Union College Now Garnet Chargers

Union College announced earlier this month it is changing its nickname to Garnet Chargers, starting with the 2023-24 school year. Garnet has been the school's primary color for a century-and-a-half. The university has also introduced a new logo to coincide with the new name.

According to USCHO.com, the Union men's hockey team, which originally began play in 1903, was known as the Skating Dutchmen until 2002, when it dropped "Skating" from the nickname. Union went on to win the 2014 NCAA Division I men's hockey national championship. 

The Union women's program started up in 1999 and switched to Skating Dutchwomen in 2002 before becoming just the Dutchwomen the following season. They Union women have never recorded a winning campaign in their short existence.

The Union men went 14-19-2 overall last season, while the women finished 11-22-1. Both remain members of ECAC Hockey. The only other NCAA Division I hockey school nicknamed "Chargers" was Alabama-Huntsville, although UAH has been dormant since May 2021.

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.

Alumnus West New Interim Coach at UAH

Lance West is the new interim head hockey coach at the University of Alabama-Huntsville.

West, who skated at forward for the Chargers from 1991 to 1995, was elevated to the head job following the resignation of head coach Mike Corbett, who had guided UAH since 2013-14, and assistant coach Gavin Morgan.

The UAH hockey program, which has more than 40 years of history from the club level to the NCAA, last month was terminated for the second time in a decade due to financial concerns, including those sparked by the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. A major public fundraising campaign brought in more than a half-million dollars in under one week to help enable the Chargers to play at least the 2020-21 campaign, which will be their last in the current WCHA before seven of its teams leave the conference to form their own league.

UAH went 48-181-24 altogether in Corbett's seven seasons at the helm, including 2-26-6 overall in 2019-20. In their history, the Chargers have earned two NCAA Division II national titles (1996, 1998) and two NCAA Division I tournament berths (2007, 2010).

West, 49, served as an assistant coach at Alaska (Fairbanks) from 2007 to 2018 before overseeing the Nanooks as their interim head coach for 2017-18. The British Columbia native then returned as an assistant to Huntsville, the place where he recorded 45 goals and 68 assists for 113 points to go along with 100 penalty minutes in 108 career outings with the Chargers.

West ranks 15th-time in career points at UAH, and also tallied a pair of hat tricks in his time with the Chargers. Immediately after finishing his collegiate playing career, he spent 10 seasons as a volunteer/assistant coach with his alma mater before going to Fairbanks.

ADDENDUM: On July 22, UAH elevated West to permanent head coach of the Chargers.

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.

Talbot Wins First Game as Flyers' Eighth Goalie

Cam Talbot (Alabama-Huntsville) helped make NHL history on Friday night in New Jersey. He became the eighth netminder to play a game this season for the Philadelphia Flyers, setting a new league single-team standard, and made 30 saves in his Flyers debut as his new team defeated the host Devils, 6-3.

Talbot, 31, was acquired by Philadelphia last month from the Edmonton Oilers in exchange for goaltender Anthony Stolarz (Nebraska-Omaha). The former UAH netminder had posted a record of 137-110-24 and a 2.59 goals-against average in 284 career NHL regular-season appearances with the New York Rangers and the Oilers prior to the trade.

A native of Caledonia, Ont., Talbot turned pro in 2009-10 as a free agent with Hartford (AHL), where he played for most of the next three seasons. He played three years at UAH (2007-2010), where he went 15-44-6 in 70 games with a 3.03 GAA and also helped the Chargers to the 2010 NCAA Tournament his final collegiate campaign.

Former NCAA Netminders Traded in NHL

Two former NCAA netminders were traded for each other on Friday, with Cam Talbot (Alabama-Huntsville) going to the Philadelphia Flyers and Anthony Stolarz (Nebraska-Omaha) heading to the 
Edmonton Oilers in turn.

Talbot, 31, has posted a record of 137-110-24 and a 2.59 goals-against average in 284 career NHL regular-season appearances with the New York Rangers and the Oilers, from 2013 to the present. A native of Caledonia, Ont., he turned pro in 2009-10 as a free agent with Hartford (AHL), where he played for most of the next three seasons. He played three years at UAH (2007-2010), where he went 15-44-6 in 70 games with a 3.03 GAA and helped the Chargers to the 2010 NCAA Tournament his final collegiate campaign.

