Former DU Hockey Coach Owns Hockey Team
Article originally appeared in The Coloradan in 2003 by Darrell Blair
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(left) Ralph Backstom coached the Pioneers from 1981-90 winning 182 games. In 1986 he lead the Pioneers to the Frozen Four and won the Spencer Penrose Trophy as NCAA Coach of the Year.
The idea for Larimer County's new hockey team was dreamed up eight years ago in a motel somewhere in Texas.
In February 1995, Ralph Backstrom and longtime friend Rick Kozuback spent a month driving through cities in California and Texas in search of undiscovered hockey markets. Kozuback, a founder of the Western Professional Hockey League, was to compile a report for an investor group seeking to start the new league in the western United States.
On a budget of $10,000, Backstrom and Kozuback drove from city to city, met business leaders, poured through chambers of commerce statistics and toured every facility they could find that might possibly hold a sheet of ice.
It was during this process, between hundreds of miles logged on cheap rental cars to spending every night in a budget-minded motel, that Backstrom realized he wanted into the hockey business as an owner.
"I worked with (Kozuback) and helped him get the WPHL organized," Backstrom said. "I worked several years with him as a consultant. And I said to them: 'All I want from you guys is the first right of refusal on any new facility or city you are going to be involved with.' I knew Rick had been talking to people in Fort Collins; and when he was close to signing a deal, I said: 'Well, I'm going to exercise my option. This is where I want to be.' "
Backstrom's goal was realized when he and business partner Bill Stewart signed a 10-year lease with Larimer County to create the Colorado Eagles, the 17th franchise of the Central Hockey League. It begins play in 2003 at the $27.2 million Budweiser Events Center.
Backstrom said his decision to move to the area was quick but not hastily made.
"When I spoke to Kozuback about it, it took me about three seconds," he said. "After all, I'd been looking around, and I'd been traveling for years and years."
• • •
Backstrom began his love affair with hockey as a player. He moved his way up the Canadian junior ranks to join the NHL in 1958-59 for a 15-year span, during which he won six Stanley Cups with the Montreal Canadiens. Backstrom then played in the World Hockey Association for four years and retired in 1977.
He got his start behind the bench as an assistant in 1977-78 with the Denver University Pioneers. For the 1980-81 season, Backstrom became an assistant with the Los Angeles Kings. The following season, Backstrom became the Pioneers' head coach, where he remained for nine seasons that included a coach-of-the-year-honor and a Western Collegiate Hockey Association title. Backstrom then assumed a three-year post as coach of Phoenix Roadrunners of the International Hockey League.
After he retired from coaching in 1992, Backstrom couldn't skate away. He became a vice president and commissioner after co-founding Roller Hockey International. Then in 1999, Backstrom joined the St. Louis Blues as a special assignment scout.
"Hockey is Ralph's life," Kozuback said. "In Canada in the (1960s-70s), you were either for Montreal or Toronto. Those were the only Canadian teams in the NHL, and the rest were from the United States. So, with Ralph being in Montreal, everyone knew who he was."
Kozuback and Backstrom met through coaching. While at DU, one of Backstrom's first recruiting calls each season would be made to Kozuback, coach of the Penticton Knights, a perennial Centennial Cup contender in the British Columbia Junior Hockey League.
"He didn't talk about his accomplishments — the six Stanley Cups, the Calder Cup (for NHL rookie of the year), back then. And you don't hear him talk about them now. It was always, 'I'm Ralph Backstrom of DU.'"
After two decades-plus of friendship, Kozuback said it was "automatic" to bring Backstrom on to consult with the formation of the WPHL. Little did anyone realize, however, that a scouting trip for a new league would be the catalyst for the Eagles' creation.
"It was as grassroots as you could be, two guys driving around looking for a market," Kozuback said. "We covered Ralph's expenses, and that was it. He never drew a salary from us. All he wanted was the first right to a market that he wanted. And that was Larimer County."
• • •
Ever since the WPHL formed in 1996, Kozuback and Backstrom talked about establishing hockey markets. The offers flowed in for places such as Lubbock, Texas; Phoenix; Tucson, Ariz.; and others.
Nothing fit, however.
"This is where we wanted to be because of demographics like having 600,000 people within a 30-mile radius of our building, but also because of the Colorado Avalanche and what they have done for hockey in this state," Backstrom said and then began to smile. "And largely, this is where we wanted to live, you know. Colorado's just a great place. We know it's going to be a great area to recruit players to."
Stewart, a successful stockbroker in the Denver area following his playing days, is a part owner of an East Coast Hockey League team — the Richmond Renegades. His background in hockey business operations was key, Backstrom said. But as the man with a business mind, Stewart was concerned someone else could tap the market in Larimer County. After all, Backstrom and Kozuback had only an agreement between friends.
"I remember sitting with Ralph in the car at Park Meadows and saying to him, 'How the heck do you have this market? What if someone else comes in and takes it? Or what if someone else offers additional funds to the league to get that market?' Ralph said, 'I've got a promise from Rick Kozuback,' " Stewart said. "I said, 'If you don't have anything in writing, you don't have anything. Ralph said, 'It's no problem. I have a promise from Rick.' "
Jay Hardy, director of Larimer County's fairgrounds now dubbed The Ranch, negotiated the lease for the county. He said there were several other ownership groups interested in coming to the Fort Collins area. Those groups included other leagues, though none is considered any higher a level of play than the CHL, which is two rungs below the NHL.
Still, Kozuback and Backstrom were here first.
"When I started talks with Fort Collins, it was not long after that I
introduced Ralph as a potential ownership group," Kozuback said. "He was in from the very early part of this."
And the county respected that by not negotiating with other groups after signing on with Kozuback — who kept his word to Backstrom.
"We know for a fact that there were a couple people, a couple NHL guys who have family up here, who looked at the market and asked Rick about it," Stewart said. "There was nothing in writing at that time, but he told them, 'It's gone. That's Ralph's territory.'"
• • •
The Eagles recently eclipsed the sale of their 3,000th season ticket and have a newly constructed 5,350-seat facility to look forward to opening in October. While the team has yet to play a game, Stewart and Backstrom are convinced the interest in the club is not solely because the Eagles have a brilliant shine of newness upon them.
"We feel there is enough separation between Denver and Northern Colorado, that the 48 miles from the Pepsi Center to the Budweiser Events Center is enough to create a market," Backstrom said. "We looked at (Edora Pool Ice Center) adding a second sheet of ice; Windsor with a sheet of ice; Cheyenne with a sheet of ice; there have been grumblings about Greeley getting a couple sheets of ice; so we looked into the youth system up here and there were a lot of kids playing hockey. We felt that this was an untapped market."
• • •
Backstrom is had a home built in Windsor near the Pelican Lakes Golf Course in Water Valley. He loves the area, loves looking over the lake and watching the geese from the window of his temporary office. It reminds him of home, of his native Canada where he laced up his skates and began a career that's taken him through virtually every position a person can hold related to the game of hockey.
During his 170-mile round trip from Denver to Ft. Collins, Backstrom's reminded of those 28 days in California and Texas, reminded of his decision to bypass cities and opportunities that knocked for years. He's reminded that he held out in favor of something more — something ideal.
And on most days sitting behind the wheel on Interstate 25, Backstrom is smiling.
"It's many a time I find myself saying, 'I had a great day,'" he said. "But I find that the next day I'm saying I had an even better day.
"It just keeps getting better and better."
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