Kevin McManaman (Class of 1989) likes to say he played hockey at Air Force when Joe Doyle was a player (not a coach) and when the sticks were wood and the blades were steel.

Currently a Brigadier General for the Air National Guard in Connecticut, Kevin also flies “on the outside” for United Airlines.

He’s rated as a command pilot and has more than 5,000 flight hours to his credit. He’s flown aircraft ranging from A/OA-10s to C-21s to C-130Hs to T-37s and T-38s.

His assignments have included RAF Bentwaters in the United Kingdom, Spangdahlem AB, Germany and Davis-Monthan AFB in Tucson, Arizona. He also has been an A-10 Instructor Pilot at Bradley Air National Guard in Connecticut and risen through the ranks to his current position as Chief of Staff.

He graciously took time out to reminisce with The Flight Path at Air Force Hockey’s alumni weekend in mid-October. The affable McManaman vividly recalled some of his fondest memories of his time at the Academy and what’s happened for him since.

I hope you enjoy the candid observations and recollections of General McManaman.

What are some of your favorite memories of your time at the Academy?

I got my nickname of Baby Colt, which you probably heard during the alumni hockey game. Everyone knows Tim Hartje because he’s famous here at the Air Force Academy. (Hartje is the Director of Fitness Testing and Evaluation Division). I came from behind the net during practice as a freshman. I’m tall. I was probably 6-3 and 185 pounds soaking wet then. Hartje was a senior and the captain of our team. I came from behind the net with the puck with my head down and he just clocked me into the boards. And I got up and was feeling a little woozy, and my legs and my knees were wobbling a little bit as I made my way to the bench. He and the rest of his upperclassmen friends laughed and pointed at me and said, “Hey look, he looks like a baby colt skating back to the bench with his wobbly knees.” And that name has stuck 32 years. We can thank Tim Hartje for that one. He’s a legend.

I’m struck by the closeness of your peer group from the late 1980s – when sticks were wood, blades were steel … – how have you guys maintained that through all these years?

First of all, playing for Chuck Delich – what an amazing hockey talent he is in his own right. Just a phenomenal, phenomenal hockey personality. There are so many memories. We were a D-I independent so unfortunately there weren’t any hockey playoffs we could go to. Alabama-Huntsville was D-I independent. It seemed like when all the other schools and conferences were having tournaments, they were always having an invitational tournament that we went to. Some of those tournaments were fun. That was the closest thing we got to the playoffs. It was a grudge match between D-I independent schools. That was good.

It seemed like every year we played we would upset one big name school. It was Ferris State on the road our senior year, and they were ranked and we were not. (The Falcons won 6-3 and 5-3 on Feb. 17-18) There was always one weekend we would upset a big team.

There are too many to list them all of them, but you get real tight with some of the guys here. And the funny thing is you run into them all over the world. It was a dark stormy night over Western Iraq and I got on station. The flight lead I was taking over for was another hockey guy, and I could tell just from the voice on the radio.

Obviously the time at the Academy was special, but how did the training serve you well in your endeavors?

I’ve been very lucky to be able to be surrounded with guys like these my entire life, since I showed up here as an 18-year-old freshman. … I think the best preparation for being in a fighter squadron was being in a hockey locker room, because the camaraderie and the atmosphere are so close. It’s almost identical. The razzing you give your teammates, and the chemistry between teammates. There’s a little bit of healthy competition amongst you in practice. When it’s the real deal and it’s game time you’re all out there for one objective, for one goal, and everybody’s got each other’s back. I would say a hockey locker room and a fighter squadron, there are so many traditions, whether it’s fines for breaking rules, that transfer directly over.

We had our logo in the middle of the floor of our A-10 squadron, and you didn’t touch that logo. The rest of the floor got walked on, but that logo was waxed and shiny and you didn’t touch it.

When you have a chance to talk to players at the Academy now, or at points since you’ve graduated, what is your message to them?

