H
MARIAN HOCKEY
eaded into its 16th season of operation in 2013-14, the Northern Collegiate Hockey
Association has grown into a force to be reckoned with in hockey in the West and at the
NCAA Division III level.
The biggest recent change came in April of 2013, when the league changed its name
to its current title and joined forces under the same conference umbrella with the women’s
side of the former NCHA. That coincided with expansion once again, this time adding both
St. Norbert College and The College of St. Scholastica to bring the membership of the men’s
side up to 10 schools.
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HISTORY OF THE NCHA
That change was monumental, as the first 15 seasons of league play came under
the title of the “Midwest Collegiate Hockey Association”. The new era of the league was
embarked on with the new name and logo, moving forward as one of the top conferences in
the country.
The leader of the change has been at the top, where Dr. G. Steven Larson was named
the second commissioner of the league in July, 2010.
The original Northern Collegiate Hockey Association dated back to 1980 and
included a lengthy history that consisted of 12 NCAA National Championships won by six
different members. There was plenty of history to merge when the new era began, one
that most notably came into play when discussing the student-athletes’ goal of winning a
championship.
The NCHA tournament champion will continue to play for the “Harris Cup”, named
after MSOE Director of Athletics Dan Harris, who served as the first president of the MCHA
and helped get the league up and running to become what it is today.
The regular-season champion will receive the “Peters Cup”, named after Bob Peters, the
long-time Bemidji State coach. Peters won 728 games and 13 national championships with
the Beavers, including two NCAA titles as an early member of the NCHA back in 1984 and
1986. The Peters Cup is an NCHA tradition, as it had been handed out to the NCHA playoff
championship winner since 1998.
The former MCHA grew up in a hurry after receiving the long-awaited NCAA automatic
qualifier to the league’s postseason champion on April 14, 2009. The 2010 postseason
marked the first time the winner of the Harris Cup advanced to the NCAA Tournament, with
Adrian College falling by a single goal to the No. 3 team in the country that postseason.
The MCHA then left quite an early impression in year two of having the automatic
qualifier, with Adrian claiming a pair of NCAA Tournament victories in the 2011 postseason
before falling by just a goal in the NCAA National Championship game, finishing as the No. 2
team in the country.