Heather Rule writes about the legendary player and coach, Willard Ikola.

This story was originally published in the 2025 MN State High School Hockey Tournament Guide.

The post Willard Ikola: Humble Giant appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

One thing I recognized early was the tradition of outstanding Eveleth goaltenders.  At the Hippodrome, I saw the big photo of Oscar Almquist, who had been an All-American at St. Mary’s in Winona and later became one of the great high school coaches at Roseau.  At the other end of the rink was a big picture of Mike Karakas, when he was playing for the Chicago Blackhawks.  Then there were the photos of Frankie Brimsek, who was a star for the Boston Bruins and one of the best players in the NHL and Sam LoPresti, who played for the Blackhawks.  We were all aware that both Karakas and Brimsek has been NHL Rookies of the Year.  Can you imagine that Eveleth High School had a ten-year period when their starting goalies were Karakas, Brimsek, and LoPresti from 1926-1935?

Goaltending in my era was so different. It was just about playing the angles.  We never did the V-drop, we had never even heard of it.  If you were a good skater, you could move up and back and keep the best angle.  Despite what a lot of people used to think, you wanted to have one of your better skaters in net because you had to be so good on your edges.  It was weird but a lot of kids around my age played goalie in their boots so I had a big advantage over them.  Once I started playing a lot, the other kids told me I was good and my confidence was strong.

As much as we all liked hockey, we played just about every sport imaginable in our neighborhood.  We had a close-knit group of boys who did everything together and it seemed like just about everybody participated, no matter what their skill level was.  Without all the technology of today and in the midst of a Depression, we were fortunate to just have each other to hang around with and do active things all the time.

Basically, we lived outside with our buddies. Nobody every seemed to be inside – there was radio but no television and let’s face it, there just wasn’t a lot of room in our homes, either.  Our parents gave us a lot of freedom.  We never missed any meals and we had to be home by a certain hour but we were in the safety of other kids and our parents didn’t worry about us.  We not only played at the rinks and playgrounds but on the streets and in the alleys.

Hockey was the favorite sport of most of us but we played a ton of outside basketball on rims attached to garages, playing 21 and four-horses.  We played baseball and football at various places around town.  We just went from activity to the other, improvising as we went.  Bocce ball and horseshoes; you name it, we played it.  It was competitive but not mean-spirited and this was how we climbed the social ladder. You name it and we played it – croquet, softball, golf, tetherball and many others.

Willard Ikola (center front) as an eighth grader on Eveleth’s 1945-46 team.

Eveleth had a good recreation department and one summer, they employed Cliff Thompson, the high school and junior college hockey coach, up at the ballpark. We grew to learn that he was a fantastic baseball coach but as hockey players, when we found out he was going to be up there, we just flocked to the place.  Myself and the others idolized the guy.  On Saturday morning at the Hippodrome, when we would see him up in the stands watching, let me tell you the play would pick up because we wanted to impress him and play for him some day.  Each week someone would whisper, “Hey, Coach Thompson is here” and things really got rolling.  There was no question that we played harder when he was there and he showed up every week. We wondered if he was picking his team for five or six years down the road.

While we had our disagreements when we played our sports and games, we settled our own problems and things would always get back to normal.  I guess that’s how we learned how to manage things.  It was great for teaching us creativity and how to be leaders.  As a kid, everybody seemed to have a nickname and mine wasn’t real original.   It was simply… “IKE”.

With my brother Roy playing at Colorado College, I was already thinking about going to college and playing at that level and becoming a physical education instructor and coach.  It wasn’t a tough decision when I was offered the chance to play with Coach Thompson’s club.  I figured I would have a heckuva better chance getting a hockey scholarship than a band scholarship.

Half of the title team from 1945 was back to defend the state title in 1945-46; guys like Ronnie Martinson, Andy Gambucci, Bice Ventrucci and Milan Begich.  There were only 11 players on the first state title team and we had just 10 players and myself on that year’s squad.  At 5’4″ and 100 pounds, I was not an imposing figure in the net as a 13-year-old and players could shoot over my shoulder and hit the corner.  However, I wasn’t intimidated by the older players because I had played shinny with them for years and knew them well. Plus, they were good about not firing the puck at my head.

Willard Ikola as an Eveleth Golden Bear. (Photo courtesy of Ikola Archives – VintageMinnesotaHockey

As for practices, in those days, it consisted almost entirely of scrimmaging. There was very little drill work or concentration on fundamentals.  Coach Thompson, like most coaches of that era, was never on skates but on the bench with his boots on.  Actually, I never saw Cliff ever skate, not once!  Coach never talked to me about goaltending, not once in the five years I played for him.  I noticed that he would call the forwards or defensemen over for some short words of advice but it was almost always just scrimmaging.

Ronnie Drobnick, of course, was the senior goalie and was expected to play all the games.  He never did give me any special treatment or tutoring, either, but I just watched what he did and tried to emulate him and all the other great goalies I had seen play in Eveleth.  Ronnie got yellow jaundice and was out for about three weeks in the middle of the season and I was thrust in the goal as an 8th-grader.  In those four games, we won three games with ease and tied Roseau 3-3.  Ronnie came back to finish the season and I didn’t even get to go with the team to the state tournament, but it really didn’t bother me.  Most teams didn’t have a backup goalie in those days.  I didn’t even earn a letter for that year.

