Casey

Casey Lloyd has been calling Minnesota State basketball
games since the early 1970's. He was inducted into the
Maverick Hall of Fame in 1998.

Casey Lloyd has a lifetime of stories to tell.  Many of them centering around Minnesota State Athletics.

A 1971 graduate of the school, the Butterfield, Minn., native began broadcasting Maverick Athletic events as an undergrad, joined the radio station which held the broadcast rights to Maverick football and men’s basketball in 1975, and has continued calling games, almost unabated, in the four decades since. Well known in the community as the play-by-play announcer for football and men basketball, he’s also served in play-by-play capacities for and women's basketball, and men's hockey.

Lloyd has spent most of his adult life travelling across the country along with the Minnesota State teams, and that is something the coaches really value.  Lloyd was with the Minnesota State men’s basketball team that advanced to the 2011 NCAA Elite Eight in Springfield, Mass., and “having him along with us with meant everything,” said head coach Matt Margenthaler. “He just might be our biggest fan and he truly does bleed Purple and Gold.”

Margenthaler adds that Lloyd’s encyclopedia-like knowledge of the program is important. “Casey is so special because he has so much knowledge of the present and the past of Maverick Athletics. Our players need to know who came before them and Casey plays an important role in us continuing to build our culture.”

His contributions to his alma mater were recognized in 1998 when he was inducted into the Minnesota State Athletics Hall of Fame and also garnered the Kolpack Media Award from the North Central Conference that same year.

Known for finding unusual places to eat on the road, Lloyd has been told many times that he should write a book about his culinary adventures. He has also served in a media relations director and chief public address announcer capacity at several state and national amateur baseball and softball events held in Mankato and spends his time broadcasting Road America during the summers. He also has volunteered his time to the community by teaching StreetSmarts School, where he helps teenagers obtain their licenses and learn how to drive safely.

But, unquestionably, he is most known for his involvement in Maverick Athletics. Having worked in that environment for as long as he has gives him insight into how things have progressed. Lloyd's background with the school, which include working with former coaches such as Butch Raymond, Dan McCarrell, Dean Bowyer, Don Brose and Dan Runkle, gives him a unique perspective. Many of the school’s programs are enjoying a run of success and to the gregarious Lloyd, it’s obvious as to why. “It’s pretty simple. The school has done a great job of hiring good people to run the programs. These coaches want their players to succeed in every aspect of their lives.”

A long time ago, a Drake University broadcaster gave Lloyd a valuable lesson in being a successful broadcaster is remembering to just be you. And throughout his life Lloyd has learned that you can’t get stuck on one thing.  “The more interests you have in life, you will live happier and healthier,” said Lloyd. “And, ultimately, the most important lesson of life is that relationships are what you remember and there is no more important value then family.”

                                                                               contributed by Kaitlyn Kanne, Athletic Communications intern

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Holiday Tournaments

Let's see.  There's shopping.  At some point, the decorations have to come down and the lights have to be put away. There's college football bowl games on TV. And fans looking for basketball and hockey tournaments will be happy this week with several events dotting the landscape this time of year.

Men's basketball teams in the North Central Conference used to participate in the popular NCC Holiday Tournament held annually in Sioux Falls, S.D. 

The event was a three-day, eight-team post-Christmas affair that drew good crowds at the Civic Center. The tournament enjoyed a successful 24-year run from 1965-89 before eventually coming to a halt after the NCC created a postseason tournament.

The Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference began its iteration of the Holiday Tournament in Sioux Falls in 2008, which ran around Thanksgiving for a couple of years, and not unlike the NCC vehicle, was discontinued due to league teams also faced with scheduling complications due to league postseason competition.

Since joining the NCAA Division I men's hockey ranks, the Minnesota State men's hockey program has played in Holiday tournaments hosted by Vermont (2000-01 and 2003-04), Ohio State (2004-05), Notre Dame (2010-11) and the University of Connecticut (2012-13).

Years before, as a member of Division II, the Mavericks hosted a holiday event of their own during the 1982-83 season when then-head coach Don Brose convinced teams from St. Olaf, Hamline and Alaska-Anchorage to venture to All Seasons Arena for the Mankato Schriners Christmas Tournament. Not unlike other college Holiday tournaments, this was a post-Christmas affair played on a Wednesday (Dec. 29) and Thursday (Dec. 30).

Alaska Anchorage, which joined the Western Collegiate Hockey Association in 1993-94, downed St. Olaf by a 6-0 margin to open the tournament and the host Mavericks followed by galloping to a 9-4 triumph over Hamline.  St. Olaf bounced back in the third-place game by beating Hamline 11-7 and the Seawolves emerged with the first-place hardware in claiming a 5-4 victory over MSU in the championship finale.

"It's one of those things where we were still trying to generate some notoriety for  the program here in Southern Minnesota back in the early 1980s," said Brose. who served as MSU's bench boss from 1969-2000. "Unfortunately it was only a one year deal when we tried it. But I thought it was a good idea at the time as people are always looking for things to do during the holidays."


It's great to be a Maverick!

