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History of the Spirit of Duluth Hockey Tournament For a number of years prior to 1977, Duluth Traveling Teams at the Pee Wee, Bantam, and Midget levels were invited to tournaments throughout Minnesota and Canada without the ability to reciprocate and host tournaments of their own. This was do to the lack of access to suitable arenas having artificial ice. With the installation of artificial ice at DAHAs Peterson Arena in 1975 and the opening of the Pioneer Hall Annex in 1977, coupled with the Duluth Arena and the old curling club already in existence, the stage was set to host a tournament. All that was needed was for someone to start the ball rolling. On a spring night in 1977, three gentlemen active in both the Lester Park Hockey Program and the Traveling Team Program met in the home of Mike Savard. They were Don Holm, Norm Mangan and Mike Savard. The purpose of their meeting was to discuss the need for a major Traveling Team Tournament in Duluth. Now having four arenas available, it was proposed to host 16 Pee Wee, 16 Bantam and 16 Midget teams and therefore attempt to return the favor for all the tournaments that Duluth teams had attended. Knowing they could rely on the services of the various traveling team coaches and managers and the willingness of many persons interested in youth hockey they laid the groundwork for a tournament of this magnitude. Before adjourning for the evening, Norm Mangan suggested a name, based on Spirit Mountain in the western part of the city and indicative of the renewed vitality of Duluth in its program of upgrading itself and attracting outside business and tourism. Thus the Spirit of Duluth Invitational Hockey Tournament was born. Don Holm volunteered to chair the Tournament Committee, Norm Mangan to serve as co-chairman and Mike Savard to schedule the games and head the referees. A meeting of all interested parties was scheduled and from that meeting, the first Tournament Committee was set up and the Tournament itself was off the ground and on its way. With all due allowance for the authors memory (some of the records of the early years having been misplaced) the original tournament committee is as follows:
Don Holm, Chairman - now inactive Norm Mangan, Co-Chairman - deceased Mike Savard - now inactive Glenn Stevens - deceased Jim Korp - still active Bill Crom still active Chuck Lund now inactive Floyd Boettcher still active Dick Stewart still active Bill Cortes now inactive Larry Duncan now inactive Larry Penick now inactive Randy Lasky now inactive Frank Holappa now inactive Bill Mattson now inactive John Sjogren now inactive A format for the Tournament was set up that is still followed to this day. The three Divisions (Pee Wee, Bantam and Midget) to be divided into brackets of 4 teams, each team playing the other teams in their respective brackets, thus guaranteeing 3 games for all teams. Bracket winners would then advance to semi-finals and finals. All games would be 3 periods of 15 minute stop, no overtimes except in semi-finals and finals. This insured all games to be started on time and all teams guaranteed 3 games of 15 minute stop periods. This format has been one of the attractions of this tournament. To provide interesting competition at all levels, teams were invited from not only Northern and Southern Minnesota, but also from other states and parts of Canada. This too has attracted the interest in this tournament over the years. Teams have represented Superior, Green Bay and Madison, Wisconsin; Marquette, Michigan; Des Moines, Iowa; Chicago, Illinois; Seffern, New York; Steinbach and Winnipeg, Manitoba; Kenora, Thunder Bay and Ste. Marie, Ontario; along with teams from throughout Minnesota. To put on a tournament of this size and quality takes the help of many volunteers, starting with the 15-20 who make up the tournament committee plus the 150 to 200 people needed during the tournament itself. These are your ticket sellers, novelty sellers, scorekeepers, arena helpers, team hosts, paramedics and registration room helpers. Most are mothers and fathers of traveling team players or former traveling team players. Many have not had children in the program for years and some never had children in the program. To all past and present, go our thanks. Without them the tournament would never had made it through the first year. To coordinate all of these activities takes a chairman. The following is a list of the tournament chairmen from 1977 to 2001:
Don Holm 1977 John Sjogren 1978, 1979 John Schweiger 1980, 1981 Bill Crom 1982, 1983, 1984 Bill McEwen 1985, 1986 Floyd Boettcher 1987, 1988, 1989 Bill Ion 1990, 1991 Gus Peterson 1992, 1993 Lloyd Luke 1994, 1995 Craig Witchell 1996, 1997 Gregory J. Bohlman 1998, 1999 Dennis J. Mackay 2000, 2001, 2002 John Moline - 2003, 2004 Mike Stemper - 2005 - present They will tell you whatever credit they might have received for a successful tournament was due to the excellence of the committee members serving under them. The stock answer at any tournament committee meeting, when a Director of a sub-committee is asked how things are going in his area, is: "Its all taken care of," and sure enough, at tournament time, everything falls into place. Over the years certain changes have taken place and some innovations tried. In 1979, the curling club was no longer available resulting in cutting the Midget Division to 8 teams. This situation continued until 1981. That year the Midget Division was dropped and the Pee Wee and Bantams went to 20 teams in their divisions, 4 brackets of 5 teams. This was continued through 1982. Because of the possibility of a team winning its bracket without playing any team within its bracket and the adverse criticism resulting from this, the divisions were cut back to 16 teams in 1983. That year also came the use of DAHAs Fryberger Arena for the first time, Peterson not being used. 1984 saw the use of both Fryberger and Peterson Arenas plus the Duluth Arena and Pioneer Hall and the reinstatement of an 8 team Midget Division (Minnesota only). 1985 saw the tournament shared the Duluth Arena and Pioneer Hall with the UMD Bulldogs and the visiting Boston College Eagles. This resulted in 6am games and shortened time between games. In 1986, there was no scheduling conflicts and the tournament schedule and format is as it was in 1984. In 1997 and 1998, girls Pee Wee hockey was included as part of the tournament. In 2000, a conflict developed between the tournament and the UMD mens and womens hockey teams. This has resulted in what appears to be a permanent change from the main ice arena at the DECC to the Mars Lakeview arena at the Marshall School. The tournament schedule and format remain the same as it has from the beginning of the tournament. Other issues have resulted from the differences between MAHA age classifications and those of AHAUS and CAHA. In 1984, MAHA went to the previous September 1 for a cut-off date, making its players up to 3 months older than out of state teams. In 1985, AHAUS and CAHA moved its age classifications back one entire year to the pervious January 1. This put Minnesota teams at a decided disadvantage in our tournament; being up to 9 months younger than out of state teams. Because of the feedback from Minnesota teams on this matter, this years tournament requires all teams to conform to MAHA age classifications. Over the years, the Spirit of Duluth Hockey tournament has had a tremendous economic impact on the city of Duluth. It is estimated that the Spirit of Duluth tournament brings in over 1.5 million dollars yearly to the Duluth economy. All profits from the tournament help to fund the traveling teams in Duluth, currently the 3 Pee Wee, 3 Bantam and 1 Jr. Gold teams directly benefit from the tournament.
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