OT: My connection to the 2006 NCAA Hockey Championship

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Posted By: davidcycleback

I read that the University of Wisconsin Badgers just won the National Hockey Championship. I didn't know until reading the article that the Badgers head coach is former NHL player & Badger Alum Mike Eaves. Eaves was my gym class student teacher when I was in elementary school.

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Posted By: john/z28jd

Interesting fact David but i already knew that because he mentioned it in the post game press conference.He also mentioned you have a dog named Henry who he couldnt have won without

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Posted By: JimB

I don't care at all about hockey (being from Southern California originally), but I did go to grad school at Wisconsin. Go Badgers!
JimB

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Posted By: Julie Vognar

EITHER:

1) David is being his usual hysterically tunny self, or
2) I know even less about hockey than I think I do.

Got my MA at Wiwsconcin, so I know--probably all--their teams are called "Badgers," so--it could be..true...

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Posted By: davidcycleback

You know it's true, because I would have made up a better story than that. If I had said Bobby Orr was the school nurse ....

For Julie's benifit, when Eaves was a college hockey player he must have been a physical education major and was a student teacher for my gym class.

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Posted By: Bill Kasel

Being a UW Alumn (95') and still living in Madison it has been very exciting to see both hockey teams win national championships in the same year (men's and women's). It's too dang bad the basketball team tanked. Oh, and thanks to Prop48 we no longer have a baseball team, but do have fencing......whoopdee freaking doo about fencing.


Bill

My personal collection - http://s47.photobucket.com/albums/f176/fkm_bky/

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Posted By: gregor197

Actually, the University of Wisconsin no longer has fencing either. (See http://www.uwbadgers.com for a list of all Badger intercollegiate sports teams).


In 1991, the UW dropped baseball, men's and women's gymnastics, and men's and women's fencing.

Prop 48, of course, had nothing to do with it. I believe you meant to blame Title IX which mandates gender equity for all educational programs.

More to the point, the more likely culprit was the $1.9 million dollar athletic deficit that Pat Richter inherited. Luckily, he was able to turn the Badger sports program around, but it took some hard (and gutsy decisions) by him at the beginning of his tenure. (See for example this Time magazine article: http://www.time.com/time/archive/preview/0,10987,972858,00.html)

-greg

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Posted By: davidcycleback

I beleive the athletic deparment was required to have the same number of women's sports as men's. The UW could have kept baseball if they added a women's sport, but they chose to retire baseball. So retiring baseball was the athletic department's choice not a requirment of Title IX. Interestingly the UW's baseball program was decent. It's not as if it was a perenial loser.

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Posted By: Mike

This is not sports related, but a celeb connection from my youth. When I was 5-6 yrs old I got a harmonica played for me while in Stevie Wonder's bedroom!

Son; fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life.

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Posted By: Tom Boblitt

Title IX requires an equivalent number of male and female athletes, so schools with football teams are already under the gun to make up the 60-80+ players on a football squad. Lots of field hockey and softball teams to get up to that range.

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Posted By: davidcycleback

My opinion is that requiring the same number of men's and women's athletes is more than reasonable, especially considering more women then men attend college (it could be argued there should be more women athletes). While I like sports and root for my favorite college team, I look at colleges as colleges not pro sports farm systems.

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Posted By: Bob

Any year that the Gophers don't win the NCAA championship in hockey is a bad year. As a native Minnesotan, the Badgers winning it makes things even worse

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Posted By: jay behrens

sadly, NoDak (7)and Wisc (6) have more hockey titles than MN (5). The thing I find most annoying though is the NCAA ruling that NoDak could no longer host tournement games as long as they remained the Sioux. They jumped thru the same hoops that Florida State did, yet got a different ruling. Tells what the NCAA is really all about.

Jay

I like to sit outside, drink beer and yell at people. If I did this at home, I would be arrested. So, I go to baseball games and fit right in.

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Posted By: Bob

But never forget how many of the golden boys from the Miracle on Ice team were Gophers!

