Rachel Hastings Jeff Drake Brian Hall St Popular Books

Rachel Hastings Jeff Drake Brian Hall St Biography & Facts

Minnesota, more so than any other state, is the focal point for ice hockey in the United States. Since the late-19th century, the cold, winter weather enabled the land of 10,000 lakes to be a natural home for ice hockey and the residents of the state have invested more time, effort and energy into the game than most other regions in the world. History Origins 1883 saw the first ice rink built in Saint Paul to host game of ice polo (an early derivation of shinny). The local tournaments were so popular that within a decade, an artificial indoor rink was built to support the series. In 1895, piggybacking on the popularity of ice polo, a championship ice hockey team from Winnipeg travelled south to take on a team made up of students from the University of Minnesota. This is the earliest recorded official game of ice hockey in the state. The following winter, several new teams appeared and a tournament was held in Saint Paul. Former polo player Ed Murphy was a key contributor in driving the transition from polo to hockey. Over the next several years, many amateur teams appeared all over the state as did several indoor rinks. The early adoption of ice hockey in Minnesota didn't appear to catch the attention of outsiders, as most professional leagues ignored Minnesota, but that didn't deter the locals. After the end of World War I, colleges around the state began to formally support ice hockey programs. The flagship school, Minnesota was the centerpiece for this expansion and the Gophers swiftly became one of the top college teams in the country. The other programs were scattered all over the state from Eveleth to Duluth to St. Cloud and helped to ensure that every region in the state had a local team they could call their own. The college programs were fed by a series of high schools that increased as additional rinks were built in the state. High school hockey had its origins dating back to 1905 but began to see rapid expansion in the 1920s. Coinciding with the proliferation of junior and college teams, amateur and professional hockey also took off during the interwar period. The St. Paul Saints, who played their first game before the war, became one of the top amateur clubs in the country and provided four players for the inaugural US national team at the 1920 Olympics. Cyril Weidenborner, Edward Fitzgerald, Moose Goheen and Anthony Conroy were all Minnesota natives and earned silver medals in Antwerp. The Saints would later become a professional team and join the American Hockey Association, the nation's first minor ice hockey league. They were able to form a natural rivalry with the cross-town Minneapolis Millers but professional hockey in Minnesota experienced a few bumps in the road. The great depression forced several teams to cease operations and made many others switch back to amateur hockey, as they could not afford to pay the players. Both Saint Paul and Minneapolis, along with the Eveleth Rangers, left the AHA to found the Central Hockey League during the darkest days of the depression and kept senior hockey alive in the early 1930s. Fortunately, the economic situation improved by the middle of the decade and the CHL was absorbed back into the AHA in 1935. Postwar years When the United States entered World War II, many leagues and teams across Minnesota suspended operations for the duration. The University of Minnesota was one of the few programs in the country to continue playing during the war. After the end of the war, the proliferation of ice hockey resumed and the first state high school tournament was held. Since the mid-40s, Minnesota high schools have been one of the biggest producers of American ice hockey players and have become a point of pride for the state. While USA Hockey has assumed control of most junior organizations throughout the country, the state's secondary schools have remained staunchly independent and been ranked among the best junior programs in the nation. In 2023, a poll was released, ranking the more than 2,000 high school ice hockey programs in the nation. The top 13 high schools were all from Minnesota, demonstrating just how important Minnesota's high school system is to American ice hockey. With the grassroots of ice hockey well established after the war, Minnesota was producing a great deal of local talent. Unfortunately, at this time there were only 6 NHL teams and there was a de facto ban on American players. From 1945 through 1967 the rosters of NHL teams were made up almost entirely by Canadians. Even the four American clubs, who were run by Canadian managers and coaches, followed this pattern. This effect was also felt in the minor leagues, who largely employed Canadians regardless of their location. With little chance of playing at the highest levels of the sport, Minnesota players had few options to choose from during this time. Many choose to leverage their high school exploits into college scholarships but, there too was a problem. While American colleges had used mostly American players prior to World War II, an arms race of sorts began after the war. Many western colleges began to recruit more of their players from Canada, taking advantage of lax NCAA rules that permitted overage junior players to attend college. Spearheaded by Vic Heyliger at Michigan, college rosters became increasingly Canadian throughout the 1950s with a few glaring exceptions. Elwin Romnes, a Minnesota native and former NHL player, took over as head coach at Minnesota in 1947. He rejected the new trend of importing Canadian players and continued to rely upon home-grown talent. After his departure 5 years later, that policy was reinforced by John Mariucci, another former NHLer who had won an intercollegiate title with Minnesota in 1940. Mariucci was a vocal critic of using Canadian players and achieved more notability for his commitment when Minnesota's American roster was able to match and even surpass other schools. In 1953 and 1954, the Gophers finished as the national runners-up thanks in large part to John Mayasich, the best college player at the time. Mayasich had been a star high school player and went on to set numerous records at the college level. He was so well regarded that in 2011, Mayasich was ranked as the best high school player in the history of Minnesota hockey. Despite his exploits, Mayasich didn't receive a single offer from an NHL team. While that was not wholly unexpected, Mayasich would later express regret in an interview with Sports Illustrated. "It wasn't a source of bitterness, since no college players were being given a chance...but there's still regret, even to this day, not knowing if I could have done it." While Mayasich, as well as many other players, couldn't pursue a professional career at the time, they were able to continue playing in other avenues. Mayasich joined the US national team and, because the IOC only permitted amateurs at the time, the lack of professional opportunities helped the national pr.... Discover the Rachel Hastings Jeff Drake Brian Hall St popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Rachel Hastings Jeff Drake Brian Hall St books.