The first half of the season offered Buckeye fans just a taste of Big Ten Hockey. Ohio State and longtime foe Michigan locked horns in two entertaining, down-to-the-wire games. Hopefully this is a sign of the exciting times ahead as conference play begins in earnest in January. While the Wolverines were a familiar foe, some of the Buckeyes’ new conference siblings are less well known among the hockey community. We’ll have series previews, a closer look at the key players, etc. in coming months.
The winter break, though, seemed like an excellent opportunity to take a brief look at each Big Ten hockey program. This is the basic info you should know for each school, as well as their official website and Twitter links. Also, since we’re more or less making introductions here, it seemed appropriate to include the available teams’ intro videos.
Big Ten Hockey Links
B1G Hockey homepage
B1G Hockey Twitter
BTN Hockey Twitter
Michigan Wolverines
Official website and Twitter
National Championships: Nine (most recent in 1998)
Home Arena: Yost Ice Arena, named for former football coach and athletic director Fielding H. Yost
Student Section: Children of Yost
Head Coach: Red Berenson
Fight Song: The Victors
Weirdest line from the fight song: The leaders and best - Best what? I don't know whether there's anything technically wrong with the grammar of this line but it sounds strange.
Michigan State Spartans
Official website and Twitter
National Championships: Three (most recent in 2007)
Home Arena: Munn Ice Arena, former football coach and athletic director Clarence “Biggie” Munn
Student Section: The A-Team
Head Coach: Tom Anastos
Fight Song: Michigan State Fight Song (That seems to be its actual title.)
Weirdest line from the fight song: They're fighting with a vim - "Vim" is a funny word.
Michigan State doesn't seem to have made an intro video available online.
Minnesota Golden Gophers
Official website and Twitter
National Championships: Five (most recent in 2003)
Home Arena: Mariucci Arena, named for former hockey player, coach, and “Godfather of Minnesota Hockey” John Mariucci
Student Section: U of M Ice Box
Head Coach: Don Lucia
Fight Song: Minnesota Rouser
Weirdest line from the fight song: Rah for the U of M - Nearly a quarter of the words in this song are "rah."
Ohio State Buckeyes
Official website and Twitter
National Championships: None
Home Arena: Value City Arena at the Jerome Schottenstein Center, named for Columbus entrepreneur and mega-bucks donator Jerome Schottenstein (of Value City/Schottenstein’s department stores)
Student Section: OSU Knucklebucks
Head Coach: Steve Rohlik
Fight Song(s): Buckeye Battle Cry and Across the Field (Truthfully I'm not sure which is the official fight song.)
Weirdest line from the fight song(s): I hadn’t noticed before, but Ohio State is the only Big Ten school that misidentifies itself in its songs. They all refer to the school as “Ohio.”
Penn State Nittany Lions
Official website and Twitter
National Championships: None
Home Arena: Pegula Ice Arena, named for Buffalo Sabres owner, PSU alum, and mega-bucks donator Terry Pegula
Student Section: The Roar Zone
Head Coach: Guy Gadowsky
Fight Song: Fight On, State
Weirdest line from the fight song: Strike your gait and win - Again, "strike your gait" is just a funny phrase.
Penn State doesn't seem to have made an intro video available online.
Wisconsin Badgers
Official website and Twitter
National Championships: Six (most recent in 2006)
Home Arena: Kohl Center, named for former Wisconsin senator, Milwaukee Bucks owner, and mega-bucks donator Herb Kohl (of Kohl’s department stores)
Student Section: Crease Creatures
Head Coach: Mike Eaves
Fight Song: On, Wisconsin!
Weirdest line from the fight song: Touchdown sure this time - Again, that seems grammatically strange.
