Your best Old Ralph moment

[Wilbur]

Not usually one to start a thread, but I think Brad created a nice talking point on his blog. I'd love to hear what your favorite Old Ralph Engelstad arena moment is before the wrecking ball rolls Monday. It can be Sioux related, or it can pertain to high school games that took place. There probably has been a thread before, but I'm too lazy to look it up.

I have a couple:

1. Minot High 8....Bismarck High 7. 1991 State High School championship game for the ages. Future Fighting Sioux role guy Tom Phillion was amazing. Ohh, and goaltending optional.

2. When I was a kid sitting next to the pep band with my dad, and hearing the whole arena, I mean literally the whole arena sing the beer song after the school song when the Sioux scored the go ahead goal in the third period. My old man got tears in his eyes. Great moment. One of the first Sioux games I really remember going to.

3. 2000. I was in high school at a select tryout at the Old Ralph. They changed our practice times around the Sioux game against Boston College. Getting to see the team come back to the arena Sunday morning and getting to talk to some of the players after that was awesome. I couldn't believe how young Karl Goehring looked. I guess he still looks like he's twelve.

Anybody else for a stroll down memory lane?

[108498]

I only remember going to a few games there as a sioux kids club member, so for me it was more of a memory of coming down the hill by the football field seeing both the field and the arena. I did attend many football games and loves watching the away team walk from the hockey arena to the football field.

[MafiaMan]

1988 or 1989 exhibition vs Moscow Dynamo team. They demolished everyone they played in their US tour but UND gave them a run for their money, losing 6-4. Justin Duberman hat-trick.

Also somewhere around 1989-1990, coming back from 3rd period 5-0 deficit to earn 5-5 tie with Northern Michigan. I looked this game up in the media guide and the listing there has the game being in Marquette. I am 100% sure that that is wrong...I was there at REA.

1988-1989 season again - waiting in well below-zero weather for arena doors to open for Sioux-Gopher game. Sioux destroy Minnesota 8 or 9 to 0 in game where eventual Hobey Baker winner Robb Stauber pulls himself from the game after Doug Woog ignores his pleas after goal #6 or 7. Very next shot on the back-up sieve goes right in the net. I ran into Doug Woog at Joe Sensor's in Bloomington about five years ago and asked him if he remembered that series. His response? 'I have never been colder in my life than that weekend in Grand Forks.'

[Wilbur]

I only remember going to a few games there as a sioux kids club member, so for me it was more of a memory of coming down the hill by the football field seeing both the field and the arena. I did attend many football games and loves watching the away team walk from the hockey arena to the football field.

I was always under the impression the visiting team had a locker room at Memorial Stadium. I was at a UNO-UND game with my dad and was shocked when I saw them walking into the Ralph at half time. I remember UND fans yelling at those players telling them "Take your cleats off so you don't mess up our rink". Or, "Why don't you just change outside, that rink is for champions!"

[MafiaMan]

1. Minot High 8....Bismarck High 7. 1991 State High School championship game for the ages. Future Fighting Sioux role guy Tom Phillion was amazing. Ohh, and goaltending optional.

I was at that game too. I can't remember which Bismarck player said it somewhat recently but he STILL hasn't gotten over losing that game. If memory serves me right, Minot's ONLY lead of the game was the final score.

[Siouxman]

There are so many.......

January 1979 - Watching UND come from being down 5-8 with 6 minutes to go and winning 9-8 against Michigan.

Watching the pre-game brawl against Wisconsin.

Seeing all-American goalie Eddie Mio of CC let in a UND goal on a center ice dump for a line change (by Dave Geving)

A live chicken on the ice

and, of course...

Dead gophers on the ice, Dead gophers on the ice, Dead gophers on the ice

[IRONSIOUXMAN]

Growing up in GF I loved the Old Ralph. Gopher Steve Debus 3 goal sieve out in third period, the arena was electric.

What happened to the original championship banners from the OLD RALPH, I have a feeling they are in someone's basement. They should of came over to the New REA as a display and incorporated into the building.

[MafiaMan]

There are so many.......

January 1979 - Watching UND come from being down 5-8 with 6 minutes to go and winning 9-8 against Michigan.

Watching the pre-game brawl against Wisconsin.

Seeing all-American goalie Eddie Mio of CC let in a UND goal on a center ice dump for a line change (by Dave Geving)

A live chicken on the ice

and, of course...

Dead gophers on the ice, Dead gophers on the ice, Dead gophers on the ice

Siouxman, can you tell us all about the good old days when you and Fido Purpur organized the first teams at UND?

[GeauxSioux]

In the early '80's when the dead badger swung out of rafters in front of the press box.

Anytime the Sioux played the gophers or badgers.

