Wally Barlow was inducted into the AIC Athletics Hall of Fame in 2024. He is the lone inductee from the class who is not an alum, but his impact on decades of student-athletes at the College left an indelible mark.
Barlow represented Great Britain in the 1936 Olympics in wrestling before coming to the United States. Particularly, he came to Springfield, where he served as the head trainer for the Springfield Indians American Hockey League team for 12 years, winning three Calder Cups in 1960-62 as part of the only AHL team to ever finish first in the regular season three straight times and to win back-to-back-to-back postseason titles.
He then became the head athletic trainer at AIC, a position he held for 24 years, faithfully working with all of the many student-athletes that wore the gold and white. In his time, he saw the department expand, including the addition of varsity women's sports with softball, volleyball, basketball, and soccer, and provided a high level of care to all Yellow Jackets, no matter their role on their team.
He even used his ice hockey experience to coach, spending two seasons behind the bench as the head coach for the ice hockey team from 1970-72. Notably, his pupils included fellow AIC Hall of Famers Kevin Collins and Mark Bousquet.
