Russell Wenzel Tribute

My name is Fran Keefe, I met Russ in August of 1969, we were in the same dorm together as freshmen at Nichols College. We quickly became best buds and ended up becoming roomates our Freshman and Sophmore years. We both became floor Proctors and I got assigned to another dorm but we still remained the best of friends.
We played Hockey together at Nichols, which in itself was not an easy thing back in those days....we had to drive to Worcester, Mass, a one hour drive each way, just to practice and where we played most of our games. Russ and I shared the driving.....we had many laughs on those long late nights during the wintertime...once I had to pull over to let Russ vomit after a game when he had the flu, I can't believe I remembered that!! Russ assisted me on my 1st goal at Nichols, we both celebrated on the ice like we had just won the Stanley Cup!! Russ was a good player in college, a solid defenseman, Russ never backed down from the physical play....actually I think he enjoyed it.....once we had a huge fight, a riot really, after a game with the fans at the Univ of Connecticut...had to have the police escort our bus back out of there, we laughed about it all the way back to Nichols. Russ and I always came out of the dressing room to start each period next to each other, kind of a superstition....once I came out and hit the ice with tape on the bottom of my skate and as I hit the ice I fell like a ton of bricks in front of a big crowd....no one laughed louder at me than Russ Wenzel...we doubled up laughing about it for weeks after that.
We played baseball together for only 1 year and while I played soccer in the fall there I got to watch Russ play football...he was a great defensive end, Captain and the team's place kicker for 4 years....it was even suggested that I be Russ's holder once, but cooler heads prevailed after we asked the coaches about it. I once drove him to the hospital during a game when he got what we now call a stinger....his arm turned blue but he was back out there the next game, Russ was one tough cookie.
We both majored in marketing at Nichols and had all the same classes together for almost the entire 4 years. After we graduated, we both went to the Bahamas together for a week to celebrate and had a blast, Russ loved spending time in the Casino at the BlackJack tables....he did pretty good if I remember right.
Russ had a wonderful mom and dad in Art and Joyce. I remember once riding shotgun with Russ all the way to NJ to drop off a friend ,against his parent's wishes and was "met" at the friends NJ home by Art who was not too happy....we were instructed to head straight over to the Wenzel's house where Mr. Wenzel chewed out Russ pretty good for going against his wishes....I was stunned to see how quickly the reprimand came to an end when Russ was hugged and kissed by both his mom+dad and were sent back off into the snowy night to head back to Nichols up in Massachusetts....I remember Art whispering to me that if Russ got tired driving I was to take over, which I did later on that evening. I have a million stories about our college days, too many to share here but when I think back to my many wonderful experiences at Nichols College they always begin and end with Russ Wenzel.......Rest in Peace, my friend.