I am directing this to both Paul S. Williford, as Hockey-L in general.
 
In so far as I have found, there were no organized teams from BGSU in the
40s.  This is a interest to me because I am in the beginning stages of
writing a history of BGSU hockey this summer.  However I have not yet
started any search to find any club teams, or groups of students that
played as a group while going to BGSU.  I have not heard of any such
teams, but can not say that there have never been the occasional group of
students playing in an "unoffical" and non-club game against somebody.
 
As for the earliest known teams,
I once read an article two years ago, but have not found it again to recite
this directly.  So this is coming from memory.
 
From what I have learned over the last few years, the BG program has its
roots in the mid to late 60s.  Dr. Sam Cooper (now retired, but active on
campus) was asked by a group of students to endorse their going up to
Toledo to take on another group of people.  They wanted to be the
"Falcons" and represent the University as a club team.  Dr. Cooper agreed
to take them up to the Toledo Ice Arena in a University van.  The
students had done all the organizing, had their equipment, and may well
have been playing as a group for some time before that.  Cooper had no
"offical" authorization as such, and had not yet approached the
administration.
 
The group made the trip up to Toledo.  I do not think the team they
played had any affiliation with the university of toledo (sic).  They
played hockey.  They got into a fight.  They won it, and the game.  They
went home.  The event, including the fight, was mentioned in the next
days Toledo Blade, and the team was described as the BGSU hockey team.
Cooper was a little nervous given that it had happened when he was doing
something technically he did not have permission to do.  But nothing came
of the fight, since then as now nobody reads or takes the Blade
seriously.  Conversely the Blade pays little to no attention to the BGSU
hockey program, but that is another story.....
 
The team gained club status.  The Ice Arena was built.  The team went
varsity.  Give or take some details.  This was strictly off the top of my
head, so some or a lot of the details may be slightly different.
 
But as yet I have not uncovered any other "unoffical" teams.
 
If anybody knows of such teams I would appreciate it if they could email
me so I could exchange notes with them.
 
I plan on making a general appeal for various types of information at a
later date.
 
Thanks for your time, parodon the spelling.......
 
 
Nathan W.L. Boyle
BGSU
 
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