Dialed to WEVE, our local radio station, I listened to us compete in the state tournament.  We lost to Rochester 2-1 in the semifinals and then beat St. Paul Johnson to take third.  Ron Martinson later told me when we were at Michigan that some of the guys weren’t following training rules and he didn’t think they were serious enough.

Ikola is lifted up by his teammates high above a kneeling John Mayasich as Eveleth coach.

My freshman year, we beat Hibbing 5-3 in the region finals to make it to the 1947 tourney.  It was just the second time I had ever been to the Twin Cities.  To see the big buildings and all the hotels and restaurants, it was an eye-full. The largest building in Eveleth was the Park Hotel and that was three stories. We spent a lot of time just going up and down the elevators at the St. Paul Hotel, which was real close to the St. Paul Auditorium rink.  At that time, they had elevator operators and we drove them crazy with our requests.  One hotel even had an escalator and we would be running up the down escalator and down the up escalator like a bunch of fools. We worried more about how to order off a menu than we did playing the games.  Hockey was in our comfort zone.  One funny thing that happened was a photographer took a picture of me, all 100 pounds, in a dresser drawer in our hotel room with a caption that read…”WEE WILLARD” and it was in the papers the next day.

The St. Paul Auditorium had artificial ice and it was the first time I had played on that surface.  The ice surface was very dark and it was difficult to see the puck.  There were two locker rooms but otherwise, they just had a makeshift set-up with curtains for the teams that were dressing for the next game.  It was pretty “Mickey Mouse”, really.  With smoking permitted in the lobbies and corridors, there was a constant cloud of smoke that permeated the rink, too.

We had just 11 players on that entire 1947 team and our juniors were the key to our club.   We easily downed Willmar 6-0 in my first game at state and my brother Earl scored a goal and had an assist in that game. Next up was Roseau, the pre-tournament favorite, in the semis.  Roseau was led by Rube Bjorkman and they had a good team and had beaten us at Eveleth during the season.  Bjorkman wore those big goggles but he was an outstanding player and, of course, would go on to star with the Gophers and later the U.S. Nationals and Olympic teams.  He also coached at Greenway and then at R.P.I. and North Dakota.

Sure enough, Bjorkman beat me three times to lead the Rams to a 4-1 win. We played pretty well but they were just too much. In the finals, Roseau got upset by St. Paul Johnson.  Prior to the title game, we played Minneapolis West in the third-place game.  John Matchefts, one of my best buddies, scored twice but a guy named Kevin Farley notched a hat trick and we lost 5-3.  It would be the last time Eveleth High School would lose a game until the 1952 season.  Eventually, the winning streak would reach 78 games. That record will likely never be broken, though International Falls in the 1960’s and Bloomington Jefferson in the 1990’s both took a crack at it.

Jim Hoey biography

Jim Hoey was born and raised in Taconite, Minnesota on the west end of the Mesabi Iron Range.  He played forward for three years for Greenway High School in Coleraine and played in three state tournaments with the Raiders – including a state title in 1968.  Hoey played collegiately at St. Mary’s University in Winona and was captain his senior season and later served as head boys coach at both Shakopee and Farmington High Schools.

Hoey resides in Eagan, Minn. with his wife Ann and son Eddie.

Book Availability

Published by Nodin Press out of St. Louis Park, “IKE” and “PUCK  HEAVEN” or any of Hoey’s other books can be purchased at any major bookstore or on Amazon.  Signed and personalized copies of his books can be acquired from the co-author himself.  Please contact Jim Hoey at (651) 994-7870  or at ajehoey@comcast.net to make arrangements to get a copy.

Note to readers: This article was reprinted from a full-featured Minnesota Hockey Magazine digital issue.  Like what you see?  Get a back issue or subscribe today on the PressPad mobile app platform for Minnesota Hockey Magazine via Apple Store, Google Play, and Kindle/Amazon.  Don’t miss out!  Get all 8 issues for this upcoming season sent directly to your email box, buy a single issue or pick up the printed version at many local stores near you.  Thanks.  MHM Staff

The post Legendary player, coach Willard Ikola Passes at 92 appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

Photo courtesy of Vintage Minnesota Hockey

The key word for us aging folks, or at least many of us, is more sensible. Perfect? Far from it. There never will be a March that will pass without some of us lamenting the demise of the one-class, eight-team, three-day tournament that at one point was such a big event WCCO-TV paid more to televise it than the North Stars got for their entire season of games on a local TV affiliate.

I’ve spent years in print and on airwaves (and now podcasts) expressing my disdain for the two class tournament, but of late I’ve come to realize it goes beyond that. As someone who began following hockey closely in the late 1970s and was addicted to the sport in the following decade, what I really miss is the magic of everything that surrounded those tournaments.

The one class format is only a part of that. The old St. Paul Civic Center had its faults but for three days each March it was a magical place. The key was being able to get into an event that was considered one of the toughest tickets in town. I was 14 in 1984 when my mother finally broke down and agreed that we could at least go to an evening session and try to get tickets.

