In light of this news, I thought people might like to see the records
posted by Northern Arizona during its stay in Division I.
1980-81 14-7-0 .667 132-88
1981-82 5-19-0 .208 94-148
1982-83 17-11-1 .603 166-131
1983-84 21-6-0 .778 172-97
1984-85 12-18-0 .400 121-173
In 1984-85, NA was a member of the four-team Great West Hockey Conference,
along with Alaska-Anchorage, Alaska-Fairbanks, and US International.
NA finished in third place in the GWHC behind USIU and UAF.
Notes on two key figures in NAU hockey history (there are others):
* After the program was dropped, Coach Jim Peters took a job as assistant
to Mike Addesa at RPI beginning in 1985-86.
* Again after the program went under, most players transferred to other
DivI schools. One such player was defenseman Bob Beers, who went to Maine.
He was named MVP of the HE tourney in 1989 and is now playing with the
Boston Bruins.
Terry writes that the program was dropped due to financial reasons. I
remember Coach Peters telling me that a big reason was that it was costing
too much to keep the ice rink properly maintained (no surprise in Arizona)
and the school was footing much of that bill. Perhaps Terry can explain
how they plan to get around this difficulty this time around (maybe they've
got a better refrigeration system, etc.).
I know there are club team representatives or fans from the West on the
list, so hopefully they will be in touch with Terry. Are there any plans
in the future for NAU to move up to DivI again?
Welcome back, Northern Arizona! Now all you have to do is get USIU to
start up hockey again and then resurrect the GWHC...
Best of luck to NAU and Weber State - the first DivI hockey program in Utah!
- mike
PS I have the standings from pre-WCHA, and if you ever want to stump
someone, ask them what team sits atop the Western standings in 1942.
How about California at 17-7-0? And, USC was 20-10-3 that year. Between
them, the two schools racked up four top finishes between 1930 and 1942.
Some other schools in the standings are: Loyola, Illinois, Rice, UCLA,
Gonzaga (?), Marquette, Detroit Tech, as well as the traditionals like
Minnesota, Michigan, Notre Dame, Michigan Tech, etc.
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