Doug Ross (1951-2022)

Longtime University of Alabama-Huntsville hockey head coach Doug Ross (Bowling Green) passed away today at the age of 70.

Ross mentored UAH from 1985 when it was a club program, until his retirement in 2007, after starting his career at Ohio University and then Kent State University. He coached the Chargers to four NCAA Division II tournament berths and two national titles at that level, along with an NCAA Division I tournament appearance in his final year after UAH won the College Hockey America postseason tournament. He also oversaw eight Chargers teams in all that won 20 or more games in a single season, and finished with a personal overall record of 376-255-42 (.590) at UAH. 

As a player, Ross skated for three years at BGSU at forward, after one season at the NAIA level with Lake Superior State. A Detroit native, he posted two 30-goal campaigns with the Falcons, while helping them to the CCHA playoff tournament crown in 1973. He earned First Team All-CCHA status in 1974-75 after notching 34 goals and 29 assists for 63 points, and finished his career at BGSU with 65-64⁠—129 points in just 74 games in all.

Ross then skated for the 1975-76 U.S. National Team. He recorded 10-23⁠—33 points in 34 outings on the pre-Olympic tour, before adding a goal and two assists in six games at the XII Olympic Winter Games in Innsbruck, Austria as Team USA finished in fifth place. He was later inducted into the UAH Athletic Hall of Fame is 2020 as part of its inaugural class.

UAH Hockey has been on hiatus since the conclusion of the 2020-21 season, awaiting acceptance into a conference. The program played as an independent from 1985 to 1999, and again from 2010 to 2013. The Chargers went 3-18-1 in their final campaign, as part of the now-dissolved men's component of the WCHA.

Alabama-Huntsville Drops Men's NCAA Hockey Program

The death knell has sounded once again for the University of Alabama-Huntsville men’s hockey program—and this time it looks to be permanent.

Citing COVID-19/financial difficulties, UAH administration announced today that it was discontinuing the Chargers hockeyprogram, effective immediately, along with the men’s and women’s tennis teams. Scholarships will be honored if players choose to remain at UAH, while they will also be allowed to transfer to other schools without penalty.

Charger Hockey had faced the chopping block before, when the program was shut down temporarily in the fall of 2012 before being revived soon after.

The program, which was an independent at the time after the College Hockey America conference disbanded, later joined the Western Collegiate Hockey Association where it spent its final seven seasons, finishing 48-181-24 overall. The “Hockey Capital of the South” now joins the likes of Fairfield, Findlay, Illinois-Chicago, Iona, Kent State and Wayne State among the modern-era schools that dropped NCAA Division I hockey in the past few decades.

UAH went 2-26-6 for the 2019-20 season, and finished last in the WCHA. The Chargers’ last game ever was a 4-1 home loss to Bowling Green at VBC Propst Arena in Huntsville on Feb. 29. The program’s last victory came on Feb. 1, when the Chargers defeated visiting Michigan Tech, 3-1.

The Chargers began life as a club program in 1979, winning three national club championships, and then had a brief foray in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics before joining the NCAA in 1985 as a Division II independent. After two seasons at that level, UAH moved up to NCAA Division I for five seasons, also as an independent, before dropping back down to Division II, where they won NCAA national championships in 1996 and 1998 while also recording two runner-up finishes.

After NCAA Division II hockey was discontinued in 1998, the Chargers returned to Division I as an independent, where they went 21-5-1 in 1998-99 before joining the CHA for 11 years. In that span they won league regular-season championships in 2001 and 2003, and claimed two CHA postseason titles in 2007 and 2010 that also earned them automatic berths to the NCAA Division I tournament. The Chargers fell by a goal both times, to Notre Dame in double overtime in Grand Rapids, Mich., the first time, and then to Miami (Ohio) three years later in Fort Wayne, Ind. The CHA itself then dissolved in 2010, leaving the Chargers without a conference home.

UAH then spent the next three years as an NCAA Division I independent before joining the WCHA. The program’s final overall record at the NCAA varsity level was 456-570-82 (.449), with Doug Ross winning a school-record 376 NCAA games in all as head coach from 1985 to 2007. His son, Jared, played in 22 career NHL games with the Philadelphia Flyers, and scored 73 goals in four seasons (2001-2005) at UAH while playing for his father. The Chargers' most famous hockey alumnus is undoubtedly goaltender Cam Talbot, who spent three years in Huntsville (2007-2010) and has since gone on to backstop 314 NHL regular-season games with the New York Rangers, Edmonton, Philadelphia and Calgary, in which he has recorded 150 career wins along with 22 shutouts.  

Along with Alaska Anchorage and Alaska (Fairbanks), UAH was slated to be one of just three schools left in the WCHA after the 2020-21 campaign as Bemidji State, Bowling Green, Ferris State, Lake Superior State, Michigan Tech, Minnesota State and Northern Michigan were due to withdraw from the conference to form the new Central Collegiate Hockey Association.

ADDENDUM: The Chargers got a reprieve of at least one season after a week-long GoFundMe fundraising campaign that ended on May 29 netted over $500,000 in online donations.