Bloomington Kennedy beat Burnsville, 4-2, and St. Paul Johnson beat Hill-Murray, 3-2. I was hooked. The telecast only conveyed a portion of the pageantry that went along with a tournament that was so special Sports Illustrated (when it was the most important sports publication around) sent writer E.M. Swift to do a lengthy piece on what the event meant to Minnesota. You also didn’t get that marvelous smell of mini donuts if you weren’t inside the Civic Center.

The tournament likely meant something different to each person who was fortunate enough to attend or watch it at the time. From 1987 through the final one class tournament, I attended every game either as a fan or a statistician based in the truck underneath the arena working for WCCO. 

This created multiple memories that went beyond any actual games.

Photo courtesy of Vintage Minnesota Hockey

— The clear boards: The tournament returned to St. Paul, and the Civic Center, in 1976 after being played at Met Center in Bloomington starting in 1969. The building, which sits on the same spot as Xcel Energy Center occupies today, featured one of the most unique looks of any hockey arena in the country because it had clear boards. Research has revealed that was the case because the front row seats were set back far enough that it wouldn’t have been possible to lean forward and see the puck. But when you turned on the television and saw those clear boards, you knew you were watching the state tournament. 

Photo courtesy of Vintage Minnesota Hockey

— Standing in line: I don’t recall ever being able to buy tickets in advance, so that meant being willing to stand in a long line in the Civic Center lobby and hope you could get to the window before the remaining tickets were gone. I recall the floor on which you stood was sloped and that the easiest way to get to the line was to come through the underground entrance that was attached to the parking ramp across the street. That ramp still exists — you know the one with levels that are listed as 3 1/2, 4 1/2 and so on — but the underground portion (which I think might have been off level 3 1/2) is long gone. The standing in line portion, of course, could be avoided if you found a ticket scalper willing to make a fair deal. The more teams that were eliminated, the better your chances of getting a ticket cheap.

— The garage door: One of the magical moments before each session was the sound of the mammoth garage door in the Civic Center lobby rolling upward. There was a buzz of excitement as a dash was made toward the likely overwhelmed ticket takers.

Burnsville takes the ice in a 1983 tournament game. (Photo courtesy of Vintage Minnesota Hockey)

— An interesting style choice: The 1980s had some questionable style choices and hockey wasn’t exempt. There were plenty of high school teams that switched to long hockey pants known as Cooperalls. It didn’t last but teams from Burnsville to Hill-Murray wore them — the Flyers and Whalers of the NHL also used them in the early 1980s — and, just like the clear boards, a photo of the odd-looking equipment brings a smile to many of our faces. At the least, it causes a chuckle.

Willard Ikola (Photo courtesy of Vintage Minnesota Hockey)

— That houndstooth hat: Growing up in Minnetonka, there was no opponent who was despised as much as the Edina Hornets but that was because they were so good. The Hornets made six appearances in the tournament from 1982 to 1989 and won it in ’82, ’84 and ’88. Standing behind the bench for each championship was legendary coach Willard Ikola, who always wore his houndstooth hat. Ikola was to high school hockey what Bud Grant was to the Vikings. The man commanded respect the moment he walked into the arena.

— Meanwhile in Bloomington: While getting to the Civic Center was the important thing, the Section finals also had plenty of buzz. Played before large crowds at the Met Center, the Saturday afternoon Section 5 and 6 finals (as I recall), served as a doubleheader before the North Stars usually played at home that night. The day of the State Tournament championship game, the North Stars also often played a matinee at the Met. 

— The voice of the tournament: You didn’t think I was going to forget about the man who has been seen as Mr. Hockey in Minnesota for many decades did you? Nanne began working on the state tournament coverage in 1964 at the age of 22, and despite considering giving up the role for many years now, we’re fortunate he hasn’t. Nanne’s voice might be more associated with the high school hockey tournament than anything else. It’s the same way Al Shaver’s voice made those from my generation instantly think of the North Stars. The impressive thing was when WCCO-TV got the rights in the 1980s, they paired Nanne with a young play-by-play talent by the name of Chris Cuthbert. Cuthbert, now 64, has been one of the most recognizable NHL voices in Canada for years.

The 1985 WCCO-TV state tournament broadcast team: (Front row from L to R) Lou Nanne, Ralph John Fritz, Mark Rosen and Herb Brooks. (Back row) Doug Woog, Steve Doyle, Tom Hanneman, Tony Parker, Paul Braun and Chris Cuthbert 

The post One-Class Wonder appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

(Image courtesy of Vintage Minnesota Hockey)

The memories remain vivid to all those who have ever played hockey outdoors, but Ikola points out that being able to escape the cold and play in one of the state’s first indoor hockey arenas was a huge influence. “It was a tremendous advantage to be able to play indoors,” Ikola said. “I don’t remember ever losing a game at the Hip.”

Ikola grew up in Eveleth in the 1940s, and even today he looks back fondly of being a kid, playing in the Eveleth Hippodrome. It has endured through decades of historic teams and memorable games.

There are a lot of good reasons why hockey history books read a lot like “Eveleth, and Everybody Else.” A small but wealthy mining town on the Iron Range, Eveleth had iron ore mines right within the city limits, luring workers from all over the country, and world, for the good-paying jobs in the open-pit mines. If some of them were invited because they were good hockey players, or had sons who were, so much the better to bolster the area’s semi-pro teams to entertain the miners in post-World War II Eveleth.

