Category: Alaska Anchorage Seawolves

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Posted on Posted in Alaska Anchorage Seawolves, Brown Bears, ECAC, Independents
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Brown University hosted Alaska Anchorage on Black Friday in 1990. It was the first time the Alaska Anchorage hockey program had flown to Rhode Island. In fact, the November 23, 1990, game was the first time ever that Alaska Anchorage and Brown University faced off.

The Brown Bears are one of the founding members of the ECAC and remain in that conference to this day. Alaska Anchorage was an independent program during the 1990-91 season. It was in its seventh season since elevating to Division I. Heading into the Friday match up, Brown was still looking for its first win of the season after starting 0-5-1. The team was coming off a tough 7-1 loss to its cross-town rival Providence during the 5th annual Mayor’s Cup. Things weren’t going to get any easier for Brown; the Seawolves were a national tournament team the year before. And on the horizon the following weekend were the top two teams in the ECAC at the time: Clarkson and St. Lawrence.

As for the game itself, the visiting Seawolves controlled the majority of it at Meehan Auditorium that night. The third period saw numerous penalties called on both teams. In the final minute of regulation, the Seawolves were up by two goals but down two men. Chris Kaban netted a goal for Brown to cut the lead to 6-5. Derek Chauvette then tied the score to send the game to overtime. The bonus period didn’t see any scoring, resulting in a 6-6 tie.

Black and white team photo of the 1990-91 Brown Bears.
1990-91 Brown Bears men’s hockey team

The improbable comeback spurred Brown as the Bears upset Clarkson the following week 5-2. The team would go 7-5-1 in the 13 games following this game. But in the end, Yale defeated Brown in the opening round of the ECAC tournament and the Bears finished with a 9-15-3 record. Alaska Anchorage, on the other hand, went to overtime the following night against Providence College as well but ran out of gas and lost in the extra session. It was just the third game in that all-time series after Providence visited Anchorage almost a decade prior. The Seawolves finished its 1990-91 regular season with a 20-14-4 record and received an invite to the NCAA tournament for the second season in a row. The Seawolves defeated Boston College in the best-of-three opening round series after winning the first two games against the Eagles. Eventual champion Northern Michigan defeated the Seawolves in the next round en route to the NCAA trophy.

Photo Credit: Featured photo: The Brown Daily Herald 118 (1990-11-27). Brown Daily Herald. Brown Digital Repository. Brown University Library. Secondary photo: 1990-91 Brown Bears men’s hockey team photo from the Liber Brunensis (1991 Yearbook). Brown Digital Repository. Brown University Library.

Posted on Posted in Alaska Anchorage Seawolves, Alaska Nanooks, Independents
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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.