1969-70 University of Minnesota Golden Gophers Wally Olds Jersey

With the 2011 NHL Entry Draft, to be held in St. Paul, Minnesota, just two days away our countdown to the draft takes a look today at the first Minnesotan ever selected in the NHL Draft.

Walter "Wally" Olds of Baudette, Minnesota (located on the Canadian border) played collegiate hockey for the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers from 1967-68 to 1970-71. Olds, a defenseman, played in 96 games and scored 21 goals and 36 assists during his three years on the varsity team.

Wally Olds

Following his sophomore season, Olds was selected in the 5th round, 57th overall, by the Detroit Red Wings in the 1969 NHL Amateur Draft, making him the first Minnesotan ever chosen in the seven drafts held up to that point.

Following his career at Minnesota, Olds was a member of the silver medal winning United States Olympic Team at the 1972 games in Sapporo, Japan where Olds and his defensive parter Charlie Brown were not on the ice for an even strength goal the entire tournament.

The silver medalist 1972 United States Olympic hockey team

"He was one of the finest Olympians we ever had," said his Olympic coach Murray Williamson, who coached the 1972 silver-medal U.S. team. "He was a very intelligent gentlemen, very team-oriented and as even-mannered as you could get."

While Olds continued to play hockey, the NHL was not to be, as he never suited up for the Red Wings. At the same time the Olympic hockey tournament was concluding in Japan, Olds was again drafted, only this time by the New York Raiders of the upstart World Hockey Association.

Olds played 20 games for the Long Island Ducks of the Eastern Hockey League in 1972-73 during their final season, as well as the New York Raiders of the WHA for 61 games of their inaugural season.

He stayed in the New York City area the following season as a member of the Long Island Cougars of the North American Hockey League during their first of only two seasons of action. Olds had a good season, scoring 17 goals and 53 points in 67 games.

It was yet another brand new club for Olds in 1974-75, when he moved down the east coast to join the Hampton Gulls debut season in the Southern Hockey League. There, he had by far the finest offensive season of his career when he set personal bests with 19 goals and 61 assists for 80 points to place third on the team in scoring.

He also found time to play in five regular season games with the Oklahoma City Blazers of the Central Hockey League that same year.

The 1975-76 season saw Olds split his time between the Springfield Indians of the American Hockey League, where he played in 35 games, as well as making a return to the WHA with the first year Calgary Cowboys for 28 games.

The following season Olds moved to Europe and joined Kapfenberg of the Austrian league and then competed for the United States at the 1977 World Championships and again in 1979 while competing during the regular season in Germany.

He also played in Switzerland with HC Davos during the 1980-81 season before again playing in the 1981 World Championships, his third and final appearance for the United States.

His also spent time with the Frolunda Indians in Sweden's Elitserien, where in 35 games Olds tallied seven goals and 14 points during the 1981-82 season.

We have found mention of Olds playing in Norway, but no statistical information to verify which seasons, but if listed chronologically, he would have played in Norway following his time in Sweden.

Today's featured jersey is a 1969-70 University of Minnesota Golden Gophers Wally Olds jersey as worn during Olds junior and senior seasons in Minnesota following his selection by Detroit in the 1969 NHL Amateur Draft, making him the first Minnesotan ever selected in the history of the NHL draft.

The 1969-70 season was the first for this style Gophers jersey, which was used for just three seasons prior to being replaced by the first jersey to use the block "M" logo, which remains in use to this day.

Reproductions of this jersey can be purchased from our friends at VintageMinnesotaHockey.com, who generously supplied today's photos of Wally Olds.

Striking Silver - the story of the 1972 US Olympic Hockey Team, of which Wally Olds was a valued member.

2001-02 University of Minnesota Golden Gophers Jordan Leopold jersey

Tonight the University of Michigan Wolverines take on the University of Minnesota-Duluth Bulldogs in the 2011 NCAA championship final in an attempt to extend their record number of NCAA championships to ten. On the other side, Duluth is seeking it's first ever championship, having only reached the finals once before, a memorable four overtime loss in 1984, which still ranks as the longest championship final in N CAA history.

