SLU Hockey

[milwaukeebill]

Im friends with some Hockey players here at SLU and surprised to find out we used to have Div. 1 hockey team. Naturally, being from Milwaukee, i love watching hockey. I know they play Division 1 club hockey now. Any idea when they abandoned being a NCAA team? and i thought i read somewhere that an ice rink was proposed to built in conjunction with Chaifetz at one point. Anyone give me any insight on this team or any history or any indication of how good we used to be...

[billikenfan05]

Im friends with some Hockey players here at SLU and surprised to find out we used to have Div. 1 hockey team. Naturally, being from Milwaukee, i love watching hockey. I know they play Division 1 club hockey now. Any idea when they abandoned being a NCAA team? and i thought i read somewhere that an ice rink was proposed to built in conjunction with Chaifetz at one point. Anyone give me any insight on this team or any history or any indication of how good we used to be...

Used to be really good. Check out the Billiken HOF connected to the concourse of Chaifetz. They have some great old hockey memorabilia. I would assume that they stopped funding it due to cost.

[bonwich]

My boardmate Taj and I were the arena announcers for the hockey team in its last two years of existence.

SLU got hockey because the Blues became an NHL team about 1967. The Salamons, owners of the Blues, realized that they could accelerate the acceptance of hockey in St. Louis if there was also a college team. For the first, oh, seven or eight years or so, SLU paid little or no rent.

An aside: For probably three decades, until, I think, the late '90s, SLU held the single-game attendance record for a college hockey game.

SLU played in the CCHA and was consistently at a disadvantage because of its lack of tradition (sound familiar?) and being so far away from its recruiting base. And if you think the travel is difficult for the A-10, you should have ridden some of the buses to Bowling Green or Lake Superior State.

IIRC, Bill Selman was the only coach the Bills ever had. He went to work for A-B after coaching minor-league Milwaukee for a few seasons after the Bills disbanded. (Ironically, he was a desk or two away from Dick McDonald, the athletic director who enforced the President's decision to kill the hockey program.)

The Bills actually dropped hockey twice. A group of fans and supporters managed to get the President (O'Connell?) to reconsider his decision, but by that time, a bunch of recruits had decommitted and some of the players left. The team the very last season was something like the Dirty Dozen. (Two of my proudest moments as a Billikens fan: Announcing "There is one minute remaining in the Billikens" for the one-minute warning at the end of their last game; and being thrown out of the press box, despite carrying valid credentials, after showing up with a "Dump Dick -- Keep Bill" sign when I attended in my regular seat.) My best recollection is that they dropped it after the 77-78 season but revived it for the 78-79 season.

The other nice thing about Bills hockey is that it engendered a viable high-school hockey league in St. Louis. A few of the SLU players were local (Dan Pupillo, who I think was from DeSmet, comes to mind).

If there's anything else you'd like to know, I'm sure Taj or Quickdraw can fill in some blanks.

[milwaukeebill]

thanks for the history lesson...always love to learn more about the Bills...

[Box and Won]

I could be mistaken, but I think we held the single-game attendance record until Michigan State played Michigan outdoors in MSU's football stadium.

It would be a blast to have a team again. I purchased an old Billiken hockey jersey off eBay a few years ago - I may have to break it out for an upcoming b-ball game.

[BLIKNS]

Sort of hockey related...

What North American city were the Blues set to move to in the early 80`s?

Was it Portland,Seattle,Denver,Ottawa, or other?

[slu72]

Sort of hockey related...

What North American city were the Blues set to move to in the early 80`s?

Was it Portland,Seattle,Denver,Ottawa, or other?

