Great legacies can have small beginnings. This includes varsity hockey at the University of North Dakota.
On this date in 1908, the University of North Dakota's student newspaper, The Student, asked, “How would you like to have at your disposal, morning, noon, and night, an open-air rink, 200 by 150 feet, in good condition, where you could play hockey or just have a good time?”
The Student responded, “This is very possible if every lover of skating will get out and work to organize a skating club.”
The newspaper praised skating as “the most healthful, invigorating exercise there is, and when it has the advantage of being participated in on an open-air rink, it is doubly healthful and pleasant.”
It described constructing a skating rink as “a glorious dream, which owes its origin to Dr. Stewart.” At the time, Dr. George Walter Stewart was the head of UND's physics department, from 1903 to 1909. His dream was to “erect a permanent rink costing about five thousand dollars, large enough to contain a hockey rink, a skating rink, a curling rink, and two large dressing rooms.”
The goal was to eventually convince the North Dakota State Legislature to fund an ice rink at UND, but that did not happen. The next year, Dr. Stewart would accept a position at the University of Iowa and become a celebrated professor and founding chair of its physics department.
Although, Dr. Stewart’s vision wasn’t fully accepted in 1909, by the 1930s, intramural hockey flourished at the University of North Dakota. In 1931, The Dakota Student published an editorial asking UND's administration to spare hockey from massive budget cuts due to the Great Depression. In 1936, a new Winter Sports Building was constructed with federal funding from the New Deal's Works Progress Administration. This building, affectionately known as “The Old Barn,” would support varsity hockey in future decades.
By the time Dr. Stewart retired as a physics professor in 1946 at the University of Iowa, his dream of an ice rink and a hockey team at the University of North Dakota, which he had planted decades earlier, was about to come true.
Dakota Datebook by Andrew Alexis Varvel
References:
- “THE SKATING RINK IS NOW ASSURED: Through the Initiative of Dr. Stewart, Faculty Manager of Athletics, the Plan for the New Rink Is Being Vigorously Pushed”; The Student (Grand Forks); 11 November 1908; page 1, columns 3-4; page 8, column 2.
- “SAVE THE SPORT” (editorial), Dakota Student (Grand Forks), 20 November 1931, page 2, column 1.
- Lee Bohnet, “Athletes” in “A Century on the Northern Plains: The University of North Dakota at 100” (Grand Forks: Office of the President, University of North Dakota, 1983), page 98.
- Louis Geiger, “University of the Northern Plains: A History of the University of North Dakota, 1883-1958” (Grand Forks: The University of North Dakota Press, 1958), pages 414-415.
- Daniel R. Rice, “The Clifford Years: The University of North Dakota, 1971-1992” (Grand Forks: University of North Dakota, April 1992), page 21.
- “FACULTY AND INSTRUCTORS” in “THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH DAKOTA NINETEENTH ANNUAL CATALOGUE for 1902-1903” (Grand Forks: University of North Dakota, 1903)
- “FACULTY AND INSTRUCTORS” in “The University Bulletin: Catalogue 1903-'04” (University: The State University and School of Mines of North Dakota, July 1904)
- “FACULTY AND INSTRUCTORS” in “The University Bulletin: Annual Catalogue for 1904-'5” (University: The State University and School of Mines of North Dakota, July 1905)
- “FACULTY AND INSTRUCTORS” in “The University Bulletin: Annual Catalogue for 1905-6” (University: The State University and School of Mines of North Dakota, April 1906)
- “FACULTY AND INSTRUCTORS” in “The University Bulletin: Annual Catalogue for 1906-7” (University: The State University and School of Mines of North Dakota, April 1907)
- “FACULTY AND INSTRUCTORS” in “The University Bulletin: Annual Catalogue for 1907-8” (University: The State University and School of Mines of North Dakota, April 1908)
- “FACULTY AND INSTRUCTORS” in “The University Bulletin: Annual Catalogue for 1908-9” (University: The State University and School of Mines of North Dakota, March 1909)