The championship was inaugurated in 1948, which went to Michigan over Dartmouth 8-4 in Colorado Springs, Colorado where it was held for the first ten years before it began to be held in a new location each year.

The first location other than Colorado Springs to host the tournament, and the first time the NCAA championship was held in Minnesota was at historic Williams (later Mariucci) Arena on the University of Minnesota campus in Minneapolis in 1958. Denver won the first of their seven championships, which is tied for second to Michigan's nine.

In 1966 the championship returned to Williams Arena where Michigan State won their first championship 6-1 over Clarkson. It was the third consecutive year when the championship was won by a team from Michigan, following Michigan and Michigan Tech.

Two years later the championship returned to Minnesota as Denver won again in 1968 when they shut out North Dakota 4-0 in Duluth, the first time it hosted the finals.

It would be 13 years before Minnesota would host the championship when it was once again in Duluth. Wisconsin defeated their rivals Minnesota 6-3 at the Duluth Entertainment and Convention Center, the Bulldogs longtime home more commonly known as "The DECC" (pronounced "The Deck").

This brings us to 1989 when this weekend's host St. Paul, Minnesota first entered the picture when Harvard sent the home fans away disappointed when they defeated Minnesota 4-3 in overtime, often called one of the best games ever played. The game was held at the St. Paul Civic Center, which was opened in 1973 as home to the Minnesota Fighting Saints of the World Hockey Association.

On the occasion of the 2011 Frozen Four being held in St. Paul, the United States Hockey Hall of Fame has a display at this years tournament, which features jerseys from the various clubs who have won the championship in St. Paul. Sharp-eyed readers will recognize that each jersey is not from the specific season of the teams which won the championship, as the styles do vary in some cases from what was worn during each club's championship season.

Just two years later the Civic Center again played host to one of the all time classic finals in 1991. Northern Michigan and Boston University staged an epic final. Northern Michigan came back from being behind 3-0 to led big in the third period only to have BU, whose top line consisted of future NHLer's Shawn McEachern, Tony Amonte and Keith Tkachuk, come storming back with goal after goal after goal in the final eight minutes, including one with just 39 seconds remaining in regulation to tie the game at 7. Both teams failed to score as overtime stretched on, including multiple shots off the pipes for both teams, when finally Darryl Plandowski scored in the third overtime to end the emotionally exhausting game and win the championship for Northern Michigan. BU coach Jack Parker summed it up afterwards. "That wasn't a hockey game out there tonight. That was something different."

As thrilling as the 1991 final was, the championships return to St. Paul was the opposite, as Lake Superior State University destroyed Boston University 9-1 in the last game hosted by the Civic Center, which was demolished to make way for the Xcel Energy Center, which was built as part of the effort to return NHL hockey to Minnesota in 2000 in the form of the Minnesota Wild.

The 2002 final in St. Paul was a wild affair indeed, as the hometown University of Minnesota returned to the top of the heap for the first time since 1979 in front of 19,000 rabid fans when they scored a last minute goal with an empty net to force overtime. Grant Potulny, the only player on the team from outside of Minnesota, caused an eruption of biblical proportions with his championship winning goal in overtime to give Minnesota the victory.

This year is the second time the Xcel Energy Center has hosted the final and the eight time it has been decided in Minnesota.

Today's featured jersey is a 2001-02 University of Minnesota Golden Gophers Jordan Leopold jersey as worn during the 2002 Frozen Four held in St. Paul, Minnesota. Leopold was also the recipient of that season's Hobey Baker Award, given annually to the top college player in the United States.

This jersey also features the WCHA conference logo on the lower back hem and the 2002 Frozen Four tournament patch on the upper right chest.

The University of Minnesota is also the host school of this years Frozen Four.

