The Minnesota State Mavericks men's ice hockey team is an NCAA Division I college ice hockey program that represents Minnesota State University, Mankato. The Mavericks compete in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA). Their home arena is the Mayo Clinic Health System Event Center located in downtown Mankato, Minnesota.
History
Early beginnings: 1930s–1940s
In the early 1930s, students at Minnesota State, then Mankato State Teachers College (MSTC), first expressed interest in forming a hockey team to represent the university. The first hockey team at MSTC was formed in 1935, sponsored by faculty member Al Theide, who also coached the team. The 1935 squad played a few games against local community teams and other colleges before disbanding at the end of the school year.
Interest in forming a new team remained throughout the mid-to-late 1930s. In 1939, MSTC student Nic Schultz put out an ad in the MSTC school newspaper calling students interested in hockey to meet with him to create a team. After this, Schultz contacted MSTC Athletic Coordinator C. P. Blakeslee and convinced him to allow the newly formed team to borrow some of the MSTC football team’s equipment to play in. The team did not have many resources, relying on donated sticks and skates and using old magazines as shin guards. They did not have any practices, with all their ice time coming in the team’s five games played against local community teams, mostly in the Mankato area. Their first game came against the North Mankato Juniors in a 3-7 loss. The 1939 team had no home ice rink, nor did they even have a head coach. The team ended their first season with a record of 1-4, with their lone win coming against Madison Lake.
At the beginning of the 1940 season, the team was approached by MSTC Health Education Professor W. E. Cushman who offered to coach the team. The team gained more legitimacy and donated money to purchase lumber for the construction of a practice rink formed by flooding the MSTC football field. Cushman would coach the team as a player-coach for the next two seasons as the Indians played more local teams and finished around .500. After the 1941 season, the team disbanded. Throughout the 1940s, interest remained in re-forming a team, though nothing materialized.
Increasing interest in hockey: 1950s–1960s
Interest remained high for the formation of a MSTC Indians hockey team in the early-to-mid 1950s. Creating a team became an annual conversation within the university with the occasional game scheduled against local community teams, though nothing substantial formed due to a lack of personnel. In late 1956, a group of MSTC students met with the athletics board to discuss the addition of intercollegiate hockey. While the request was once again denied, the school agreed to the formation of an intramural hockey organization within the school. Several students from the intramural teams competed in extramural events against local community teams and Gustavus Adolphus College. Throughout the late 1950s, multiple petitions were submitted to the school regarding the creation of an intercollegiate hockey team, though all were rejected, chiefly due to a lack of funding and equipment.
In 1959, MSTC, now Mankato State College (MSC), saw their best opportunity for the creation of a hockey team since the 1940s. As part of an annual “Snow Day Celebration”, the school formed an official hockey team and played one officially sanctioned intercollegiate game against Gustavus Adolphus College as part of the Snow Day events. The school advertised that if interest in the event was high, there would be a possibility of a permanent intercollegiate hockey team for the school. A few hundred spectators attended the Snow Day game as the Indians lost to the Gusties 0-4. This event marked MSC’s first official intercollegiate game since the 1940s. Afterwards, the university newspaper reported that the interest in hockey indicated the possibility of a team within a few seasons or less. This ended up not being the case as the school once again declined to create a team due to a lack of funding and soon removed the intramural team as well. That did not last long though, as by 1963, the school once again permitted intramural teams after petitioning by students.
In late 1965, the school selected the best players from each intramural team to form an extramural team. This team was coached by Physical Education Instructor Don Brose and played local community teams and other colleges, compiling a 1-5 record in their first season, with several closely contested losses. Throughout the late 1960s, the extramural team gained popularity and saw more success on the ice. The extramural Indians continued playing many different colleges from Minnesota as a large part of their schedule, often playing games against those schools' varsity teams. Finally, in early 1968, MSC approved a re-allocation of funds which allowed the school to form an official NCAA intercollegiate hockey team. The 1968-69 season was the last season for the extramural hockey team at MSC before they elevated the team at the start of the 1969-70 season.
