Concord's first true hockey hero was Douglas Everett. One would be hard-pressed to cruise around Concord and not spy something named after Everett. The most notable, and most hockey-pertinent, is the Douglas N. Everett Ice Skating Arena. where the Concord High hockey teams play their home games.
Everett was born on April 3, 1905 in Cambridge, Mass. His family moved to Concord shortly thereafter. Everett played his college hockey at Dartmouth, where he was his team's captain. He played all four years of college, and was named to the Boston Transcript's All-College team for his sophomore and junior seasons. A writer of his time described him thusly: “He could skate, and he could shoot, and he had the native intelligence – all the ingredients a player needs for greatness. He was hardly of the ruffian variety, but he knew how to body check and did so with authority.”
In a move that would be shocking today given this era's professional sports salaries, Everett turned down contracts from the Boston Bruins, New York Rangers and Toronto Maple Leafs to join the Morrill & Everett insurance company in Concord. He kept up his skills and was named to the 1928 U.S. men's Olympic hockey team. The team, however, did not get adequate funding that year and did not make the trip to St. Moritz, Switzerland.
When the next Olympic games were held in Lake Placid, N.Y. in 1932, Everett got his chance to compete at the international level. He scored a goal in four out of the five games that the U.S. played during the tournament. Two of those goals were scored against eventual gold-medal winner Canada, including one in the championship game. Everett and the U.S. team ended up winning the silver medal that year.
Everett went on to become chairman of Morrill & Everett. The Douglas N. Everett Ice Skating Arena was built and named in his honor in 1965. Everett was inaugurated to the U.S.A. Hockey Hall of Fame in 1974. He died in 1996.
