Official Website of the University of Alabama in Huntsville Athletics.

 

History (through 2007)
With Lynyrd Skynryd's Ronnie Van Zant's famous "Turn it up" echoing through the Von Braun Civic Center, the University of Alabama in Huntsville ice hockey team took to the ice for the first time in 1979 to the rock anthem "Sweet Home Alabama".

A grass roots effort from the beginning, the UAH hockey program has its roots firmly planted in the melting pot that is Huntsville, Ala. With fewer than 15,000 residents in 1940, things quickly blossomed in the then quiet southern town.

 

The scientists and engineers who moved to the Tennessee Valley brought with them their sticks and skates and youth hockey quickly developed. Some of those players along with others began the movement to start a club hockey team in the summer of 1979. Within a few weeks, they began skating together and practicing without even assurance they would play a schedule that year and without a coach.

 

With the team's success on the ice, the decision was made to bring on a full-time coach as Ritch stepped aside and 1976 Olympian Doug Ross was chosen to take over the reigns behind the bench. At the time, little did anyone know the impact Ross would have on the program and the heights to which the Chargers would swell during his reign.

 

As the Chargers joined the Central States Collegiate Hockey League, Ross immediately began to upgrade the schedule and dramatically widened the base from which UAH recruited its student athletes. The Ross era got off to a bit of a rocky start with an overtime loss and tie at Iowa State but the Chargers rebounded for a 27-6-2 finish.

 

A Hollywood producer would reject the script for the 2006-07 season as too far fetched but the unthinkable happened. Going 5-12-1 before Christmas, the Chargers turned things around in the second half of the season notching a mark of 8-8-2 over the final 18 games. January 2007 saw Coach Ross announce that this season would be his last behind the UAH bench.

 

With Ross' last chance to win a tournament title as well as the first-ever win on national or regional television for the Chargers, UAH came out and did the unthinkable spotting Robert Morris a 4-0 lead in the first period. A pair of early goals in the second period made it a game again and a third Charger goal pulled UAH to within one of the tie just before the stanza drew to a close. The comeback Chargers then pulled even in the third period and brought home the first CHA Tournament Title in school history with a short-handed goal in overtime to advance to the NCAA Division I Ice Hockey Championships.

 

With Air Force winning the Atlantic Hockey Championship, it setup the matchup all of the UAH faithful wanted, a shot at top-ranked Notre Dame in Grand Rapids, Mich. The game against the Green and Gold would prove to be one for the ages. Again falling behind early after two Irish goals, the Chargers kept the composure and played their game. A pair of second period goals would tie the contest at two but it would be nearly 60 more minutes of hockey before either team would score again. With both teams having their chances late in the game and in the first and second overtime periods, the game came down to a late power play for the Irish and Notre Dame avoided the huge upset topping the Chargers 3-1 in double overtime. UAH finished the season 13-20-3 but the record will be something no one will remember about the magical 2006-07 season for the Chargers.