We are just days away from 2012 and the Icers' return to action under the bright lights at Citizens Bank Park. Before heading off to visit my family over Christmas, 
I got together with senior Paul Daley to get his perspective on playing outdoors, and added reminiscences of JoeBa and yours truly about our experiences on frozen ponds.
I also got in touch with Dr. Larry Hendry, the first coach of the Icers, and asked him to provide a few words on playing "au naturel" back in the day.
Dr. Larry provided more than a few words. He found the time during a hectic Christmas that, as he put it, was "a challenge with three of the grandkids at 20 months to 3 years old. Our garbage disposal and dishwasher went out making for more fun. All in all, I wouldn't have it any other way."
Larry, on behalf of all of us in the Icers family, thank you so much, not only for what you have so eqolquently written, but for what you and the Icers pioneers did to set the stage for what we enjoy today.
Happy New Year everyone, we'll see you in Philly!
I got together with senior Paul Daley to get his perspective on playing outdoors, and added reminiscences of JoeBa and yours truly about our experiences on frozen ponds.I also got in touch with Dr. Larry Hendry, the first coach of the Icers, and asked him to provide a few words on playing "au naturel" back in the day.
Dr. Larry provided more than a few words. He found the time during a hectic Christmas that, as he put it, was "a challenge with three of the grandkids at 20 months to 3 years old. Our garbage disposal and dishwasher went out making for more fun. All in all, I wouldn't have it any other way."
Larry, on behalf of all of us in the Icers family, thank you so much, not only for what you have so eqolquently written, but for what you and the Icers pioneers did to set the stage for what we enjoy today.
Happy New Year everyone, we'll see you in Philly!
In the fall of 1971, some 200 ice hockey enthusiasts joined the Penn State Hockey Club and gathered together to play for the first time on campus since the early 1940’s. Most players had grown up skating outdoors on frozen ponds, lakes and rivers, given that indoor rinks were relatively scarce in North America.
The opportunity to play for the first time at Penn State on artificial ice was a dream come true when the University renovated a field house that was also shared with the track and baseball teams. Historically, numerous valiant efforts that had been made to establish hockey as a sport - including flooding the campus tennis courts - failed largely due to variable weather conditions.
The composition of the club was eclectic as undergraduates, grad students, staff and faculty were all welcome to participate. The club was organized such that there were multiple intramural teams and “A” (aka varsity) and “B” (aka junior varsity) squads. Although few knew each other, a strong bond quickly formed between club members as they shared stories about their formative years on the ice.
Everyone pitched in at every level from all night ice painting (five times during the season) to collecting dues and donations at a time when the club had virtually no resources. A high level of academic excellence was evident as students practiced in the evening with internationally known Professors who had lectured them earlier in the day. One line was composed of a freshman engineering student at center flanked by a Ph.D. student in Earth and Mineral sciences at right wing and a Professor of Chemistry at left wing.
While many of the players were from Pennsylvania, where ice hockey was struggling to gain acceptance, some veterans turned mentors were from rabid hockey bastions in Minnesota, Massachusetts and upstate New York. A half dozen very talented Canadians from Montreal, Calgary and Toronto shared experiences of playing pick up hockey at an early age from sun up to after sunset.
Some Penn State players actually played Division I hockey (St. Lawrence, University of Alberta, McGill University) and others had played on Junior A or semi-professional teams. Thus, contrary to what one might expect, the inaugural and subsequent Penn State teams were far from a “rag tag” group and presented themselves well.
My personal experience at skating was in one of the most unlikely of locations, namely, a pond adjacent to a boathouse in New York’s Central Park. When my brother and I were able to stand up on skates, my father, who was attending night school under the GI bill, would take us to the park on weekends. He would help put on our skates and then hit the books while watching over us from a patio overlooking the pond. Negotiating the rocks and stones along the shoreline to get to open ice was always a challenge as well as trying to keep skate blades from being caught in crevasses that pervaded certain sections of the pond.
Once warmed up, the sometimes-bitter cold was forgotten and the wonderful feeling of skating freely over the long expanses of the pond took over. When it was nearing time to return home, my father would lace up his racing skates and fly around the pond backwards while pulling us at terrifying speeds. It would be some years later that we found out that our dad had won several medals in speed skating events at Madison Square Garden while serving in the Army.
After completing graduate school in the winter of 1971, I joined the Penn State faculty. To my surprise and disappointment, hockey had not been played on campus for thirty years. Thanks to the efforts of many, hockey magically burgeoned at Penn State in the fall of 1971 and has remained in continuous operation for forty years.
