VIRG FOSS: Sioux hockey memories, from Archibald to Zaparniuk

In 35 seasons of covering UND hockey for the Herald, I had the thrill of seeing the Sioux win five NCAA titles and finish second three other times.

The thousands of articles I wrote on UND hockey covered most everything from A to Z. Here's an alphabetical breakdown of a few memories, featuring Sioux players:

A: Is Jim Archibald still sitting in a penalty box somewhere?

B: Gino Gasparini once said if it hadn't been for end boards, Brent Bobyck would have ended up in Fargo on his mad dashes down ice.

C: Like his father, Bill, Dave Christian was an Olympic gold medalist.

D: Dean Dachyshyn's penalty box brawls were the reason they put a partition separating adjoining penalty boxes, thereafter named the Dachyshyn Partition.

E: Eddie "The Eagle" Belfour, winner of more NHL awards than any former Sioux.

F: Has there ever been a more quotable and oft-injured Sioux than Erik Fabian?

G: Gino Gasparini brought Sioux hockey to the big stage and won three NCAA titles, more than any other UND coach.

H: No Sioux player ever shot the puck harder than Jason Herter.

I: Tom Iannone, the Flin Flon man, never saw him play, never met him, but I am intrigued by the name of his hometown.

J: Dane Jackson came within inches of falling out a window to his death from a high-rise hotel room in the Twin Cities.

K: I once took a photo of Ian Kidd holding my newborn grandson, Ian, the kid. I wonder where that photo is today.

L: Craig Ludwig wore the same shinguards he had as a rookie at UND through 1,256 NHL games. When the NHL asked him for them to display at the Hall of Fame, he told them he would only do it if they inducted him as well!

M: Cal Marvin's roasting of Gopher coach Doug Woog at Sioux Booster luncheons was a work of art.

N: Former Sioux assistant coach Bill Rothwell once told Mike Neitzke to "stick with me, and you'll be wearing diamonds as big as cabbages."

O: Has there ever been a more complete player at UND than T.J. Oshie?

P: Brothers Jay and Jeff Panzer each played on NCAA title teams in different years.

Q: Where have you gone, Quinn Fylling?

R: Jace Reed nearly died during UND's fall dryland training run when he overheated and later sued the school.

S: Doug Smail scored four of UND's five goals in the 1980 NCAA title win and Phil Sykes had a combined four goals and five assists in two NCAA championship games in 1980 and 1982. Unbelievable performances.

T: Silky-smooth Mark Taylor was UND's career scoring leader until Greg Johnson came along.

U: Jeff and Jason Ulmer, two more brothers who played on the same NCAA title team at UND.

V: Mitch Vig, forever innocently linked to the play that left Boston University's Travis Roy paralyzed.

W: Tough guy Howard Walker once warned Minnesota's Neal Broten that if he went into the corner after the puck, it would be the last thing he'd do in his life.

X: The one vacant hole on UND's A-Z recruiting efforts. Recruit one, please.

Y: Tom Yurkovich played in the first Sioux series I ever saw more than 50 years ago.

Z: Little Rick Zaparniuk used his smarts and guile to average more than a point a game over his 157 career games. He once got cut by a stick to the face in a game against Wisconsin and no penalty was called. The referee later told me that because Zaparniuk was so small, it therefore wasn't a high-sticking penalty.

Foss, who is retired from full-time sportswriting for the Herald writes a weekly column from October through the winter sports season. He can be reached at virgfoss@

yahoo.com or at (701) 772-9272.