Reusse: Gophers hockey ‘behind the wall’

The huge arena with the massive circular roof was familiar to nearly all Minnesotans beyond the age of reason because of the three days in late March when it would hold the state basketball tournament.

Boys. One class. The state tourney. Champions of eight regions chosen geographically and not by population across our borders of straight lines and jagged edges.

This was the 1950s and as a kid in Williams Arena, you would look at that massive west wall continuing to rise well above the nose-bleed bleachers and say:

“I wonder if there’s anything behind there.”

And perhaps in 1957, when my father had scrounged seats almost in the middle of the Red Wing band, and the Wingers were losing to Minneapolis Roosevelt in the title game, someone had the answer:

“There’s a hockey arena behind the wall. That’s where the Gophers play.”

You had seen the reports on the Gophers playing hockey games with Colorado College and Michigan Tech and North Dakota and wondered again:

“Those schools aren’t in the Big Ten. Why are the Gophers always playing them?”

What a strange cult it had to be that gathered behind the wall to watch hockey games — that was your thought as a 12-year-old.

And it turned out to be correct.

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This was not a happy weekend for the modern audience that follows Gophers men’s hockey. There is the segment that agrees with coach Bob Motzko that the Gophers were done in by the referees on two goals (including the winner) in a 5-4 overtime loss to underdog Massachusetts on Thursday night in a regional opener in Fargo.

And there are those with the opinion that Motzko had his team go into a conservative mode in trying to protect a two-goal lead in the third period, with the same result as the overtime loss to Quinnipiac in the national title game in 2023.

Do I blame the referees or blame the coach? Neither.

I just started remembering how wonderfully zany were the occasional visits to the hockey arena behind the wall. It was remodeled into the Pavilion after the Gophers moved across the street to the new Mariucci Arena in 1993, but hockey was played there starting in 1950.

Forty-three seasons in that wonderful dump — just Williams Arena until 1985, when it was finally named in honor of coaching legend John Mariucci.

The place might have seated 5,500 if everyone squeezed together, but it seemed as though fans were allowed to keep coming in long after it was full, if North Dakota or Michigan was in town.

The pressbox was a platform built over the seats on the south side of the arena. Tom Greenhoe was the sports information director for hockey. There were rumors some of the Coca-Colas had more in them than Coca-Cola, including Greeny’s.

There were also years when the beat writers were rivals Charley Hallman from the Pioneer Press and John Gilbert from the Morning Tribune.

Doug Woog, who coached eight seasons in the old Mariucci, said of Hallman and Gilbert: “One of them is my general manager and the other is the coach, although who is which changes week by week.”

I was there on a jam-packed Saturday afternoon. The stairs to the pressbox ended in front of the last row of seats. They sold those tickets — directly behind stairs.

And there were a pair of hardcores, maybe in their 30s, racing to the left side of the stairs when the puck was going west, and racing right when it was going east. Amazing.

No Gophers ever played in the four decades behind the wall without leaving with dozens of stories of playing there. Pat Micheletti and his older brother Donnie had this recollection a while back:

Donnie was the captain in 1979-80. He had been injured but was returning for a two-game series in late January with Michigan.

Pat was a teenager and came down from Hibbing for the Friday game with his parents, Americo and Mary. Americo disliked being in the Twin Cities, so he would drive the old Lincoln Town Car from Hibbing, drive back, and then do the same on Saturday.

Donnie got in a fight with Michigan’s Dave Richter, a future North Star, in the pregame warmup.

“We went up and down the length of the arena, wrestling, throwing punches, for what must have been five minutes,” Donnie said.

The pair were given game misconducts, meaning banishment for both weekend games.

The announcement of the suspensions was being made as the Hibbing commuters arrived in the arena. They promptly headed back to the Town Car, then Hibbing.

It says here a good laugh over the Gophers’ wacky past can be a fine antidote for a missed call in Fargo.