CRHL History?

[showtime89]

The CRHL National Championships started in 1999 in Crystal Lake, IL. I know they existed, because I played in them. However, other than the t-shirt I have, the patch on my bag and the Souvenir Program I have, I can't find any existence of them. I looked through the NCHRA website and couldn't find any information on it. Is there some record of past championships somewhere that I just am overlooking? I see the wikipedia entry for NCHRA and it says Michigan State won and I guess I am just looking for more detail.

[JLambertUMSL]

The CRHL National Championships started in 1999 in Crystal Lake, IL. I know they existed, because I played in them. However, other than the t-shirt I have, the patch on my bag and the Souvenir Program I have, I can't find any existence of them. I looked through the NCHRA website and couldn't find any information on it. Is there some record of past championships somewhere that I just am overlooking? I see the wikipedia entry for NCHRA and it says Michigan State won and I guess I am just looking for more detail.

Go to pointstreak.com and search for CRHL.

[showtime89]

'02-'03 is the only thing it shows.

[MBurke]

'02-'03 is the only thing it shows.

Stats were kept in various other systems internally prior to that, none of them really online or databased.

I managed to get my hands on some very old scoresheets from previous national tournaments and plan to get some of them entered following nationals this year.

[showtime89]

I wasn't necessarily looking for stats, though that would be cool, just more of a write up on what took place. I mean, that was the historic being the first one (it was even tagged, "Finally a true National Championship"). I have some information in my program that I have, I'll try and get it your way somehow. And not just the '99 Championships, but all of them. There should be some record kept about what went on at these other than the listing of the winner, but teams, players, schedule, etc.

[RichardGraham]

Hi Ron,

I probably have some old stories about the CRHL events in my computer somewhere. I'll scrounge around when I get a chance. I attended one, I believe it was in Orlando. I can't remember the year at the moment. Other things on my mind.

[WCRHL]

Likewise, I have the programs from 98-99 through 02-03 I believe. Most have game scores in there as well. Once we get past nationals maybe we can get some information up on this, like you said SHowtime, maybe some stories, winners, runnersup, locations, etc. Those were some great times (I played in 2000 in Florida for Cal Poly SLO to our FInal Four finish there), coached in 2001, worked the events in 2002 and 2003....I only missed the first one!!!

[RichardGraham]

Hey Brennan, Hey Ron,

I did find tons of stuff after a quick look at my archives. Much of it is advance-event press releases, but I'm sure there are some wrap-up articles with flavor, as well. I'll get to it when I can. I agree that it's valuable stuff and should not disappear.

[PGHhockey]

Hmm...I'm willing to bet that this particular mask was a big hit during that first National Championship...;)

http://www.geocities.com/area51/vault/9012/jmask1.gif

[oldschool22]

The first NCT's?

It's disputable which one was really the first. There were I think 2 USA Hockey sponsored college NCTs in Las Vegas when the sport was highly unorganized. They were played in the Fall Semester.
The Second one, Fall 1997 was one by a community college team in California. Saddleback Community College? I believe was the team. This shaped the future of College Roller Hockey, because it seemed like kids were registering just to play and then dropping classes. Shortly thereafter, the divisional structure between DI and DIII began forming.
Teams in the Final 4 that year were Truman State (lost to Saddleback C.C.)
El Camino CC and ?? Saddleback, with 5 skaters won the whole thing.
The follwing year, there was an 8 team tourney for the National Championship in Vegas, which certainly didn't include the top teams from the nation. Teams there: Wash U, Truman, UC Irvine, UCSB, Cal Poly SLO, UNLV? UMSL, and ....?
Final 4
Wash U, SLO and UCSB
UMSL won the national championship that year
CRHL First big 32 team NCT 4/15-18 1999
Elite Eight
(4)Purdue def. (1)Truman
(2)UCSB def. (3)Illinois State

(1)Michigan State def (4)Colorado state
(2)Penn State def (3)RIT

Final 4
MSU def Penn State
UCSB def Purdue

Championship
MSU def UCSB by one. Down a goal in the last minute or 2 of the game, they score to late ones to take the crown.
I have the program if anyone has any other Q's.... I played at Truman those years and actually worked at the rink(Burning Blades) that hosted the first NCT...

[AlanMacMillan]

The first CRHL in NCT was won by Michigan State with about 32 seconds left on a goal by the legendary Mike Mackert. Even though it was forever ago, Mack became a college roller hockey institiution over the next decade :)
Dante Damiani was a freshman and netted a hat-trick in the championship game. I'm guessing Dante still holds the single game goal record with 10 against UofM back in the day.

