(above) DU will play in the $100 million "Taj Mahal" of college hockey this weekendFrom: New York Times
by Joe LaPointe
GRAND FORKS, N.D. - When the Red River rose and flowed across the flat land eleven years ago, people fled and viewed the flood damage on television from miles away. They saw rooftops surrounded by rising water and downtown buildings burning. "Come hell or high water," said the headline. Who knew what would replace the devastation?
Today, among the new buildings and the new dikes, there stands an incongruous jewel of an ice box called the Ralph Engelstad Arena, a seven-year-old hockey rink that is the home of the University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux, a perennial power of American college hockey.
"This is the Taj Mahal," said Thomas Clifford, the university's former president, who helped secure a donation of more than $100 million from the arena's namesake, a former North Dakota player, to build it. "They don't come any better."
The Engelstad Arena is one of 9 indoor and 14 outdoor rinks in the metropolitan area, which includes East Grand Forks, Minn., a town of about 8,000 that is across the Red River. North Dakota, which has won seven National Collegiate Athletic Association championships, regularly sends players to the N.H.L.
North Dakota, which won the N.C.A.A. championship most recently in 2000, has sent to the N.H.L. players like goalie Ed Belfour of Toronto. High over one of the nets in The Ralph are banners from N.H.L. teams with former Fighting Sioux players.
The university has had a hockey team since 1946. One of its early goalies was Engelstad, a native of Thief River Falls, Minn., which is 45 miles east of Grand Forks. There is also a building also named the Ralph Engelstad Arena, a smaller version of the Grand Forks rink. It, too, was built with Engelstad's philanthropy.
Engelstad, who died six years ago, played two seasons for the Fighting Sioux, the last of which was in 1949-50, before starting a construction business and moving to Las Vegas, where he eventually owned a casino, the Imperial Palace. He is remembered by friends and foes as generous and imperious.
After pledging the money to build the arena in Grand Forks, Engelstad became upset when American Indians and others tried to change the team's nickname. In a letter to Charles E. Kupchella, the university president, Engelstad threatened to stop construction and let the harsh weather of North Dakota destroy the partly built arena.
"I will take my lumps and walk away," Engelstad wrote to Kupchella. "It is a good thing that you are an educator because you are a man of indecision and if you were a businessman, you would not succeed.''
Engelstad also wrote that his letter should not be considered a threat. "It is only notification to you of exactly what I am going to do if you change this logo and this slogan," he wrote. [The Fighting Sioux nickname has been vocally criticized by American Indians and the NCAA as insensitive and was the issue in a recent lawsuit.]
It has perfect sight lines, marble floors, 48 luxury boxes and 11,400 leather chairs. In a town surrounded by farmland, about 150 miles south of Winnipeg, Manitoba, The Ralph offers amenities to impress the most spoiled sports sophisticates from New York or Los Angeles.
Among decorative touches is a monument out front honoring Chief Sitting Bull and 4,000 Indian-head emblems on the floors, walls and furniture. These are among the things that bother the arena's critics.
Gary LaPointe, a senior majoring in entrepreneurship and a member of the Rosebud tribe from South Dakota, called the building "a slap in the face to Sitting Bull," who opposed the United States late in the 19th century.
"If he were here, he'd probably burn it down," LaPointe said.
Merry Ketterling, a Lakota who works as a secretary for the university's Indian Studies department, said it was insensitive to use the Sioux people as a nickname. "We don't want to be dehumanized," she said. "People think Indians are in the past. They think we are all gone. We're still here." (Read complete article Published 11/5/04)
Today, among the new buildings and the new dikes, there stands an incongruous jewel of an ice box called the Ralph Engelstad Arena, a seven-year-old hockey rink that is the home of the University of North Dakota Fighting Sioux, a perennial power of American college hockey.
"This is the Taj Mahal," said Thomas Clifford, the university's former president, who helped secure a donation of more than $100 million from the arena's namesake, a former North Dakota player, to build it. "They don't come any better."
The Engelstad Arena is one of 9 indoor and 14 outdoor rinks in the metropolitan area, which includes East Grand Forks, Minn., a town of about 8,000 that is across the Red River. North Dakota, which has won seven National Collegiate Athletic Association championships, regularly sends players to the N.H.L.
North Dakota, which won the N.C.A.A. championship most recently in 2000, has sent to the N.H.L. players like goalie Ed Belfour of Toronto. High over one of the nets in The Ralph are banners from N.H.L. teams with former Fighting Sioux players.
The university has had a hockey team since 1946. One of its early goalies was Engelstad, a native of Thief River Falls, Minn., which is 45 miles east of Grand Forks. There is also a building also named the Ralph Engelstad Arena, a smaller version of the Grand Forks rink. It, too, was built with Engelstad's philanthropy.
Engelstad, who died six years ago, played two seasons for the Fighting Sioux, the last of which was in 1949-50, before starting a construction business and moving to Las Vegas, where he eventually owned a casino, the Imperial Palace. He is remembered by friends and foes as generous and imperious.
After pledging the money to build the arena in Grand Forks, Engelstad became upset when American Indians and others tried to change the team's nickname. In a letter to Charles E. Kupchella, the university president, Engelstad threatened to stop construction and let the harsh weather of North Dakota destroy the partly built arena.
"I will take my lumps and walk away," Engelstad wrote to Kupchella. "It is a good thing that you are an educator because you are a man of indecision and if you were a businessman, you would not succeed.''
Engelstad also wrote that his letter should not be considered a threat. "It is only notification to you of exactly what I am going to do if you change this logo and this slogan," he wrote. [The Fighting Sioux nickname has been vocally criticized by American Indians and the NCAA as insensitive and was the issue in a recent lawsuit.]
It has perfect sight lines, marble floors, 48 luxury boxes and 11,400 leather chairs. In a town surrounded by farmland, about 150 miles south of Winnipeg, Manitoba, The Ralph offers amenities to impress the most spoiled sports sophisticates from New York or Los Angeles.
Among decorative touches is a monument out front honoring Chief Sitting Bull and 4,000 Indian-head emblems on the floors, walls and furniture. These are among the things that bother the arena's critics.
Gary LaPointe, a senior majoring in entrepreneurship and a member of the Rosebud tribe from South Dakota, called the building "a slap in the face to Sitting Bull," who opposed the United States late in the 19th century.
"If he were here, he'd probably burn it down," LaPointe said.
Merry Ketterling, a Lakota who works as a secretary for the university's Indian Studies department, said it was insensitive to use the Sioux people as a nickname. "We don't want to be dehumanized," she said. "People think Indians are in the past. They think we are all gone. We're still here." (Read complete article Published 11/5/04)
2 comments:
Good Luck to the boys in Crimson and Gold as they head to that wasteland known as North Dakota.
Let's try and get the split... anything more even better.
GO DU.
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