But the biggest reason for Eveleth’s early hockey success was that solid, substantial building known as “The Hip,” a brick fortress that is the Eveleth Hippodrome, built just a block down the hill from the bars and businesses of downtown Eveleth. It opened its doors for the city’s skaters and hockey players exactly 100 years ago — Jan. 1, 1922 — and links Eveleth’s rich hockey history from what is an entirely different world in January of 2022.

“The Hip was just down the street from the high school, and I lived about three blocks up the hill,” Ikola recalled. “Every elementary school had a real nice outdoor rink. But when we had the chance to play at the Hip, almost everybody else was playing their games outdoors.”

Championship banners fill the rafters of the Eveleth Hippodrome. (Image courtesy of Vintage Minnesota Hockey)

If you doubt that an indoor rink could have that much influence on a high school program, consider that the first Minnesota state high school hockey tournament was in 1945, and Eveleth earned the right to represent Region 7 in all of the first 12 years of the tournament. Eveleth High School won the first tournament, in 1945, with an 11-0 record, climaxed by a 4-3 championship game victory over Thief River Falls at the St. Paul Auditorium.  Eveleth took third place in the second tournament, in 1946, and two years later the Golden Bears won the first of four consecutive undefeated state championships — in 1948, ’49, ’50, and ’51. Advancing to play in the first 12 state tournaments, winning five of the first seven — that’s domination.

After that, other towns, communities and suburbs started building arenas and striving to catch up to the standard that Eveleth set in those first dozen state tournaments.

Those years also were a magical time for Willard Ikola to come along as a goaltender, too, because while John Mariucci had gone from Eveleth to the University of Minnesota and on to the Chicago Blackhawks, Eveleth was turning out a stream of legendary goaltenders. Frankie Brimsek, Mike Karakas and Sam LoPresti all made it from Eveleth to the NHL at about the same time. Imagine only six teams in the NHL, and three of them — half the league — had goaltenders from Eveleth.

“Frankie Brimsek was known as ‘Mr. Zero’ and I idolized him. I had a big picture of him in my room,” Ikola said. “He and Karakas played against each other, and Sam LoPresti joined Mariucci with the Blackhawks, so they were all in the NHL at the same time.”

Maybe as important to Ike was that his older brother, Roy, also played ahead of him.

“My brother Roy was a goalie too and he played on the 1945 Eveleth team that won the first state tournament,” Ikola said. “He later played goalie at Colorado College for the team that won the first NCAA tournament.”

For Ike, an older brother who was a goaltender also meant access to his big brother’s hand-me-down goalie equipment.

“I played for the Jackson Street Wildcats,” Ike said. “Every neighborhood had an outdoor rink and a youth team. There were no coaches, we didn’t have jerseys, and there weren’t many hockey gloves. But every Saturday morning, they let the youth teams play in the Hip. It was colder than hell, and natural ice, of course, but the lobby was warm.

(Image courtesy of Vintage Minnesota Hockey)

“When we were playing Saturday at the Hip, we’d look up and see a guy sitting up in the corner. It was Cliff Thompson, who had come to town to be a phy-ed teacher, and to coach baseball. He ended up coaching the hockey team, too, in boots. When we saw him, somebody would say, ‘Coach is here,’ and everybody picked up the pace, the passes were all tape-to-tape. We all wanted to make a good impression.”

Ikola also was blessed with exceptional teammates during his high school years. John Matchefts was a year older, and the legendary John Mayasich was a year younger. And after the long string of great goaltenders, Ike got another break when Ron Drobnik, who played with Ike’s older brother on the team that won the first state tournament, was followed by followed a gap down to Ike, who was an eighth-grader.

“Cliff Thompson asked me if I’d practice with the team,” said Ikola. “It helped me a lot to get to play with and against older players. I did that on those Saturday mornings at the Hip too. I had the goalie equipment, so if I got into the rink, I could play against the older guys. I’d bring a sandwich and play from morning until dark.”

Ikola also remembers focusing a little extra in practices and warm-ups to not allow his teammates to score on him. “I always thought that since we had a lot of one-sided games, I might not have many important saves, so it might impress somebody if I could keep Matchefts and Mayasich from scoring on me,” he said.

The likes of state tournament and Gopher record-holder John Mayasich, and former Michigan standout John Matchefts, highlighted those Eveleth teams in the early state tournament years, right up through the late Mark Pavelich, who was an All-America at UMD and a star for the 1980 Miracle on Ice Team USA that won the gold medal at the Lake Placid Olympics, plus Doug Palazarri, who became an /All-America at Colorado College and later was an executive at USA Hockey and the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame. Others included Wally Grant, Pat Finnegan, and brothers Dave and Gus Hendrickson, who went off to play for Amo Bessone at Michigan State before retiring to coach high school hockey on the Range. Craig Homola was captain at Vermont before coming home to coach the Golden Bears.

Then there was the unending string of exceptional goaltenders, including Pete LoPresti, son of Sam, who went on to star at Denver University and then played several years with the home state Minnesota North Stars.

They all went their separate ways, but they all had one thing in common — playing their most formative years at the Hip, which became the citadel for hockey in the state, and the entire country. It stands as solid and secure as ever, just down the hill a block from what used to be Mitch’s Bar, and Tuna’s, where the most intense fans might run up between periods for a couple beers and to analyze if the Golden Bears coach was doing OK, before returning to the Hip.