I was at SLU when it started up. I believe it was 70-71 season. Not being a huge hockey fan, I only went to one game. However, did see them play BC in Boston in '73. Selman, as I recall, had them playing respectable and competitive. I believe the Blues were the major factor in getting Reinhard to start the program. At the time, the Blues were filling the arena with rabid fans, in fact I think more local SLU students went to Blues games than Bills basketball games. The old arena was a lonely place to be on most bb nights with crowds of around 3-5,000 unless it was big time opponent. But I did go to a couple of Blues games and it was packed solid. I believe the thiniking was that hockey fever in St. Louis would naturally carry over into college, but it didn't.

[TheBand]

Sort of hockey related...

What North American city were the Blues set to move to in the early 80`s?

Was it Portland,Seattle,Denver,Ottawa, or other?

Other:

Saskatoon

[Bay Area Billiken]

My boardmate Taj and I were the arena announcers for the hockey team in its last two years of existence.

SLU got hockey because the Blues became an NHL team about 1967. The Salamons, owners of the Blues, realized that they could accelerate the acceptance of hockey in St. Louis if there was also a college team. For the first, oh, seven or eight years or so, SLU paid little or no rent.

An aside: For probably three decades, until, I think, the late '90s, SLU held the single-game attendance record for a college hockey game.

SLU played in the CCHA and was consistently at a disadvantage because of its lack of tradition (sound familiar?) and being so far away from its recruiting base. And if you think the travel is difficult for the A-10, you should have ridden some of the buses to Bowling Green or Lake Superior State.

IIRC, Bill Selman was the only coach the Bills ever had. He went to work for A-B after coaching minor-league Milwaukee for a few seasons after the Bills disbanded. (Ironically, he was a desk or two away from Dick McDonald, the athletic director who enforced the President's decision to kill the hockey program.)

The Bills actually dropped hockey twice. A group of fans and supporters managed to get the President (O'Connell?) to reconsider his decision, but by that time, a bunch of recruits had decommitted and some of the players left. The team the very last season was something like the Dirty Dozen. (Two of my proudest moments as a Billikens fan: Announcing "There is one minute remaining in the Billikens" for the one-minute warning at the end of their last game; and being thrown out of the press box, despite carrying valid credentials, after showing up with a "Dump Dick -- Keep Bill" sign when I attended in my regular seat.) My best recollection is that they dropped it after the 77-78 season but revived it for the 78-79 season.

The other nice thing about Bills hockey is that it engendered a viable high-school hockey league in St. Louis. A few of the SLU players were local (Dan Pupillo, who I think was from DeSmet, comes to mind).

If there's anything else you'd like to know, I'm sure Taj or Quickdraw can fill in some blanks.

The last year of SLU Hockey was 1978-79, my freshman year at SLU. Dropping the hockey program was a controversial decision with the SLU students. We understood it was between basketball, which then was at rock bottom, and hockey, which had a pretty good team.

That last SLU hockey team had a number of freshmen, one of which, Chris Valentine, lived on our 6th Floor in Griesedieck Hall and eventually played in the NHL with the Washington Capitals.

When the SLU team came out at the old Arena (then the Checkerdome), the Billiken skated out and led the team onto the ice.

[bonwich]

The last year of SLU Hockey was 1978-79, my freshman year at SLU.

-- Well, of course that's right, since Taj is Taj79, and he was the announcer the final year.

Dropping the hockey program was a controversial decision with the SLU students. We understood it was between basketball, which then was at rock bottom, and hockey, which had a pretty good team.

-- That's not entirely correct on either count. If those on this board think students are athletic-apathetic now, you should have been on campus in the late '70s. Hockey certainly drew more than basketball, but it was more of a 500-30 (right, Roy ?) comparison in nightly attendance. 90 percent of the student body would have cared more if they cancelled the Saturday night movies. The other half of it is that the initial plan was to drop hockey *and* drop to D-2 in basketball (which, to his credit and even though he hated me, Dick McDonald fought vociferously).

That last SLU hockey team had a number of freshmen, one of which, Chris Valentine, lived on our 6th Floor in Griesedieck Hall and eventually played in the NHL with the Washington Capitals.

