Former Oswego State Goalie Scores as ‘Prolific Writer’

Coach George Crowe built SUNY Oswego’s first hockey team by recruiting Canadian athletes, including Ottawa goalie Paul Ferguson ’69. That team established Oswego as a power hockey school by winning the 1964-65 championships.

Fifty years later, at Reunion 2014, Ferguson recalled his college days.

“I was a history major, spending a lot of time in hockey practice,” he said. “I was the drummer in The Edge of Darkness with Charles “Chip” Alexander ’69, Vic DiDominick ’70 and Sam Domicolo. We kept getting better and better; soon, we had a gig every night.”

After graduation and a year of professional ice hockey, Ferguson settled in England, land of his birth, working in immigration at Heathrow Airport. In 1985 he founded an immigration consulting service, which he sold in 2006.

“That year, I went upstairs to my office every day to write. At the end, I had a book,” he said. Killing The Dead, a thriller whose characters are named after some of the author’s Oswego classmates, is under consideration by several London film production companies. Read a synopsis of the book on his website, www.pferguson.co.uk.

Calling himself a prolific writer, Ferguson said his second mystery, A Father’s Duty, is nearing completion, and he’s finished It’s Not Funny, a short film that will make the rounds of festivals.

Ferguson and his wife, Bernadette, frequently travel with their two adult sons to vacation spots in Spain, France and Greece. “Oswego provided the foundation for a life I couldn’t have imagined as a teenager,” he said. That foundation had a shaky start, however.

“I was on campus two weeks, getting more homesick every day,” Ferguson said. “I called my father and asked to go home, but he said no. I was heartsick. But, within days, I made friends, found people who shared my interests and came to enjoy the city.”

Grateful his father forced him to stay, Ferguson adds, “I’m also thankful that Coach Crowe looked north to build that first hockey team.”

—Linda Loomis ’90 M’97

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