the program going back to the 1992-93 campaign.
Black, who tied the Division III record and leads all of men’s college hockey with nine game-winning goals, finished with at least one point in 20 contests and produced 12 multi-point games. He produced three goals and three assists for six points in five postseason outings, which included game-winning tallies at Elmira in overtime of the NEHC semifinals and against Skidmore on the conference tournament final.
“This a great award for Ryan, who has been a selfless star for us,” commented head coach Jamie Rice ’90. “In my time here, nobody has done what he did this year, at the level he did, with such consistency. He is amazingly humble and always happy. He carries himself with a lot of humility and has always just been one of the guys on the team. He has tremendous hockey sense and an innate ability to put himself in the right place on the ice. He took zero penalties this year, scored 100 points in just over three years of playing, and led the nation in game-winning goals and you would never know it with how he carries himself on and off the ice. As good a player as Ryan has been, he really is a better person and has carried that beyond our team to the athletic community and campus here at Babson.”
A two-time All-NEHC selection, Black concluded his Babson career with 48 goals and 64 assists for 112 points. He is tied for 12th all-time in assists, 14th in points and 15th in goals and is one of just two players since 2000 and 14 players in program history to put together multiple 30-point seasons.
The Joe Concannon Award was established by the Gridiron Club of Boston in 2001 to honor Joe, a lifelong devotee of college hockey, former member of the Walter Brown Award Selection Committee and, as a journalist, a staunch advocate for the amateur athletes he knew and covered. Joe graduated from Boston University in 1961 and served as the sports information director at the College of the Holy Cross before joining the Boston Globe in the late 1960’s to cover college sports.
Fifth-ranked Babson finished the season at 20-6-2 after winning 11 of its final 13 games.
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