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Captain of 1960 gold medal US Olympic hockey team dies

BROOKLINE, Mass. (AP) - John "Jack" Kirrane Jr., the captain of the men's hockey team that won the gold medal at the 1960 Winter Olympics, has died.

Kirrane died on Sunday, according to his obituary . He was 88.

His son told the Boston Herald that his father had Alzheimer's disease.

Kirrane was a native of Brookline, Massachusetts, who in 1948 played for the U.S. Olympic hockey team at age 17. He was captain of the team in 1960, leading a squad of mostly college players to upsets of Canada, the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia for the gold.

Kirrane was a Korean War veteran and a Brookline firefighter. His wife, Patricia, died in 2010. He is survived by three children and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

A funeral Mass is scheduled for Thursday at St. Lawrence Church.

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