[Wilbur]

I was at that game too. I can't remember which Bismarck player said it somewhat recently but he STILL hasn't gotten over losing that game. If memory serves me right, Minot's ONLY lead of the game was the final score.

Your memory is good, but not exactly correct. A couple of Bismarck/former WCHA players have said they will never get over that game. One is former UND defenseman Mitch Vig, the other is former UMD bulldog and current BHS coach/Bismarck Bobcat assistant Mike Peluso. But I'm sure that the entire Bismarck team would say that as they were the overwhelming favorite that year.

As for the game, Minot led basically the entire game. Bismarck tied the game 6-6 late in the third, only to have Phillion give Minot the 7-6 lead. Then Bismarck tied it up basically the next shift, only to have Phillion score the game winner on an extremely weak shot glove side on the Bismarck goaltender. Phillion didn't leave the ice for the last 5 minutes of the game, and was a crossbar away in the final seconds from breaking the tournament record for points. He tied a former GFC player with 15 points in three games. Can't remember the GFC player's name.

[MafiaMan]

What happened to the original championship banners from the OLD RALPH, I have a feeling they are in someone's basement. They should of came over to the New REA as a display and incorporated into the building.

Like x 1000. The banners should display the logo used at the time of the championship. REA played revisionist history with the current, er, former logo being used on all banners. The logo, in all actuality, wasn't a part of a single national championship!

[MafiaMan]

Your memory is good, but not exactly correct. A couple of Bismarck/former WCHA players have said they will never get over that game. One is former UND defenseman Mitch Vig, the other is former UMD bulldog and current BHS coach/Bismarck Bobcat assistant Mike Peluso. But I'm sure that the entire Bismarck team would say that as they were the overwhelming favorite that year.

As for the game, Minot led basically the entire game. Bismarck tied the game 6-6 late in the third, only to have Phillion give Minot the 7-6 lead. Then Bismarck tied it up basically the next shift, only to have Phillion score the game winner on an extremely weak shot glove side on the Bismarck goaltender. Phillion didn't leave the ice for the last 5 minutes of the game, and was a crossbar away in the final seconds from breaking the tournament record for points. He tied a former GFC player with 15 points in three games. Can't remember the GFC player's name.

Well, I can't remember every detail...but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.

I thought that Minot's win wasn't against Bismarck High but instead against Bismarck Sacred Heart. I could be mistaken, but the comment about the loss was definitely by Mike Peluso.

[Wilbur]

Well, I can't remember every detail...but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.

I thought that Minot's win wasn't against Bismarck High but instead against Bismarck Sacred Heart. I could be mistaken, but the comment about the loss was definitely by Mike Peluso.

Bismarck Sacred Cross

[MafiaMan]

Bismarck Sacred Cross

Maybe I'm confusing Bismarck with Moorhead's mid 1990's state title loss to Richfield's Holy Cross Academy?

[Esoteric]

Grew up without hockey, watched a few games on TV and did not understand the game or the game within the game. My RA who was also in my suite, when I was a freshman, had been trying to convince me to go and see a hockey game. Which I resisted, thinking it would be boring.

However, I relented and agreed to attend the first game ever at the brand new Arena (the old Ralph). My RA told me that we had to get there real early because seats would be hard to find. He was basing his comments on the fact that the “old barn”, had few seats.

We stood in line for some time. They finally opened the doors and everyone rushed the doors (my first human crush stampede). But when we got in everyone was confused where to sit and there were a large number of seats available. The RA and I got the east end goal seats right on the ice and right next to the goal light operator. What perfect seats for my first game.

My first experience was ducking, ducking, ducking, and ducking, during the warm-up practice due to the pucks flying at a high rate of speed into the glass. Whew that took some adjustment. Could not believe the speed of the pucks, or the speed of the players on the ice, nor the force of the hits.

During the game a puck flew just over the top of the glass (which was lower in those days), and I quickly looked back and saw a women hit in the forehead with the puck. As gross as this sounds I saw the cut on her head before the gushing of the blood. That memory kept me from sitting above the glass for almost half the year. How bad was the women hurt, must have been a true die-hard hockey fan because she came back later with a bandage on her forehead.

That game made me a huge UND hockey fan. I did everything I could to never miss a home game again.

In the future at the “old Ralph”, I got involved in a number of fun activities. In one game against the gophers and Herb Brooks, I had a rubber chicken on a white rope that blended into the ice color. During breaks in the game I would throw the chicken on the ice next to the gopher goalie, then I would pull the chicken back in over the glass before play started. That night a picture was taken by the Grand Forks "Hagerty", and was in the paper the next day. The picture showed the chicken laying on the ice, with the goalie’s head turned the other way but with his eyes clearly looking back directly at the rubber chicken next to him. The caption underneath the photo in the paper was “Fowl Play At Hockey Game”.

