The first chance came with the Chicago Minor Hawks in the 1979 PeeWee Tier 1 title game and then eight years later with Oswego State University against Plattsburgh State in the 1987 NCAA Division III title game.

“The PeeWee one, for the Buffalo Regals,” McFall said, “we were able to go down to the nationals in Atlanta, Georgia. We had won the New York State championship in Syracuse that year and qualified for the nationals. We went 3-0 in our round robin, won our semifinal game and then ran into a future NHLer Eddie Olczyk. We couldn’t stop him in the championship game. He was that good back then.”

While Olczyk’s hockey path included playing 1,000 games in the NHL and winning the Stanley Cup with the Rangers in 1994, McFall carved out a Hall-of-Fame career for himself at SUNY Oswego and even found himself in another national championship.

“The college one was quite a year we had there in 1986-87,” McFall said about the Lakers’ season. “Had a very successful team, high scoring. We went 25-12 that year, I think. Unfortunately, six of those losses came to Plattsburgh. We went 0-6 against Plattsburgh that year.”

Tom McFall, right, holds the national championship banner with a teammate. Submitted photo

Overtime heroics in the quarterfinals sent McFall and Oswego to the Frozen Four. Once there, he was against another hockey legend with a trip to the national championship on the line, St. Cloud State head coach Herb Brooks, he of “Miracle on Ice” fame.

“In our semifinal game, we had the pleasure of playing St. Cloud State and they were coached that year by Herb Brooks,” McFall added. “We were able to beat them 5-1 or something like that and then we saw Plattsburgh in the championship game. As I said we went 0-6 against them. They had our number that year.”

In the 39 years since competing in the national championship with Oswego — where McFall finished his career as the Lakers’ top-scoring defenseman and was inducted into the school’s Athletics Hall of Fame in 2019 — he did not stop his involvement in hockey during that period.

However, without the size and physicality sought after in the late 80s and early 90s to succeed at the professional level, McFall decided it was time to move on with his playing career.

“I had some thoughts of trying to go to Europe and play a little bit more,” McFall added. “I decided it was kind of time to move on with life and got my teaching degree out of Fredonia, and my wife that I met in college we moved here. She’s from Falconer. I found the rink in 1992 and have been coaching ever since.”

Instead, McFall shifted gears from playing the sport he loves to coaching the future of the game, and in 2012 the Buffalo Sabres recognized McFall with the J. Michael Duffett Memorial Award — a distinction his father also received in 1995 — because of his contributions to amateur hockey in Western New York.

“I’ve coached all levels,” McFall said. “From 4-year-old beginners to 18-year-old seniors in high school.”

However, the now-retired Chautauqua Lake teacher never quit playing and that passion of playing when he graduated from Oswego in 1990 did not go away.

“It’s never left and I hope it never does,” McFall said. “We started a league here over at Allen Park, I want to say in 96-97. We started a six-team adult senior league. Since we moved to the downtown arena, we’re up to 14 teams now. I think this next year is our 30th year in the adult league there. Now that I’m retired from teaching, I’m trying to get myself involved in a few tournaments here and there in the 50-and-over and 60-and-over divisions.”

In search of those tournaments, old connections led to the opportunity for a third crack at a national championship.

“A friend of mine from back in 85-86, a kid that tried out for our Oswego team, he ended up being a practice player,” McFall said. “We see each other once in a great while. He found out I retired and said they were looking for some guys to go down to Florida to play in the U.S. nationals.”

This season competing with the Chazy (New York) Chicken Hawks in the 50-plu and 60-plus Tier II Divisions at the USA Hockey National Championships in Tampa, the dream had another chance.

“Being 60 they put me on both rosters,” McFall added. “The 60-and-over team we ended up getting knocked out on Friday night in the quarterfinals. The 50-year-old team, I played with them on Saturday and we won. That put us in the championship game.”

Competing with the 50-plus team, McFall finally accomplished his goal and it was him scoring the winning goal with five minutes left in the championship game.

“It’s pretty cool,” McFall said about the experience. “It’s a USA Hockey-sponsored tournament. Just to be able to say that you were a national championship team and lucky enough a former Oswego player — I didn’t play with him, he was a little bit older than me — he won the draw back to me and I was able to get a quick shot off with about eight minutes left that went top shelf. Then we held on and won 3-2.”

While he waited 39 years between opportunities to win a national championship, McFall hopes that the next chance comes a little sooner as he does not plan on stopping anytime soon.

“This tournament I was at, they do it every year,” McFall said about the future. “They have a couple different divisions and there were 64 teams at this tournament from 40-plus, four 50-plus divisions, three 60 and then a 70- and 75-plus. I watched a few of the 70- and 75-plus. … My dad played until he was about 72. That’s one of my goals is to make it longer playing than my dad did.”