Iron Rangers drop gloves over U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame, but region needs a win, not just a fight

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It was a better than average year for hockey on the Iron Range. Hibbing-Chisholm made the Minnesota Boys Class A High School Hockey Tournament, falling short of the championship, but crushing the All Hockey Hair Team competition.

The iconic annual hockey hair video by Minnesota ad man John King named Hibbing’s Jace Kampsula as the top mop, lauding the whole Range squad for their salad.

“No one brought better hair to the tournament than Hibbing,” voiced King over footage of the heavily bleached and mulletted Mesabi Range squad. “If you’re wondering what it’s like to be backstage at a Poison concert, it looks like this.”

You have no idea the pride this statement brings to Iron Rangers like me. Three living generations of our people still listen to Poison.

But at the pinnacle of Ranger pride came the pain of betrayal. After the Zamboni made its final pass at the Xcel Energy Center, we learned of a Minnesota Wild proposal to move the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame Museum from its historic home in Eveleth to the X in St. Paul.

The news rocketed across social media, causing Iron Range hockey purists to shake their virtual sticks in anger. Local legislative leaders quickly spoke out against the move.

State Sen. Grant Hauschild, a Hermantown DFLer who represents part of the Range, introduced a resolution discouraging the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame from making the move. He submitted another bill that would prevent state bonding dollars from being spent on a relocation.

The bonding bill is a big part of the controversy. Sen. Karin Housley, a Stillwater Republican, serves as ranking minority member of the Senate capital investment committee and chairs the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame Museum board, which is now split on whether to consider the Wild offer to move the hall.

The Minnesota Wild and city of St. Paul are pushing for a $300 million expansion of the Xcel Energy Center, a portion of which could be funded by state bonding dollars.

Hauschild told me he has questions about the connection between state bonding for the X and relocating the hockey hall of fame.

“As we look at massive expansion at [the Xcel Energy Center], why aren’t we talking about part of that investment going into the Hockey Hall of Fame in its historic home?” Hauschild asked. “History is history. If you build it in a place people want to see, people will come seek it out.”

Housley addressed concerns about the proposal in a statement last week.

“We acknowledge how important the Eveleth community is to the sport,” wrote Housley, a self-described hockey mom. “Any potential move would need to honor that legacy and identify a project for Eveleth that would provide even greater benefits to the community.”

The reality is a tough pill to swallow. This idea stems as much from the museum’s struggles to stay solvent as it does anyone’s effort to “steal” it from the Range.

Minnesota hockey history started in the 19th century but exploded at Eveleth after hockey fever swept the state in the 1920s. Eveleth Junior College became the state’s first top ranked college team and won the national title in 1929. When the state high school tournament launched in 1945, Eveleth won five of the first seven titles.

Hockey and the Iron Range have been wedded in Minnesota culture ever since. In 1973, at the peak of Range population and high school hockey competitiveness, the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame opened in Eveleth.

The famous Hanson Brothers from the 1977 cult classic hockey comedy “Slap Shot” hail from the Range. In the movie, these bespectacled brawlers use their fists to turn a lackluster team into a big attraction. The fictional Hansons include two real brothers from nearby Virginia, today merged with Eveleth and Gilbert at the new Rock Ridge school.

The Hansons provide an apt metaphor for Range hockey in more recent years. We can fight with the best of them, but we don’t often win the big games.

Only 9,000 people visited the hockey museum in Eveleth last year. Those are rookie numbers, magnitudes less than any other major sport hall of fame. I’ve driven by the museum countless times my whole life, yet I’ve only visited once many years ago. It’s a nice place, but was dated even then. According to a museum board member, more people visit “The Big Stick,” a 110-foot, 5-ton hockey stick, in downtown Eveleth than they do the hall of fame out on the highway.

This isn’t a new problem. The museum closed in 2006, ceding its amateur hockey hall of fame duties to USA Hockey, which organizes our nation’s international hockey teams and player development. As part of that deal, the hall of fame building reopened as a museum run by a separate nonprofit.

Mitch Brunfelt, who once served as Eveleth city attorney and mayor of Mountain Iron, wrote a letter to concerned Range lawmakers asking for time and consideration.

“We are not at a point here where a decision is being made to move the Hockey Hall from Eveleth to St. Paul,” wrote Brunfelt. “Far from it. What we are seeking to do is to engage in a much more in-depth exploration and due diligence process to further develop the actual details of what this project and opportunity would entail.”

Brunfelt said even the museum’s executive director warns that the hall faces fundamental challenges that might require a whole new approach.

That’s something that Sen. Rob Farnsworth, a Hibbing Republican who represents Eveleth, is open to discussing.

“I will say that those people who want to move the hall, they make some good points,” said Farnsworth. “If we keep the hall, we need to find the money to truly turn it into a destination. We want it to stay in the area and to become an economic engine.”

Farnsworth authored a bipartisan bill to finance updates to the museum from the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund. Hauschild signed on as a co-author.

I’m no hockey coach, but if I was, I’d be yelling to my fellow Rangers to keep our gloves on and put the puck in the net. Look for opportunity. A bipartisan coalition from the 218 area code could apply effective leverage here, if not to keep the hall of fame, then to get something even better in return.

In other words, check hard, let our glorious hair flow, but keep our heads straight. Places like Eveleth need to win, not just skate for the status quo.