The greatest rivalry in college hockey isn't just about goals or trophies-it's about faith, geography, and the conscience of a city that has never trusted its own ease. Rivalry on Commonwealth Avenue tells the story of Boston University and Boston College, two universities separated by less than five miles but divided by history, temperament, and creed. Between the Charles River and Chestnut Hill, a century-long duel unfolds-a moral argument on ice about how virtue should move, who deserves to lead, and whether character is built through obedience or freedom. From the founding of both institutions through the birth of the Beanpot and the rise of national dominance, Bill Johns traces how Boston turned hockey into a theology of effort. The Jesuit rigor of Boston College collided with the democratic striving of Boston University, shaping the city's identity far beyond the rink. Their rivalry became Boston's conscience in motion-its struggle between hierarchy and equality, faith and doubt, order and improvisation. Drawing from archival histories, televised moments, and the architecture of the city itself, Johns explores how the ice became Boston's moral stage. He reimagines the rivalry not as a clash of teams but as a dialogue between two ways of believing: one grounded in discipline, the other in rebellion. Each game becomes a reenactment of Boston's larger story-the city's obsession with virtue, its mistrust of comfort, and its faith in renewal through struggle. In vivid narrative prose, Rivalry on Commonwealth Avenue moves through the eras of Parker and Ceglarski, York and O'Connell, and into the rise of women's hockey, where the rivalry found its rebirth in equality and endurance. The book follows the rhythm of the city itself-from the hard geometry of winter rinks to the thaw of spring-revealing how Boston's idea of moral excellence continues to shape its sport, its schools, and its soul. Both intimate and panoramic, this is not merely a history of games played, but a meditation on place and character. Johns writes Boston as both arena and mirror: a city that argues with itself about what makes greatness and finds its answer not in victory, but in devotion. For readers of David Halberstam, John McPhee, and Ken Dryden, Rivalry on Commonwealth Avenue is a story of endurance, discipline, and faith-an American parable told in the language of ice and redemption.