FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sunday, July 17, 2005
Contact: Danny Martin, Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
(907) 459-7586
UAF HOCKEY ALUMNI STAGE FIRST REUNION
FAIRBANKS, AK-During the fall and winter, the Carlson Center is the home rink for the University of Alaska Fairbanks hockey team. On Saturday night, it became a museum, as the history of the program was seen and heard during the banquet for the first UAF Hockey Alumni Reunion.
Eighty years of the Nanooks program could be seen in photos, stories and newspaper articles, and heard in the voices in those who played for or coached the Nanooks.
The memorabilia ranged archives from the 1925-26 team for Alaska Agricultural College and School of Mines, which featured six players and played on the frozen Chena River downtown, to reminders of last season's squad which placed third in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association Super Six Tournament in Detroit and compiled a 17-16-4 record under then first-year head coach Tavis McMillan, who was a Nanooks forward from 1990-94, an assistant coach from 1996-2003 and the university's NCAA compliance officer in 2003.
"I'm very lucky to be around some great people and in a great community,'' MacMillan said at the podium of the head table which featured former head coaches, administrators and alumni." I played here and now I'm coaching here. No doubt about it, by far I'm the luckiest man in the world.''
Similar sentiments were expressed by Guy Gadowsky, who coached the Nanooks from 1999-2004 and is entering his second season as the head coach at Princeton, and Lynn Lashbrook, who was the UAF athletic director from 1988-93.
Others seated at the head table were Larry Bidlake, a Nanooks alumni (1958-61); Leonard Brum, head coach in 1951; Harris Shelton, UAF vice chancellor from 1971-92 and former coaches Don Lucia (1987-93), Ric Schafer (1980-87) and Dave Laurion (1993-99).
Also Saturday, jerseys of former players Steve Moria, Erik Drygas and Dean Fedorchuk were retired and All-Americans Moria, Fedorchuk and Doug Desorcie were honored.
Jeff O'Bryant, a Nanooks goaltender in the early 1970's, was among the more than 300 people, who before going into the arena for the banquet, looked over the memorabilia that covers eight decades and two centuries. The turnout, said
Shawn Head, a member of the alumni committee, included 140 alumni and their families.
Among the photos was a vertical shot of O'Bryant in a dark blue Nanooks jersey and with a beard and much longer hair than he currently possesses. The memorabilia and the event were special to the now- Fairbanks district attorney.
"I guess I'd describe as the love of a sport that brings a commitment to one another,'' he said."It continues from team to team and generation to generation. It is inspired by the rich history before and the prospect of camaraderie and success in the future. It's all capable because of a very supportive university and community.''
A blue-walled entry into the arena featured Nanooks jerseys from the past to the present, and Jim Perry, a Nanooks defenseman and coach during his career from 1966-71, stood between the apparel.
"The game was a heck of a lot slower than it is today and we weren't quite as big as they are today,'' Perry said of the comparison between Nanooks hockey of the present and of the late 1960's and early 70's.
But Perry, a 61-year-old high school principal in Abbottsford, British Columbia, was part of a transition period for the program, as it went from playing outdoors against mostly recreational and club teams to competing indoors for the first time in 1969 in the Beluga inflatable dome, which stood on campus in front of where the Patty Center is now located. UAF also played its first intercollegiate game against Gustavus Adolphus College of Minnesota on Jan. 31, 1970 in the Beluga.
The Nanooks moved into the Patty Center in 1979 and on to the Olympic-size ice (200 by 100 feet) of the Carlson Center in 1990.
The program was nearly dropped as a varsity sport in 1966. Eight years later, budget and scheduling problems forced the team to vote itself out of existence as a varsity sport. The Nanooks played at the club level before returning to varsity status and intercollegiate competition for the 1979-80 season.
"We were the maintenance crew, the carryover crew,'' Perry said."We did the transitioning from keeping hockey alive at the university until they got to the bigs where they are now. We brought hockey in from the cold because we played outside my first year here.''
Defenseman Shawn Chambers eventually went to the bigs after skating for the Nanooks for two seasons (1985-86 and 1986-87). From 1987-88 to 1999-2000, the 38-year-old native of Sterling Heights, Mich., played for four National Hockey League teams, winning Stanley Cups with the New Jersey Devils (1995) and the Dallas Stars (1999).
"I hemmed and hawed about coming up here,'' Chambers said of coming to UAF as a recruit, "but I said this is a stepping stone for me to get to where I was. If I wasn't here, who knows if I could have ever made it in the pros? It was fun, I had a great time up here.''
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