Jack Grinold, Director Office of Sports Infonnation Northeastern University, 360 Huntington Avenue, , MA 02115 (617) 373-2691, (617) 373-3152 (fax)

FOR RELEASE: Sunday, August 27th, 1995 DYER ENTERS NORTHEASTERN HALL OF FAME When it was less fashionable, Acton's Kelly Dyer labored at the sport of women's ; when it was not at all fashionable, she excelled at the sport of men's ice hockey; once she had conquered both worlds, she was in a league by herself. On Friday night, September 29th, Northeastern University gets a chance to model one of its exemplary student athletes during official Hall of Fame ceremonies at Matthews Arena, where Dyer was 47-6-2 as a collegiate goalie. Dyer will join five other Northeastern Hall of Famers, including the late great Reggie Lewis. A member of the Class of 1990, she graduated with an official degree in Business Administration and a minor in hockey. Having carved niches at every amateur hockey level, she now plays the sport for a living with the West Palm Beach entry in Florida's Sunshine League. She has played in front of a handful of relatives and well wishers, and 10,000 fans in the 1990 World Games in Ottawa, Ontario. Depending on whatever was the better challenge at the time, she has played a men's sport and a women's sport. However, her bottom line is genderless. Dyer, you see, is a hockey player. "I went stir crazy not working two jobs having come from Northeastern," said Dyer, who just this past summer parlayed creative and athletic passions as the Director of Marketing and starting for the Orlando Rollergators of the International Roller Hockey League. "I'm probably one of the few players in professional hockey who notices the designs of the opposing jerseys." As a goaltender, she is, naturally, attentive to detail. She has employed that scrutiny on the ice and in the business world, where she has been a designer and advertising account representative for Kaminsky Design in Boston and ARA Services in Cambridge during her infrequent hockey "downtime." Hockey, though, has dominated her world since she started playing the sport in 1979 for the Assabet Valley League. Her affinity for the sport was obvious. In 1980, she became the first girl to ever play a boy's varsity sport at Acton Boxboro Regional, where she backed up multiple all star Tom Barrasso. In tandem with Barrasso, Dyer helped AB win four straight Dual County League Championships. The competitive experience on the men's level led to a parade of suitors for Dyer's hockey services. While she weighed her collegiate options, Dyer settled at New Hampton Prep, where she earned the distinction of skating forward on the women's team and backup goalie on the men's team. Don Macleod, then the head coach of women's ice hockey at Northeastern, couldn't wait for Dyer to finish her post­ graduate season. The Macleod-Dyer union materialized in 1985 and proceeded to take a two-year rollercoaster ride, capped by successive women's Beanpot Championships in 1985 and 1986, her freshman and sophomore seasons. By her junior season, the Huskies and their incredibly acrobatic dufflebag were virtually unbeatable, cresting with Beanpot and ECAC championships in 1988 and 1989. In that two­ year stretch, Dyer was an amaz1ng 48-0-1 while protecting the 4 X 6 area. As captain of the Huskies in 1989, she was voted Most Valuable Player by her teammates for the second straight season. Tryouts for the United States Women's National Team and international stardom loomed for Dyer. In 1990, she backstopped the National Team to a Silver Medal in the World Games in Ottawa, Ont. Best goalie and Team Most Valuable Player honors followed. With her reputation cementing internationally, she spearheaded the National Team to a second straight Silver Medal, this time in Tampere, Finland, in 1992, and again in 1994 in Lake Placid. In between world amateur competition, minor pro teams offered Dyer a chance to play for pay. She signed in 1993 with the Jacksonville Bullets of the Sunshine League, and after two successful seasons on the panhandle was traded to her current club, the West Palm Beach Blaze, a club that has won the last two Sunshine League championships. As the 1995 season and her Northeastern Hall of Fame induction appear on the immediate sports horizon, Dyer sums up her present stat of hockey. "Getting off the beach to play hockey in front of 6,000 fans is tough," she says. "But somebody has to do it."