On April 7, 2021, Kris Mayotte was named the 15th head coach in the history of the Colorado College hockey program. Mayotte’s task is to bring CC back as one of the nation’s elite Division I programs. the national spotlight. With 12 NCAA tournament bids, six regular-season league titles and 17 home-ice playoff berths tucked away during the last quarter century, Mayotte Hopes to add another successful chapter to the program’s fabled history.
CC’s recent string of success, which includes last season’s appearance in the national quarterfinals preceded by trips to the “Frozen Four” in 1996, 1997 and 2005, speaks volumes for the modern-day version of a program that has spanned eight decades. Sure, when Scott Owens took over as head coach in 1999, he inherited a perennial powerhouse. But where does the tale really begin? How has little Colorado College, a private liberal arts and sciences college with an enrollment of barely 2,000 students, maintained such elite status in a sport filled with Division I giants?
Two concepts come to mind:
Tradition. From its pre-World War II roots, to its hosting of the first 10 NCAA Tournaments and co-founding of the WCHA, the school has influenced college hockey's growth from infancy.
Commitment. Proving that academic and athletic excellence can co-exist in a small campus environment, CC has relied on vision, hard work and creativity to revive a program that many others nationwide now envy.
THE EARLY YEARS
Colorado College Hockey got its start in January of 1938, when the Broadmoor Hotel converted its seldom-used indoor riding academy into an ice rink. The Broadmoor World Arena, originally called the Broadmoor Ice Palace, served as CC's home for 55 seasons before being demolished at the conclusion of the 1993-94 campaign. In 2013-14, after 54 seasons as a charter member of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association, the Tigers help launch the NCHC’s inaugural campaign and their 75th overall with an all-time record of 1,141-1,128-119 (.503) in 2,388 games played against outside competition. They were 675-839-78 (.448) in 1,592 WCHA regular-season outings, as well as 52-69-1 (.430) in the league playoffs.
Back in 1938, thanks to sponsorship from local business firms, eight inexperienced teams including one from CC were able to organize the Pikes Peak Hockey League.
Tiger Hockey officially made its debut on January 21 of that year in an 8-1 loss to a team sponsored by Giddings Department Store. Colorado College finished the campaign with three victories and nine defeats under playing coach and team captain John Atwood of Watertown, Conn.
The program made significant strides forward the following season under new coach Garrett Livingston, whose leadership the next four years helped vault CC to national prominence. While several New England students with backgrounds in high school hockey joined the team, the strongest addition was Ernie Young of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. When Young returned in the fall of 1939 for his second year at the school, he brought four more Canadian players with him – Jack Chamney, John "Chick" Ross, Wilmer "Spike" Wilson and Harold McClay – all from his home province. Bob Scarlett of Quebec, an experienced goaltender, also enrolled at Colorado College that year.
With Livingston at the helm, those players helped the Tigers sweep the University of Michigan, 4-2 and 4-3, in their first-ever intercollegiate series early during the 1939-40 season. Colorado College also played games against Colorado Mines, the Montana School of Mines and the University of Southern California, champion of the Pacific Coast League, that season. Enthusiasm reached a feverish pitch among CC hockey supporters for the next few years, with games at the World Arena selling out on a regular basis. By winter of 1942, the Tigers had earned a reputation as one of college hockey's "Big Four," along with USC, the University of Illinois and Dartmouth.
THE EVOLUTION AS A POWERHOUSE
Due to World War II, no games were played in 1942-43 or '43-44, but the sport was rejuvenated at Colorado College and nationwide in 1944-45. With the return of former players and the addition of seven more Canadians, the Tigers quickly were on the rise again. Cheddy Thompson, who came to Colorado Springs when he was assigned to 2nd Air Force Headquarters here, took over the coaching duties in the fall of 1945 and held the position for the next decade.
In cooperation with the Broadmoor Hotel, Colorado College sponsored the first National Collegiate Athletic Association Hockey Championships at the end of the 1947-48 season. The tournament would be held at the Ice Palace for the next 10 years, with CC participating seven times - in 1948, '49, '50, '51, '52, '55 and '57. Thompson was at the helm when CC won its first NCAA championship in 1950 and finished as runner-up in 1952 and '55. He was named national Coach of the Year in 1952 by the United States Hockey Coaches Association.
In 1951, Colorado College helped found the Mid-West Collegiate Hockey League, which changed its name to the Western Intercollegiate Hockey League in 1953. Other charter members were the University of Denver, Michigan, Michigan State, Michigan Tech, Minnesota and North Dakota. The The WIHL evolved to become the Western Collegiate Hockey Association in November of 1959, with the 2012-13 version of the WCHA consisting of five of its original seven teams plus the University of Alaska Anchorage, Bemidji State, Minnesota Duluth, Minnesota State, Nebraska Omaha, St. Cloud State and the University of Wisconsin.
