Bob Priestley

Robert R. "Bob" Priestley of Pocasset, Massachusetts is the kind of hockey player whose story reads like a movie script. At age 82, playing with a 101-degree fever in the deciding game of a championship, he scored the tying goal with 34 seconds left — sending Team USA to victory over Canada on wins differential.

That championship moment came at the 80+ Hockey Hall of Fame tournament in Burlington, Ontario in October 2023. But Bob's hockey legacy stretches back decades before that night — through a four-generation hockey family, an uncle who coached him, and a nickname he inherited before he ever suited up.

A Hockey Family from Hockeytown

Bob grew up in Melrose, Massachusetts — a city so passionate about the sport it earned the nickname "Hockeytown USA." He comes from a true hockey family: his father and three uncles all played for Melrose High School, and all four are in the school's Hall of Fame. Bob followed in their skates, playing for Melrose High before continuing at Norwich University in Vermont, where he played under his own uncle and namesake, Bob Priestley, who coached the team. Bob's fast wrist and slap shots there earned him the same nickname his uncle carried before him — "Bullets." He was inducted into Norwich's Sports Hall of Fame in 2025, sixty years after his 1965 team was already enshrined there.

"They probably didn't remember how I played way back then. Others inducted were much better. But the guy in charge said I should've been nominated a long time ago."

A Four-Generation Hockey Legacy

To say hockey is in Bob's blood is an understatement. His grandfather believed strongly in athletics and taught all five of his children to play. Bob's father, Gil, and his three uncles all played hockey for Melrose High School in the 1930s and '40s and are in its Hall of Fame — and their sister, Bob's aunt, was a founding member of the first women's ice hockey program at Melrose High as a senior in 1940.

All four brothers went on to play college hockey: Gil and Uncle Russ at the University of Illinois, and Uncles Bob and Warren at Brown University, where both are in the Athletic Hall of Fame. Uncles Bob and Russ also played for the Boston Olympics, an amateur club. Gil was being considered for the 1940 US Olympic hockey team before the Games were cancelled due to the coming war.

The family's hockey ties carried into Bob's own playing days. In the 1970s he played alongside his Uncle Russ and his father, who kept playing into his 50s. In the 1980s, Bob played in the Schenectady men's league with his first cousin Kelly Priestley — a member of the Clarkson Athletic Hall of Fame — and later, after moving to Cape Cod, with Kelly's sister Paula. Both cousins still play in both men's and women's leagues.

A Life of Service and Competition

After Norwich and graduate school at Carnegie Institute of Technology, Bob served in the US Army, stationed in Germany for two years during the Vietnam War era. He built a career as a mechanical engineer at General Electric — all while never straying far from the rink. He and his wife Dorothy have been married 58 years.

International Competitor

Bob has traveled the world with hockey. As a member of the Cape Cod Sharks from Falmouth, he competed in Iceland (2016), the Czech Republic, Slovenia and Austria (2018), and Austria and Germany (2020), and with the South Shore Rusty Blades in Ireland (2025). In 2014 he played in the Snoopy Men's Senior Hockey Tournament in Santa Rosa, California, and again in 2026 on the USA 80+ Hockey Hall of Fame team, which won its division. In 2016 his age 70+ team won the USA Hockey national championship.

The Winning Goal

The Burlington championship game in 2023 was a nail-biter — Team USA trailed Canada with under a minute left. That morning, Bob had woken up with a 101-degree fever and nearly didn't play. "I was just going to check things out," he says of the drive to the rink. "I didn't think about how well I felt or not."

A negative COVID test in the parking lot changed everything, and Bob suited up. With 34 seconds left, a scrum broke out behind the Canadian net. "Someone went behind the net, there was a scrum on the boards," Bob recalls. "The others did the work; I didn't do much. I just slid it in after one guy passed it to me. It was very exciting." The puck found the back of the net, tying the game — and on wins differential, Team USA was crowned champions.

"Bob said to me, 'Well, let's go to the rink anyways.' When we got to the parking lot, the COVID test was negative, and of course he had his bag with him, so he went in and he played the game and got the winning goal!"

The 2025 Legends Game

Bob brought that same winning energy to the 2025 USA 80+ Hockey Hall of Fame Legends Game in Superior, Colorado on October 4, 2025 — scoring the game-winning goal for Team USA in a 4-3 victory over Team Colorado. Watch the goal below.

Still Going Strong

Today at 83, Bob skates several times a week at the Gallo Ice Arena and Falmouth Ice Arena, competing in both the 50+ and 60+ age groups. His wife notes he is the oldest player at those facilities, and the younger players look up to him as a role model. Bob doesn't dwell on the age gap. "I really don't think about being older," he says, "but I wish I could do what I used to be able to do." As for what keeps him coming back session after session, year after year, his answer is simple: "It's good exercise!"

"Just keep on playing. It kind of keeps you going, keeps you on your toes."

"The Energizer Bunny"

Off the ice, Bob is rarely still. Between games he tends the garden, growing vegetables and flowers, plays pickleball, goes fishing with his buddies, works out at the gym, cooks, and handles repairs around the house — enough that his neighbors on Cape Cod have a nickname for him too.

"It's amazing to me that he can still do all he does so I encourage it. He's more active than most people his age even when he's not on the ice. Around our neighborhood they call him, 'The Energizer Bunny.'"

Bob doesn't remember hockey being a big topic around the dinner table growing up — "I just enjoyed playing because it was so much fun," he says. But asked what he'd want his grandkids, or the next generation of players, to take from his story, his answer reflects a lifetime on the ice: "I'd want them to keep trying to go for their dreams and not give up." And what does induction into the USA 80+ Hockey Hall of Fame mean to him personally? "It means you've lived a long time and are still going."

• Grew up in Melrose, MA — father and three uncles all in Melrose High School Hall of Fame
• 1961–1965 — played college hockey at Norwich University
• 1965–1966 — earned Master's Degree at Carnegie Institute of Technology
• 1967–1969 — US Army veteran, stationed in Germany during Vietnam War
• 1970s — played for the Lowell Chiefs Senior Amateur Hockey (Massachusetts)
• 1970s — played in the Mohawk Valley Men's League, Schenectady — top scorer and top sportsman trophies
• 1979–1984 — coached Mohawk Valley Youth Hockey, Schenectady, New York
• 2010–Present — plays in the Massachusetts Senior Olympics with Cape Cod's Old Buzzards and other teams
• 2016 USA Hockey national champion — age 70+ division
• International competitor — Iceland, Czech Republic, Slovenia, Austria, Germany, Ireland
• 2023–Present — plays for Team USA in the Canadian 80+ Hockey Hall of Fame Canada 150 Cup Tournament
• 2023 Canada Cup championship — scored tying goal with 34 seconds left, playing with 101-degree fever
• 2025 Legends Game — scored the game-winning goal for Team USA in a 4-3 victory
• 2025 Norwich University Sports Hall of Fame Inductee
• 2026 — played on the winning USA 80+ Hockey Hall of Fame team at the Snoopy Men's Senior Hockey Tournament
• 2026 USA 80+ Hockey Hall of Fame Inductee