Huskies from Houghton

ICE HOCKEY

Snow lay 25 inches deep. The houses were dark, the beerhalls deserted. Everything about the little (pop. 3,700) copper-mining community of Houghton, on Michigan's Upper Peninsula, suggested rural serenity.

Everything, that is, except the scene in unheated Dee Stadium, where it seemed that half of Houghton was watching the home-town Huskies of Michigan Technological University take on Minnesota of the Big Ten for the second time in two days. Perched on window casings and rafters, the fans screamed "Hit 'em! Hit 'em!" and amused themselves by hurling nickels, dimes, and even a firecracker onto the ice -- until the announcer begged them to stop "because our boys could get hurt, too." When Tech won 5-4, they trooped off to the Ambassador Grille to toast the victory.

Fish & Eggs. By Michigan Tech standards, it was a pretty quiet evening. The night before, Tech had beaten Minnesota 5-1 (winning a handsome trophy in the process), and Houghtonians celebrated that by storming the Douglas House hotel and stealing the fire extinguishers. Opposing players have been bombarded with everything from raw eggs to rotten fish, and the wife of Tech's president was so carried away at one game last year that she hit her husband in the eye, smashing his glasses.

Tech makes no pretense of running a well-rounded athletic program; the same night the Huskies were beating Minnesota, Tech's basketball team allowed Isidore Schmiesing of St. Cloud State College to score 56 points--thereby absorbing its 16th loss of the season. Hockey is the game in Houghton, and the town's devotion is maniacal. When season tickets for the 1,065 seats in Dee Stadium went on sale last November, they sold out in 2 1/2 hours.

The man most responsible for Tech's hockey fortunes is Coach John MacInnes, 40, and he feels the pressure so much that he has spent most of a game in the dressing room, fighting the dry heaves. In ten years at Tech, he has won 185 games and two N.C.A.A. championships, produced ten All-Americas. MacInnes gets $24,000 of Tech's annual $40,000 budget for athletic scholarships, and he spends it across the border in Canada, where promising youngsters get pro-type experience on "junior" amateur teams subsidized by the National Hockey League.

Do Well by Doing Good. Of 24 players on this year's Tech squad, all but six are Canadians, and most have already been drafted by some N.H.L. club. Captain Ricky Yeo comes from Port Arthur, Ontario. All-America Goalie Tony Esposito, brother of the Chicago Black Hawks' Phil Esposito, is on the Montreal Canadiens' "negotiation list," and Wingman Jerry Bumbacco was drafted at 16 by the Black Hawks. The deal for those who do well is free room, board and tuition, plus a $25-a-month bonus if they keep their grades above C.

Professionalism? Shucks, no. Perfectionism? Well, almost. Last week, boasting a season's record of 23 wins, five losses and a tie, Tech played one last game--against Michigan State, a team it already had beaten twice before at Houghton. Only this time the game was in East Lansing, Mich. No nickels, dimes and firecrackers, no raw eggs and rotten fish. The arena was even heated. The homesick Huskies lost, 4-3.

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