Inside Adam Fox’s time at Harvard: Bleached hair, rollerblades and on-ice dominance

Adam Fox’s gear was still damp and his spirits still high as the bus drove south past Harvard University.

In Montreal the night before, he had assisted three of Team USA’s four non-shootout goals in the 2017 World Junior Championships gold medal game, which the Americans won. Now a bus was carrying 10 players — including future NHLers Charlie McAvoy, Jordan Greenway, Jake Oettinger and Clayton Keller — back to their Boston-area college campuses. Some popped out at Boston University, others at Boston College.

Harvard was the final stop, despite being the first school the bus passed. Normally that wouldn’t have been a big deal, but the Crimson had a game against Quinnipiac that night, and puck drop was nearing.

No one could have faulted Fox for not playing. He had played two overtime games in as many nights for Team USA, and coach Ted Donato had given him permission to take Harvard’s weekend games off.

But Fox wanted in. He got to Harvard’s arena an hour before puck drop and pulled his gear out of his hockey bag and onto his body. He could feel the sweat from the night before.

“He was clearly exhausted, clearly in brutal shape,” teammate Michael Floodstrand said.

That made no difference. He had two assists in the win. He scored a goal the next night in another victory, this time against Princeton.

In four nights, he had played four games, gone 4-0, won an international gold medal and collected six points.

“I wish Fox had too many beers two nights ago so he couldn’t play,” then-Princeton coach Ron Fogarty told reporters after his team’s loss.

The decision to put himself through such a gauntlet probably wasn’t a wise one, Fox said recently. He got sick afterward, his body exhausted from ice time and travel. His willingness to suit up, though, further impressed the Harvard teammates he’d already wowed through the first half of the season and would continue to for two and a half more.

“He was the best player on the ice from day one as a true freshman,” said Alex Kerfoot, a Harvard senior captain at the time and now Coyotes forward.

Fox earned All-America honors each of his years on campus and, in his junior year, was a finalist for the Hobey Baker Award given annually to the best NCAA player. In total, he had 116 points in 97 college games and in the process led Harvard to heights it hadn’t seen in…