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I was asked by someone to give examples to illustrate how big high school hockey is in Minnesota to people not from Minnesota.

Pretend you are making a movie in which the tournament is a big part and need to illustrate how big it is with a few short clips.

I thought of the State Tournament "Season Passes" that have people sitting in their same seats year after year. I also thought of the television ratings and seven figure broadcast deals.

Does anyone have specific examples of the above, with numbers if possible?

The anecdotes don't necessarily need to be contemporary.

For example, my favorite high school hockey memories are of the sectional final saturdays at the Met Center. They would schedule 4 or 5 games in a row there and the place would be jammed to the gills for the day. There were often too many people in the 15,000+ seat arena and they had to wait for one person to leave before allowing each additional person to enter.

We would stay there all day and watch all of the games. To me, the emotions of the teams in those sectional finals were at least as high as those in the state tournament itself. One team celebrating their trip to state, the other having played their last game as a team.

I would agree that the sectional final games are almost better, and more gut-wrenching than the state tournament itself.

Mitch, did you get the same email I did from the guy in California doing a documentary on hockey? He wanted to talk to me about the Class A/Class AA thing

Lee

It's so big it has its own video games

wolfpack33 wrote:It's so big it has its own video games

It has more action, more energy, more heart-racing moments than a Tommy Lee-Pam Anderson documentary...

Goldfishdude wrote:

wolfpack33 wrote:It's so big it has its own video games

It has more action, more energy, more heart-racing moments than a Tommy Lee-Pam Anderson documentary...

It's up there, but.............

Howard Cosell doing color commentary on the TV broadcast in the late 70's. He was as big a name in sports as there was.

Kids all over the state given the days off to attend or simply watch at home. These are "holidays" for scores of people.

There is a waiting list for tickets.

HS Fan 4 Life wrote:Howard Cosell doing color commentary on the TV broadcast in the late 70's. He was as big a name in sports as there was.

Kids all over the state given the days off to attend or simply watch at home. These are "holidays" for scores of people.

There is a waiting list for tickets.

I forgot about Howard... good call...

Hockey is a lifestyle in Minnesota, less a sport.

MrBoDangles wrote:

Goldfishdude wrote:

wolfpack33 wrote:It's so big it has its own video games

It has more action, more energy, more heart-racing moments than a Tommy Lee-Pam Anderson documentary...

It's up there, but.............

No pun intended

There are very easy ways to explain our tournament to someone from outside of MN;

-most attended high school tournament in the nation (bigger then Texas football and Indiana basketball)

-tickets are put into "wills" (just like Packer fans do with their season tickets)

-MN kids dream of winning the state tournament before dreaming of the Stanley Cup

-Herb Brooks put winning the state tournament above winning the gold medal in 1980 (the biggest sports story in US history)

Kids from MN will pass up spring break vacations in the Caribbean to go watch the hockey tournament.

The saga of a successful head coach's dismissal and struggle to be reinstated was front-page news for a year.

"Hill-Murray" was a trending topic on Twitter last year during their 4-OT classic against Minnetonka.

A picture of the lines at the ticket windows at the X would probably do, if one picture could actually do it justice. It might take a series of pictures.

If I had to describe the essence of Minnesota, or what it is to be a Minnesotan, in one phrase, I would say the hockey tournament. As someone who now spends most of his time out of the state, these few days just capture everything about it for me.

I'll probably think of more...

Now in my "near" mid 30's, attending section 1 and 3 finals at the Met Center on Friday night, usually Burnsville, A.V., Roch JM, then followed by the classic Hill and White Bear game.

State Tourney has been in our family way back to 58' which was the first year my Dad and Grandpa started getting season tickets to the tourney. My Dad who has not missed one yet since 58', seeing every single championship game and will continue again this week. This being the first year our 4 "season tickets" were officially transfered into my name.... unbelieavable tradition.

To me the best memories were sitting inside the Civic Center an hour before the start of a session, and just keeping my eyes glued on the tunnel where the players come running out of there locker rooms.... The anxiety and lack of patience of having to wait there was gut wrenching. Then seeing the great northern teams for the first time all year, Int'l Falls, Cloquet, Rapids, Roseau, Warroad and being awe struck.

Thanks Zamboni, I had forgotten about what Herbie had said.

Too bad Neal Broten never won a state title. I would bet that he would trade the Stanley Cup Ring, or the 1980 Gold Medal, or the NCAA title for having won it all in St Paul for Roseau with the friends he grew up with playing hockey.

wolfpack33 wrote:It's so big it has its own video games

That's what she said

Mitch Hawker wrote:Thanks Zamboni, I had forgotten about what Herbie had said.

Too bad Neal Broten never won a state title. I would bet that he would trade the Stanley Cup Ring, or the 1980 Gold Medal, or the NCAA title for having won it all in St Paul for Roseau with the friends he grew up with playing hockey.

Mitch...

For all the history this state has had and all the great teams and great players, just the Roseau story alone sums up the essance of Minnesota hockey, IMO.

I don't know the population of Roseau, but the fact that they had a HS line of Neal Broten, Aaron Broten and Butsy Erickson all play in the NHL, and throw in Paul Broten - yet the program continues to play with the big schools... and the fact that their youth association wears a different color, because you have to "earn wearing the green and white" is something special.

I never knew that Roseau uses different colored jerseys for youth hockey...earning the green and white, that's really cool.

It's like football down in texas. It's a passion.

Mitch Hawker wrote:Thanks Zamboni, I had forgotten about what Herbie had said.

Too bad Neal Broten never won a state title. I would bet that he would trade the Stanley Cup Ring, or the 1980 Gold Medal, or the NCAA title for having won it all in St Paul for Roseau with the friends he grew up with playing hockey.

actually, that would be a great question to ask him some day (too bad I didn't think of it when I met him when the USHHoF inducted the 1980 team.) Would he trade any (or all) of those things, to win the state tournament?

Sorry, no anecdotes, but Sports Illustrated has done a number of stories over the years on the State Tournament. Here are some links...

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/ ... /index.htm

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/ ... /index.htm

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/ ... /index.htm

I was down in texas for a while for military stuff and i caught a few playoff games there. They sold out about 10000 people arenas so not quite as big as minnesotas hockey playoffs.

MedleyWR wrote:Sorry, no anecdotes, but Sports Illustrated has done a number of stories over the years on the State Tournament. Here are some links...

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/ ... /index.htm

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/ ... /index.htm

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/ ... /index.htm

Visiting the in-laws in Arizona in the mid- to late-80s in late March. Turned on the TV late one night and a cable channel (might have been ESPN back when there was only one) was replaying the WCCO broadcast of the championship game from a few weeks earlier.

wbhockey02 wrote:

wolfpack33 wrote:It's so big it has its own video games

That's what she said

that was my exact thought while i was typing it.

Goldfishdude wrote:

wolfpack33 wrote:It's so big it has its own video games

It has more action, more energy, more heart-racing moments than a Tommy Lee-Pam Anderson documentary...

The hockey tournament is not as deep.

elliott70 wrote:

Goldfishdude wrote:

wolfpack33 wrote:It's so big it has its own video games

It has more action, more energy, more heart-racing moments than a Tommy Lee-Pam Anderson documentary...

The hockey tournament is not as deep.

Elliott comes out of nowhere to go upper shelf, very well done!!!