When Hunter and I arrived at Grand Casino Arena for the World Juniors the day after Christmas, we soon found out that, back home, Dale Haagenson had been stricken with a stroke the day before.
The man we all called “Hoagie” was in the hospital, and it did not sound like a great situation. Over the course of time, we would learn that Hoagie had suffered a serious stroke, and recovery from such things is rarely if ever linear. It’s also not guaranteed.
Things haven’t been the same around the building. Hoagie was a constant presence at the rink during the week, at practices, on off days, and of course during games. Very few game days went by without a visit from the Hall of Famer (UMD Class of 2017) in the booth.
Fast forward to Tuesday night, when word was received that Hoagie passed away. The tributes have flown in from all over, as you would expect.
Grief is hard to deal with, hard to heal from, and very far from a linear thing. But both UMD hockey teams have some massive games this weekend, and both talked this week about the importance of both honoring their friend and playing well this weekend (which, given the competitive nature of Hoagie, would serve to do the former).
9 THOUGHTS
1. Everyone has a story about meeting Hoagie for the first time. For UMD men’s coach Scott Sandelin, that memory goes back more than four decades.
“I was on a recruiting visit here,” the Hibbing native and North Dakota alum said. “And I think that was the year that he first came on (1981). So met him briefly. You knew and even back when I was playing and then obviously coaching, seeing him around the rink all the time, but it’s to have him around every day and just, it’s just amazing to me, the impact he’s had on so many people.”
Women’s captain MK O’Brien told a fun story about her first encounter with Hoagie.
“It was my freshman year,” she said, “and myself, Jenna Lawry and one of our teammates went over to one of the men’s houses to take an exam for our business class. And Hoagie had come over to their house and he had had tater tot hot dish with him. It was very hard to try and take that exam with Hoagie in the background. But I learned really quickly how he could light up a room and just how much he meant to everybody.”
“Whether it was him giving you a knuckles before a game for good luck or him shaking your hand after a victory or high-fiving you after a goal, he was always there,” UMD women’s coach Laura Schuler said. “Just such a loving, genuine person, and he made our team better. He gave us energy every single day.”
2. I asked the Bulldogs coaches and captains, among other things, to talk about Hoagie’s competitive nature.
The man loathed losing.
Sandelin came through with a gem.
“Oh, he didn’t like losing,” Sandelin said. “Not at all. There’s lots of times I’d go in and talk between periods and he’d follow me right in there and I sometimes I get mad at him. I’m like ‘I wish you would have went first. And then I wouldn’t have to do it.’
“But very passionate, very passionate. I still remember one time up in Alaska Anchorage, we weren’t playing well. Hoags really got the guys fired up, like he laid into them and. We went out and won the game and I attribute a lot of it to him going in there and getting the guys fired up, just guys seeing his passion and his love for the program.”
“I think that’s one of the reasons why we wanted him to come on the road as much as possible with us to have his spirit with us,” Schuler said. “He was always so good at getting the girls pumped before games, with our starting lineups. If we weren’t playing well, he’d come in and he’d let them know, and I think our girls really looked up to who he was as a person. Someone that just had so much pride and passion and it was like always a constant reminder of just why you wore the jersey.”
3. Your friendly correspondent knew Hoagie before he met Hoagie. Back in the day when I had a three-hour talk show and took calls on an almost daily basis, there wasn’t a week that went by without Hoagie checking in. Could have been about UMD, sure, but it was just as likely something to do with the Vikings or Twins (the Wild didn’t exist yet, and the Wolves were still a few years from being good).
By the time I started calling games in 2005 and was a regular at the rink, Hoagie knew and remembered me from the radio. Not that it would have mattered, as he welcomed everyone in just the same.
“It’s tough that that’s not reality anymore,” men’s senior captain Joey Pierce said of this immeasurable loss for the program. “The team’s helping me, we’re helping each other. But yeah, it’s pretty tough right now.”
I’ve struggled a bit to come up with a lot of words on the man. I feel like words don’t describe him. I’ve seen some pictures and videos from various alumni, mostly on Instagram, that help give people a glimpse into Hoagie’s personality and character. But for me, Hoagie was someone to be experienced. All of us who had the chance are better people for having done so.
More importantly, UMD is a better place for it.
4. Some have asked about the occasional shout-outs I’d throw his way, especially during road games. Hoagie didn’t travel everywhere, and he heard me shout him out once (unsolicited) during a road game he wasn’t at.
I created a monster. He started making sure I’d know what trips he wasn’t on. He was looking for a shout-out, and who was I not not oblige? As Sandelin said Wednesday, this guy could have been mayor if he ever wanted to. You don’t say no to someone like that!