Stolarz, 25, has played a career-high 12 NHL contests so far this season, going 4-3-3 with one shutout for Philadelphia. In 19 career NHL contests, all with the Flyers, he has gone 6-4-4 with a 2.86 GAA. A native of Edison, N.J., and a second-round draft choice of Philadelphia in 2012, he played eight NCAA games with UNO in 2012-13, winning twice with the Mavericks, before joining London (OHL), where he won 38 games over two major junior seasons before turning pro with Lehigh Valley (AHL) in 2014-15.

Former UAH Netminder to Make NHL Debut Tonight

 
Former University of Alabama-Huntsville goaltender Cam Talbot will make his NHL debut tonight when the New York Rangers visit the Philadelphia Flyers. He will play in place of injured regular and 2012 Vezina Trophy winner Henrik Lundqvist.

"It's every kid's dream that grows up playing hockey to one day get the chance to play in the NHL," said Talbot in a game preview at NJ.com. "I just can't wait until that time comes. I'll have to approach it like any other game. It'll be tough to control those emotions, but I'll have to do my best to settle myself down and just focus on the game."

A native of Caledonia, Ont., Talbot, 26, played at UAH from 2007 to 2010. In three seasons with the Chargers, he posted a 15-44-6 record in 70 games with a 3.03 goals-against average, .909 save percentage, and three shut-outs. He also also led the Chargers to the final College Hockey America crown with a 43-save effort in the 2010 league title game against Niagara, and then closed out his college career with 36 stops in a 2-1 loss to Miami in an NCAA Midwest Regional semifinal, according to his career stats at USCHO.com.

After turning pro with Hartford (AHL) in 2010, playing in one game, the undrafted Talbot went 11-9-2 with the Wolfpack in 22 games (2.84, .902) the following season, according to hockeydb.com. He then played in 33 games with Connecticut (AHL) in 2011-12, finishing with a 14-15-1 record (2.61, .913) , before going 25-28-1 in a career-high 55 appearances (2.63, .918) with the Whale last season.

Face-off tonight at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia is slated for 7 p.m.

Corbett Takes Charge with UAH Chargers

Mike Corbett is the new head hockey coach at the University of Alabama-Huntsville.

The long time Air Force Academy associate/assistant  coach, who also interviewed for the Alaska Anchorage job that eventually went to  Matt Thomas, took over at UAH earlier this week from Kurt Kleinendorst, who resigned after one year in Huntsville to pursue professional coaching opportunities.

A Green Bay native, Corbett earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Denver where he played four seasons on the Pioneer blueline (1993-1997) and was a two-time all-conference academic team choice. He then spent four seasons as a junior head coach in the American West Hockey League before returning to the college ranks at AFA in 2003.

Corbett, 41, served as the primary defensive coach during his 10-year tenure at Air Force, and also helped the Falcons to five Atlantic Hockey tournament championships and five NCAA tournament appearances. Those national berths included the East Region final in 2009, where AFA came within an overtime goal of going to the Frozen Four.

UAH begins the 2013-14 campaign, its first in the revamped Western Collegiate Hockey Association, on Oct. 11-12 at Northeastern.

Maine Hires Gendron as Head Coach

Maine hired former assistant Dennis “Red” Gendron this week as head coach to replace the ousted Tim Whitehead. Gendron was on the staff of Maine’s first NCAA title team in 1993, and also coached in the New Jersey Devils organization. He then moved on to Massachusetts before spending the last two seasons at Yale,  garnering a second national championship ring in April with the Bulldogs.

With Mike Cavanaugh having been hired at UConn earlier this month, one of the last open head coaching positions in the Division I men’s ranks is at Alaska Anchorage, which assembled a new committee, including UAA hockey program founder Kelvin “Brush” Christiansen, to name a successor to Dave Shyiak. The former Northern Michigan skater was let go by the Seawolves after eight seasons and has been embroiled in some controversy lately involving an incident during his tenure at UAA.

