Relevant Rewind: Alaska hockey rivalry began in 1935

Both Division I hockey programs in Alaska have a storied history of facing one another on the ice. This shouldn’t come as a surprise because of the proximity of these two teams compared to the other U.S. college hockey programs of the contiguous 48 states. The rivalry between the Alaska Nanooks and Alaska Anchorage Seawolves began in 1979. That happens to be the year when Alaska Anchorage launched its varsity men’s hockey program. The teams from Fairbanks and Anchorage faced each other eight times during that 1979-80 season. But the hockey history between these cities goes back a lot further than that. We recently discovered photos of the first game between the University of Alaska and an Anchorage team playing one another on the ice in 1935 – likely during the Fairbanks Dog Derby and Ice Carnival (Fairbanks Winter Carnival).

The University of Alaska Fairbanks’ first year of hockey was 1925. At the time, the school was known as the Alaska Agricultural College and School of Mines. The program played that one season and then discontinued hockey until 1932. Over in Anchorage, the University of Alaska Anchorage formally began its varsity hockey program in 1979 within Division II and made the leap to Division I in 1984. This photo predates the Alaska Anchorage hockey team and even the creation of the school.

The featured photo from 1935 shows a hockey game between teams from Anchorage and Fairbanks. It appears to be played in Fairbanks on the frozen Chena River according to the description of the photograph. The Northern Commercial Company building is shown on the shore in the background. The Cushman Street Bridge is out of frame to the left. Spectators would line up on the bridge during big games. This is presumably photo evidence of the first game played between the University of Alaska and a team from Anchorage, as another photo states that the 1935 team was the first hockey team organized by the city of Anchorage.

It’s highly likely this photo was taken during the Fairbanks Winter Carnival tournament in March 1935. And if so, the Alaska Agricultural College and School of Mines won the game 4-1. Several months later on July 1, 1935, the Alaska Territorial Legislature changed the institution’s name to the University of Alaska. The hockey team was referred to as the Alaska Polar Bears or U of A Polar Bears. The school changed its nickname to the Nanooks in 1963. Nanook is a derivation of nanuq, which is the Inupiaq word for polar bear.

Flash forward eighty-seven years and the two college hockey programs from these cities will play one another at the Carlson Center this weekend – less than two miles away from that 1935 meeting on the river. At this point, both teams participate as independents within Division I. It’s Alaska Anchorage’s first season back on the ice since the 2019-20 season. In fact, the Nanooks and Seawolves last played one another February 29, 2020; mere days before COVID-19 shut down that season. The teams will begin play for the Governor’s Cup this weekend. This is an award given to the winner of the most games between the two hockey programs throughout each season. While the schools formally began the rivalry on the ice in 1979 and started the Governor’s Cup in 1994, these upcoming games will be the renewal of a rivalry between cities that began nearly 90 years ago.

Photo Credit: Culhane family photographs, Archives and Special Collections, Consortium Library, University of Alaska Anchorage.