Saturday, February 7, 2009

Mt. Rushmore: Mike Mottau

We continue our profile of Boston College sports greats to arrive at our BC athletics make-believe Mt. Rushmore...

Name: Mike Mottau
Born: March 1979 in Quincy, MA
Sport: Men's Ice Hockey
BC Era: 1996-2000

Current Standings: Currently in last place with 4% of the vote.

PlaceIndividualVotesPct.
1Doug Flutie14288%
2Jerry York11772%
3Matt Ryan8854%
4William J. Flynn6137%
5Troy Bell4729%
6Frank Leahy2616%
7John "Snooks" Kelley2515%
8Bill Curley2213%
9Write-In Vote169%
10Tom O'Brien159%
11Charlie O'Rourke106%
12Al Skinner95%
13Art Donovan74%
14Mike Mottau74%


Why He's In

  • One of only two Eagles to ever win the Hobey Baker (the other David Emma in 1991)
  • Part of the resurgence of the Eagles men's ice hockey team. During his four years, won 99 games with the Eagles after the team went through multiple losing seasons
  • Two Hockey East Tournament Championships, three Frozen Four appearances and twice played in the NCAA Title game
  • 2000 Hockey East Player of the Year and Hockey East Best Defensive Defenseman
  • All Hockey-East first team selection (1998, 2000) and second team selection (1999)
  • Hockey East All-Rookie selection in 1997
  • American Hockey Coaches Association All-American first team selection in 1999 and 2000 and second team selection in 1998
  • Back-to-Back Walter Brown Award winner in 1999 and 2000, only the fourth player to win the award multiple times. Walter Brown Award is given to the Top American born hockey player on a New England team
  • All New England selection in 1998, 1999, and 2000
  • Awarded the Boston College Eagle (Athlete) of the Year in 2000
  • Holds the school record for most career assists (130) surpassing the mark set by 1991 Hobey winner David Emma
  • Team assists leader during the 1998-1999 (39) and 1999-2000 seasons (37)
  • 20th on the all-time Total Points list (remember, he was a defenseman)

Maybe Not?

  • Came oh so close, but didn't win a National championship ... the team endured a heartbreaking 3-2 OT loss to Michigan in the 1998 championship and a 4-2 loss to North Dakota in the 2000 title game
  • While his accomplishments are impressive, other than the Hobey Baker, his accomplishments really don't seem to distance himself from the rest of the pack of BC hockey greats such as Reasoner, Gionta and Gerbe
  • His coach is probably on the mountain and has won two titles since Mottau graduated
  • Full disclosure is that Mottau graduated a year before Jeff and I enrolled at BC. We think the greatest hockey player we've ever seen play for the Eagles was Brian Gionta and can't really speak to Mottau's greatness
X-Factor

  • Winning the Hobey Baker Award and beating out two other Eagles that year (Jeff Farkas and Brian Gionta)

So throw some love/votes to a Hobey Baker winner?

1 comment:

mmb1980 said...

As I mentioned in comments to another post, Mottau just doesn't rate in my opinion. He was the best defenseman on those 98-00 Frozen Four teams, but Bobby Allen wasn't too far behind. And if Brian Leetch had stayed at BC more than a year, we wouldn't even be discussing Mottau for Rushmore.

If a hockey player (outside of player & coach York) is going on BC's Rushmore I think it has to be Gionta or Emma or even Clemmensen. Not Mottau.