(Image courtesy of Vintage Minnesota Hockey)

In most arenas, the boards are fastened at the bottom so when somebody gets checked into them, the boards can flex up to a foot or so to absorb the impact. At the Hippodrome, those boards were sunk into concrete and were as solid as running into the  brick wall itself. The huge photos reproduced on the walls of the lobby are reminiscent of the classic old facilities like the Montreal Forum and Maple Leaf Gardens, but the biggest difference is that the Montreal Canadiens and Toronto Maple Leafs have moved into flashy new arenas. The Hippodrome stands alone, still in use, although the Eveleth and Virginia schools and athletic programs have merged, along with the various smaller towns around, to form the Rock Ridge Wolverines. Quite a change for the kids from such storied rivals as Eveleth and Virginia, as time and enrollment numbers have changed with the times.

“Hibbing was about the only team we played in high school that had an indoor rink,” Ikola said. “We’d play Virginia, Grand Rapids, International Falls and other Range teams, and we’d go up to play Roseau and Warroad. None of them had arenas, so they liked to come to Eveleth and play at the Hip. Up at Roseau and Warroad, it was so cold the referees couldn’t use whistles because they’d freeze up, so they had little bells they’d ring for an offside or penalty.”

Ikola set the state tournament record for shutouts with five, recording one in 1947, two in 1949 and two in 1950, during those undefeated state title seasons.That showed a different kind of domination for Eveleth goalies, because Ike’s predecessor, Ron Drobnick, is assured of retaining the all-time tournament record he set in the first tournament, in 1945, of fewest saves in a period, none. And he did it twice in the same game, during which he set the record for fewest saves in a game, one.

(Image courtesy of Vintage Minnesota Hockey)

Years later, Ikola turned down a chance to play for John Mariucci at Minnesota because the Gophers didn’t offer scholarships and Ikola said his family couldn’t afford to send him there. Vic Heiliger became the new coach at Michigan and recruited Johnny Matchefts from Eveleth, which led to him also recruiting Ikola, who became a two-time All-America and won two championships for the Wolverines in 1952 and 1953 — the formative years of the NCAA tournament. Mariucci held no grudge, and put Ikola on the 1956 U.S. team he coached at the Winter Olympics in Cortina, Italy, and later helped Ikola get the coaching job at Edina.

But after all his travels led Ikola back to coach at Edina, he never forgot his Iron Range roots.

“I always loved to take my Edina teams back up there to play,” Ikola said. “We didn’t have any Lake Conference games over Christmas vacation, so I’d take the team, and the JV, and the Bantams and Peewees and we’d all go up there and play.”

Maybe being exposed to games in the Hip, where they could see how important hockey was to the Eveleth kids, wore off in a positive direction for the Edina Hornets, too.

Laurie Ikola, Willard’s wife since the two were students at the University of Michigan, would go on those trips, of course, and she remembered after the game going to visit Ike’s mother at the home where he grew up. “We won the game, and we were so excited,” Laurie said. “Ike’s mom said, ‘Did you see, after the game, when Pastor Rohaniemi went down and shook Willard’s hand, right in front of everybody?’ She thought that was more important than the game.”

Maybe the Rock Ridge Wolverines will work their way up to deserving a similar place in hockey history. But as legends go, nothing but possibly the Forum and Maple Leaf Gardens can approach the stature of the Eveleth Hippodrome.

The post The Magically Hipp appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

The St. Paul Rangers were one of five founding members of the Central Professional Hockey League (CPHL) back in 1963 and played three seasons at the St. Paul Auditorium as a minor league affiliate of the NHL’s New York Rangers.

Among those who laced up for the Rangers were Hall-of-Fame defenseman Doug Harvey, future St. Louis Blues great Bob Plager and Bob Woytowich, who skated with the Minnesota North Stars in the team’s inaugural season.

None of them contributed to the Rangers’ most successful season of 1964-65 when coach Fred Shero, who a decade later would lead Philadelphia’s “Broad Street Bullies” to back-to-back Stanley Cups, guided St. Paul to the CPHL’s Adams Cup championship.

One of those who hoisted the cup that night was a 5-foot-10, 180-pound forward from Flin Flon, Manitoba whose 46 assists and 70 points were career highs for the journeyman in the midst of a 16-year pro career with 12 different teams that ended in 1973 with the Minnesota Fighting Saints.

(Photo courtesy of Michigan Photography)

His name is Mel Pearson but most people are more familiar with his son, also named Mel, the head coach of the University of Michigan Wolverines, one of this weekend’s participants in the Frozen Four in St. Paul. The site is an all too familiar one to Pearson.

“It’s interesting we’re sort of heading right back to where it all started for me down at the same location as the old St. Paul Auditorium and then my dad played in the original Civic Center there,” Pearson said.

The Wolverines are back in St. Paul for the the first time since 2011, the last time the Frozen Four was played at Xcel Energy Center. Pearson was an assistant under Red Berenson seven years ago when Michigan reached the title game before falling to Minnesota Duluth 3-2 in overtime.

That ended Pearson’s 23-year run helping Berenson guide the Wolverines to a 667-243-71 record, 11 Frozen Fours, and two national championships.

