Clay Satow wrote:
> What I find curious is that at least two of the schools in the CCHA,
> Michigan and Michigan State, and Michigan especially had a lot of stature
> back then. So I don't understand the lack of respect. It would seem to me
> that those two schools alone would afford the league some amount of respect.
> Were Michigan and Michigan State in the CCHA when it was founded? If so,
> why was the league so dissed?
Clay, maybe I can shed some light on Michigan's mysterious absence from
competitive hockey.
First, you're right that original WCHA membership in 1959 consisted of CC,
Denver, North Dakota, Minnesota, Michigan, MSU, and Michigan Tech. That
conference actually began with those same teams in 1951 as the Midwest
Collegiate Hockey League, but a gigantic dispute about recruitment of older
Canadian players led to its collapse and there was no league play in 1958-59.
After resuming conference play, it was 10 years before Minnesota resumed
play against Denver and 14 years before each member was required to play all
other conference members.
Though Denver and Michigan Tech dominated early WCHA championships,
Michigan was the first national champion in 1948 and won six of the first nine
NCAA
titles. Duluth joined the WCHA in 1966, Wisconsin in 1969, and Notre Dame in
1971.
Just after the mid 60's, UM and MSU coaches Al Renfrew and Amo Bessone
dabbled in gentleman's agreements to recruit more Americans. The State of
Michigan
had few hockey programs to supply competitive talent and the new Junior Red
Wing team was about the only steady source of home-grown talent. I considered
myself the only backwoods American on Michigan's thirteen man freshman team in
'62
because I considered the only other two Yankees "front woods". The following
season saw UM's last NCAA title before the 32 year drought.
Michigan's absence from championship hockey resulted from the same thing
that started Bo Schembechler on his way to becoming a Michigan legend in 1969,
the athletic czarship of Don Canham.. A self-made millionaire while coaching
Michigan track, he made Michigan athletics financially strong but de-emphasized
nonprofit sports. Though he moved the hockey team up Hill Street from the
2,700-seat Coliseum to Yost when the basketball team moved to Crisler
Arena, everything else about Michigan hockey went downhill.
The CCHA was first created in 1971 by Bowling Green, Ohio State, St. Louis,
and Ohio University. Though Lake Superior joined in '72, Ohio State and Ohio
University departed the following year, leaving three teams staring at each
other.
So, . . . [now visualize this]. . . they split into two divisions (apparently by
adding
Division 2 teams.). The surviving Division I trio was joined and rejoined
by Western Michigan and Ohio State in 1975, Northern Michigan in '77, Ferris
State in '79 and Miami in '81. St. Louis dropped hockey in '79.
Though Michigan took Wisconsin to overtime in the NCAA championship of
1977, I felt Michigan hockey had been de-emphasized to the club level by the
time
UM, MSU, Michigan Tech and Notre Dame jumped to the CCHA in 1981. Tech
returned to the WCHA in 1984 and took NMU along.. Bowling Green won the
CCHA's first NCAA Championship in 1984, followed by MSU ('86), Lake
Superior State ('88, '92, '94) and Michigan ('96, '98).
Red Berenson has been the first to admit he didn't know what he was getting
into when he returned to Michigan as coach in 1984. Although he was named NHL
Coach of the Year in his first full season as Blues head coach, his first
coaching year at Michigan registered a 33% win percentage, ... and the second
year
was worse. Those were years when Michigan State had the crowd advantage, ...
in Yost. When Red decided to tell recruits not to come to Michigan unless
they were serious about academics and hockey, as he had been as a student, it
was the turning point in the restoration of Michigan hockey
Bob.
HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey; send information to
[log in to unmask], The College Hockey Information List.
|
