Originally aired December 1, 2000

Sold-out crowds. Screaming fans. A sport with lots of speed and contact. Think it’s Husker football? Think again. It’s hockey.

In the last five years, Nebraska gained three hockey teams - the University of Nebraska at Omaha Mavericks, Lincoln Stars and Tri-City Storm in Kearney. Omaha’s team – the Lancers – has been around since the 1980s. All four regularly play to packed houses.

Many hockey fans say they like the sport because it’s so physical, one of the same reasons they like Husker football. Hockey isn’t new to Nebraska – the Omaha Knights were popular in the 1960s. “Statewide’s” Andrea Gallagher looks back at the history of Nebraska hockey and why it’s become a hot ticket in recent years.

TRANSCRIPT - Hockey Fever

Reported by Statewide correspondent, Andrea Gallagher.

It's amazing how fast the game is.
Nebraskans like a physical contact game.
The snow flying off the glass, the sound of players banging against the boards, the speed of the puck, the speed that the players travel at, it's a great game.
Who would have guessed that there was going to be a hockey team in central Nebraska.
It may sound strange but like it or not, hockey is here in the Cornhusker state and it is here to stay.
[Greg Shea, Tri-City Storm V.P.] "When you go to a hockey game and you walk in and the lights are reflecting off the ice and the guys are skating and you can hear the skates, it's something that most people in Nebraska unless now they've been to a Stars game or a Lancers game or a Mavericks game haven't experienced but they've heard about it. And once you hear about it, once you go and see it in person, it's catchy."
Nebraska now has four high profile hockey teams throughout the state. The Omaha Lancers, the Lincoln Stars, and Tri-City Storm are all part of the United States Hockey League. The U.N.O. Mavericks are the only Division One college team in the state. All of these hockey teams pack in fans night after night.
[Motto McLean, hockey veteran] "On any given Saturday night when Omaha is home, Lincoln's home, Mavericks are home, Des Moines, Sioux City, we have 25,000 people going to a hockey game. In Kearney this Fall, we'll have another say basically 5,000. You'll have 30,000 people going to a hockey game." That says a lot about this part of the country for hockey.
The newest hockey team is the Tri-City Storm based in Kearney. The community has welcomed the team with open arms. Some doubters never thought hockey would fly in Kearney.
[Shea] "People looked at me like you've got to be kidding me, you're going to put a hockey team here? We don't know anything about hockey. Hockey is not going to go over here. I think we surprised a few people."
It's not just people in the Tri-City area either. Fans are flocking from all over central Nebraska to see the Tri- City Storm in action.
[Shea] "I know for a fact that we have 78-plus communities in our season ticket database. People as far away as McCook, Brady, places west of Kearney that have purchased season tickets that are going to come into the area."
During the Storm's first weekend home opener, fans were brimming with excitement looking forward to a new kind of entertainment.
[Lauri Melton, Riverdale] "Because it's a new opportunity for Kearney. There isn't -- you kind of get used to doing the same old thing, movies and so forth and it's just something different."
[Steve Lydiatt, Kearney] "I think it's going to obviously bring a lot of people to town and that's going to be good for the merchants."
The Tri-City Storm was formerly the Twin City's Vulcan, but ironically, up north in hockey country, the team couldn't survive.
[Shea] "People would ask me why a team that was in Minneapolis couldn't survive. Well, in Minneapolis or in the state of Minnesota, high school hockey and college hockey is king and so junior hockey hasn't really survived there."
[John Hart, Storm player] "It's a lot more popular here. Last year we would have about 500 fans a game as compared to 5,000 this game and, you know, we'd never be in the paper. We never made the paper after our games. Every game we're the front page of the sports page. Just the fans are real excited about hockey so it's a big change."
[Brad Thompson, Storm player] "It was kind of weird coming down here and having people know about your team than being at home where nobody knows about you."
Hockey has become extremely popular in the last few years in Nebraska but the sport has a long history in Omaha.
[McLean] "Well, it was never any mind in my mind of the popularity in Omaha as a hockey city. From the day I was here, you know, there were just great fans."
Originally from Canada Motto McLean came to Nebraska in 1947 when he played for the Omaha Knights hockey team. The Knights were the farm team for the Detroit Redwings. The team started in Omaha in 1939. Motto reflects on his days as a minor league hockey player.
