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Dragwith Virg Foss
GRAND FORKS -- "Dire Straights'' is both the name of now-defunct British rock band and a Cliff Garnett novel.
If they want a cast of characters to make a movie by that name, I nominate the UND Fighting Sioux men's hockey team.
January 2, 2009 column, more>>
GRAND FORKS -- Most people will say that the roaring sound they heard last week was the first big blizzard of the winter racing across North Dakota, shutting down highways, forcing people to huddle inside for warmth.
The puckheads among us will tell you that it was the sound of the University of North Dakota men's hockey team beginning its usual mid-season rumblings toward another shot at the Frozen Four and that elusive eighth NCAA title.
GRAND FORKS -- My first three seasons (1969-72) of reporting on UND Fighting Sioux hockey for the Grand Forks Herald were in the ancient and unheated Winter Sports Building.
It's where fans were as frozen as the ice and thousands of them flocked to the heated lobby designed to hold hundreds between periods to thaw out.
I think of how thankful I am that hockey came into my life nearly half a century ago and remains a major part of it to this day.
November 28, 2008 column, more>>
You remember him, don't you? Once coached at Minot High School, and once kayoed a sheriff in what was supposed to be a charity exhibition boxing match before Dean took punch in the nose and unloaded.
Maybe you remember him from his coaching days at Roseau High School in Minnesota, where he guided the Rams to a state hockey championship.
Certainly you remember him from his days at UND and national championship teams he coached in 1997 and 2000.
November 21, 2008 column, more>>
Good memories, too, fueled by a couple of years spent in Grand Forks in junior high that created, then fueled my love of hockey.
All through my youth, I played most every sport possible, except hockey. Even in high school, I played football, basketball, baseball and ran track, but my high school had no hockey program.
Didn't matter. I lived in Grand Forks for two years in junior high and most my buddies played hockey.
November 14, 2008 column, more>>
At that tournament, Michigan's Brendan Morrison was named the winner of the Hobey Baker Award as the nation's best college hockey player.
November 07, 2008 column, more>>
Out of the approximately 70 players who played for UND at one time or another who had gone on to play in the National Hockey League before this season, I had seen almost all of them skate for the Fighting Sioux.
October 31, 2008 column, more>>
October 24, 2008 column, more>>
October 17, 2008 column, more>>
GRAND FORKS -- When I moved to Grand Forks in 1969 and began covering University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux hockey for the Grand Forks Herald for what turned out to be 35 seasons, the Sioux were merely the Little Engine That Could.
October 12, 2008 column, more >>
