Life Outside the NHL

Full Name: Thomas Robert Mellor

Other Post-Draft Teams: Boston College (ECAC); Team USA; Virginia (AHL); London (Great Britain); Gothenburg (Sweden); Toledo (IHL)

Education: Graduated from Boston College in 1973.

Career Beyond Hockey: Moved back to the Boston area after his retirement to pursue a new career in the financial services sector and worked for many years with Kidder Peabody. In 1990, he founded Windham Capital Group in Boston, and remains the company's president.

Family: Son of Don Mellor, who played a key role in developing the youth hockey program in Cranston, R.I., into a legitimate pipeline for NHL talent. In 2013, the Mellors were honored by the Rhode Island Reds Heritage Society with the RI Native-Born Hockey Achievement Award.

First Drafted U.S. Olympian

Eight years before the "Miracle on Ice" at Lake Placid, the 1972 U.S. Olympic team made some history of its own by winning the silver medal at the Winter Games in Sapporo, Japan. Because that team was sandwiched between gold medalists in 1960 and 1980, it is somewhat forgotten in USA Hockey history. In addition to winning silver, the team could boast that it had the first U.S. Olympian ever drafted by an NHL team. Tom Mellor, then 22, delayed his senior year at Boston College to spend the entire 1971-72 season touring with Team USA in the months leading up to the Olympics. He had gotten his first taste of Team USA at the 1971 IIHF World Championship tournament in Switzerland, where the Americans finished sixth. All of the time he put in with the national team paid off in the first U.S. hockey medal since 1960. Mellor, a defenseman, did not record a point in his six games at Sapporo. The following year, Mellor returned to BC to complete his education and then rejoined Team USA for the 1973 World Group B tournament in Austria, helping the team to another second-place finish in the event. He was particularly outstanding in the 1973 tournament, scoring four goals and 12 points in seven games.