The United States International Gulls men's ice hockey program represented United States International University in college ice hockey at the NCAA Division I level during the 1980s.

History In 1978 Ph.D candidate Maynard Howe, the former head coach of Maine at Portland–Gorham, put together the first hockey team for the university and, with the support of University President Dr. William Rust, the team was soon sponsored as an NCAA Division I program. The Gulls had early success, winning 24 games in their first season of NCAA play, but they could not keep that pace. USIU produced just 8 wins the following year (albeit in 21 games) and, after surging back with an 18-win year in 1982, the program put up losing records three straight seasons before Howe was replaced by former Minnesota head coach Brad Buetow. The new coach coincided with U.S. International forming the Great West Hockey Conference with Alaska–Anchorage, Alaska–Fairbanks and Northern Arizona.

In Buetow's first season he got the Gulls back on their winning ways, producing a 20 win season and winning the inaugural conference championship. After a mediocre second season the Gulls returned in force in 1987–88, winning 23 games and being a finalist for the last at-large bid to the 1988 NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Tournament. 1988 was the last hurrah for the program, however. After Northern Arizona couldn't continue after their first season in the conference, USIU had only the Alaska schools as conference partners and travelling to the largest state was just as prohibitively as expensive as anywhere else in the country. The university had tried to induce several nearby schools to begin their own ice hockey programs, including USC, UCLA and Arizona but after three years the school was no longer able to financially support the program and it was shuttered.

Season-by-season results Source:

NCAA D-I Champions NCAA Frozen FourConference Regular Season ChampionsConference Playoff Champions

SeasonConferenceRegular SeasonConference Tournament ResultsNational Tournament Results Conference OverallGPWLTPts*FinishGPWLT% 1979–80 Independent–––––– 34 24 8 2 1980–81 Independent–––––– 21 8 13 0 1981–82 Independent–––––– 30 18 12 0 1982–83 Independent–––––– 32 13 17 2 1983–84 Independent–––––– 36 4 31 1 1984–85 Independent–––––– 32 7 23 2 1985–86 GWHC 12 9 3 0 181st 33 20 13 0 1986–87 GWHC 16 7 8 1 15 2nd 35 17 17 1 1987–88 GWHC 8 4 4 0 8 2nd 36 23 13 0 Totals GP W L T %ChampionshipsRegular Season 289 134 147 8 1 GWHC ChampionshipConference Post-season 0 0 0 0 NCAA Post-season 0 0 0 0 Regular Season and Post-season Record 289 134 147 8

Footnotes

Olympians This is a list of United States International alumni were a part of an Olympic team.

Name Position United States International Tenure Team Year Finish Darren Lowe Right Wing 1979–1980 CAN 1984 4th

Gulls in the NHL

Player Position Team(s) Years Games Darren LoweRight WingPIT1983–198480Pat MayerDefensemanPIT1987–198810

References