University of Vermont Athletic Hall of Fame
Ian D. Boyce 1989 - Hockey
Perhaps the best two-way forward to ever play for the Catamounts, Ian Boyce, a 1999 UVM Hall of Fame inductee - along with linemate and fellow Hall of Famer Kyle McDonough - led Vermont to its first NCAA tournament appearance in 1988. In 1989 he captained the only Vermont team that reached the ECAC Division I Championship game. The St. Laurent, Quebec-native was the 1989 winner of the Semans Trophy for leadership, loyalty and service to UVM. At commencement that spring, he was the first recipient of the Keith M. Miser Award for Leadership for outstanding service to the university.
Boyce and McDonough were the key members of Coach Mike Gilligan's first recruiting class in 1985-86. In his freshman year, Boyce was third on the team in scoring as the Cats went 17-13-1 overall and 11-10-0 in the ECAC.
His sophomore year he scored eight goals and added 23 assists as the team went 18-14-0 and 12-10-0 in the ECAC. In March of 1987, Boyce was one of two athletes to win the prestigious Harry Jerome Award which annually honors top black Canadians in the fields of athletics, academics and art.
The 1987-88 season was another breakthrough year for UVM hockey as the Cats (21-11-3, 14-7-1), in addition to their inaugural trip to the NCAAs, earned home ice for an ECAC quarterfinal for the first time since 1980 and made their first trip to the semifinals at the Boston Garden since 1975. Boyce scored a career-best 16 goals and was named to the ECAC All-Star Second-Team.
A unanimous selection by his teammates as captain for his senior year, Boyce scored a career-high 42 points (15 goals, 27 assists) in 1988-89 with 33 of his 42 points in ECAC games. Over the holidays that season he played for the Canadian National Team in the Saskatchewan Cup. That year the Cats made it to the ECAC semifinals at Boston Garden for the second straight time - the first and only back-to-back trips to the ECAC semis in UVM hockey history. Vermont defeated eventual national champion Harvard in the semis to earn the team's only appearance to the ECAC Championship game. Boyce earned honorable mention All-ECAC honors following the season and was the winner of UVM's James Cross Coaches Award. He was also presented the Joseph Tomasello Unsung Hero Award by the New England Hockey Writers Association. He finished his career with 132 points, tying him for 15th place (eighth among Catamounts in Division I) on the UVM scoring list.
After UVM, Boyce played professional hockey for ten-plus seasons. He was Buffalo's first choice in the 1989 NHL supplemental draft and joined the organization at Rochester in the AHL after a year in Sweden. He played ten years in the International Hockey League including six with the Fort Wayne Komets. He played on the Komets' Turner Cup championship team in 1992-93 and was an IHL All-Star in 1997-98. Two times he was selected as the top defensive forward in the league and twice has been honored by the fans as Fort Wayne's unsung hero. The team captain in 1997-98 and 1998-99, Boyce is a two-time recipient of the Komet's Gallmeier Mermorial Trophy for community service. He also has served on UVM's Board of Trustees.