Eventually, it would become a deal where we’d coordinate the time in the game where I’d say hi to him, based on what else he had going on that particular weekend. If the women were at home, he’d go to their games and want me to wait until after. One weekend, the game was high-event and I forgot, which turned into me putting a reminder in my phone for the agreed-upon time.
5. As I already said, grief is not linear. Anyone who has ever experienced a loss can tell you that. It ebbs and flows, with good memories and good days sometimes and unpredictably giving way to tougher days full of sadness.
As this Thursday flows, both the UMD men and women will embark on road trips for very important games. The men head to Oxford, Ohio, with a chance to seal home ice in the first round of the NCHC playoffs if things go well. The women make their way to Minneapolis, with one more chance to hopefully move further up the ladder and onto the right side of the NCAA Tournament bubble before the WCHA playoffs start next weekend.
Without asking, I would assume both Miami and Minnesota will hold a moment of silence for Hoagie before Friday’s games. But besides that, there’s little chance either the RedHawks men or Gophers women will be in a charitable mood for their grieving opponents.
It’s the nature of the beast. All these points matter, all these games are important, and UMD needs to channel its (understandably high) emotions to play inspired hockey this weekend.
Everyone on Wednesday’s Zoom media conferences talked about playing well, being inspired by Hoagie.
6. For the women, it is one more chance to record a win against a ranked opponent. There are four teams ranked above UMD in the current NPI who have played UMD this season. The Bulldogs own only a tie against Wisconsin, otherwise they are 0-10 in those games. Lots of close games in there, yes, but losses are losses. The NPI cares not about the tight margins.
Minnesota has been missing star forward Abbey Murphy at the Olympics. Murphy plays Thursday afternoon for the U.S. against Canada for gold, and we aren’t sure when she will return to Minneapolis.
“They’re still electric,” Schuler said of the Murphy-less Gophers she’s seen the last couple weeks. “They still they still have such quality, good players. I thought we played them really close the last time we played them with Abbey Murphy. I’m excited to play them. I like how our team has been playing. And a big focus for us has been our battle mentality and our consistency from period to period. I feel like we’re a better team today than we were even towards the beginning of the season when we first played them.”
7. The men head to resurgent Miami. Anthony Noreen brought in 21 new players and has led a Miami renaissance this season, a 14-win improvement with four games left in the regular season.
“Anthony has done a good job there (in his) second year,” Sandelin said. “They changed over the team. He’s got the players he wants and instilled the way he wants to play. Obviously they had a real good start to the year, which certainly helps build your confidence and they’re an extremely hard team to play against from what I’ve watched. They’ve got some very talented players.”
The RedHawks struggled to draw to the small-ish Goggin Ice Center in recent years, but their last home weekend (a split against Western Michigan) featured two over-capacity crowds and an environment not seen at Miami in a long time, since its infancy in the NCHC. Miami won the league playoff in its first year, then won the league regular season title the year after that, led by future NHLers like Austin Czarnik, Sean Kuraly, and Blake Coleman.
“It’s a great building,” Sandelin said. “When those teams were there, you knew how hard it was to win in that building. Very intense, very physical, they had a ton of skilled players. You knew you were in for a tremendous battle every every night you played there. I know there’s a lot of times we’ve been there where either students have been on break or it’s been not as full, so it’ll be a good weekend for that to see that again. Hopefully it adds to the intensity in the atmosphere. Obviously is going to be great, so hopefully we can feed off that, too.”
8. The Penrose Cup could be claimed by North Dakota this weekend, as the Fighting Hawks are home to face St. Cloud State. It’s the Huskies’ final weekend of regular season play, as they will be off next week before the playoffs begin March 6. So UMD could take a big step toward home ice this weekend, and could actually clinch home ice advantage for the quarterfinals if things go well.
North Dakota leads Denver by one point, but the Pioneers don’t play this week. Western is six points back, and the Broncos are hoping they can keep UND in striking distance this weekend before those teams meet next week in Kalamazoo.
Western Michigan plays at Colorado College this weekend, and taking points will do damage to CC’s outside chance at a top four finish.
Omaha travels to Arizona State for this weekend’s other games.
9. Finally, back to Hoagie. A public celebration of life is noon Tuesday at Amsoil Arena. We hope to see you there.
You can also help. A GoFundMe has been set up to help offset some of the expenses associated with Hoagie’s funeral and public memorial.
In the meantime, celebrate by living the way Hoagie lived. With passion, vigor, and by bringing people together. Be fiercely loyal to those who are most important to you. And make time for the kids.
______
4pm pregame Friday, 4:30pm Saturday. Should be an emotional weekend in Oxford, hope you’ll join us on the radio.
Back pregame with lines.
Comments