1997-98 University of Minnesota Golden Gophers Erik Rasmussen Jersey

The Curious, Weird and Ugly™ Collection now features a college jersey from the WCHA.

This hideous nightmare of a jersey is a 1997-98 University of Minnesota Alternate Erik Rassmussen jersey.

Designed by then Golden Gophers player Casey Hankinson, and crafted entirely out of "dazzle cloth" by Gemini Athletic Wear, this jersey features the traditional "M" logo, but the similarities between it and the regular Gophers home and away jerseys ends there.

The torso has diagonal black, a very purplish shade of maroon, bright gold and black bands of color, of unequal widths of course. Even weirder is the black extension of the left arm coloring into the upper left chest area. What is the reason for that? It looks like a crude patch sewn to repair some imaginary game worn tear.

The maroon shoulder coloring runs down the top of the sleeves until wrapping around the arms just above the bright yellow cuffs and over the black coloring on the lower part of the arms. It's a grotesque patchwork quilt of lines running this way and that in dark and depressing colors only broken up by jarring flashes of gold - all with a glitzy shine that makes the entire package all the more tacky.

But that's only the front of the jersey. Taking a look at the shoulders gives us the bizarre sight of the severed head of Goldy Gopher smiling away, completely oblivious to the ghastly scene unfolding beneath him.

The tacky, bloated font for the names are italicized for no apparent reason other than to contradict the direction of the diagonal lines leaning the opposite direction on the back of the jersey, and are placed on an ill-advised, italicized(!) dazzle cloth name plate that overlaps into the purple maroon area of the jersey if the name is of sufficient length.

Topping off the whole package is the just plain ridiculous font for the numbers, done in three colors to mimic the "M" on the front. The numbers are an unexplainable combination of calligraphy and the Flintstones, appearing hand-drawn, yet crude at the same time.

The Gophers wore this jersey for only a few games, perhaps even only just once as we have also heard, because the players rightfully thought they were dreadful and no longer wanted to wear them. Replica versions do periodically show up on ebay, but you better have an expert customizer on your side to recreate the name and numbers worn on this one.

We classify this jersey to be "Curious", as in we're curious what the approval process for this trainwreck was really like, "Weird" due to the appalling pattern of the diagonally striped construction of the body and simply terrible font for the numbers, and "Ugly" because it is, without hesitation, the worst looking jersey in the Third String Goalie collection.

It's truly "the perfect storm" of bad ideas poorly executed.

But if you think that the jersey worn on the ice was bad, check out this ad for Gemini that shows an unused prototype variation featruing a giant Goldy Gopher head as the main logo, which takes the entire package to an entirely new farcical level!

If the "Gopher Head" version actually been worn, we can only imagine that they would have been the second ever jersey to be rejected during a game.

2002-03 University of Minnesota Thomas Vanek Jersey

Following the loss of future NHLers leading scorer center Johnny Pohl, second leading scorer center Jeff Taffe and third leading scorer, captain and Hobey Baker Award winner defenseman Jordan Leopold, the defending national champion University of Minnesota Golden Gophers reloaded for 2002-03 with a new offensive weapon, Thomas Vanek.

Vanek, a native of Austria came from the Sioux Falls Stampede of the United States Hockey League, where he led the USHL in goals (46), assists (45) and points (91) in 53 games, outdistancing his nearest competitor by 15 points.

The Gophers opened their defense of their title by defeating Ohio State 7-2 at the Xcel Energy Center in the annual Hall of Fame Game in front of 15,204 fans. Highlights of their regular season included a five game winning streak in December, which included a two-game sweep on the road at rival Wisconsin, and exhibition win over the Italy National Team and winning their annual holiday tournament with wins over Yale and nationally ranked Boston College.

February saw a four game winning streak with a victory at Colorado College, another sweep of Wisconsin, this time at home, and a win up in Duluth over the University of Minnesota Duluth.

