Hockey Laureate

The other night, two-dozen hockey fans milled around the Iron Range Grill. They were biding their time. Across the corridor, in a half hour, the puck would drop on the big sheet of ice at the Xcel Energy Center. The Wild, enjoying a hot streak early in the season, would be facing the Vancouver Canucks, a flourishing new rivalry.

The wait staff in the Grill was decked out in T-shirts featuring the names of Iron Range cities. AITKIN brought an acrid tray of buffalo wings and a schooner of macrobrew to a table situated under a photo-mural of World War II-era hockey teams from the Range. EMBARRASS poured a stiff rum and Coke for a man in an NHL “Original 6” hat. COLERAINE cleared a table whose party gathered around a display case featuring a vintage Chicago Black Hawks jersey—worn when the Hawks held training camp in Hibbing in 1935. The cash register rang again and again.

A cynic might arch an eyebrow at the thought of a third-year franchise peddling history as a commodity like so many giant foam fingers. But that cynic has not met Roger Godin. Godin is the Wild’s official team curator, and as far as anybody can tell, the only curator employed by a professional sports organization in North America. The team’s desire to reconnect with Minnesota’s rich hockey tradition is palpable when you walk into “the X.” And they’ve got the perfect man for the job in Godin, a spry 60-something with twinkling eyes, a keen attention to detail, and a droll smile that suggests he knows something you don’t.

“He just has this remarkably perfect background,” said Matt Majka, the team’s vice president of marketing. “When we were talking about filling this position, we found out that the former director of the Hall of Fame was living two blocks away and was interested in the position.” Indeed, Godin was the first director of the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame in Eveleth, serving in that capacity from 1971 to 1987. A self-proclaimed “museum guy,” the New York native eventually moved back to his roots on the East Coast, but his road wound back to Minnesota and he became one of the first hires of the fledgling hockey franchise.

Touring the concourses at the X, Godin is in his element. His handiwork is the spearhead of the team’s various initiatives intended to reclaim Minnesota’s status as “The State of Hockey.” From the high school hockey jerseys ringing the arena to the artifacts in the Iron Range Grill, Godin is responsible for curating and maintaining these exhibits.

There are vitrines protecting rare Golden Gopher and U.S.A. Olympic jerseys. There’s an informative exhibit on the Hobey Baker and Patty Kazmaier awards, given annually to the nation’s top male and female players. There’s even an homage to the dear, departed Minnesota North Stars. Near the entrance to Section 109 sits Zamboni No. 37 — yes, the 37th such machine ever built by Frank J. Zamboni & Co. This unit was first used at the old St. Paul Auditorium in 1956. Most of the memorabilia at the X is on loan from the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame and the collections of hockey buffs who want to share their love of the game and its history.

The lasting impression created by a tour of the X is that Wild folks relish Minnesota’s rich hockey heritage and traditions. Godin’s work might be dismissed as window-dressing in other buildings, but to the Wild, these artifacts are as crucial as the ice itself.—Patrick Donnelly