-- There was at least one other Billiken who went pro, maybe more. Anyone remember? (I thought one was named Mario.)

When the SLU team came out at the old Arena (then the Checkerdome), the Billiken skated out and led the team onto the ice.

-- For the record, the *real* Billiken. We also had a female skate squad a la the Baby Blues (the "Billiken Blades")?

-- Hockey and the Arena was also an utter hoot for spontaneous, clever heckling. We sat with two guys named Bill and Terry, who would probably be in their mid-60s now, who were absolutely inspirational. (Oh, yeah -- you got in free on your student ID, and for the last few years, it didn't matter that the ID hadn't been valid since you graduated five years previous.)

-- Three highlights: One particular ice storm, when total attendance was in the dozens, and we were able to yell requests up to Ernie Hayes; and a game against a non-conference opponent that had a stick girl instead of a manager. Bill: "Hey, is the stick girl allowed in the locker room?" Terry: "Only between periods." (The acoustics were such that there was no doubt the other team, and the entire arena, could hear it.)

-- Finally, at the very last game, a ref we always heckled mercilessly (Frank something?) got ready to drop the puck. One of us, or maybe all four, yelled: "We're going to miss you, Frank (or lastname)." He got out of his crouch, stood up straight, and gave us a smirk and a little salute.

-- It was a pretty special way to be a fan. I went on to Wisconsin, which had tremendous tradition, but all the heckling was prepackaged. No spontaneity, and not much humor.

[AGB91]

The other Billiken in the N.H.L. was Mario Faubert a defensemen who played for the Penguins

[AGB91]

The other Billiken in the N.H.L. was Mario Faubert a defensemen who played for the Penguins

[Bay Area Billiken]

I was just a young freshman in that last SLU hockey season. But I remember quite well that the AD, Dick McDonald, was considered a villain (perhaps in retrospect, more of a fall guy) amongst those of us in the dorm who cared.

My belief is that I was in the minority, in that I liked hockey, but I would have picked basketball over hockey if it came down to that. If they took a vote of the students at the time, my suspicion is that hockey would have won, at least that was the impression I had from some heated discussions in the Gries. cafeteria and on 6-G on the subject. There were students who were quite displeased with SLU dropping the hockey program. I wasn't in favor of that at all.

We did hear, although for me it was more in my Senior year (1981-82), that SLU was considering dropping to D-2 in Basketball. Thank goodness that didn't happen. I remember some wise guy Mizzou fan holding up a sign at the SLU-Mizzou game in Columbia my Junior year that read: "St. Louis U. In Division 2." And of course, that sign was shown on the TV broadcast.

We went to that press conference at Busch Center in 1982 not knowing what to expect, and were relieved with the announcement that SLU was staying in D-1, only moving (dropping down) from the Metro Conference to the then Midwestern City Conference (now Horizon League).

Nonetheless, SLU Hockey was great. There were games on Friday nights and Saturday afternoons. Ernie Hays was up there in the rafters playing the organ, including When the Saints Go Marching In. In those days, Ernie also played at SLU Basketball games. After a regrettable 71-51 home drubbing my freshman year at the hands of then national power, Marquette, Ernie turned up the volume on the organ to drown out the Marquette Pep Band that made the trip down from Milwaukee.

Re that ice storm, on one occasion, some of my young freshmen dorm mates actually ran the penalty box at a Saturday afternoon SLU hockey game. That may well have been that ice storm.

[Cowboy]

When the SLU team came out at the old Arena (then the Checkerdome), the Billiken skated out and led the team onto the ice.

-- For the record, the *real* Billiken. We also had a female skate squad a la the Baby Blues (the "Billiken Blades")?

-i remember the Billiken leading the squad onto the ice, that was so cool, wasn't the head ceramic-like?

-Billiken hockey holds some fine memories

[Bay Area Billiken]

-i remember the Billiken leading the squad onto the ice, that was so cool, wasn't the head ceramic-like?