Don’t be afraid of pilot training. Those were the best years of my life. I graduated pilot training in 1990 at 23. The next nine years I got to live in England for a couple of years, got to live in Germany for a couple of years, did TDYs all over Europe, including over Bosnia when it was hot and heavy in the mid-90s. We were TDYed in Italy, flying into Bosnia every day. But I got to spend a ton of time Italy, a ton of time down in Turkey when we were flying the Northern Iraq No-Fly Zone, surrounded by teammates who were very competitive, similar to hockey teammates. We look back at some of those years and compare them to our peers who don’t have some of that experience and they look at us like we’re from a different planet. Imagine being 26 years old and saying, “Let’s go on vacation in the Greek Islands for a week.” Who would think of that? If you’re a normal college graduate working in the States you’re not thinking of that.

Now there were tough times over there, there was a lot of work to do. You don’t remember that. You remember the good times, and they were great, really great. Don’t be afraid of the pilot training commitment. It’s an opportunity to do some great, great things in some really cool places and have a lot of fun. We were spoiled. We’d fly into Yugoslavia, then you’d come back to your hotel room and turn on CNN International and watch what you’d just did at work today. Most 24-25-year-olds don’t get to do that. That was pretty cool.

What are the most noticeable changes you’ve observed with Air Force hockey since you played?

College hockey has changed in the world, not just here. I’m glad to see we’ve been able to keep pace with the changes. Year after year the coaching staff here has been able to put together a competitive team and be in the mix. That’s a huge credit to them and a huge credit to the athletic department for being patient to give them the resources to do that.

This has been a very successful alumni weekend. Scott Bradley and Kurt Rohloff and Tim Hartje are a big part of that. Having dedicated alumni corralling the alumni group is a big step in the right direction. I hope we can do more to help the guys out and continue to be competitive at the highest levels.

You’ve seen first-hand the respect the program garners in some of the top hockey markets around. You tell a great story about one of the Falcons’ recent trips to the NCAA Tournament.

At the 2012 NCAA Tournament, we’re playing Boston College in the opening round (at Worcester, Mass.) We met a couple of people across the street before the game for pizza and a couple pitchers of beer. I ran into an old friend of mine from the Academy, Michael “Foot” Millen. He hadn’t played hockey, but he’d graduated a year behind me and we were in the same squadron. I knew he flew A-10s as well. He told me he was still active so I asked him what he was doing. He said he’d just finished Navy War College down in Newport. He said, “I’m about to graduate. I was able to sneak up here for the weekend to watch hockey.” He was on his way to being the operations group commander in Afghanistan. He was a big deal. I was impressed. That is a big deal. Afghanistan was going hot and heavy then and he was going to be an O6.

As we’re finishing up and we’re debating if we should get another pitcher of beer or head over to the game, there was this group of Boston College fans. We said, “Hey, do you know if they’re selling beer at the game?” They said, yeah. So we said, “Let’s just head over to the game.”

So Foot says, “You guys better not be setting us up. Because if we get over there and there’s no beer we’re going to find you and kick you right in the balls.”

We play the game. The beer was not there by the way. Boston College ends up beating us but they barely squeaked by (2-0). That was the closest game BC had on their March through to the championship. They easily handled everyone else.

After the game, we go back to the pizza place and the same group is over there. Foot Millen just kind of game them a look. So their fans started sending pitchers of beer over – they knew (laughing). They said the same thing to us, “We could not believe how hard you guys played.” One of these guys was wearing this really expensive Boston College jersey, one of the game authentic ones. … We started talking with these guys the rest of the night, and this gets me emotional. He took the jersey off and gave it to me. I ended up giving it to Frank. The guy said it was just to show the respect our school and fans have for your guys. That tells you all you need to know about Air Force hockey.

Check out our alumni update on Scott Bradley, too

Follow @AFAFlightPath on Twitter for updates on Air Force Hockey

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