Re: NCAA era Program rankings-accomplishments only
So then why does Minnesota win a national title less than once per decade?
That's an easy one LynahFan --
When we do really well, we either lose all our best players to the Olympics or to the NHL.
Hence, we have the highest Gold & Silver Medal count of any school.
Hence, we have the highest # of players sent to the NHL in history.
The other factor is, when we do well, those players then go off and start coaching hockey themselves, but there is only one UMN, and only room for so many players.
So, Cliff Thompson at Eveleth Jr College sent players all over the nation to play hockey. And I mean, ALL over the nation. From Southern California to Illinois, from Oklahoma to Boston. Amatuer, college, semi-pro and professional. Many of his players went to Michigan and helped them win many of their early Natl Titles. His own EJC team finished #1 in the polls ahead of Minnesota(#3) one year.
Bob Johnson went to Wisconsin and built a super power there, and went heads-up with Minnesota even, winning the Title in 1981, leaving Minnesota to finish 2nd. Wisconsin wasn't even supposed to play in the tourney that year, but the Committee let them in on some technicality or something? But from 1970-1983, Herb Brooks & his replacement & Bob Johnson & his replacement, 3 of 4 who were former Gophers(the 4th was a Mn native), won 7 Natl Titles, came up 2nd 4 times, & had a total of 15 FFs between the 2 coaches, in those 14 seasons. 84 & 85 saw new upstart UMD make b2b FFs as well.
Good thing for the rest of college hockey that Brooks and Johnson both went off into the NHL, or who knows?
And then Dean Blais goes to UND and wins them 2 Natl Titles. Who do you think he's taking recruits from?! His alma mater, Minnesota.
The Woogster tried, and came darn close, 4 straight FFs, even taking Harvard into OT the one year in the Championship. But he came up short.
Same reason probably why the Yankees don't win EVERY single year. It's sports. Things happen. Players get injured, have bad seasons, recruits don't pan out, or they REALLY do and then leave after a year or two? Some other team offers them a better deal, etc.?
With the Gophers especially, every frickin 4 years another Olympics comes along and takes more of our best players than any other school's. The #'s prove this out. It's not just a theory.
Gophers have had 52 different Gopher players get invited to play for the Olympics on 59 different occasions, not including the 2 guys who were one of the final guys cut, and they had 3 different Gophers coach Olympic teams on 5 separate occasions.
And those 52 players won 12 Gold Medals, and at least 10 Silver Medals. The Coaches came away with 1 Gold and 3 Silvers.
So you combine the fact that we spent the 50's and 60's sacrificing our ability to win titles, so that we could build up hockey in the state and by proxy, the country, that we sacrificed our own glory and selfish interests(NTs) for the good of the Olympic team every 4 years, and that we shared the wealth and sent our best and brightest minds out into the college hockey world and basically built up our opponents so that they'd be stronger, hence making it more difficult for us to win Natl Titles consistently. We helped make it so that instead of being the only Div 1 school in the state, now there are 5 Div 1 schools in the state, all competing for the same local recruits.
And remember, everytime we'd go on a nice run, the 70's, Woogs late 80s run, Lucia's 2002-2003 b2b titles, those runs would be followed by the Olympics and/or the NHL taking all of our best players, our coach, etc..
And remember Bob Johnson, Craig Dahl and Dean Blais, all former Gophers, didn't go off to other conferences to coach, or into the pros, they went off and built up powerful teams right in the Gophers same Conf.
Then, because of limited room on our roster, all of the players we wouldn't take, would go off and play for UMD, UND, SCSU, Mn St, Wisconsin, Michigan, Notre Dame, BC, etc., and want to beat the Gophers when their team would eventually play us. Most of those teams regularly in conf play.
Yet despite ALL of those obstacles,
UMn ranks tied for 3rd in HumRsky's All-Time Accomplishments Only Rankings, and has a good chance to move up into 2nd,
UMn ranks #1 in # of players sent to the NHL,
UMn ranks #1 in # of players sent to play for the Olympic team,
UMn ranks #1 in # of players who have won Gold Medals in hockey,
UMn ranks #1 in # of players enshrined in the Hockey Hall of Fame,
UMn ranks #1 in # of players enshrined in the US Hockey Hall of Fame,
UMn ranks #1 in # of Frozen Fours made in the last 50 years,
UMn ranks #2 in # of Natl Titles won in the last 50 years,
UMn ranks #1 in # of wins in the NCAA Tourney for all time,
UMn ranks #2 in # of appearances in the NCAA Tourney for all time(#1 in last 50 yrs),
UMn ranks #4 in # of Frozen Fours in the NCAA Tourney for all time,
UMn ranks #3 in # of Championship Games its been in, in NCAA History,
UMn ranks #5 in # of NCAA Titles its won all time(not counting its pre-NCAA Titles and #1 finishes in the polls). And that's another thing, UMn's hockey legacy from 1920-1947 blows any other school's resume away for that time period.
The 1928 team got invited to represent the US in the Olympics but simply didn't have the funds so turned the offer down.
Two teams in the early 30's finished 1st and 2nd in Natl AAU type tourney's. UMn finished #1 in the Tonnelle Rankings on several occasions in the 20s. Then of course you all know of the Gopher's 1940 PERFECT Season capped off by an AAU Natl Tourney title.
I mean, there really are about 7 Uber schools in hockey, when you look at college hockey history. But when you REALLY look at them, you see Denver, who was huge WAY back in the day, when they were filling up their roster with big older Canadians, but if you only look at the last 40-50 years, DU's resume dips way down. The same can be said about Michigan as was said about Denver, cept they weren't so dependent on Canadians. But if you limit your scope to the last 40-50 years, Michigan drops quite a bit in the ratings. So who is left? BC/BU, UND/UW & Minnesota. Minnesota graduates were the ones who helped UW and UND get to the point where they had more Natl Titles than us, but UMn's still got WAY more of everything than UW, cept titles. And by HumRsky's accounting, UMn's way ahead of Wisco. UND on the otherhand, is much closer to UMn. Same can be said about BC/BU. Those 2 of the big giants out east. When I speak of the state of Minnesota producing the most hockey players, Mass almost always comes in 2nd.
And what would college hockey be like if UMn was heads and shoulders above everyone else?! That wouldn't be any fun. I LOVE that BC/BU have been doing so well lately, and that UND has always been right there battling with UMn, and Wisconsin and now Michigan are going to be there to battle UMn in the new BTHC. Do I think UMn is #1?! Sure. Do I think its by a HUGE margin, no, not at all. And I think I prefer that its not. Do I regret that UMn grads went out and developed other programs and made it harder on the Gophers?! Absolutely not!!! Makes it more challenging now and that's part of what I love about College Hockey.
