This is LONG.
This is LONG.
In the words of the late, great voice of the Badgers at the Coliseum, Phil Mendel, "Good evening... Hockey fans..."
In the last dying days and fading light of the venerable old WCHA, the Wisconsin Badgers are happy to welcome the Saint Cloud State Huskies to an historic venue, Veteran's Memorial Coliseum in Madison, Wisconsin. For Wisconsin, perhaps nothing could be more appropriate for their regular season WCHA finale than a final return to the site of much of the program's greatest glory.
This is History
Opened in 1967, the venue, then known as the Dane County Coliseum, became home to the fledgling Wisconsin Badger Hockey team, a program reinstated a few years earlier after a thirty year absence, and now headed by recently hired young coach, Bob Johnson. The 'Great Dane' is no comparison, of course to modern arenas, but, Oh! ...In it's day! As WCHA official Tony O'Brien, quoted in Sports Illustrated, said, "Wisconsin's arena is the Montreal Forum of college hockey. Every referee wants to work there. Every coach wants to coach there. Every team wants to play there."
Home ice to five NCAA Champions, over thirty All American awards, nearly endless all conference award winners, and no less than six US Hockey Hall of Famer's, the Coliseum bore witness to thirty years and more than 570 games of Badger Hockey excellence. Many times opposing goalies entered the arena, young, strong, and full of talent, though often possessors of impeccable credentials, stellar stats, and fronted by imposing teams in more than 400 games these young goalies took to their nets only to be mercilessly sieved into losses by a parade of Badger icemen with names like, Winchester, Cherrey, Alley, Mellanby, Suter, Mullen, Chelios, Talafous, Flatley, Tancill, Hill, Lecy, Eaves, Johnson, Newberry, Granato, Shuchuck, Houck, Welsh, Rafalski and many, many more.
Nearly seven of every ten game nights, opposing players of terrific talent and sparkling hockey resumes took to the Coliseum ice, displaying dazzling skills in warmups, smiling with confidence --Feeling maybe they were going to be different, that perhaps they would succeed where so many before had fallen. The feeling didn't last. They would find the puck suddenly uncooperative, their skills deserting them after a roaring Badger check, and their once undeniable slapshot going astray, plucked harmlessly out of the air by the gloves of stellar Badger netmen like Mike Richter, Jim Carrey, Marc Behrend, Julian Barretta, Duane Derkson, Curtis 'Cujo' Joseph, and other Badger greats. NCAA Champions, Number One rankings, Hobey Baker finalists, All Americans, future NHL stars, all of them, big and small--- 7 of every 10 nights they fell like timber to the axe. If you ask them, they will tell you. Entering the Badger's den at the Dane was an experience remembered, though no doubt, many wished they could forget.
If enough cannot be said for the quality of players and the quality of the coaches, (Badger Bob Johnson and Jeff Sauer, who joins Badger Bob this year as a Hobey Baker Legend of Hockey award winner.) then certainly not enough can be said for the quality of the fans at the Coliseum. From rubber chickens hanging from the rafters in the early days and Martha Johnson's cow bell ringing out, imploring the crowd for support, to flashing fire helmets, red and white striped overalls, and the ear-splitting echo off the cement walls of 8,670 crazed Badger fans screaming out as they birthed the mighty "SIEVE" cheer. Inside the Coliseum, if not beyond, hockey was life, the players, young gods striding the frozen floor of the temple, basking in the raucous, irreverent, and at times, vicious urgings of those who had often stood in line for hours for the chance to worship. The atmosphere of the Coliseum was unmatched anywhere in college hockey, and as far as Badger fans were concerned at the time, anywhere in the world.
There's the story of a North Dakota goalie who tried to leave a game after hearing the 'sieve' chant one time too often. He skated to the bench after a Badger goal, but his coach sent him back into the nets following a brief argument. Wisconsin promptly scored again. This time the goalie didn't bother with the bench. As "Sieve!, Sieve! Sieve!" thundered throughout the coliseum, he skated directly to the locker room.
And former Minnesota-Duluth Coach Gus Hendrickson tells a story of a game in which the Wisconsin crowd nearly drove his club into catatonia. "We went in there and were ahead 3-2 in the third period, when we scored but had the goal called back. The fans gave Wisconsin a five-minute standing ovation—just for having the goal called back. I could see our guys looking around, thinking, 'Here it comes!' Wisconsin beat us 4-3. If you've got young players, those fans will nail you."
This is Now.
As a young student, and later as a fan, I was there for some of that time, 'in the day'. Perhaps it is that nostalgia that makes the days of the Dane's great glories grow in my mind as the years pass. It is that, but it is more. Bob Johnson once famously said of Wisconsin "It's the only place I know where they boo the sports writers and cheer the coach!" I'm reminded of my own growing cynicism of late and of the complacency of the crowds at the Kohl. Yes, there's reason for it I suppose, (besides age) but still I can't help but wish for a glimpse back to a time when there was none, and fans shook the Great Dane's arching roof in thunderous unison.
With much on the line, an opportunity exists this weekend to bridge the gap between past and present --For todays students and fans to take to the hallowed grounds of their predecessors and be part of a great happening. An opportunity to wake up the echoes and turn the last fading light of the WCHA golden one more time. Or rather, Cardinal and White.
As I write this draft, some 1500 miles away from the Coliseum, I find myself wishing I could be there this weekend, but alas, it is not to be.
For those of you who will be, I implore you to get off your seat and wake up. Instead of *****ing about the season package, jump in with both feet and show 'em how it was. If only for two nights. If you're no longer twenty, pretend you are just one more time. You won't regret it.
If you are in fact twenty... Then do your worst. Make it a weekend to remember so that years from now, you can say, 'I was there when Wisconsin ran the table in the last days of the old WCHA at The Coliseum. It was unforgettable. '
This is Wisconsin Hockey.
