When the Robert Morris men’s and women’s hockey programs were abruptly shut down on May 26, it left 55 athletes without a place to play, seven coaches and support staff members without jobs, and numerous alumni stunned and saddened.
Now, a Pittsburgh-based group is looking to bring it all back. Just days after the announcement, a group of alumni came together and formed the Pittsburgh College Hockey Foundation in an effort to restore Pittsburgh’s only Division I hockey team.
In addition, news broke Monday morning that a coalition of Robert Morris hockey players retained the law firm Winston & Strawn as legal counsel and it will be led by Jeffrey Kessler, perhaps the most prominent sports attorney in the world. He worked with Tom Brady in the “Deflategate” scandal, worked with Stanford student-athletes to get multiple programs back after they were shut down by the school and recently was the attorney that was at the center of the 9-0 decision against the NCAA by the Supreme Court. Kessler sent a letter to Robert Morris saying that the legal rights of the players may have been compromised by the program’s elimination.
Dan Russell was the first president of the group, but on Monday he officially gave way to a husband-and-wife duo of Logan Bittle and Brianne McLaughlin-Bittle, both former Robert Morris players and coaches. They will serve as the head of the board of directors in the foundation. Logan was a member of Robert Morris’ inaugural team in 2004-05 and played for them until 2008 and then was the associate head coach of the women’s program from 2010-2020. Brianne played for the women’s team from 2005-2009 and is now the goaltending coach for the US Women’s National Team. She was also a volunteer assistant coach for the men’s program from 2019 until this past spring.
After the announcement of the program shutting down, the alums wanted to step up and fight for their programs.
“We wanted to come up with a platform and a way to support the movement of getting the programs reinstated. After a lot of talk with a lot of people, we decided this would be a good way to help that cause,” Logan Bittle said. “There’s been so much hard work put in by so many people to create such a wonderful culture and program those two programs had that it’s very sad and difficult to understand why those programs were dropped.”
A GoFundMe that was set up by the foundation has raised over $33,000 as of Monday morning and additionally has $427,000 pledged in private donations. A lot of those donations are expected to come from private businesses.
The fact that they were both a part of the programs in some capacity has helped them see the viability of both programs. The women’s program struggled at first but has since risen to a top-10 program in the country multiple times and made two NCAA tournament appearances, in 2017 and this past spring. The men’s program made its lone NCAA tournament appearance in 2014.
“We weren’t able to go too far with it in the four years that I was there, but looking back on it now, Logan took over coaching that team so I kind of got to be around it a little longer than I was supposed to, but they were able to take that team to being one of the top 10 teams in the country,” Brianne said. “As a group of alumni, we talk about how things were then and how they are now.”
The community of hockey — and college hockey specifically — is very tight-knit, and the Robert Morris programs have received support from outside the Pittsburgh area.
“When things happen, the hockey community tends to band together and you’re seeing that kind of support and outcry from not just people in the Pittsburgh area and Robert Morris community, but all across North America,” Logan said. “People are reaching out. People are displeased with how things happened and what happened. There’s a lot of people that support growing the game.”
When the announcement was made of the programs’ closing, COVID-19 was said to not be the determining factor in the decision, but it did play a role. The biggest reason was because of funding, which some small schools like Robert Morris do struggle with at times. The foundation is looking to act as a booster for the program moving forward.
“Whether it’s Robert Morris or any other school that drops a program, that’s a step backward and nobody in the hockey community wants to take those steps backward,” Logan said.
The goal is to raise $10 million over the next five years and bring back the teams as soon as possible, even if it doesn’t happen this fall. The group is also looking to get approval from the IRS to be tax exempt so donations can be tax deductible.
“The long-term goal, Number 1, is to get the programs reinstated but then be able to have the foundation have the ability to help sustain those programs,” Logan said.
The group hopes to be a major factor in Robert Morris’ future and build the programs to place where they can not only play, but be success stories.
“What they have been able to do, both of them, with what they have is amazing,” Brianne said. “If they’re able to come back and then having the support of the foundation alongside of them, it’ll be pretty amazing to see what they can do after that. But we have to get them back first.”
Aidan Joly: ajoly@post-gazette.com and Twitter: @ByAidanJoly
First Published: June 28, 2021, 3:59 p.m.