The first team in 1971-1972 sported a won-lost record of 14-6. While all practices were indoors and only one game was played on outdoor artificial surface, many of the veterans told stories of their humble beginnings shoveling snow for hours just to be able to clear a surface to skate.
We often talked about our collective dream of having a Division 1 hockey team in Happy Valley. Today, we old-timers who are scattered far and wide across the continental US, Hawaii and Canada remain in contact and still reminisce about the “Miracle of ‘71”. Those of us who only played sparingly in our youth in front of a few fans (mostly family) remember vividly taking to the ice at the first game at the Ice Pavilion to a standing room only, packed house of thousands with many more fans in the parking lot trying to get in the door.
It goes without saying that we look forward to the fulfillment of the dream of D-1 hockey at Penn State along with the past 40 years of players, fans, coaches, volunteers and supporters. Those of us from the early 70’s who can’t make it will also be there in spirit as the team takes to the ice in the ground breaking outdoor game January 4 at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia against the Neumann Knights.
The opportunity to play for the first time at Penn State on artificial ice was a dream come true when the University renovated a field house that was also shared with the track and baseball teams. Historically, numerous valiant efforts that had been made to establish hockey as a sport - including flooding the campus tennis courts - failed largely due to variable weather conditions.
The composition of the club was eclectic as undergraduates, grad students, staff and faculty were all welcome to participate. The club was organized such that there were multiple intramural teams and “A” (aka varsity) and “B” (aka junior varsity) squads. Although few knew each other, a strong bond quickly formed between club members as they shared stories about their formative years on the ice.
Everyone pitched in at every level from all night ice painting (five times during the season) to collecting dues and donations at a time when the club had virtually no resources. A high level of academic excellence was evident as students practiced in the evening with internationally known Professors who had lectured them earlier in the day. One line was composed of a freshman engineering student at center flanked by a Ph.D. student in Earth and Mineral sciences at right wing and a Professor of Chemistry at left wing.
While many of the players were from Pennsylvania, where ice hockey was struggling to gain acceptance, some veterans turned mentors were from rabid hockey bastions in Minnesota, Massachusetts and upstate New York. A half dozen very talented Canadians from Montreal, Calgary and Toronto shared experiences of playing pick up hockey at an early age from sun up to after sunset.
Some Penn State players actually played Division I hockey (St. Lawrence, University of Alberta, McGill University) and others had played on Junior A or semi-professional teams. Thus, contrary to what one might expect, the inaugural and subsequent Penn State teams were far from a “rag tag” group and presented themselves well.
My personal experience at skating was in one of the most unlikely of locations, namely, a pond adjacent to a boathouse in New York’s Central Park. When my brother and I were able to stand up on skates, my father, who was attending night school under the GI bill, would take us to the park on weekends. He would help put on our skates and then hit the books while watching over us from a patio overlooking the pond. Negotiating the rocks and stones along the shoreline to get to open ice was always a challenge as well as trying to keep skate blades from being caught in crevasses that pervaded certain sections of the pond.
Once warmed up, the sometimes-bitter cold was forgotten and the wonderful feeling of skating freely over the long expanses of the pond took over. When it was nearing time to return home, my father would lace up his racing skates and fly around the pond backwards while pulling us at terrifying speeds. It would be some years later that we found out that our dad had won several medals in speed skating events at Madison Square Garden while serving in the Army.
After completing graduate school in the winter of 1971, I joined the Penn State faculty. To my surprise and disappointment, hockey had not been played on campus for thirty years. Thanks to the efforts of many, hockey magically burgeoned at Penn State in the fall of 1971 and has remained in continuous operation for forty years.
The first team in 1971-1972 sported a won-lost record of 14-6. While all practices were indoors and only one game was played on outdoor artificial surface, many of the veterans told stories of their humble beginnings shoveling snow for hours just to be able to clear a surface to skate.
We often talked about our collective dream of having a Division 1 hockey team in Happy Valley. Today, we old-timers who are scattered far and wide across the continental US, Hawaii and Canada remain in contact and still reminisce about the “Miracle of ‘71”. Those of us who only played sparingly in our youth in front of a few fans (mostly family) remember vividly taking to the ice at the first game at the Ice Pavilion to a standing room only, packed house of thousands with many more fans in the parking lot trying to get in the door.
It goes without saying that we look forward to the fulfillment of the dream of D-1 hockey at Penn State along with the past 40 years of players, fans, coaches, volunteers and supporters. Those of us from the early 70’s who can’t make it will also be there in spirit as the team takes to the ice in the ground breaking outdoor game January 4 at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia against the Neumann Knights.
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