Hockey fans turn to Tampa as UND faces off in Frozen Four – Grand Forks Herald

“It’s hard to explain,” he said. “Those players back in the day, when they wore the Indian head jersey, they wore it with pride. I wear it with pride. I fly my flag with pride. I show respect for my team, and like I said, it’s an addiction.”

Boger is one of many who are traveling, tuning in and turning their attention Thursday to Tampa as the UND men’s hockey team takes on Denver University for a spot in the NCAA hockey championship. Quinnipiac also plays against Boston College Thursday for a chance at the national title. The teams who win those matches will play against each other Saturday.

UND men’s hockey has has won seven national hockey titles since 1959, the most recent of which was in 2000. The only college to hold more national titles is the University of Michigan.

This year, UND is led by first-year head coach Brad Berry.

For the second year in a row, the UND Alumni Association and Foundation is flying a full plane of 150 North Dakota Champions Club members Thursday morning to the tournament.

Val Sussex, associate director of the North Dakota Champions Club, said she didn’t know why the plane wasn’t full when UND played in 2014 in Philadelphia, but this time the plane sold out within 48 hours of UND defeating the University of Michigan in March.

“Everybody wants to go to Tampa in April,” she said, laughing.

The plane is chartered through EB Sports Tours and members have the option of three hotels in the area.

But Brian Milne already was in Florida Monday afternoon picking up decorations for the party he’s throwing in his condo before and between games. He said he’s spending between $4,000 and $5,000, including travel and game tickets, to see UND play, but to him, it’s all worth it.

“I’m a fanatic and I can’t see anything I wouldn’t do,” he said.

As a retired engineer who went to UND in the late 1970s “when rocks were soft and dinosaurs ruled the world,” Milne said he knows it will take exactly two hours seven minutes for he and his friends to travel from his condo in Fort Myers to the stadium because he made the trip in January to practice, in case his favorite hockey team made it to the Frozen Four.

“It’s a vacation with a purpose,” he said.

To the ends of the earth

Bob Bolinske Jr. and his friends from his days as a UND School of Law Student are also treating the trip from Bismarck to Tampa like a vacation.

He, Lloyd Suhr, Chad McCabe and Bill Lucas all graduated from the law school between 1963 and 1999 and all of them have traveled to watch the Frozen Four at least twice, if not three times.

The four of them are looking forward to connecting with other UND fans like they have in past years.

“It connects everybody this time of year,” Bolinske said. “You get together with all of your old UND friends and talk about this.”

The four are looking forward to running into old friends and making new ones.

“This team is very, very special,” Bolinske said. “If these guys pull this off, they will forever be legends in Grand Forks, North Dakota, and the entire Sioux Nation.”

Many are making the trip to Tampa from more distant locations.

Via email, Douglas Mark said he is flying from Argentina, and Zachary Brooks, an international teacher, said he is flying from Shanghai and spending $1,100 on his flight alone.

“It’s not a matter of money,” he said. “It’s a matter of tradition and being with family; blood and otherwise. I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

Eric Steele and his wife, Jenny, are flying from Minneapolis. She described the culture surrounding UND hockey as “unbelievable” and “addictive.”

“It’s something we look forward to starting every fall,” she said. “Our son is really into hockey now, too. He’s only 5, but he gets pretty upset when the season ends and he has to wait until October for it to start up again.”

Gary Sundeen lives in Buxton, N.D., and flew to Tampa as well. He said he hasn’t been to the Frozen Four games in person, but he bought his tickets for the games in October.

Sundeen said he’ll probably spend between $2,500 and $3,000 on the trip.

“Really, I’d go to the ends of the Earth to watch them play,” he said.

UND alumnus Bruce Krause and his son Dean will be watching together in a basement in Lebanon, Ohio. Krause said he grew to like the sport as a student at UND and never stopped watching.

“Next year, the finals are in Chicago and the following year in St. Paul, and if they definitely make it, we’re going there,” he said. “St. Paul isn’t far.”

Former UND President Charles Kupchella said he and his wife, Adele, are lucky enough to spend their winters in Florida anyway, so they will be making the drive to watch UND compete.

Kupchella served as president from 1999 to 2008 and said after going to the 2000 Frozen Four in Providence, R.I., where UND won the championship, he was hooked.

“It’s hard to not be a part of something you were so integrally a part of for nine years,” he said.

Click here to see from where fans will be watching the Frozen Four.

Ways to Watch

Channel: ESPN 2

7:30 p.m. CT, Thursday

North Dakota v. Denver

Channel: ESPN

7 p.m. CT, Saturday

Championship game