Hockey attendance record falls at Michigan Stadium
December 11, 2010
ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP)—Michigan and Michigan State set a world record forattendance at a hockey game, playing in front of 113,411 at Michigan Stadium.
The school announced the attendance during the third period of Michigan’s5-0 victory Saturday. A representative from Guinness World Records was on handto verify the record. The previous mark for a hockey game was 77,803 at thisyear’s world championship in Germany.
This was also the largest crowd to see any event at Michigan Stadium,surpassing the 113,090 for a football game earlier this year.
The hockey game—dubbed “The Big Chill at the Big House”—took placenine years after the same two teams played another outdoor game at MichiganState’s football stadium. Since then, the idea has been copied at the collegelevel and by the NHL.
Former DU coaching great Armstrong dies
December 10, 2010
DENVER (AP)—Murray “The Chief” Armstrong, the former NHL player whocoached the University of Denver to five NCAA championships, has died. He was94.
The University of Denver says Armstrong died Wednesday in St. Augustine,Fla., following complications from a series of strokes.
Armstrong’s teams won NCAA championships in 1958, 1960, 1961, 1968 and 1969.He also led the Pioneers to eight Western Collegiate Hockey Association titlesand had a 460-215-31 record in 21 seasons from 1956 to 1977.
Armstrong was selected the WCHA coach of the year twice. Before coaching, heplayed nine seasons in the NHL for the Toronto Maple Leafs, New York Americansand Detroit Red Wings.
Outdoor hockey game should set attendance mark
December 9, 2010
ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP)—At the edge of a hockey rink surrounded by tens ofthousands of empty seats, Michigan’s Louie Caporusso paused to try to imaginethe dazzling scene that awaits him.
“I keep thinking about it,” said Caporusso, a senior on the Wolverines.“I’m like: ‘Are they actually coming, or is this just a joke? Are they actuallygoing to fill these stands? Because it’s a lot of people.”’
That’s true. On Saturday, Michigan and Michigan State will play a hockeygame inside the cavernous confines of Michigan Stadium and the plan to set thesport’s world attendance record seems like a certainty. The stadium’s listedcapacity is 109,901 and the event is a sellout.
Earlier this year, Germany hosted a game at the world championship in frontof 77,803 in Veltins Arena.
“We’ve tried not to think too much about this game, but it has kind ofdominated everything,” Michigan State coach Rick Comley said. “I would think,if they really draw the people they say they’re going to draw, that it will be arecord that’s going to be really, really hard for people to touch.”
It’s being called “The Big Chill at the Big House,” and although this ishardly the first event of its kind, the huge fan turnout should make thisoutdoor hockey game unique. It’s fitting that Michigan State will be theopponent. In 2001, the Spartans hosted Michigan in a hockey game at theirfootball stadium in front of 74,544 people.
Since then, the idea has been copied both at the college level and by theNHL.
“When we did it, I kind of equated it to the Apollo,” Michigan Stateathletic director Mark Hollis said. “It’s a heck of a lot easier now, with thetechnology that they have in place. … From our end, every time we see anotherone happen, we feel pretty good about it, that we started that at MichiganState.”
Playing outdoors requires plenty of adjustments. With snow very much apossibility, the ice might not be in great shape.
And then there’s the wind.
“You’re skating into the wind sometimes, and you feel like you’re goingreally slow,” Caporusso said. “You’ve just got to tell yourself you haven’tgotten any slower. It’s just the wind.”
For Michigan forward Luke Moffatt, the experience already seems a bitsurreal. He grew up in Arizona.
“I didn’t exactly play a lot of pond hockey,” he said.
The game starts at 3 p.m., and the university recently approved a $1.8million project to add permanent lights at the stadium, which will host itsfirst night football game next year. The school has been using temporary lightsfor football games that ended after dusk.
The hockey game will give Ann Arbor a chance to enjoy one more big gamedaybefore the end of the year.
“It’s historic,” Michigan athletic director Dave Brandon said. “It’s theequivalent of another major football game.”
Michigan is trying to make the game as much of a community event aspossible, allowing high school and youth teams to play at the stadium. There’seven an open skating session for the public Sunday.
Although the game has been in the works pretty much all year, there arestill a lot of unknowns. The weather is always a wild card, and although thecrowd will be huge, fans will be pushed back quite a bit from the rink, which ison a football field, after all. Nobody is quite sure how the roar of more than100,000 fans might compare to a normal Michigan home game at Yost Ice Arena,which holds 6,637.
Moffatt is looking forward to finding out.
“I have no clue,” Moffatt said. “Football games are loud and stuff, butnow we’re talking 10-degree weather out here, and people are going to beshivering the whole time.
“Who knows what it’s going to be like? I’m sure there will be so muchadrenaline, you won’t even really notice it.”
