University of Vermont Athletic Hall of Fame
Kevin Foster 1985 - Hockey
Eleventh place on the all-time UVM scoring list when he graduated and an All-American as a junior, Kevin Foster, a 1998 Athletic Hall of Fame inductee, was an outstanding wing for the Catamounts during the last three years of coach Jim Cross' tenure and the first season for Mike Gilligan. Captain of the team as a senior, Foster complied 50 goals and 90 assists for 140 points in 112 games over his four seasons. Cross called him "the best left wing I have ever coached."
As a freshman, Foster posted numbers of 16-14-30, and was named to the United States National Junior Team where he joined with fellow Catamount Mike O'Connor and Harvard's Hobey Baker winner Scott Fusco to form one of the most exciting lines at the world junior championships. As a sophomore, Foster scored seven goals and added team-high 20 assists.
His junior year was his best as a Catamount, and it started off on a great note. In the 1983-84 opener against Norwich, Foster tallied a school-record seven assists. Also the seven points in one game tie him with Hall of Famer's Fred Hunt and George Minarsky for the most points scored in one game. He finished that season with 21 goals and 36 assists for 57 points to lead the Cats and was among the nation's leading scorers. "He takes a regular shift, plays on the power play, kills penalties and when we had an injury, rather than disrupt the lines, we double-shifted him," Coach Jim Cross said in a Burlington Free Press article during that season. "What more could we ask of him?"
Following the season, he was named first-team All-ECAC along with NHL standout Adam Oates of RPI. He was also voted as the Catamounts Most Valuable Player that year. In addition to his All-ECAC honors, Foster was also named first-team All-New England and second-team All-American. Foster was one of only five Catamounts, along with Louis Cote, Craig Homola, Kirk McCaskill and Kyle McDonough to be named All-American during the 1980s.
Foster's senior season, coach Mike Gilligan's first at Vermont, he scored six goals and added 20 assists for 26 points to lead the team in scoring. Again he led the team in assists, joining Hall-of-Famer Craig Homola as the only Vermont player to do so for three straight seasons. For two years at UVM, Foster played on a line with Hall-of-Famer McCaskill, and for three seasons, with standout wing Matt Winnicki. The three also played together in high school at Trinity-Pawling.
Following his graduation from UVM, Foster played professionally in the New Jersey Devils organization, skating for its AHL affiliate, the Maine Mariners. He also played for Fort Wayne in the IHL and Staten Island in the ECHL.
