=09I found this story on the Knight-Ridder news wire. It was written=20 by a sportswriter from Detroit, I believe. Michigan's Upper Peninsula worships Lake Superior State hockey By Steve Crowe=20 Knight-Ridder Newspapers=20 SAULT STE. MARIE, Mich. =CF When Bob Arfstrom moved from=20 Traverse City to the Soo 25 years ago, he brought along a serious=20 spelling problem.=20 ``It's the old story about how I couldn't even spell hockey when=20 I came up here,'' said Arfstrom, 48. ``And now I guess I is one.''=20 It's tough to find many townfolk who isn't these days.=20 Sault Ste. Marie is a town of about 14,000, a few thousand more=20 in summer months, encircling 3,400-student Lake Superior State=20 University. With good reason, they have grown to worship their=20 Lakers nearly as much as their Locks.=20 Forget pound-for-pound or any other qualifier. The Lakers =CF=20 whose season opens at home Friday night against Northern=20 Michigan =CF have simply the best program in college hockey today,=20 the best and most accomplished of the last decade, at least.=20 NCAA champion last April, absolutely humiliating Boston University=20 in a 9-1 final at St. Paul, Minn. NCAA finalist in 1993.=20 NCAA champion in '92. NCAA champ in '88. All with most of a town=20 in tow.=20 Arfstrom became a hockey booster 22 years ago by joining the=20 100 Club.=20 ``It sounds elite,'' said Arfstrom, whose Arfstrom Pharmacy=20 is a downtown fixture. ``But all it was, was if you had a hundred=20 bucks you could join.=20 ``You got a little jacket. People thought that was real exclusive=20 until they found out what it meant.''=20 It is said with the same contagious chuckle with which he recalls=20 a project Arfstrom was wooed into last year by Lakers coach and=20 second-year athletic director Jeff Jackson.=20 Gem of the North is the planned $5 million expansion of Norris Arena,=20 Lake Superior's hockey home since 1976.=20 ``It was one of the things you kind of fall into,'' said Arfstrom,=20 a former member of Lake Superior's board of control. ``I said, `Yeah,=20 I'd help,' and the next thing I knew I'm heading the thing up.''=20 Fund-raising began with a donation of nearly $2.5 million from the=20 Sault Tribe of Chippewa Indians, who operate Kewadin Casinos in the=20 Soo and St. Ignace. The project, in its final stage of raising $800,000,=20 should make the town an even bigger dot on the Upper Peninsula map upon=20 opening in October 1995.=20 A total of 16 six- and eight-seat Laker Lofts, or suites, will=20 put Lake Superior with Maine and Minnesota as the only college hockey=20 arenas offering similarly upscale seating. Up to five full,=20 shower-ready dressing rooms will be added, with arena seating expanded=20 from just better than 3,000 to 4,000.=20 The addition of removable hockey boards and glass, and improved=20 acoustics, are expected to permit the use for concerts, conventions,=20 shows and so on. As payback for the Chippewa millions and in honor of=20 a late, great Soo native and hockey player, the expanded building will=20 be renamed Taffy Abel Arena.=20 ``You know,'' Arfstrom said, ``the Soo is such a small community,=20 the university is in a unique position. I went to school in Big Rapids,=20 pharmacy school at Ferris State, and it was the college and the townies.=20 ``They didn't cross that barrier. But Sault Ste. Marie's not like=20 that. The university is the town, and the town is the university.=20 And I've never seen anything like it. I go out there on campus and feel=20 at home, and most people do.''=20 The school's astounding string of hockey success, Arfstrom said,=20 ``kind of revitalizes the American spirit, if you will. I know that=20 sounds really ridiculous, but it's really true.''=20 For Conrad Ganzhorn, owner of the stately downtown Ojibway hotel and=20 another major member of the Gem's steering committee, ``It's always kind=20 of odd when Michigan comes up here to play =CF very, very difficult,''=20 he said.=20 Ganzhorn, brother of Lakers team physician Richard Ganzhorn, left=20 Ann Arbor for the Soo 12 years ago. Before long, his hockey heart bled=20 for a different blue.=20 ``And as you become a champion,'' Ganzhorn said, ``more and more=20 people climb on board.=20 ``I can remember we used to go down to Joe Louis Arena'' for the=20 Central Collegiate Hockey Association playoffs, ``there might be a=20 few hundred of our people there. Now it's the major event.=20 ``The whole town exoduses to Detroit. It's a strong, extremely=20 loyal following.''=20 Anthony Palumbo, a Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, native, starred as=20 a junior on the Lakers' 1988 national title team. When he deemed the=20 New York Rangers' offer unworthy, he pursued a master's degree in=20 business at Lake Superior.=20 Today, Palumbo, 26, is a commercial loan officer specializing=20 in area land development with the Soo's First of America branch.=20 Local hockey fame, Palumbo conceded, ``got my foot in the door to=20 prove to people here that I can do the job. I'm not going to lie=20 and say it didn't help, sure.=20 ``But for years in this community, people have said, `Well, you=20 guys give us a lot for our community to be proud of.' But this=20 community gives a lot back to Laker hockey. The guys all know that=20 and say that, but I don't think it ever gets mentioned or noted=20 enough elsewhere.=20 ``This community gives a ton back to Laker hockey, and every=20 single guy really appreciates it.''=20 The Lakers' community involvement has gone from little under fiery,=20 and eventually fired, coach Frank Anzalone (1983-90), to lots under=20 successor Jackson.=20 ``Jeff's basically freed the Lakers to get involved,'' Ganzhorn=20 said of such events as Skate With the Lakers nights and players reading=20 to children several times a year at the library. ``They're communicating=20 and touching this community, and never had that happened before.=20 ``The Lakers were always kind of kept on the hill; they never got=20 involved here at the social or civic level. Now they're very much=20 involved, and the community has responded.''=20 In his nine years in the Soo, Jackson, 38, seems to have found not big= =20 to be better.=20 ``That's one of the big reasons we do well here, sort of that personal=20 touch where our people are so loyal,'' said Jackson, who grew up in the=20 Detroit area. ``I mean, every Thursday or Friday that we leave on a road=20 trip, there's like 12 boxes of cookies left in the locker room =CF from=20 little elderly ladies and other supporters. What's happened here is=20 wonderful.''=20 The flip side is that ``people have learned to expect success here=20 now; they're a little spoiled,'' Jackson said. ``I think we're all a=20 little spoiled with what's happened. Yet it's a good spoiled, I think.=20 ``I think we've given this town, this area and our students a big=20 thing it never had before =CF an identity. And I don't think they're=20 going to give it back.''=20 |--|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|--| | Lynn Burke Newport News, Va. | |--|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|--|--| = =20