RINK MASTER: Harry Rulon-Miller holding court in McGraw Rink at Princeton Day School. The legendary Rulon-Miller, who coached the PDS boys’ hockey team from 1968-81, was inducted into the New Jersey High School Hockey Hall of Fame last month. (Photo Courtesy of PDS)

By Bill Alden

When Harry Rulon-Miller took up hockey in the 1940s as a grade schooler skating in nearby Baker Rink on the campus of Princeton University, he couldn’t develop his skills in recreation leagues or travel hockey programs.

“It was a passion,” recalled Rulon-Miller. “There was nothing really organized.”

Falling in love with the game, Rulon-Miller played at Princeton Country Day through ninth grade and then finished his high school career at the St. Paul’s School in New Hampshire. He returned home to star for the Princeton University men’s hockey program, leading the team in scoring, serving as a team captain in the 1957-58 season, and earning the Blackwell Award winner. 

From 1968-81, Rulon-Miller served the head coach of the Princeton Day School boys’ hockey program, taking a key role as the sport became a fixture on the high school sports scene. He later coached the PDS middle school team and was the rink coordinator at McGraw Rink. In 2014, the school’s annual invitational hockey tournaments were named in Rulon-Miller’s honor.

Getting recognized for his contribution as a coach, Rulon-Miller was inducted into the New Jersey High School Hockey Hall of Fame last month

For Rulon-Miller, heading to New England was a formative experience in his Hall of Fame career.

“They had a hockey tradition, which was very long,” said Rulon-Miller, 82, in his distinctive raspy voice.

“They had at six rinks on the lower school pond and up to 27 teams playing intramural hockey. I got there as a sophomore and I played in the intramurals, but also almost immediately got on the St. Paul’s varsity and played for that for three years.”

Coming home for college, Rulon-Miller was the leading scorer for the Princeton University men’s hockey team in his three varsity campaigns even though things didn’t come easy for him.

“It was a grind, I was constantly nervous,” said Rulon-Miller. “I was a basically a leader by example, not too verbal.

I was really quite unsure underneath it, especially as a captain in my senior year.”

For Rulon-Miller, his college career taught him that he had just scratched the surface in his hockey education.

“In retrospect, my head for the game developed after Princeton,” said Rulon-Miller.

“By the time I had finished Princeton where I played in about 67 games there as a varsity player plus 11 as a freshman, I had not been in as many games that some peewee team is in now. The sense of the game requires a constant repetition and playing and playing. I was a good athlete but just did not have the playing experience.”

After graduating from Princeton in 1958, Rulon-Miller tried out for the 1960 U.S. Olympic squad and then played in adult amateur leagues for local hockey clubs and was also a fixture in the Garden State League.

It was the latter experience that exposed Rulon-Miller to a key influence in his understanding of the game.

“It included one of the best teachers who ever came out of the north part of New Jersey, a guy named John Warchol who was about 17 when I first met him,” recalled Rulon-Miller.

“He was constantly around rinks for most of his life and, just by sheer will, he ended up on the 1964 U.S Olympic team. He coached Seton Hall Prep for years and that was one of the better teams up there then. I always respected him.”

In 1961, Rulon-Miller joined the faculty of Princeton Day School and got into coaching, serving as the head coach of the PDS boys’ varsity team from 1968-81.

“That was tough because I had virtually no experience other than playing,” said Rulon-Miller.

“Luckily in the early ‘60s and ‘70s, I was a follower of the wily mentor Dick Vaughan (the Princeton University men’s hockey head coach for 22 seasons), who was a longtime student of the game. He even wrote some books about it. He just had a great mind for the game and he actually worked with PCD/PDS hockey teams as a consultant, always there from the mid-’50s to at least 1973.”

In order to hone his coaching skills, Rulon-Miller did his share of studying and teaching.

“I did a lot of working with kids and figure
skating teachers; I learned a lot about skating,” said Rulon-Miller, who ran U.S.A. hockey clinics and instructed at hockey schools in the summer, notably the Pocumtuck Hockey School in Western Massachusetts. “The other part was working at the hockey schools in the summer.”

Looking back at his tenure as PDS varsity coach, Rulon-Miller relished the competition with two arch rivals, the Hill School (Pa.) and the Lawrenceville School.

“I was in a constant battle of the strategies of the game with the coach of Hill School, who was the legendary Tom Eccleston, who started in Berryville, R.I. and he previously coached college hockey,” said Rulon-Miller.

“My teams beat Eccleston three times overall. I only coached in about 200 games, the seasons were shorter then. I was a little better against Lawrenceville, I think it was about 14 or 15 wins. Of the 200 games, about 65-70 were against Hill and Lawrenceville.”

While Rulon-Miller’s coaching resume may not be overwhelming, his role in putting the high school game on the map in New Jersey made him a natural choice for the state’s Hockey Hall of Fame.

“I figured that I deserved it because I was in the beginning of high school hockey becoming a big deal,” said Rulon-Miller.

“I also had all kinds of friends in high places.”

With Rulon-Miller having been around New Jersey rinks for that last 70 years or so, his many friends in the game defer to his extensive hockey knowledge.

“I feel that my myth has been expanded significantly,” quipped Rulon-Miller with a grin.

“Even though I am treated like an old geezer, people seem to say ‘you know a lot about what is going on out there.’”