Marshall v Xavier, January 26, 1996

WMUL's broadcast of Marshall club hockey from the Huntington Civic Arena... playback is a little screwy, it got slower as the tape progressed and I was never able to remedy that. Still, this is a nice little nugget to chew on...

Marshall's back in the game

The Marshall University hockey club has been re-re-launched! Bill Sawyers informed me the other day there was an intro meeting at South Charleston with 20 prospects. Naturally they're hoping for the ice situation to be resolved at Big Sandy Superstore Arena so they can actually play in Huntington, but for now South Charleston appears to be a more than adequate venue (so long as gas stays under $5 a gallon anyway!).

Molly the Perpetually Awesome tipped me off to a Parthenon article on the club. Some choice quotes:

"The rink in South Charleston is a masterpiece that is comparable to most of the top rinks throughout the country," said [JD] Rappold, who has both worked and played at the rink. "Everything is in place to set up shop, we just need numbers."

Rappold, a senior from Huntington, spent some of his undergrad at Maryland-Baltimore County with their team. Also cited in the article was freshman Evan Hazelett, who hinted at future opponents...

We have two games semi-scheduled with some teams up north[...]

Of course there's a LOT of teams north of Huntington--who Marshall plays would probably depend on what ACHA division the Ice Herd end up in. WVU is a given I figure--besides the obvious rivalry there, they field both D-I and D-II teams...

Resting

Things are dormant at the moment. Nothing's going on with the arena for now--they have to solicit bids first--and work will not begin until June. I am only able to sporadically look at NewspaperArchive, so the historical end of things has really taken a back seat to the here-and-now, I'm afraid.

Two biggest pieces of news here:

--A challenger appears: the Northern Professional Hockey League, which is looking to do a SIGNIFICANTLY better job than the AAHL and its ilk. The league will be instituting strict standards on the arenas they play in (no rec rinks, 1500+ seats, to start with) and background checks on ownership groups (if you ain't got no money, take yo' broke @#$ home), and will not be starting play with fewer than 6 teams. Shooting for a 2011-12 launch, but again, unless they have six solid teams, they're willing to push it back a year. Good to see decisions being made for the sake of collective stability.

--Marshall thinks enough of hockey that they've licensed pucks! I've been told they're available at the Barboursville Target, but there's a link up there in case you don't feel like leaving the house (weather being as it is, can't say I blame ya).

--Oh, and tomorrow's the Backyard Brawl on Ice, WVU vs. Pitt @ South Charleston. Both teams are pretty much even--Mounties are 11-11-1, Panthers are 9-9-1, and WVU won their earlier meeting on the road 5-4.

An aside or two

Anyone out there in the Tri-State blogging as well, a friend of mine named Dan Koksal is trying to set up a local bloggers' network. His email is koksal@marshall.edu if anyone out there's interested in joining up!

Also, I've decided that, as much as I enjoy the hell out of digging up new finds in the Cabell County Library's H-D archive, I should keep one foot in the present. To that end, how bout them Jackets? :^D

(also, JEEBUS those are pricey. However, Marshall students out there, the Rush CBJ program is still going--$15 upper level and $25 lower level. VERY LIMITED, only available on gameday, but I called a while back and they WILL accept college IDs other than OSU...)