[McLean] "Two things I always get asked when they find out I'm a hockey player over the years. Do you have all your teeth? Have you ever been in any fights? My answer to those were no, I don't have all my teeth. They were gone in the early days. And I said, yes, I got in my share of fights. It took a good man to whip me but it didn't take him long."
He says fighting is part of the game in hockey but it's not everything. He says back in his day they knew how to do it right. He remembers one rough night of hockey.
[McLean] "They got a good check but we didn't have any glass, just chicken wire at the end and they had stripped three-eighths metal and my head just whacked that. I was bleeding like a stuffed pig and I'm still digging for the puck. I hear women crying and screaming."
Motto is part of a book being written on the history of the Omaha Knights. Hockey historian Gary Anderson is the author. The Knights were based in Omaha off and on from the 1930's to the 1970's. He remembers going to games as a child.
[Gary Anderson] "It became a part of your existence, your life. You know your whole lifestyle revolved around Saturday night hockey games at Ak-sar-ben."
Anderson tried to look up information about the Knights and came up short. That's when he decided to write a book about the history of the team.
[Anderson] "There's no one single place where you can look up and find out who played for the Omaha Knights in 1950 and 1951 and who they all were. And that's what I've tried to catalog. What they did each year and how many people came to their games. I think that's important just to have as a manner of record or reference for sportswriters or fans or whoever."
Anderson says a number of Hall of Famers played or coached for the Knights including one of the best hockey players in history.
[Anderson] "Gordie Howe, of course, is the most noted. This is his first and only minor league professional team he played for in 1945 and 1946. He was 17 years old when he played here."
This photograph captures Gordie Howe's 18th birthday party in Omaha. This is one of many photographs that may be included in the book, "Those Were the Knights."
[Anderson] "There's a history of hockey here that is sort of unlike anything else and probably because there was only one team. Back in those days, in the 1940's and the early 1950's, hockey players here were like folk heroes and every game was like a big media event. You know, it was just a different atmosphere then. That's the kind of thing that I want to bring out so people remember the way it all was back then."
Anderson is also the sports information director for the University of Nebraska-Omaha. The U.N.O. Maverick hockey team started up in 1996. He says they sold 6,400 season tickets in 15 days from the moment the new program was announced. Granted, Omaha already had the Lancers but local hockey fans hungered for more. Division One hockey is what they got.
[Anderson] "The Lancers helped our success, too, because they were so popular that a lot of people couldn't get tickets. And so we were a new opportunity for them. And I don't know that we took away. I think we gave the opportunity for a lot more hockey fans to see hockey and to see, you know, maybe the next level."
[Ted Baer] "I was interested in hockey when I was younger when the Knights were here."
Ted Baer owns the Omaha Lancers. More than 10 years ago he took a chance on a sport he didn't know much about and he made the team into a successful venture. He also owns the Tri-City Storm. He never played hockey himself and says the sport requires a lot of skill.
[Baer] "Any of us can go out and play football or basketball or baseball. Not saying we would be good at it or I would be good at it but we can play it. Hockey you put in that extra element of skating where you have to know how to skate to play hockey and I think -- it still amazes me what these people can do, what these guys can do on skates."
Meanwhile, Nebraska's newest team, the Tri-City Storm, is off to a great start. Season tickets are sold out, games are packed, and slowly but surely fans are learning about the game of hockey.
[Jim Buss, Minden] "This is my second hockey game. I'm just trying to figure out the rules."
[Melton] "The periods are different and it kind of was -- I don't know. I'm not really quite clear on everything yet."
[Thompson] "I'm pretty sure they like the physical aspect of the game right away but once they get to know it, they'll understand everything that's involved in hockey."
[Jim Hillman, Storm coach] "I think it's such a great sport. I think it's a physical sport at high speeds. Watching on TV doesn't do it justice. I think you've got to be in the arena to hear it, to feel it, to just understand the game completely."
If this trend continues, Nebraska Football may soon have a rival.