Minnesota finished the WCHA regular season with a 15-6-7 conference record (20-2-2 overall), good for second place in the WCHA with future NHL defensemen Paul Martin and Keith Ballard and forward Vanek being named to the All-WCHA Second Team following a 31 goal, 62 point season, which was good for sixth in the nation.

By finishing second in the WCHA, Minnesota hosted ninth place Michigan Tech and advanced to the WCHA Final Five on the basis of a pair of 3-1 and 5-2 wins.

Their next opponent was the Minnesota State Mavericks, who finished with an identical 15-6-7 WCHA record. The Gophers advanced with a narrow 3-2 overtime win in front of 17,012 spectators to meet WCHA regular season champions Colorado College. In the championship game Minnesota prevailed with a 4-2 win to capture the Broadmoor Trophy as WCHA playoff champions.

Five teams were picked that season for the NCAA National Tournament, with Minnesota being named the #1 seed in the West Regional played at their home rink at Mariucci Arena where they would face #4 seed Mercyhurst.

Minnesota advanced with a 9-2 win over the Lakers to face the Ferris State Bulldogs, 5-2 winners over North Dakota. Minnesota extended their winning streak to six games by easily advancing to the Frozen Four in Buffalo, New York by a final score of 7-4.

Their semi-final opponent in Buffalo would be traditional college hockey powerhouse the Michigan Wolverines. Michigan got on the scoreboard first, halfway through the first period on a goal off of a faceoff to take a 1-0 lead. The Wolverines would extend their lead to 2-0 before Vanek would get Minnesota on the board with two minutes remaining in the second period.

A minute and a half into the third period Gino Guyer pulled the Gophers even with a goal from the slot. The remainder of the third period was a tense, close fought battle that settled nothing and the contest went into overtime, where Vanek set Minnesota to their second consecutive national championship game when he came out from behind the Wolverines net after reversing course and put a sharp angle shot through the goaltender to win the game for Minnesota.

Their opponents were Hockey East champions, the New Hampshire Wildcats. Minnesota went out on top at the nine minute mark on a shot from the point by Martin but New Hampshire even the score with less than 20 seconds remaining on a power play goal that was banked in off Minnesota goalie Travis Weber.

The second period was played scoreless, as was the first eight minutes of the third before Vanek took control of the game, first with a nifty play after receiving the puck at the blueline on a three-on-two. Once into the left faceoff circle, Vanek slammed on the brakes, cut to the middle of the ice, losing his defensman in the process. He then drew the goalie out who went down as he cut around him to the right, easily putting the puck into the open net to put the Gophers up 2-1 with 11:46 remaining.

With 8:43 remaining, Vanek split the defense to create a scoring chance which was stopped. Jon Waibel gathered up the rebound and executed a nice give and go with Vanek to create some space and fired the puck in from 15 feet out to extend Minnesota's lead to 3-1 with an assist from Vanek.

Barry Tallackson slammed in a pass from the side of the net on a Gopher power play with 6 1/2 minutes remaining to put the game out of reach at 4-1 and the Gophers added an empty net goal to make the final score 5-1 to take their second consecutive NCAA national championship and Vanek was named the Frozen Four's Most Outstanding Player.

Vanek would subsequently be drafted #5 overall in that spring's NHL Entry Draft and return to Buffalo as a member of the Sabres.

Today's featured jersey is a Mission 2002-03 University of Minnesota Golden Gophers Thomas Vanek jersey. Minnesota had won the national title the year before wearing identical jerseys made by Nike, but changed to Mission jerseys for the 2002-03 season.

This jersey features the 2003 Frozen Four patch worn by all four teams at that year's Frozen Four, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Michigan and Cornell. Minnesota wore their white jerseys for both games in Buffalo.

Today's first video is an excellent recap of the Minnesota Gophers 2003 Frozen Four.

Next up is a great collection of Vanek highlights while he was with the Golden Gophers featuring the outstanding announcing of Frank Mazzocco.