The Iowa State Men’s Hockey team is considered a club team, but there was hardly a fan in the crowd of nearly 4,000 people at last Friday night’s game in Hilton who didn’t believe they were watching a Division I sporting event.

Coach Al Murdoch, with over 600 wins under his belt at Iowa State, believes one day the university will promote the hockey team to Division I status, he just doesn’t know when that day will come.

“It’s kind of like the little train trying to get up and over the top of the hill,” said Murdoch. “The caboose is pretty heavy, and we just haven’t been able to pull it up there.”

A great analogy considering Murdoch has been attempting to get to the top of that hill ever since he took over the program some 30 years ago.

Even with all the adversity the hockey team has faced trying to become a varsity sport, they continue to focus on the positives and promote not only hockey, but all ice programs in the Ames community.

“I think it shows there is a lot more stuff going on over here at the Ames/ISU Ice Arena than maybe people know about,” said Mike Anderson, one of only three seniors on this year’s squad.

“It’s great that we could get as many groups involved in the Hilton experience as we did,” he said.

Friday evening’s 6-1 win over Illinois proved to be more than just a victory for the men’s hockey team, it was a victory for all the ice programs in the Ames community.

While the team was getting a needed win in the conference, various other ice programs got a chance to use the beautiful Hilton facility.

All of this while raising money for the Muscular Dystrophy Association.

The Ames Minor Hockey program played a short scrimmage during the first intermission and I’m not sure, as they took the ice, the youngster’s eyes could have been open any wider or their smiles any bigger.

During the second intermission the Ames Figure Skating Club had three of its members perform their Wizard Of Oz routine, which was a wonderful opportunity for the three girls to show off all their hard work and practice.

Now, it would have been easy for the hockey team, who gets one chance a year to play in Hilton, to want all the spotlight.

That, however, would go against what the team and Coach Murdoch believe in.

“It’s just a dream place to play in,” Murdoch said, “so, we want to showcase all the ice programs in Ames when we have the opportunity. We put on a lot of clinics, workshops and try to cooperate with all the ice organizations.”

Not only did the team share the spotlight, but actually gave the shirts off of their backs for charity.

After the first period on Friday, each Cyclone player shed his jersey so it could be auctioned off, and all the profits went to the MDA.

“Our players really rallied around the fact that we come out and battle on the ice every week, but Jerry’s Kids face a different battle every day of the week, all year long,” Murdoch said.

Coach Murdoch’s hockey team did exactly the opposite of stealing the spotlight, instead they spread the spotlight around to all the ice programs the Ames community has.

This is another example of the quality this hockey program has been displaying for the last 30 years.

Hats off to the ISU men’s hockey team and Coach Murdoch for sharing the spotlight with the ice community that continually supports them.

Just because your team isn’t a designated Division I varsity sport, doesn’t mean that you don’t act and play like one.

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Jerod Bruner is a senior in journalism and mass communication from Newell. Get out and support the Clones this weekend against Michigan-Dearborn, eh.