-Billiken hockey holds some fine memories

The head was like a hard ceramic. It sat in our dorm room on 6-G much of our Senior year, the year my roommate and I refused to leave Ekker's office until he let us restore the true Billiken mascot, which we did. By that year, the head was so old and had not been used, probably since our freshman year, that it had a crack in it, like a cut or gash. Ekker finally relented and let us restore the Billiken at the Bronze Boot Soccer Game at Busch Stadium II against SIUE. We commissioned another dorm mate as the Billiken, and he wore an old SLU Hockey jersey that night at that soccer game. Then we had another guy serve as the Billiken, clad with the head and a tuxedo, with sneakers, at the basketball games that season. We received good publicity, as Dave Door, then the lead basketball writer in the STL Post-Dispatch, wrote an article about the return of "the (Billiken) Head" at St. Louis U.

[Box and Won]

I'm enjoying these stories...

[brianstl]

The other Billiken in the N.H.L. was Mario Faubert a defensemen who played for the Penguins

Didn't Mike Krushelnyski play for the Billikens?

[Bay Area Billiken]

I'm enjoying these stories...

There's a lot more. It's like we were Marines- the few, the proud. Really, we were like pioneers. We had heard about the past glories at SLU. And we were doing what we could do to restore them. Our team was at the bottom of rock bottom back then. We had Billiken players who were our friends from class and in the dorm, playing on the team.

Even if SLU had few fans at the games back then, we could get fired up. Ekker had a rent-a-band at the end opposite the students. We formed our own band in the dorm, the renegade band, that played at the other end. At least our renegade band could play When the Saints Go Marching In, and the Eat 'Em Up song.

We sat right next to the other team's bench, perpendicular to it. So we could yell at the other team's coach, and with those small crowds, there's no question he could hear us. We would yell at Denny Crum of Louisville, which was a top national power back then, to put benchwarmer, Marty Pulliam, a big stiff, into the game. The whole Louisville bench cracked up. Crum kept the game face, keeping the full court press on even though the game was a blowout. That's why I was so glad years later that SLU, under Coach Spoon, finally put it to Crum and Louisville, even in Freedom Hall.

Ekker had a picture in his office of a filled STL Arena, saying that was his goal. A little over a decade later, SLU was filling that Arena under Coach Spoon. We were back visiting and there the night of the first big crowd under Spoon, against SIU, over 17,000. When they started taking the long covers off those seats in the rafters at the end of the Old Barn, my friends and I looked at each other in total amazement. It had finally happened at SLU. I'm telling you, there was probably a tear or two in my eyes.

[bonwich]

Didn't Mike Krushelnyski play for the Billikens?

IIRC, "Krush" was one of the "Slapshot"-type guys that Selman threw together when he got the one-year reprieve. But yes, he did play for us.

Anybody got any player memories. Mine are vague, but it seems like, in the early days, Ralph Kloiber was the left-handed goalie, and Lindsay Middlebrook was the world's oldest college goalie. Later on, I had a major crush on my Oriflamme leader until I found out that she dated Gary ____, who was our center at the time. I think they eventually got married. And toward the end there was another DeSmet kid besides Pupillo, who seemed like he was about 5-8 but had a MacInnis-like shot. Really great guy -- I think he finished his career at a small college north of Chicago (Lake Forest?) that had a pretty good team. Seems like one of the really good Canadian defensemen was named Doug.

Now Baseball Hall-of-Fame member Rick Hummel covered the team for a time for the Post. I remember hanging out with him between games in Bowling Green, from which we had to go to Toledo to find something interesting to do at night.

All those guys' faces are starting to come back to me. I can't remember names as much as their home towns when we announced them: Windsor, Moose Jaw, Regina...

I used to get invited to the team spring drunken bash at one of the booster's houses over in Belleville or close by. As for the penalty box, for at least a few of the games, we did double-duty as announcers and box attendants. I remember one game where two guys got majors and then went after each other with sticks in the boxes, between which was the announcer's table.

