Image courtesy of US Pond Hockey
Soon, two separate organizations will host national pond hockey championships. First, the U.S. Pond Hockey Championships — Slogan: “Hockey. The Way Nature Intended” — will take place Jan. 22-26 on Lake Nokomis in Minneapolis. Then, the USA Hockey Pond Hockey National Championships will be played Feb. 7-9 on Dollar Lake in Eagle River, Wis.
USA Hockey’s event was canceled in 2024, after unseasonably warm temperatures prevented organizers from ensuring safe playing conditions. It was the first time in the tournament’s nearly 20-year history that it was canceled for weather-related reasons. The competition began in 2006 with 40 teams on six rinks and now boasts more than 250 teams and about 2,000 players, according to event officials.
Last year’s U.S. Pond Hockey Championships went on as planned until the final days, when poor ice conditions melted the rest of the tournament. Now in its 20th year, the event is renowned for attracting former Olympians, National Hockey League players and college stars along with what championship officials refer to affectionately as “rink rats.”
Pond hockey typically is played on a natural frozen body of water, with rink dimensions that are at least half the size of a standard NHL rink. There are no boards or glass, which means players must be more adept at puck handling and skating than shooting and checking.
The origins of the sport are as murky as a frozen lake. Some accounts cite early Navajo and Cherokee Native American culture involving free men, slaves and war gods. It also supposedly was played at Native celebrations, such as when a whale was captured for food. The game stretches back to Viking explorers of the 1300s in Minnesota, according to lore shared on the U.S. Pond Hockey Championships website:
While on site in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in March of 2005, [noted University of Minnesota archeologist] Dr. [Frank] Bifflehoffer was plodding along in his quest to determine the contents of foodstuff debris in buried Viking camps he discovered ten years ago in the Lake Nokomis lowlands. Due to an uncharacteristically early spring thaw, he was able to delve deeper into the permafrost than any prior year. As Dr. Bifflehoffer was excavating in the loosened Nokomis turf, his trusty pick-axe Bertha met the earth and rang back with the sound of discovery.
Dr. Bifflehoffer excitedly gathered his entire excavation team, whereupon they exhumed an artifact that has reversed years of anthropological study and changed the course of modern civilization.
As they cleared the dirt, amidst other Viking hockey relics, Dr. Bifflehoffer’s team uncovered a pristinely preserved Golden Shovel. It was clear that it carried some significance, as it was found buried with the bones of four Viking warriors, their skeleton hands still clinging to the shaft. Dr. Bifflehoffer has surmised in his recently published position paper that the Golden Shovel is, in fact, a symbolic Viking tool, carried on their journeys as both talisman and utility.
He proposes the Vikings were a people unconcerned with the desires common to exploring conquerors — the pillage, plunder and loot lifestyle held no merit in their eyes. Instead, theirs was a journey rooted in the ideals of passion, sport and tradition. Dr. Bifflehoffer claims The Golden Shovel reveals the truth once and for all: The Vikings had left their home shores in search of the wider horizons of their fabled game — Pond Hockey.
It was this journey that brought them to Lake Nokomis, home to clear sunlit rinks and the new competition they had set out in search of. In keeping with pond hockey traditions, they would clear the rink of snow with the Golden Shovel and then offer it as the ultimate prize for all challengers. It is well known in pond hockey lore that he who possesses the shovel possesses ultimate power over the game — without it, the game is lost underneath layers of snow.
That tall tale captures the essence and allure of pond hockey: It’s a fun and pure game that brings players from all over the world to the upper Midwest in the dead of winter to embrace childhood nostalgia and friendship.
“This is our Disneyland, it really is,” one male player told SI TV in 2018, when Sports Illustrated went behind the scenes with two teams at that year’s U.S. Pond Hockey Championships. “This is the greatest weekend. I look forward to this 365 days a year. I haven’t slept for the last three or four nights; I was that excited “
“This is truly the ultimate hockey weekend and the ultimate hockey experience,” added a female player.
Even when last year’s U.S. Pond Hockey Championships were abruptly canceled, players from as far away as Belgium played pickup games at local indoor rinks — some of them organized by tournament officials, according to StarTribune.com.
“I’ve done a lot in my life, but this thing here — 80 dudes coming out to play pickup — it’s just cool,” Steve Wilson, one of several Frontiers Airlines pilots where were in Minneapolis to compete last year, said at the time.
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