Last friday, the MTU Board of Control dedicated/renamed
the forestry building to Honor U. J. "Bert" Noblet, The
founder of MTU's forestry program.  The building is now
officially known as the U. J. Noblet Forestry and Wood Products
building.  Bert graduated from Michigan State in 1922 with
a BS in forsetry and earned a masters in forestry from the
University of Minnesota.
 
what? this is the college Hockey discussion list?  Oh well
hang on, I'm getting there! ;-)
 
Bert was a pitcher on the U.P championship baseball team, and
went to Michigan State on an  atheletic scholarship and played football,
track and Hockey.
 
According to his son Peter, Bert played in the first hockey game at State.
It was against Notre Dame on the ice of the red cedar river in 1921.
 
Bert came to Michigan Tech (still called Michigan College of mines then)
in 1929 to take over the jobs of athletic director and Hockey coach.
 
Noblet took Tech players to battle Ivy league schools Yale, Princton,
Dartmouth and Harvard.  In 1931 made Ripley's
Believe it or not by becoming the first college hockey team
to fly commercial airlines when he flew the team from Milwalukee
to Minneapolis in a Ford trimotor.
 
In one game against wisconsin in eagle river, Bert found himself
without a goaltender, and recruited a player from the community
and tech won the game.  They say Wisconsin never found out
(I hope statuate of limitations is up! ;-) ) but there were
clues.  He wore size 8 and the only skates Tech had were size 12,
so when he turned, the skates stayed pointing forward! ;-)
 
In 1936 Bert left his position as coach and AD to found the school of
Forestry.  He retired in 1962 and passed away in 1984 at the age
of 87.
 
Bert is probably the only one to have been inducted into the
UP Sports Hall Of Fame (1978) and the Michigan Forestry Hall of Fame
(1976).  Bert also received the MTU Distinguished Service Award in 1975.
 
As a member of the Huskies club Board of directors (athletic booster),
Blue Line club (hockey Booster) and a graduate of the school of forestry
(1981), Bert was instrumental in almost everything I enjoy at Michigan
Tech.  I attended the dedication with pride and a smile on my face,
along with the Noblet Family, Current AD Rick Yeo and Hockey Coach
Bob Mancini, as well as a host of other friends and well wishers.
 
I have some MTU hockey news also, but I'll send that along seperate.
This came out longer than I thought.
 
Bob