Sherri LeKang laughs when she tells the story of Bulldog Hockey and the 1984 Frozen Four. “The Bulldogs had beaten the Gophers, that was the gold standard,” she says. The campus was buzzing because UMD was on its way to Lake Placid, New York, for the playoffs. Sherri was not about to be left behind.
She was in her junior year at UMD and forces had come together to create a certain vibe. Winters were long, and snowfalls set records. “We would stand in line for hours in Kirby to get student season tickets to the hockey games at Pioneer Hall.” Weekend evenings started with finding a ride to the game and relaxing afterward at Grandma’s Saloon or the Warehouse in Canal Park. Sherri also was friends with Tom Herzig, the hockey player from International Falls.
Sherri and Sue Brannon, her college roommate, didn’t think twice about the trip to New York. They rode the student bus, a rented motor coach. “We got on the bus early in the morning and arrived the next day.” They drove through a blizzard in Upstate New York, but as one sports reporter said, it didn’t matter because, “the Duluth fans were delirious.”
During the opening games, Duluth beat its rival North Dakota and Bowling Green trounced Michigan State. That left the Bulldogs facing the Bowling Green Falcons for the championship March 24. Defenseman Tom Kurvers, who had just received the Hobey Baker Award, top scorer Bill Watson, and centers Matt Christensen and Tom Herzig played a phenomenal game, with a tied score after the third period. That night UMD played in the longest NCAA men’s hockey championship game ever played. The Bulldogs went four overtimes before losing with a score of 5-4. “It was a pretty quiet ride home," Sherri says, "but it was a season we will never forget.”
Hooters Broomball
Sherri started college life living in Griggs Hall and then the Oakland Apartments. In her senior year, she lived in Capehart Housing on Arrowhead Road. She was captain of an intramural team called the Hooter Hunters and played broomball, floor hockey, and softball, competing against teams with names like the Outlaws and Amazon River Rats.
“A lot of my friends came from the Iron Range,” she says. “Rudy Perpich was the governor and there was a lot of pride in being from Northeastern Minnesota.” Sherri shared that pride. She had many relatives in Two Harbors. One weekend she traveled to Hibbing and learned how to make potica (a rich, thinly rolled sweet bread dough) with her friend Lisa Diehl and Lisa’s mom. “We had to roll the dough out to stretch it," Sherri laughs. "We stretched the dough all over the kitchen.” Read More