Edwyn Owen

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Edwyn “Bob” Owen (1936 – October 5, 2007) was an American star hockey player at Harvard and played on the 1960 U.S. hockey team that won an Olympic gold medal for the United States.

Owen grew up in St. Louis Park, Minnesota, and attended Harvard University, where he was a defenseman on three Ivy League championship teams. In 1957, he won Harvard’s Angier Trophy for the player who made the greatest improvement. He graduated from Harvard in 1958. At his induction into the Harvard Varsity Club Hall of Fame in 1982, he was described as a “hard-hitting player who could move an opponent from in front of the net.”

He was on the 1960 Winter Olympics hockey team with several of his Harvard teammates, including Bill Cleary and Bob Cleary, winning the gold by beating the Soviets and Czechoslovakia. It was the nation’s first gold medal in men’s hockey.

Owen later moved to Topeka, Kansas, where he taught at Washburn University School of Business. Owen became a local hero in Topeka hockey, so much so that the adult hockey league in that city named its championship cup after him (the Owen Cup).

[edit] Death

On October 5, 2007 a white Lincoln Continental was found burning in a field in Topeka, Kansas. A body was found inside, severely burned. A week later it was determined to be the remains of Edwyn Owen. The Kansas state Fire Marshall's Office determined that the car's heated catalytic converter set fire to the dense dry grass around the vehicle. It was later reported that Owen had been exihibiting "odd behavior" in the two weeks before his passing. These behaviors included claiming he was a character in a fictional children's book and leaving confusing telephone messages.

[edit] Sources

Carlson, James "Body ID'd as Olympian's" The Topeka Capital-Journal 9 Oct. 2007 A1

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