> Mankato State hockey program on the rise
>
> John Millea / Star Tribune
>
> MANKATO, Minn. -- Don Brose was relaxing inside his team's beautiful new downtown
> arena. His thoughts were on the not-so-plush early days of the Mankato State hockey
> program, which he started in 1969.
>
> There was a game at St. Cloud State in the early 1970s. The temperature was 18-below
> zero, with wind chills of 50 to 60 below.
>
> "The heater in the back of our van wasn't working, and one
> guy had frostbite just from the ride," Brose said. "We got
> there and put Vaseline all over everybody's face. During the
> game, one line was always in the warming house. Three pucks
> broke in half by hitting the post. They beat us, and three guys
> on each team go to the hospital for frostbite. Black fingers,
> black feet.
>
> "[St. Cloud coach Charlie Basch] said, 'Well, I guess I was
> wrong. We better not play tomorrow.' I said, 'What do you
> mean? It's warmed up to 10 below! We're going to play!'
> And the next day, we beat 'em."
>
> Fast-forward to December, 1997. The Mavericks have a 6-7-1 record in their first
> season playing a full Division I schedule. They have been invited to play in this season's
> Western Collegiate Hockey Association tournament, and are expected to become a
> full-fledged WCHA member for the 1999-2000 season.
>
> The varsity program Brose started nearly 30 years ago has risen through the small-school
> ranks, and nothing has come easily. He describes the "bloodletting" within his own athletic
> department over the decision to devote more resources to hockey. He recalls the turmoil
> of 1992, when the Minnesota State University Board denied Mankato State's initial
> request to move to Division I.
>
> "But that's the thing about athletics," Brose said. "You get knocked down and you learn to
> pick yourself back up and you refocus."
>
> The focus now is on membership in the WCHA.
>
> The conference schedule is set for next season, so Mankato
> State -- which has 15 Minnesotans on its 28-man roster --
> couldn't join until 1999-2000. The nine WCHA schools will
> vote on Mankato State's application at their spring meeting in
> late April, and seven "yes" votes are needed for approval.
>
> The early years
>
> Dave Techar was a Mavericks team captain and the most
> valuable player as a freshman in 1969-70. The Hibbing native
> scored 51 goals in 52 career games, and his 0.98 goals-per-game average remains a
> school record.
>
> "I guess all of us pioneers feel pretty good for getting it going," said Techar, now an
> elementary-school physical education teacher in Hibbing.
>
> It wasn't easy. Most of the early players came from strong high school programs, and
> Mankato State -- with its outdoor rink and minuscule budget -- often was perceived as a
> step down. The team often traveled to Faribault for practices and games, and played some
> "home" games as far away as Minnetonka.
>
> "One year we played two home games on our outdoor rink," Brose said. "And for one of
> those games, the weather was supposed to get warm. We moved the game to 10 o'clock
> in the morning. The ice started melting, and after the first period, the referees said, 'Hey, if
> you're going to play a third period, we're going to come out here with overshoes on.' "
>
> Small-school glory
>
> All Seasons Arena, which opened in 1974, finally gave the Mavericks an indoor home.
> Their first NCAA tournament appearance came in 1978, when they placed third in
> Division II. They were second in 1979 and won the Division II championship in 1980.
>
> Steve Carroll, the team MVP in 1979, '80 and '81, still holds most of the school
> goaltending records.
>
> "We had a bunch of players, most of them from the Twin Cities area, who were close to
> being Division I players. And for whatever reason, size or whatever, they ended up at a
> place like Mankato," said Carroll, a former Twin Cities TV sportscaster who works in
> public relations and conducts summer goalie camps in Richfield.
>
> There was only one senior on the 1980 championship team, because four years earlier
> recruits had been turned away when it appeared that the privately owned All Seasons
> Arena would be shut down for financial reasons.
>
> "We told every kid not to come," Brose said. "The program was in jeopardy, but one
> week before the season started they decided to open up the building."
>
> A new era
>
> Thanks to a city referendum -- passed with the aid of campaigning hockey players -- the
> 4,832-seat Mankato Civic Center opened in early 1995. Energetic boosters helped raise
> funds for the program.
>
> The biggest hurdle was cleared in December 1995, when the Minnesota State University
> Board approved the hockey team's move to Division I. The 1996-97 season was the
> Mavericks' first as a Division I independent, and 1998-99 will be their first with a full
> complement of 18 scholarships (15 is their limit this year).
>
> There have been no sellout crowds at the Civic Center; average attendance for eight home
> games is 2,963. But interest and enthusiasm are growing.
>
> "I think it will become a bigger thing once we get into the league," said Mankato
> businessman Kim Schwickert, one of the founders of the Blue Line Club, a booster group.
> He was a gymnast at the University of Minnesota in the early 1970s and runs the
> scoreboard clock for Gophers games at Mariucci Arena.
>
> "Being Division I in hockey is one thing, but to be in the WCHA, where you can get
> yourself on an equal level with the Minnesotas and the Wisconsins of the world, now
> you're somebody," he said.
>
> Ryan Schrick, a sophomore from Richfield who knows little about the pioneer days of
> Mankato State hockey, smiled as he talked about the future.
>
> "That's a big thing for me," he said of joining the WCHA. "We're playing the teams now,
> which is great, but I want to be playing them for a position in the league. I want to be in
> their standings. I've always dreamed of playing against those teams."
>
> That dream, like so many others at Mankato State, is finally being realized.
 
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