He was lured away from Michigan by a head coaching offer from his alma mater, Michigan Tech, the school he helped lead to its last Frozen Four appearance as a senior in 1981 in Duluth.  After compiling a 118-92-2 record in six seasons in Houghton, Pearson landed his dream job nearly a year ago when he replaced the retiring Berenson at Michigan.

Feeling Minnesota

Pearson was just five-years-old when his father played his lone season with the Rangers but, after a few more stops in a vagabond hockey career, the Pearson family returned to Minnesota in 1972 when Mel Sr. latched on with the Fighting Saints.

The Pearsons, which also included Mel’s mother, Ruby, and brother, Ted, settled in Edina where both boys played hockey in the city’s youth program. That’s when Pearson, a bantam at the time met teammate John Anderson, the man who now refers to Pearson as, “a brother from another mother.”

Anderson and Pearson went on to become teammates at Edina-East High School under legendary coach Willard Ikola, who led Edina teams to eight state championships and 616 wins in 33 seasons. 

Pearson’s father scored eight goals and 20 points for the Fighting Saints in 1972-73 but when he was not brought back the following season he opted to hang up his skates. That’s when the family made the calculated, but difficult decision to move back home to Flin Flon one man short.

“Mel’s mom and dad wanted him to have an opportunity to potentially earn a scholarship with his hockey and, more importantly, get a good education; that was their primary concern,” Anderson said. “And he was living in Edina and Edina wasn’t all bad.”

The Pearsons left Mel behind, setting him up with a billet family kitty-corner across the street from the Anderson household. However, it quickly became obvious that the family, with its much younger children, and Pearson were not a good fit.

“I asked my parents if it would be alright to take Mel in,” Anderson said. “They thought about it for about 10 seconds and said, ‘Sure.’”

Pearson was more than eager to please his new host family and immediately took one for the team.

(Photo courtesy of Michigan Photography)

“The first night he came to our house my mom made split-pea soup and he absolutely hates split-pea soup,” Anderson said. “He sat there and ate it with a smile on his face. ‘Oh Mrs. Anderson, I just love this soup.’”

The two shared a room and soon went from good friends to best friends despite Anderson’s incessant snoring drawing Pearson’s bruise-inducing retaliation.

“In the middle of the night he’d throw a shoe at me, or something like that,” Anderson said. “I’d have to short-sheet his bed or get back at him in some fashion and let him know that wasn’t acceptable.”

Anderson said Pearson spent eight years living with his family, three in high school, four more while he went to Michigan Tech and another year while working as a sales rep for a Twin Cities sporting goods company after graduation.

“He went back to Flin Flon in the summers to be with his parents,” Anderson said. “He’d come back to our house at Christmas time and Thanksgiving because it was too far to go back to Flin Flon. He was part of our family and still is part of our family.”

The feeling is mutual, according to Pearson.

“We’re so close that he actually officiated my daughter’s wedding a couple years ago,” Pearson said. “That’s how tight we are.”

Pearson’s current family’s origins can be traced to Edina as well where he met Susie, who would eventually become his wife. Like Mel, Susie was the new kid on the block, so to speak, having moved to Edina from Atlanta due to her father’s job at 3M.

The couple started dating in high school and maintained a long-distance relationship as Susie went to the University of Minnesota while Pearson was at Tech. They are approaching their 36th anniversary and boast three children, Kim, Sarah and Paul, and one grandchild, Sarah’s son Finnely.

“She’s the one that grounds me,” Pearson said of Susie. “When I get off on these tangents or something or get to wound up about the hockey, she’s the one who reels me back in. You need that, you need to strike some balance in your life. Other than being my biggest supporter, she’s also the one who keeps me in line.”

After Mel graduated from Edina, his parents sent his brother Ted to live with another Edina family and pursue the same dream. He won back-to-back Minnesota state titles with Ikola and Edina-East in 1978 and 1979 before going on to play at Wisconsin where he won national championships in 1981 and 1983 under Bob Johnson and Jeff Sauer, respectively.

“Neither one of my parents went to college and I think they saw the opportunity that presented itself and I was fortunate to have developed as a player in Minnesota and went on to play at Michigan Tech. The foresight was invaluable then.”

To this day, Anderson is amazed by the sacrifices the entire Pearson family made in pursuit of Mel and Ted’s academic and athletic goals.

“He didn’t live at our house because his parents weren’t good people,” Anderson said. “He lived at our house because his parents felt that was the best thing for him. Being a parent myself, I can’t even imagine what they gave up and how they felt about it.

“It’s a huge credit to them, it was a huge blessing to our family and I think we’re all a little bit better because of it.”

Michigan Mentors

The 1977 Edina-East Hornets (Courtesy of Carroll Goalie School)

The friends, teammates and roommates played in a state tournament together as seniors in 1977 under Ikola, finishing runner-up to Rochester-John Marshall.

Pearson recalls admiring Ikola for the way he ran his teams with discipline and accountability, even when he was the one held accountable.

“I remember one day, just as we got on the ice and were getting warmed up, I shot a puck up into the stands on purpose and Willard told me to go get the puck,” Pearson said. “I looked at him and I said, ‘I’ve got my skates on.’ He said, ‘You get up there and you go get that puck.’ I had to get off the ice in my skates and crawl around get the puck. My teammates got a good chuckle out of that and, needless to say, I never flipped another puck in the stands on purpose.”