NCT II in 99-00 was won by MSU over Colorado with something like 8 seconds left by Ed Kruschka (who assisted on Mack's '99 winner). Ed then broke into a monster-mash-inspired celebration that really, really needs to find it's way onto YouTube.


Mack has game film from many of the early games. I'll see if we can get some highlights up. It was sooo long ago that some of them may be in black and white. I have an old highlight-style video that I made for a 200-level digital video class I had in 2000. I'll see if I can dig that up.


There were earlier college division tournament champions that were hosted in Vegas. There's a great story about Purdue driving out to Vegas, running out of money, gathering around a blackjack table as a team, and winning enough cash to make it home. Classic.

I used to help out on CRHL.net so I'll see if I have any old stat databases. I'll ask around to see if the other old guys do to.

Al MacMillan

[RichardGraham]

Hey oldschool22,

Very informational post. Thanks for sharing it. I went to the first "college championship," but I'm blanking on the year at the moment. It was held at the Torrance Skate Association rink in Torrance, California, and some of the teams included the University of Southern California and El Camino Real, if I recall correctly. That info will be in either the Roller Hockey or InLine Hockey News magazines I edited back in the day. I'll look for that information when I get back hom and have some time.

It also makes me wonder who owns the rights to all the stuff I wrote about when I was at InLine Hockey News, a publication I edited from 1994-1997, and which has been out of business since the final January 1998 issue.. I'm going to see if I can get ownership of at least everything I wrote, and then scan it and post it on IHC as Inline Hockey Archives.

[RichardGraham]

Hey Alan,

Great to hear from you! It's been a while. Thanks for your great post. That story about Purdue is CLASSIC. lol. How's your brother, Andy? Tell him I say hello, please.

Where's Mackert now, and what's he doing? How about Dante Damiani?

If you can get some of that footage you mention on YouTube, I'll definitely link to it on IHC!

[DGlass]

Speaking of ancient history, Brendan Brennen [the]facebook'd me the other day (we went to the same high school). I'm fairly certain he was one of the guys that got the MAR/ECRHA off the ground with Jon Huck.

[RustyPipes27]

I'm actually planning on writing a feature story on the history of college roller hockey for a sports writing class, so anyone who is interested in speaking about this topic with me personally (especially those old-heads out there like Mike Burkalicious), please private message me (don't worry, it probably won't be published anywhere). Thanks.

[showtime89]

Speaking of ancient history, Brendan Brennen [the]facebook'd me the other day (we went to the same high school). I'm fairly certain he was one of the guys that got the MAR/ECRHA off the ground with Jon Huck.

Yeah, I remember Brendan working with Huck on that at Penn Sate. I still can't figure out how Huck could even skate.

[MBurke]

Dang I haven't heard "MAR" used in years :D

[AlanMacMillan]

Hey Richard,
Mack's good. He's a prof @ U Texas and coaches their team. After coaching MSU for a few seasons I moved to NC and helped out with NC State. Now I'm in Chicago, along with Andy, and we're rediscovering ice hockey. Damn that puck is heavy.

I haven't heard from Dante in years. I think he's out in California these days.

I'm working on getting an MSURHC alumni group together to help fund/guide the team. MSU has never given much financial support to the team (other than a sport court rink on campus) and we'd like to make sure the team continues to be a solid, well run organization.

Do any other teams get help from their alumni? There's a way to donate money through the U and get it routed to the club while getting charitable donation tax relief but I'm not sure on the details. Anybody have any info?

I tuned in for a few NCT games and they sounded like great games.

Al

[RichardGraham]

Hey Ron,

Maybe Huck couldn't skate, but he could slash. ;)

He was also the king of the mystery goal. Ask someone about that. :)

[RichardGraham]

Hey Al,

Great to hear from you, glad to hear that Mack's doing well. I know what you mean about ice hockey... I play on Wednesday nights and the occasional Saturday night, just so that I'm not thinking about inline hockey ALL the time. And no one knows or cares about what I do, so it's pretty refreshing. ;) Tell Andy I say hello, and see a blues show at Kingston Mines for me... I miss that place.

I hope that Dante is alive and well.

Good luck with the MSURHC alumni group idea. When I win the lottery (do you still have to buy a ticket to win?), I'll help out the San Diego State University team. ;) It's my alma mater.