To make the story even more fun, was that during the game the rope got away from me and the chicken could not be retrieved. One of the “blind mice (there were three then)” picked up the chicken and rope and handed it to Herb Brooks, who ended up holding it by the neck. It was a very funny moment to Herb and the fans.

At the end of the game, the then UND athletic director, came up to me and read me the “riot act”, telling me how bad I was for such a stunt and how upset Herb Brooks was with my actions. I went to wait for Herb Brooks to apologize to him for the stunt. Herb Brooks told me, “that he never said that to our athletic director and in fact he thought it was funny and it was sure a lot better than a dead gopher.” Herb Brooks told someone to go and get the rubber chicken and he gave it back to me. Wow what a memory.

The next night the rubber chicken returned, but this time on a very long pole. The pole broke and I never got back the rubber chicken. Sure wish I still had that rubber chicken or at least the photo from the Grand Forks paper.

I have a lot of other really cool memories but this has gotten long enough for this posting.

Thank you to my RA that convinced me to attend a UND Hockey Game that has led to a lifetime of enjoyment. Never give up the chance to experience something new.

Go Fighting Sioux!

[southpaw]

Siouxman, can you tell us all about the good old days when you and Fido Purpur organized the first teams at UND?

Fido is a youngin compared to Siouxman

My freshman year was the last year in the Old Ralph... So many great memories. My first Sioux/Gophers series was in December and I was there in line at 8 am both days. I missed the next month of school because I got mono that weekend but it was totally worth it.

[GeauxSioux]

I remember leaving the bars and going to the old Ralph to wait in line for playoff tickets against Wisconsin. We weren't the first one in line by a long shot.

[wxman91]

No doubt, the 5 goal third period vs the Gophers in 1998. When Blake tied it up at 3 with the wicked wrister that beat DeBus glove side, that was the loudest I had ever heard any crowd.

[Fetch]

1987 Hrkacs circus & Ed Belfour

[70'sguy]

Thanks for starting this thread.

1. Working in the penalty box the 4 years I was a student.

2. Working in the league as an official in the 80"s allowed me to see some great games with the best college players in the country at that time.

3.The old REA allowed me to stay close to the city and University that gave me so much as a hockey fan and as a person.

I am very sad the building is going to be torn down no matter what the reason. Great memories which will never be forgotten.

Thank you Wilbur and thank you University Of North Dakota.

[Siouxman]

Siouxman, can you tell us all about the good old days when you and Fido Purpur organized the first teams at UND?

Unfortunately, there were too many refreshments to remember it all, but I will give the credit to Fido.

I could have added that the graduation ceremony was held in The Old Ralph, but I guess that was lower on my list compared to the hockey highlights. I could graduate without attending graduation, but I couldn't miss a hockey game in those days.

There was also a brawl with some team (I can't remember against who) when Craig Ludwig paired off with someone. Ludwig had knocked him out, but was holding him up on his skates. The ref would look their way and see that punches weren't being thrown, and so would watch the other skirmishes. Ludwig would land another punch and then hold him up. When it was finally over, Ludwig simply let him go and he fell to the ice.

And, there was the Farce.

We had an Electrical Engineering grad student who would wear a long trench coat, sit behind the penalty box, and verbally harass the opposing players in the box. Several tried to climb the glass to get to him.

What is funny now is that I see many of the same faces now at the games in the new Ralph, that I saw in the Old Ralph back in the 70's. They are just a bit older now.

[Wilbur]

Love reading some of the great moments so far. Keep them coming!

Loudest I've ever heard the Ralph was when the Sioux were playing BU in the 96-97 season. Chris Drury and company rolled out to a 3-1 lead after the first period, but UND scored in the third period to take a 5-4 lead and the place went nuts. Also remember Central grad Tim O'Connell getting a fighting major after a BU guy got a little too close to Aaron Schweitzer.

Memories....

[Frozen4sioux]

The 87 quarterfinal was memorable on so so so many levels.

The old ralph really needs a quality book written about it.

[108498]

The first time I saw the sioux hockey team was when I saw the championship celebration in the 90's. Following the event, I started listening to just about every game on a radio in the living room. I was to young to recall any games I attended, but I do remember getting a puck that went out of play and then a second one at Burger kingafter the game. I found the puck in the parking lot and my parents said I could have it if noone claimed it. I plan on bringing both this fall, so as you can tell no one came back to claim it that week.

[MafiaMan]

Sometime in the 1990's, I lost a puck in the parking lot of Burger King. I always hoped it would turn up someday but no luck so far...