There’s something I noticed recently in the world of sports. There’s more to the game of hockey than getting drunk and cheering for a fight. There are actually rules to this game.

This came as an immediate surprise to me, but before I get checked into the boards by an enraged player, let me say that everything I hear about the team is good. No arrests, no fights with police officers and they’re ranked number one in the nation. Yet most of us have very little knowledge of our hockey team.

It’s time to do some explaining. Most people do know a few things about the game, but these are generally 1) we can get BEER at these games 2)if you watch long enough, someone’s going to get into a fight and 3)did you know they serve BEER at the hockey rink?

Seriously, the team has been very successful for a long time and one of the main reasons for this is the coach.

The Cyclone hockey team has been coached by Al Murdoch for the past 26 years and has amassed a winning percentage of .621. That means that they’re really good and have been for almost three decades.

The team plays in the Central States Collegiate Hockey League in the Western division. Other teams in the division include the Illinois Fighting Illini, the Wisconsin-Whitewater Warhawks, the Marquette Golden Eagles, and the Arizona Icecats. In the Eastern division are the Ohio Bobcats, the Eastern Michigan Eagles, the Mighigan-Dearborn Wolves, the Kent Golden Flashes, and the North Dakota Bison.

The team won the American Collegiate Hockey Association National Championship in 1992 and is currently ranked number one in the nation by the same association.

There are 58 varsity division I hockey teams in the country and another 200 to 300 teams beyond that. The ACHA is made up of 100 teams that are classified as division I but not varsity. We’ve been consistently ranked in the ACHA’s top ten for the last decade.

So why isn’t ISU a division one varsity team? They’ve proven to be exceptional, have played and scrimmaged against division I varsity teams and have a varsity conference(the Western Collegiate Hockey Association) that would, according to Coach Murdoch, “love to have us.”

Hockey is a rapidly growing sport that makes sense here in Iowa or have you forgotten the fact that Iowa is covered with ice and snow for six months of the year? This place is a glacier! You could drop a puck and play right on my front lawn! So what’s holding us up? What’s keeping us from becoming a division I varsity team and joining the big boys? Not as much as you’d think.

It would take a vote of approval from the athletic council and the Board of Regents. It would also take a new 5000 seat facility. The team has been shot down three times before by the athletic council; the main opposition being that there was no gender equity. Well surprise! We’ve got a women’s team now, and women’s hockey will be a Olympic sport in 1998.

I think it’s time we throw support behind the team, start the petitions and get organized. The team has made itself successful. Let’s make the team varsity. The time has come.

Kevin Petty is a senior in journalism and mass communication from Carlisle.