Father of Sioux Hockey

[Greenbayguy]

Condolences to the Marvin family on the passing of Cal Marvin. He had a great impact on the game locally, nationally, and the international game.

[SiouxMeNow]

Condolences to the Marvin Family here as well. I talked to Izzy a couple of weeks ago and he said Cal wasn't doing too well but I had no idea he was so ill. Hockey has lost a great friend and pioneer - Rest in peace Cal.

[ScottM]

My codolences to the Marvin family, as well. Cal was not only a force in UND hockey, but hockey in Minnesota and across the country.

Wonder if Herbie Brooks is telling him how to play the game better ...

[dagies]

1987

On the way home from classes one day I stopped to watch hockey practice. A gentleman was also there and after a while moved over and sat next to me and introduced himself. Said his son was over to check out the team practice and was likely to play for UND. We had a nice talk about Sioux hockey. At the time I knew the name but not so much of the significance.

His name? Cal Marvin. The son was David.

Cal Marvin

Condolences to the Marvin family. Here's to Cal, a real supporter of hockey.

[SiouxMeNow]

Funeral is Saturday at 3 in Warroad - I hope the church is big.

[Greenbayguy]

I believe the arena seats about 2,500. Should be a full house.

[DMT]

Good write up in today's Forum.

WARROAD, Minn. - Calvin C. Marvin, who was inducted into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame for his 50 years of work with the sport, died at his home early Sunday. He was 80.

Marvin, whose family owns and operates Marvin Windows and Doors, established Warroad as "Hockeytown USA.," with Olympians, professional standouts and amateur stars coming out of the town of less than 2,000 residents.

"My dad made a humongous impact on the hockey world," said his son, John Marvin, 36. "His love for our town and the growth of hockey in our town was unmatched."

Cal Marvin was the youngest of five sons of lumber magnate George Marvin, who went into business in 1907. Cal Marvin went into the resort and restaurant business. His brother, Bill, was longtime chairman and chief executive officer of Marvin Windows.

In the late 1940s, Cal Marvin founded the fabled Warroad Lakers, a senior league team of post-collegiate stars that skated with the best in the world. The Lakers played host to touring national teams from Canada, Finland, Sweden and other hockey powers. The Lakers won the Allan Cup _ senior hockey's equivalent of the Stanley Cup _ in 1994, 1995 and 1996. The team folded in the late 1990s.

"These were amateur guys, guys with jobs and families," Marvin told the Star Tribune of Minneapolis in April 2003. "They got a few bucks for dinner and piled into cars and buses for long road trips.

"We laugh sometimes when they talk on TV about how hard it is for the pro teams to play three nights' running. Hell, when we played for the Allan Cup, we had to play five nights straight if we were lucky enough to win."

Marvin also helped found the men's hockey program at the University of North Dakota. He was studying at UND in 1946 when he and Dan McKinnon of Williams approached the athletic director to get a hockey team going at the university.

For more than 38 years, Marvin also wrote a weekly back-page column for the Warroad Pioneer newspaper. He wrote about the goings-on in the northern Minnesota town that's a stone's throw from the Canadian border. Topics included the arrival of new babies, fund-raisers and anything else that caught his attention.

He had said it was his way of trying to show there was more to life than hockey.

Marvin and his wife celebrated their 55th wedding anniversary last month. The couple raised 12 children.

Funeral services will be at 3 p.m. Saturday at the Gardens Arena, 707 Elk St. NW., Warroad.

[Greyeagle]

I'd like to pass my condolences along to the Marvin family as well. They are a first class group and this is a loss not only for the Marvin family, UND, and the state of MN, but for USA hockey as well.

[farce poobah]

We, collectively, as fans of Sioux hockey, owe a great measure of tribute to those who got UND Sioux hockey to where it is today.

Safe to say there'd be no hockey board on siouxsports.com if not for Cal.

(I hope there's a suitable commemoration at the next hockey game at the Ralph - the season opener - on October 22.)

Condolences to the entire Marvin family on the passing of a man who truly made a difference.

[Rick]

Not to be too picky but the Forum article makes it sound like Cal's family, which includes David & Mike, owns and operates Marvin Windows. Cal and his family have never been involved in the window company. Cal's brother, Tut and his family, have always been involved or operating the company. A few of Tut's kids (Susan, Conway) have been very involved. Susan has been the President for close to 10 years now. Conway (former Sioux hockey player) was with the company for quite a few years, but when Susan took over as President, Conway opened up Streif Sports outside of Warroad. Streif Sports is similar to a Cabelas store.

Whenever Cal spoke to groups, he always made it clear that he wasn't the Marvin associated with the window company. Cal and his family owned and operated hotels and resorts. David still operates the Can/Am and I believe they still operate The Patch also.

One of the things I'll miss most about Cal is when he would MC at Sioux boosters prior the the Gopher series. The MC job was always his during that week. There was nobody better at ripping into the Wooger than Cal. I wish they had a highlite reel of those luncheons. He will be missed. He didn't make it to many Sioux games since they moved into the new REA. But it was always easy to find him at the top row (North end) in the old REA. He always had his un-lit cigar that he would chew on throughout the game.

[Greenbayguy]

Not to be too picky Rick, but the main family that runs the window factory is Cal's brother Bill. His daughter Susan is now President. Scott and Conway are the sons of another brother of Cal's, Tut.

[Godsmack]

In what turned out to be Woog's last season as coach of Minny, I had the pleasure of hearing Cal speak at the Sioux Booster luncheon when the Gophers came to town. Cal had the audience in tears, they were laughing so hard. Woog was a very good sport about all the ribbing-even the cracks Cal made about him not being around much longer as the coach. Cal could give a speech that was so effective, you hated to see it end.

[Rick]

Not to be too picky Rick, but the main family that runs the window factory is Cal's brother Bill. His daughter Susan is now President. Scott and Conway are the sons of another brother of Cal's, Tut.

Agreed, Bill's family is the main driver of the company, but Tut was also. I only mentioned Tut's family because he had boys who played for the Sioux and Bill didn't.

I see I had a couple mistakes in my post.....(disclaimer) I've been staying at a hotel in Mpls this week and I wrote that after we'd had a few glasses of Merlot last night.

Where I said Tut's family (Susan and Conway), I meant it to be Scott and Conway. And then I was going to go on and point out that Susan is now the President.

Scott (Crunch) played for the Sioux back in my day and gave Bill Baker the "welcome wagon" treatment to the UND Winter Sports Arena in Baker's first college hockey game. Baker was a Gopher freshman and they were playing the Sioux in a pre-season game (not sure if it was called the Hall of Fame Game then). But Scott and Baker got into a fight and Crunch did quite a number on him. One of the most one-sided fights I've ever seen. It was like Commodore cleaning up on Alex Brooks (?) a few years ago. Anyway, after Crunch re-arranged Bakers face and teeth, Baker went into Dentistry.