Legacy

Eric Peterson's family - here with Will (brother), Molly (mom)
and dad (Tom) - are in Cary, N.C., for the NCAA DII
Baseball national championship tournament

  Cary, N.C. --- Back in May of 2012 we documented nearly 50 instances in which multiple members of families had played a sport for Minnesota State.

Brothers and sisters, brothers with brothers, sisters and sisters, sons and daughters, etc. Shoot, the Swanson family started with Ken playing football, basketball and baseball at Mankato State Teachers College in the late 1940's and early 1950's before his granddaughters Amy and Angie played basketball for the Mavericks in the 1990's.

The Peterson family is currently continuing on with this Maverick Legacy tradition with a father/son combo of their own.

Dad, Tom, played hockey for the Mavericks from 1982-85 where he totaled six goals and 39 assists for 45 points in 83 games played under Minnesota State puck coaching legend Don Brose. 

Son, Eric, is a freshman second baseman with the Maverick baseball team currently vying for a national title in Cary, N.C.  The Eagan (Minn.) High School product has enjoyed a tremendous maiden season for Minnesota State having started 52 of 55 games while hitting .315 and picking up 2014 Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Freshman of the Year honors.

The Peterson family also includes mom Molly (also a MSU grad), along with a couple of additional baseball/hockey playing sons in Gavin and Will. We ran into Tom today at the ballpark and he was nice enough to spend a few moments to ponder a few questions.

MavBlog:  How did you end up coming to Mankato to play hockey for the Mavericks?
TP: I had played high school hockey at Bloomington Kennedy and played two years of junior hockey before being recruited to go to Mankato.

MavBlog: What was it like playing for Brosie and tell us a little about your time with the program.
TP: It was a great experience. Don was a terrific coach and we had good teams while I was there.  Met lots of good players and friends to this day.

MavBlog:  Do you still follow Maverick Hockey?
TP: I do. It's fun to watch.  We were Division II-III when I played and it's fun to watch a program that's Division I.

MavBlog:  When did you graduate? What is your degree in?
TP: I graduated in1985 and have a degree in marketing and management.

MavBlog: How special is it that Eric is not only playing college baseball, but playing right down the road at your alma mater?
TP: It's a lot of fun - having had the opportunity for me to have played a college sport then to have my son play a college sport at the same school. We're fortunate. It was the coaching staff here and tradition of the program that led him here. They win and it's a great program.

MavBlog:  And how about the year Eric has had and that you are here in Cary watching him play in the NCAA DII national championship tournament?
TP: It's been unbelievable, tough to beat and can't really ask for anything more than this.  We're proud of him.

It's great to be a Maverick.

See Yah at The Rink

Former MSU forward Bill Techar and
coach Don Brose on the outdoor rink.

The Minnesota State women's hockey team is scheduled to play the University of Minnesota Jan. 17th in an outdoor game played at TCF Bank Stadium. They won't be the first college team from Mankato to have played some outdoor puck.

The photo to the left looks like it's gone through some sort of Instagram process.   Only it hasn't.  This photo doesn't need any filtering to make it look like something from yesteryear.

Because it is from yesteryear.

The player pictured in the photo, Bill Techar, played hockey for Mankato State for the first four years of varsity hockey from 1969-70 to 1972-73. One of MSU's first "great" players, the Hibbing, Minn., native was team Most Valuable Player, team captain and an All-American as a senior.

On Techar's left is Don Brose, who guided the MSU's men's hockey program in its infancy before it was granted varsity status in 1969-70 until the 1999-2000 season, MSU's first year as a member of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association.  Brose coached the Mavericks to a 536-335-79 record in 30 seasons behind the bench.

The picture shows Techar and Brose facing north and in the background is Searing Center which served as a MSU student housing community.  This building is still there, but was converted to an apartment building a decade ago and is now known as Cherry Ridge. Techar is wearing leather gloves and tube skates, while Brose looks dapper in his sport coat and horn-rimmed glasses.

The men's hockey program called the outdoor rink, which was located just off of Glenwood Avenue as it winds its way towards downtown, home for the first four years of club hockey and then from 1969-70 through 1973-74 prior to the opening of Mankato's first indoor rink - the Ice Palace (now called All Seasons Arena). The Mavericks still practice at All Seasons, but play their home games in newly-renovated Verizon Wireless Center.  Verizon seats nearly 5,000 fans and is located adjacent to Riverfront Drive in downtown Mankato.

Don Brose stands where the MSU hockey rink used to sit.
Old Main appears in the background as Brose looks southward.

"When I first came here," said Brose, "there were no outdoor rinks in Mankato and we rented an outdoor rink at Gustavus in St. Peter.  Eventually our first outdoor rink was built on what used to be the MSU football field and this was where we practiced and played for the first few years of varsity hockey."

The flat piece of land that must have been ideal for building a rink, is still there, but sits unused.  Immediately to the north looms Old Main, another remnant of an earlier era, which has been repurposed into a retirement community.

No boards. No lights. No scoreboard or stands.

Just memories from an earlier time.

It's great to be a Maverick.