Ikola, an All-American goaltender at Michigan (1952-54), was just the first former Wolverine to mentor him.

“I was very fortunate to end up being able to play for a guy like Willard Ikola,” Pearson said. “Really, all thoughout my career I’ve ended up in spots where I’m coached by a former Michigan player and it all started with Ike.”

His good fortune continued in college with the opportunity to play for another former Michigan goalie, John MacInnes (1946-50), who led Michigan Tech to a 555-295-39 record and three national titles in 26 seasons coaching the Huskies.

“You look at them, I mean Willard’s arguably the best coach in Minnesota high school hockey history,” Pearson said. “John McInnes, when I was playing for him, set the record for most all-time wins in college hockey and won national championships at Michigan Tech. And then Red is one of the, I think, top five all-time in college hockey and he got a late start in college and won national championships. So they’re all not only great men and teachers of life but winners.

“They were winners.”

Pearson says the trio shares many qualities but one in particular stands out as the one he most tries to emulate.

“The way they treated people, they way they treated their players,” Pearson said. “They’ve got a couple of other things in common but the one thing that’s really stuck with me is how they treated their players, with class and dignity and just professionalism. They’re all father figures.”

His childhood friend sees the same qualities in Pearson

“Mel will be a total asset to that Michigan hockey program for as long as he’s there because he’s got the kids’ interests at heart and he always will,” Anderson said. “He’ll never put himself first before the team and that’s why he’ll be successful wherever he goes.”

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Legendary player, coach Willard Ikola on tending goal for Eveleth

Editor’s note: The following is an excerpt from the book IKE:  Minnesota Hockey Icon by Jim Hoey, author of  the highly-acclaimed state boys high school hockey tournament book, Puck Heaven. The 268-page book is a first-person account of Willard Ikola’s long and distinguished career as both a player and coach. Ikola’s alma mater, now the Eveleth-Gilbert Golden Bears, faces Duluth Denfeld outdoors on Feb. 6 at Duluth’s Bayfront Park as part of the annual Hockey Day Minnesota event.

One thing I recognized early was the tradition of outstanding Eveleth goaltenders.  At the Hippodrome, I saw the big photo of Oscar Almquist, who had been an All-American at St. Mary’s in Winona and  later became one of the great high school coaches at Roseau.  At the other end of the rink was a big picture of Mike Karakas, when he was playing for the Chicago Blackhawks.  Then there were the photos of Frankie Brimsek, who was a star for the Boston Bruins and one of the best players in the NHL and Sam LoPresti, who played for the Blackhawks.  We were all aware that both Karakas and Brimsek has been NHL Rookies of the Year.  Can you imagine that Eveleth High School had a ten-year period when their starting goalies were Karakas, Brimsek, and LoPresti from 1926-1935?

Willard Ikola (Photo courtesy of Ikola Archives – VintageMinnesotaHockey.com)

Goaltending in my era was so different. It was just about playing the angles.  We never did the V-drop, we had never even heard of it.  If you were a good skater, you could move up and back and keep the best angle.  Despite what a lot of people used to think, you wanted to have one of your better skaters in net because you had to be so good on your edges.  It was weird but a lot of kids around my age played goalie in their boots so I had a big advantage over them.  Once I started playing a lot, the other kids told me I was good and my confidence was strong.

As much as we all liked hockey, we played just about every sport imaginable in our neighborhood.  We had a close-knit group of boys who did everything together and it seemed like just about everybody participated, no matter what their skill level was.  Without all the technology of today and in the midst of a Depression, we were fortunate to just have each other to hang around with and do active things all the time.

Basically, we lived outside with our buddies. Nobody every seemed to be inside – there was radio but no television and let’s face it, there just wasn’t a lot of room in our homes, either.  Our parents gave us a lot of freedom.  We never missed any meals and we had to be home by a certain hour but we were in the safety of other kids and our parents didn’t worry about us.  We not only played at the rinks and playgrounds but on the streets and in the alleys.

Hockey was the favorite sport of most of us but we played a ton of outside basketball on rims attached to garages, playing 21 and four-horses.  We played baseball and football at various places around town.  We just went from activity to the other, improvising as we went.  Bocce ball and horseshoes; you name it, we played it.  It was competitive but not mean-spirited and this was how we climbed the social ladder. You name it and we played it –  croquet, softball, golf, tetherball and many others.

Ikola (R) with coach Cliff Thompson, Johnny Matchefts and John Peterson. The Pioneer Press caption misidentifies Ikola as Walt Ikola. (Photo courtesy of Ikola Archives – VintageMinnesotaHockey.com)

Eveleth had a good recreation department and one summer, they employed Cliff Thompson, the high school and junior college hockey coach, up at the ballpark. We grew to learn that he was a fantastic baseball coach but as hockey players, when we found out he was going to be up there, we just flocked to the place.  Myself and the others idolized the guy.  On Saturday morning at the Hippodrome, when we would see him up in the stands watching, let me tell you the play would pick up because we wanted to impress him and play for him some day.  Each week someone would whisper, “Hey, Coach Thompson is here” and things really got rolling.  There was no question that we played harder when he was there and he showed up every week. We wondered if he was picking his team for five or six years down the road.