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Posted By: Bill Kasel

Sorry to hear that Bob! I'm born & raised in the Twin Cities for 18 years before heading to Cheeseland. At this point I've still lived more than half my life a Gopher fan, the other 14 years, and till the day I die I bleed Cardinal. I will still cheer for the Ground Squirrels when they aren't playing UW, or have an impact on our standings. Still love the Twins & Vikings though!

My apologies for a late night, ill written post above. 9:30 is late for me with a 3 year old and and infant.

Bill

My personal collection - http://s47.photobucket.com/albums/f176/fkm_bky/

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Posted By: davidcycleback

Top college hockey is comprised of unique variety of teams. Includes big 'football schools' like Michigan, Wisconsin and Michigan State; Ivy League schools including Harvard, Brown and Yale; and more obscure schools like Michigan Tech, Lake Superior State and St. Cloud State.

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Posted By: steve f

Wisconsin ehh. What is a badger anywaze, like a groundhog, a cheese eater? We ain't got them here, but we got this rare mean, wild cat/wolf critter that is called a fisher.

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Posted By: davidcycleback

Badgers and Wolverines (U of Michigan) are related to weasels. The Badger is dangerous (sharp claws), but the wolverine is the biggest and fiercest of the group. Wolverines have been known to kill and eat moose, and amongst local woodmen and farmers they have a famously infamous reputation. If you ever learn about wolverines, you will see that they are like devils on earth.

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Posted By: Joe Jones

I agree with that David! M go Blue!

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Posted By: gregor197

Jay Wrote:

"sadly, NoDak (7)and Wisc (6) have more hockey titles than MN (5). The thing I find most annoying though is the NCAA ruling that NoDak could no longer host tournement games as long as they remained the Sioux. They jumped thru the same hoops that Florida State did, yet got a different ruling. Tells what the NCAA is really all about."

This is not quite true. North Dakota did not jump through all the same hoops as Florida State. FSU, as well as Central Michigan (Chippewas) and Utah (Utes), received the endorsement of local tribes to continue using their nicknames. North Dakota received no such dispensation from local tribes in North Dakota. Two of the three tribal organizations in the state firmly oppose the nickname and one gave conflicting answers and never clarified its position for the NCAA.

See: http://www.usatoday.com/sports/college/other/2005-09-28-ncaa-und-rejection_x.htm

One reason that the local tribes in North Dakota oppose the UND nickname is that they are members of the Lakota tribe and consider "Sioux" to be derogatory. It was applied to the Lakota by outsiders and it reportedly means "little snake."

See, for example: http://www.lewisandclarkeast.org/speiden-01-03-05.html

-greg

(Editted to correct stupid mistake of conflating Eastern and Central Michigan - thanks for catching my error!)

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Posted By: Joe Jones

Central Michigan is actually the Chippewas.

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Posted By: Bob

Linking Michigan, Michigan State and Wisconsin as the big hockey schools is like describing Purdue, Illinois and Indiana as the big football schools.

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Posted By: davidcycleback

Michigan won 7 nation championships, Michigan State won two and was twice runner up.

My dad and sister went to U of Minnesota, so I don't have a bias against the Golden Gophers.

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Posted By: gregor197

"Linking Michigan, Michigan State and Wisconsin as the big hockey schools is like describing Purdue, Illinois and Indiana as the big football schools."

Badger Hockey National Champions:

1973
1977
1981
1983
1990
2006

WCHA Tournament Champions (Since there is no Big Ten Hockey Championship:
1970
1972
1973
1877
1978
1982
1983
1988
1990
1995
1998

Just wondering which football team from Purdue, Indiana, or Illinois has this track record of recent success...

-greg

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Posted By: jay behrens

6 of 7 Michigans titles were in the first ten years of the tournement. They haven't been much of a power lately, winning just one title.

Jay

I like to sit outside, drink beer and yell at people. If I did this at home, I would be arrested. So, I go to baseball games and fit right in.