> I tuned in for a few NCT games and they sounded like great games.<

Many were. You've heard about the UCI/Stony Brook game....

I'd like to see more maturity on the part of some of the DIII and B teams, though. Aren't those players the same age as those in DI? Many acted like 13-year-old juvenile delinquents.

I'm working on putting together the stuff I wrote about the CRHL back in the day... I agree that it's important that the documentation of those years be saved -- the good as well as the bad -- if only for reasons of context. I'll scan and do OCR on some of the old college articles I wrote for Roller Hockey magazine back in the day and put them up on IHC and see if anyone tries to sue me. ;)

[DGlass]

Now, no...Huck served as a great goalie for Pitt's B team in 04-05. We got him out of retirement while he was getting his Master's degree.

[NCRHA]

Rich, I think you're right about that event in Torrance. I was in high school that year and only read about it in the Inline Hockey/Skating News, even though that was my home rink...weird. I do doubt that anyone attended from out of the area, but who knows.

1995-1996 Championships were held in September 1996, as part of a large NIHA event (prior to USAHIL...). I believe El Camino was the champion.

1996-1997 was again in Vegas.

1997-1998 was in Vegas again. Either 97 or 98 was sponsored/sanctioned by RHI-A or WHA, not sure. And V-form skates were a sponsor.

Someone wrote about the one that UMSL won in 97 or 98. I was goaltending for the Cal Poly team that they defeated, not sure if it was in the semis or the final, i think it was the final. I think we lost 3-1, but outshot them like 40-20. Even our sniper who was good for 4-5 goals a game at that time couldn't make a difference.

[Huckie21]

Hey Ron,

Maybe Huck couldn't skate, but he could slash. ;)

He was also the king of the mystery goal. Ask someone about that. :)

Rich!

Slash! What slash? If a penalty happens, and a ref isn't around to call it, was it really a penalty?

I forget all the details, but I think I found out years later that Benny Gulakiw was the ref on that "phantom" goal. Good times.

Huck

[RichardGraham]

Hey Huckster,

Where have you been, man? :) Great to hear from you. Maybe Benny was a ref in that game, but Adam Stio claims he was, too. I wonder if Dennis Murphy was playing in net... this story gets better every time. ;)

[RichardGraham]

Hi Brennan,

I dug through some of my old photos and found this one from that event -- it was in the spring of 1995, and if I'm not mistaken, the two gentlemen in this photo were brothers who played for rival collegiate teams; UCLA and USC? I can't recall.

The March 1995 issue of Roller Hockey magazine (I was with InLine Hockey News by then) had an article on college hockey that quoted Collegiate In-line Hockey Association founder Mike Nelson as saying, "The roller hockey market is like touching a match to a grass field in summertime." Ah, the good old days!

[JLambertUMSL]

Someone wrote about the one that UMSL won in 97 or 98. I was goaltending for the Cal Poly team that they defeated, not sure if it was in the semis or the final, i think it was the final. I think we lost 3-1, but outshot them like 40-20. Even our sniper who was good for 4-5 goals a game at that time couldn't make a difference.


1998, and that was the final. Nate Frankenburg was the goalie for UMSL. The score was either 3-0 or 3-1. Supposedly UMSL became the first non-California school to win a college roller hockey national title. The event was the "NCIHA" national championships in Las Vegas.

[NCRHA]

Nice picture Rich!

That is good ole' TSA! With the old wood boards, chain link and no roof!!! I wonder if that tournament had to cancel 7am games due to condensation on the entire far side of the rink (that first 10 feet from the boards). I can't tell you how many Saturday mornings we got sent home.

That was one year before my time.

Very cool pic!

[RichardGraham]

Hey Brennan,

I scanned a few more slides last night. Check out the awesome trophy... ;)

[RichardGraham]

And a few more... all these were taken at Stuart's Roller World in Fullerton.

[Huckie21]

Rich: I've been reliving the glory days of college roller hockey as a D-League "Allstar" here in Pittsburgh.

Dave: Thanks for the compliments; I had a lot of fun playin' for Pitt. Mind you, my loyalty remains with Penn State and that will be the only time you'll ever catch me in something w/ Pitt's logo. Hope you got some pics.

Ron: What's that? I missed what you said. I got so used to flying by you that I never had much time to pay attention to your yappin'! Just imagine if you could only skate like you run your mouth! Bring it on!

Huck