As boys state hockey tournament takes off in St. Paul, a look back at its 81-year history

NINA MOINI: The puck drops today for high school hockey's biggest stage, the boys state tournament. Downtown Saint Paul is filled with high school hockey families who've driven from all corners of the state to compete. The annual tournament has a storied history, began all the way back in 1945. The book Tourney Time, Stories From the Minnesota Boys State Hockey Tournament takes a year-by-year look at the tournament. It's authored by sports journalist David La Vaque and LR Nelson. And we want to take you back to a conversation between MPR News host Tom Crann with the authors.

TOM CRANN: Of all the tournaments, it's fair to say the boys hockey tournament is the biggest event. It gets national TV exposure. It draws sellout crowds. You've been living with this now in 75 years of it. Why do you think that is?

DAVID LA VAQUE: It's just a signature. It's just what we do. Basketball is a widely popular sport. Hockey is more of a niche, more of a cult. And Minnesota has just always been a leader in all things hockey. From the very first years of the tournament, not only did you have the players that excelled on a on a state stage, but they went on to be some of our best Olympians. And it's just always been what we've done best.

TOM CRANN: So you've been covering the tournament for a decade for the Star Tribune, but I imagine you've been even observing it longer. What made you want to get this 75 years of history all down?

DAVID LA VAQUE: Yeah, first, that didn't exist. That type of book didn't exist. So we wanted to fill a need that we thought the tournament deserved. And secondly, I had done a few 20-year retrospectives for the Star Tribune. I thought, let's take that model and apply it to all 75 years. And Lauren Nelson, my co-author, he had written a series of web stories for the top 100 high school players of all time. He loved the concept. And then we just set out doing the reporting.

TOM CRANN: As you look back on this, is it possible to pick a year or even a game as the most exciting game in the history of the tournament?

DAVID LA VAQUE: I think the most important game in the history of the tournament was probably 1969, when Edina defeats Warroad in overtime. The context of that, you had the first tournament now to be played at the Met Center, which was the home of the North Stars at the time. Then you've got Warroad, led by one of the great players of all time and Henry Boucha coming down that people heard about but hadn't seen. And he played spectacular.

And then you had Edina. They were growing on people the wrong way in the twin cities. Their basketball team had been successful. And now all of a sudden, the hockey team had broken through and won the game and in the course of that knocked Henry out of the game with a body check that some say may have been questionable. So all of those elements converged. And it made for, I think, the most important game in the history of the tournament.

TOM CRANN: 1955 also strikes me as a landmark year for a couple of reasons. Herb brooks played for St. Paul Johnson, and it was a St. Paul-Minneapolis final. It was St. Paul Johnson over Minneapolis Southwest. That one seems to be a landmark year. But something else unusual happened. The longest game ever was one of the games leading up to that, right?

DAVID LA VAQUE: It was the longest game ever until 1996. But it still holds the record for most overtimes. It holds a special place because not only 11 overtimes, but then it got into a situation where, after the ninth overtime, the officials running the tournament are saying, well, we've got Johnson and Roseau waiting to get on the ice for the second game of the evening session. We got to start that game. So

Nine overtimes, and here goes Johnson and Roseau to play period one. They come off. Out goes Thief River Falls and Minneapolis South for overtime 10. They go off. Johnson comes on with Roseau for period two. And then, ultimately, South defeated Thief River Falls in the 11th overtime. But had they not, there's a good chance that Johnson-Roseau game would have finished before the previous game, which is amazing to me.

TOM CRANN: And then the final game, is it true that Herb Brooks said that that title was his thrill of a lifetime? I can't imagine after the Olympics, he said that.

DAVID LA VAQUE: He said that. That was a--

TOM CRANN: Really?

DAVID LA VAQUE: --Sports Illustrated article that was reported in 1982 but then released for 1983 tournament time. So yes, the miracle had happened, and he still felt as strong about the meaning of coming up with your friends and achieving something together on that high school level. That never left him.

TOM CRANN: How has it changed over the years? It's changed a lot since 1945, right?

DAVID LA VAQUE: It has, and I think that one of the ways you can see that is in the 200 photographs in the book. You go from seeing no face masks, and not only that, but no shoulder pads a lot of times.

TOM CRANN: Right, yeah.

DAVID LA VAQUE: Goalies having very thin equipment. You go on to see the different-- the helmets coming into play and changing and the face masks. And what hasn't changed and why I think we still love the tournament is you get the same passion, and it means the same thing to the same kids, whatever era they came from, whatever part of the state they came from. You said about Herb, this meaning more than the gold. For the men that didn't even win a gold medal, this is still one of the key points of their lives. And they were very happy to reflect on that.

TOM CRANN: Thanks so much for coming in. I appreciate it.

DAVID LA VAQUE: It's our pleasure, Tom.

NINA MOINI: That was MPR News host Tom Crann talking to sports journalist David La Vaque about his book Tourney Time, Stories From the Minnesota Boys State Hockey Tournament. Tomorrow on Minnesota Now will answer your questions in our professional help segment about building a budget during this economic uncertainty. We'll talk to a financial counselor. Thanks for joining us. Have a great rest of your day.