Shyiak is still seeking a new coaching job along with Mark Osiecki and George Gwozdecky, who were released by Ohio State and Denver, respectively, this off-season. Osiecki spent three years at OSU after assisting at his alma mater of Wisconsin. Fellow Badgers alum Gwozdecky was not retained at Denver after 19 seasons with the Pioneers, including NCAA championships in both 2004 and 2005.

As reported tonight at USCHO.com, UAA athletic director Steve Cobb has been relieved of his duties. He had earlier received votes of no confidence from both the Anchorage youth hockey community and an alumni group of former Seawolf players.

The site is also reporting that the head coaching job at Alabama-Huntsville has just opened up after Kurt Kleinendorst stepped down after one season at the helm of the Chargers. UAH will join former independent foe UAA in the revamped Western Collegiate Hockey Association this fall.

WCHA Accepts UAH for 2013-14

The University of Alabama-Huntsville finally has a new hockey home.

The Chargers, who have been an independent since College Hockey America disbanded in 2010, and who were nearly reduced to club status last season, accepted an invitation today to join the Western Collegiate Hockey Association for the 2013-14 campaign.

UAH, which made the NCAA Division I Tournament in both 2007 and 2010, will join Alaska Anchorage, Alaska (Fairbanks), Bemidji State, Bowling Green, Ferris State, Lake Superior State, Michigan Tech, Minnesota State and Northern Michigan in the new WCHA starting this fall.

Huntsville Goes with Kleinendorst

The University of Alabama-Huntsville hockey program, still seeking a conference home after competing the last two seasons as an NCAA Division I independent, has turned to the professional ranks for its next bench boss.

UAH announced last week that it had hired Kurt Kleinendorst, who spent the last two seasons coaching Binghamton (AHL), as its new head coach. He replaces Chris Luongo, a former Michigan State and NHL player who guided the Chargers for the past two years.

"It was something I had been kind of thinking about and now everything has worked out," said Kleinendorst recently at al.com.

A native of Grand Rapids, Minn., Kleinendorst, 51, played four years at Providence College (1979-1983) for current New Jersey Devils President/GM Lou Lamoriello, and tallied 89 goals and 103 assists for 192 points in 123 collegiate games while earning All-America accolades. Drafted by the New York Rangers (77th overall ) in 1980, Kleinendorst played six years of minor-league hockey before turning to the coaching ranks with Raleigh (ECHL) in 1991.

He was part of the Devils' system for nine years, including a stint as head coach of the AHL's Lowell Devils (2006-09), and has also coached in Europe and with the U.S National Team Development Program in his career. He was also an assistant coach in New Jersey during the 2001-02 NHL campaign..

His predecessor, Luongo, inherited  a tough job at UAH when he succeeded fellow Michigan State grad Danton Cole in 2010, after the Chargers had made their second-ever NCAA Division I Tournament appearance. UAH managed only six wins over the past two seasons, with the threat of being dropped as a varsity sport coming dangerously close to reality last year.

It's not known why UAH decided to let Luongo go, who is a class act, and he's wished well; but maybe the hiring of Kleinendorst signals that the university is making a committment to have the "Hockey Capital of the South" stick around a while.

His old college coach believes so.

"There is no question in my mind that Kurt will be a decided asset to the University of Alabama-Huntsville hockey team both on and off the ice, and help UAH in their pursuit of a major Division I hockey conference affiliation," said Lamoriello at the UAH athletic web site.

Reprieve for Alabama-Huntsville?

Don't bury the UAH Chargers just yet.

A story in the Huntsville Times on Tuesday explained that the new president at the University of Alabama-Huntsville, Robert Altenkirch, sat down with members of the Save UAH Hockey group—and a plan is now supposedly underway to possibly save the school's long running NCAA Division I hockey program, which was to be dropped as a varsity sport next year.

University chancellor Malcolm Portera had said in October that the Charger hockey team would be disbanded at the close of the current season due to financial constraints and likely reduced to club status. UAH, which will host the 2012 NCAA Frozen Four in Tampa, has also been without a league home since the College Hockey America conference dissolved in 2010.