While we had our disagreements when we played our sports and games, we settled our own problems and things would always get back to normal.  I guess that’s how we learned how to manage things.  It was great for teaching us creativity and how to be leaders.  As a kid, everybody seemed to have a nickname and mine wasn’t real original.   It was simply… “IKE”.

With my brother Roy playing at Colorado College, I was already thinking about going to college and playing at that level and becoming a physical education instructor and coach.  It wasn’t a tough decision when I was offered the chance to play with Coach Thompson’s club.  I figured I would have a heckuva better chance getting a hockey scholarship than a band scholarship.

Half of the title team from 1945 was back to defend the state title in 1945-46; guys like Ronnie Martinson, Andy Gambucci, Bice Ventrucci and Milan Begich.  There were only 11 players on the first state title team and we had just 10 players and myself on that year’s squad.  At 5’4″ and 100 pounds, I was not an imposing figure in the net as a 13-year-old and players could shoot over my shoulder and hit the corner.  However, I wasn’t intimidated by the older players because I had played shinny with them for years and knew them well. Plus, they were good about not firing the puck at my head.

As for practices, in those days, it consisted almost entirely of scrimmaging. There was very little drill work or concentration on fundamentals.  Coach Thompson, like most coaches of that era, was never on skates but on the bench with his boots on.  Actually, I never saw Cliff ever skate, not once!  Coach never talked to me about goaltending, not once in the five years I played for him.  I noticed that he would call the forwards or defensemen over for some short words of advice but it was almost always just scrimmaging.

Willard Ikola (center front) as an eighth grader on Eveleth’s 1945-46 team. Ikola did not accompany his teammates when they traveled to St.Paul for the state tournament as backup goalies were a luxury at the time. (Photo courtesy of Ikola Archives – VintageMinnesotaHockey.com)

Ronnie Drobnick, of course, was the senior goalie and was expected to play all the games.  He never did give me any special treatment or tutoring, either, but I just watched what he did and tried to emulate him and all the other great goalies I had seen play in Eveleth.  Ronnie got yellow jaundice and was out for about three weeks in the middle of the season and I was thrust in the goal as an 8th-grader.  In those four games, we won three games with ease and tied Roseau 3-3.  Ronnie came back to finish the season and I didn’t even get to go with the team to the state tournament, but it really didn’t bother me.  Most teams didn’t have a backup goalie in those days.  I didn’t even earn a letter for that year.

Dialed to WEVE, our local radio station, I listened to us compete in the state tournament.  We lost to Rochester 2-1 in the semifinals and then beat St. Paul Johnson to take third.  Ron Martinson later told me when we were at Michigan that some of the guys weren’t following training rules and he didn’t think they were serious enough.

My freshman year, we beat Hibbing 5-3 in the region finals to make it to the 1947 tourney.  It was just the second time I had ever been to the Twin Cities.  To see the big buildings and all the hotels and restaurants, it was an eye-full. The largest building in Eveleth was the Park Hotel and that was three stories. We spent a lot of time just going up and down the elevators at the St. Paul Hotel, which was real close to the St. Paul Auditorium rink.  At that time, they had elevator operators and we drove them crazy with our requests.  One hotel even had an escalator and we would be running up the down escalator and down the up escalator like a bunch of fools. We worried more about how to order off a menu than we did playing the games.  Hockey was in our comfort zone.  One funny thing that happened was a photographer took a picture of me, all 100 pounds, in a dresser drawer in our hotel room with a caption that read…”WEE WILLARD” and it was in the papers the next day.

Willard Ikola as an Eveleth Golden Bear. (Photo courtesy of Ikola Archives – VintageMinnesotaHockey.com)

The St. Paul Auditorium had artificial ice and it was the first time I had played on that surface.  The ice surface was very dark and it was difficult to see the puck.  There were two locker rooms but otherwise, they just had a makeshift set-up with curtains for the teams that were dressing for the next game.  It was pretty “Mickey Mouse”, really.  With smoking permitted in the lobbies and corridors, there was a constant cloud of smoke that permeated the rink, too.

We had just 11 players on that entire 1947 team and our juniors were the key to our club.   We easily downed Willmar 6-0 in my first game at state and my brother Earl scored a goal and had an assist in that game. Next up was Roseau, the pre-tournament favorite, in the semis.  Roseau was led by Rube Bjorkman and they had a good team and had beaten us at Eveleth during the season.  Bjorkman wore those big goggles but he was an outstanding player and, of course, would go on to star with the Gophers and later the U.S. Nationals and Olympic teams.  He also coached at Greenway and then at R.P.I. and North Dakota.

Sure enough, Bjorkman beat me three times to lead the Rams to a 4-1 win. We played pretty well but they were just too much. In the finals, Roseau got upset by St. Paul Johnson.  Prior to the title game, we played Minneapolis West in the third-place game.  John Matchefts, one of my best buddies, scored twice but a guy named Kevin Farley notched a hat trick and we lost 5-3.  It would be the last time Eveleth High School would lose a game until the 1952 season.  Eventually, the winning streak would reach 78 games. That record will likely never be broken, though International Falls in the 1960’s and Bloomington Jefferson in the 1990’s both took a crack at it.

There is much more about Ikola’s life and career where that came from. To learn more about the book and order your copy, click on the cover image below!

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