[Bay Area Billiken]

IIRC, "Krush" was one of the "Slapshot"-type guys that Selman threw together when he got the one-year reprieve. But yes, he did play for us.

Anybody got any player memories. Mine are vague, but it seems like, in the early days, Ralph Kloiber was the left-handed goalie, and Lindsay Middlebrook was the world's oldest college goalie. Later on, I had a major crush on my Oriflamme leader until I found out that she dated Gary ____, who was our center at the time. I think they eventually got married. And toward the end there was another DeSmet kid besides Pupillo, who seemed like he was about 5-8 but had a MacInnis-like shot. Really great guy -- I think he finished his career at a small college north of Chicago (Lake Forest?) that had a pretty good team. Seems like one of the really good Canadian defensemen was named Doug.

Now Baseball Hall-of-Fame member Rick Hummel covered the team for a time for the Post. I remember hanging out with him between games in Bowling Green, from which we had to go to Toledo to find something interesting to do at night.

All those guys' faces are starting to come back to me. I can't remember names as much as their home towns when we announced them: Windsor, Moose Jaw, Regina...

I used to get invited to the team spring drunken bash at one of the booster's houses over in Belleville or close by. As for the penalty box, for at least a few of the games, we did double-duty as announcers and box attendants. I remember one game where two guys got majors and then went after each other with sticks in the boxes, between which was the announcer's table.

That last season the goalie was Carl Bloomberg.

The top line had Chris Valentine at Center and Chuck Durocher on Left Wing. The right winger was good too, but his name escapes me right now.

The second line had Gus Gazzola, a freshman gunner. When Gus scored, he would act like the stick was a machine gun.

Terry Kitchings was on defense. I think Mike Denk was at forward.

Freshman Bruce Wallace, from Vancouver, BC, was on defense.

There was a Senior named Pierre from Montreal, who spoke French as his first language, but could speak some English. And there was a freshman named Luc, also from Quebec, who lived on our floor- 6G. Luc knew very little English; when I'd see him, he would nod his head.

A lot of these guys lived on our dorm floor- Terry Kitchings, Mike Denk, Gus Gazzola, Chris Valentine, Bruce Wallace, Pierre, and Guy. They were good guys.

[Bay Area Billiken]

Goalie Lindsay Middlebrook also played in the NHL.

[bonwich]

Luc Berthiaume. And I think Kitching had no "s" on his name.

[Clock_Tower]

Goalie Lindsay Middlebrook also played in the NHL.

Yes, he had a good career in the NHL following SLU.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lindsay_Middlebrook

Lately and now, he's been coaching high school hockey and the some of the best amateur teams here in St. Louis including the Bantam Major Central States squad based in Chesterfield. Lindsey is one of a handful of guys whose constant efforts are why youth hockey in St. Louis continues to improve year after year. Believe but am not certain that he's worked with/coached Ben Bishop - the Blue's back-up goal and local product when he wasn't playing for Chaminade and for U of Maine.

[Adman]

My favorite player was Rick Kennedy. Very fast. Great scorer. Billiken Hall-of-Famer.

Matter of fact, he won the national scoring title in 1973. Here's a short Sports Illustrated "Faces in the Crowd" blurb from '73.

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/art...87426/index.htm

He actually married one of my childhood babysitters. Still in town. Good guy.

Since we're walking down memory lane, another great player from about the same time was Charlie LaBelle. Below is a link to a video/story on Charlie's recent induction into the Billiken Hall of Fame delivered by a KPLR reporter who happens to be...his son. Very nice piece.

http://www.kplr11.com/news/kplr-news-slu-h...0,6005283.story

Finally, if you want more history, here's more:

http://www.jcs-group.com/trueblues/teams/stlouisbill.html

[brianstl]

Kennedy coached four Mid States championship teams at CBC. His team had a 63 game winning streak at one point.