The Chargers applied to the Central Collegiate Hockey Association for membership afterwards, but were rejected. The CCHA itself will cease to exist in the fall of 2013 when the new Big Ten Conference and the National Collegiate Hockey Conference, which both absorbed several CCHA teams, begin play. The remaining CCHA schools have been accepted into the Western Collegiate Hockey Association.

Financial details of the plan(s) to save the UAH hockey program are expected to be released over the next few days. UAH goaltender Clarke Saunders has apparently committed to North Dakota for the 2012-13 campaign, since it was believed there would be no varsity UAH team after this year. Generally, transfer students do not have to sit out a year of NCAA competition when a program folds; but whether Saunders returns to UAH if the program does, has yet to be revealed.

Goodbye, UAH

Media sources in Alabama have been saying that the University of Alabama-Huntsville is all but ready to announce on Monday that it will be dropping men's ice hockey as an NCAA Division I sport at the end of the 2011-12 campaign:

http://www.al.com/sports/index.ssf/2011/10/future_of_alabama-huntsville_h.html

http://saveuahhockey.com/2011/10/23/portera-will-reportedly-end-program-on-monday/

Thirty years of tradition down the proverbial drain. A sad day for UAH and especially for college hockey.

I wrote about the Chargers' predicament for USCHO.com back in August when the program was on the chopping block. I wasn't able to talk with UAH interim president Malcolm Portera on the phone, but he did send me the following e-mail message:

"I have no comment to make about the hockey program at UAH. The harsh economic realities that face all of higher education have motivated us to look at our entire athletic program. We are in the process of doing this. I am sorry, but this isn't an appropriate time to be commenting."

Two months later, and just one week before Portera steps down, and the UAH hockey program is gone - or at least, downgraded from varsity to club status. For all intents and purposes, that's being dropped.

I was working at Montclair State University several years ago when several NCAA Division III sports were (temporarily) downgraded to club status, including wrestling and men's lacrosse. Practically none of the MSU student-athletes welcomed the change in status - no one looked forward to competing against club teams, after facing off with other schools at the intercollegiate level.

It won't be any different at UAH, despite what some administrators are saying or even believing. Playing Alabama or Tennessee at the club hockey level will be nowhere near the same as facing off against Michigan or Michigan State in an NCAA Division I contest.

Division I hockey isn't an inexpensive endeavor, and the Chargers didn't draw huge crowds to the Von Braun Center, which was a neat facility when I visited it many years ago for a two-game series as a part of the Alaska Fairbanks entourage. The Huntsville fans were very much into the games, too, and UAH really had something unique going as the self-proclaimed "Hockey Capital of the South."

For a few more months, anyway. Like Fairfield, Findlay, Iona, Illinois-Chicago, Kent and Wayne State before it, Alabama-Huntsville (1979-2012) deserved a better fate.

Alabama-Huntsville Still Seeking New League of its Own

With all the recent upheaval in the NCAA Division I college hockey ranks, Alabama-Huntsville is still seeking a new conference to call home after College Hockey America dissolved last year and the Chargers were subsequently spurned by the CCHA.

With Michigan, Michigan State and Ohio State off to the Big Ten in 2013, and Miami (and possibly Notre Dame and Western Michigan) headed to the National Collegiate Hockey Conference, might UAH be a good fit for what remains of the CCHA? That remains to be seen, or if the Chargers would be admitted to a reconstituted WCHA that absorbs the remaining CCHA survivors. Not sure if Atlantic Hockey would be a fit for UAH with its 12 scholarship limit, but the Chargers do need to find a new league within the next few years to remain viable.

Twenty years ago it wasn't a problem being an independent, with UAH playing the likes of the two Alaska schools, Air Force, Army and Notre Dame on a regular basis, sort of like a de facto league with its own NCAA Tournament berth. Going it solo on the independent route today, with everyone else carrying some sort of conference affiliation, is tough, especially after New Year's when conference schools are all tied up playing each other.

You can read more about the UAH program and some possibilities for it here:

http://www.uscho.com/2011/08/15/lone-independent-alabama-huntsville-sees-opportunity-in-conference-shuffle/