Beginning the Don Brose Era in Division II: 1969–1984
The Mankato State College Indians men's ice hockey team commenced play as a varsity sport in 1969-70. For monetary reasons, the school was not able to play home games in an indoor ice rink, instead opting to build an outdoor rink. At the time, schools with outdoor ice rinks were viewed to be at a competitive disadvantage. For this reason, head coach Don Brose decided the team would compete independent of conference affiliation, as most of the teams in the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference had indoor rinks, thus putting MSC at a distinct disadvantage in conference play. The team competed in the NCAA College Division and played their first varsity games against the St. Cloud State Huskies. The Indians' first goal was scored by Jim Lang, though the team lost in a two game sweep. The team rebounded soon after, earning their first win against the Stout State Blue Devils, a game in which MSC's Dave Kramer scored the team's first ever hat trick. The Indians first season was relatively uneventful, as the team finished with a 5-8-1 record. The Indians saw a great improvement in their second season as they only lost two games, en route to a 15-2-1 record, though they did not qualify for the NCAA playoffs. The next several years of Indian hockey were relatively uneventful, though the team did transition into Division II after the 1973 split of the NCAA College Division was split into Division II and Division III.
In 1974, the Indians finally got their long-awaited indoor rink, with the construction of All Seasons Arena a few blocks away from campus. In the 1975 season, the Indians decided, along with Chicago Circle, to hold the first Western Regional Tournament. In lieu of a national championship tournament for Division II, it was decided that the Western Division II teams would hold a Western Tournament to crown a champion, similar to how the Eastern teams held the ECAC 2 Tournament to crown a champion. At times, the Western Regional Tournament was even referred to as the national championship, as there was no official national championship held by the NCAA. The Indians won the inaugural Western Regional Tournament with a sweep of Chicago Circle. In 1976, they won the tournament again, this time with a 5–2 victory over Hamline. In 1977, Mankato State College, now Mankato State University (MSU), changed the name of all its sports teams from the Indians to the Mavericks. With the 1977–78 season, the NCAA finally began holding a Division II men's ice hockey tournament. The Western teams continued to hold a Western Regional Tournament as no Western conference sponsored a conference championship. While it did not guarantee an automatic bid into the new tournament, the NCAA did give extra consideration to the winner of the Western Tournament. The 1978 Western Tournament saw the Mavericks finish as runners-up, and the NCAA selected the team to compete in their first national tournament. The Mavericks finished third place in the first ever Division II ice hockey national tournament. The 1979 Western Tournament proved to be a strange one. After the first sudden-death overtime, the Mavericks were tied with the Chicago Circle Flames at 4–4. Given the opportunity to continue playing, the head coaches of both teams came together and jointly decided to end the game at a 4–4 tie with the thought that the NCAA would need to choose both teams for the national tournament if neither team won. Thus, both teams claimed joint shares of the Western Tournament Championship. This strategy proved to be successful, as both the Mavericks and Flames were chosen to the national tournament. The Mavericks would go on to improve their previous season's finish as they ended as runners-up in the 1979 tournament after falling to UMass Lowell 4–6 in the final. The 1979–80 season proved to be one of the Mavericks' most successful to date. The team finished the season 26–9–1 after the regular season and easily coasted to a Western Tournament championship with a 14 goal victory over St. Scholastica. The Mavs were selected to the 1980 national tournament as the third seeded team and played their first game against UMass Lowell, avenging last season's loss with a 8–1 victory. The championship game was against Elmira, in which the Mavs quickly gained a 3–0 lead, then finished off the game to win 5–2 and claim their first national championship. Following the 1979–80 season, several schools in Wisconsin and Minnesota met to create the NCHA, thus ending the Mavericks 11 season streak as an Independent. The 1980–81 proved to be another successful season, with the Mavericks finishing first in the NCHA and finishing third in the national tournament. The Mavericks would qualify for the national tournament in the next two seasons, falling in the quarterfinal round both times. At the end of the 1982-83 season, Don Brose left the team on a sabbatical to study new hockey techniques in Sweden. Brad Reeves took over for the 1983-84 season, in which the Mavericks finished 11–7 and failed to qualify for the national tournament for the first time since 1977.
Division III, II, and efforts for Division I: 1984–1996 Following the 1983-84 season, the NCHA re-classified as a Division III conference, thus moving the Mavericks to Division III. The Mavericks would see some success at the Division III level, winning the NCHA conference three times and qualifying for the national tournament in five of eight seasons. The Mavs would reach the Division III Frozen Four three times, ending as national runners-up in 1991 following a 2–6 loss to UW – Stevens Point.