The Tigers hoisted the MacNaughton Trophy as WCHA regular-season champions for the ninth and final time in March 2008. It was their third title in five years and sixth since 1994. They won an unprecedented three consecutive crowns in the mid-1990s (1993-94, ’95-96 and ’96-97). The previous three came during the 1950s (1951-52, ’54-55 and ’56-57). In 1956-57 Colorado College also wrapped up its second NCAA championship under coach Tom Bedecki. CC makes history again in 2013-14 as the new “super” conference, originally created in July 2011, makes its long awaited debut. Other members of the NCHC include the University of Denver, Miami University, Minnesota Duluth, Nebraska Omaha, North Dakota, St. Cloud State and Western Michigan.
LAUNCH PAD TO SUCCESS
Four Colorado College coaches - John Matchefts (1968-69), Jeff Sauer (1971-72 and '74-75), Brad Buetow (1991-92) and Don Lucia (1993-94 and '95-96) – have earned WCHA Coach of the Year honors. Matchefts (2007) and Sauer (2003) both have been named recipients of the prestigious John “Snooks” Kelley Founders Award for their contributions to the overall growth and development of ice hockey nationwide. Sauer, head coach of the U.S. National Sled Hockey Team that has won gold (2012) and silver (2013) medals at the last two International Paralympic Committee World Championships, also received the NHL's Lester Patrick Trophy in 2011 for outstanding service to the sport in the United States.
Cheddy Thompson (1951-52), Lucia (1993-94), Tony Frasca (1962-63) and former CC assistant Norm Bazin (2012-13), now the bench boss at UMass-Lowell, each have been named national Coach of the Year by the American Hockey Coaches Association. Another legend, Bob Johnson (1963-66), went on to the National Hockey League where he guided the Pittsburgh Penguins to the Stanley Cup in 1991. Johnson earlier had served as head coach of the 1976 United States Olympic Team and of the NHL's Calgary Flames, as well as a three-year stint as executive director of USA Hockey. Guy Gadowsky, who skated for the Tigers in the late 1980s, has gone on to serve as head coach at the University of Alaska and Princeton University, and now the new Division I program at Penn State.
CC has launched dozens of players into the professional ranks during the last six decades. While 38 former Tigers had played in the NHL prior to the 2021-22 season, several more are destined to make their debuts at the sport’s highest level in the near future. Four Colorado College products – Bill “Red” Hay with the Chicago Blackhawks in 1961, Doug Lidster with the New York Rangers in 1994 and the Dallas Stars in 1999, Jaden Schwartz with the St. Louis Blues in 2019, and Curtis McElhinney with the Tampa Bay Lightning in 2020 and ‘21 – have their names engraved on the Stanley Cup. Hay also was recently inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. Tom Preissing reached the Cup finals with the Ottawa Senators in 2007. Preissing and Gord Whitaker, meanwhile, are among very few North Americans ever to compete in the Russian Elite League, while mid-2000s grads Addison DeBoer and Scott Thauwald have taken their talents to Australia. Many others, including Hobey Baker Award winners Peter Sejna (2003) and Marty Sertich (2005), have competed in Europe.
Tiger Hockey also is well represented in the Colorado College Athletics Hall of Fame. In fact, two entire teams – the 1949-50 national champions in 1998 and the 1995-96 NCAA runners-up in 2013 – have been inducted. Hay, a former president of the Calgary Flames, was honored among the inaugural class in April 1995. Doug Palazzari, who spent most of his professional playing career with Salt Lake City of the Central Hockey League and in 1997 was designated as the CHL’s all-time greatest player, joined the HOF in 2000 after serving as executive director of USA Hockey. Dave Delich, CC’s career points leader, became a member in 2002 while Gambucci, who skated for the 1950 NCAA champs but starred as a baseball and football player as well, was recognized on an individual basis in 2004. Lidster was inducted in 2009, while Rob Doyle, the school’s leading scorer among defensemen, and Greg Smith, who enjoyed a 15-year career in the NHL after three season at CC, followed suit in 2015 and ’17, respectively. Marty Sertich entered the Hall of Fame as part of the Class of 2019, while Ed Robson was the first recipient of the Tiger Medal of Honor at the 2019 induction ceremony.
Delich, Hay and Palazzari, along with fellow Colorado College alumni Eddie Mio and Brian Swanson, also were included among the WCHA’s all-time top 50 players in conjunction with the league’s golden anniversary season in 2001-02.
