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STARRINKS.COM JULY.AUGUST.2016 / 17 A Needed Victory For a town like Marquette, its pride is its most valuable possession. With a population of 21,000 that often yields much of itself to summer tourists, there aren't many things that Marquette can call its own. On Lake Superior's south shore, the winters are long and harsh. And without an NHL team within seven hours by car, the teams that grace the ice at Lakeview are primary sources of civic pride as much else of Marquette is so often shared with outsiders. For Marquette, its pride and its hockey are what it still has to call its own. The two are often intertwined. Dallas Drake, a retired NHL veteran of 15 seasons and a Stanley Cup champion with the Detroit Red Wings, played here for Northern Michigan University. Shani Davis, the gold medal-winning Olympic speed skater, once called Marquette home. Hockey's Carlson brothers —more widely known as the Hanson brothers for their role in "Slap Shot"— even started their profes- sional careers in this neighborhood. In fact, many of the events in the famous movie, from the brothers' on-ice shenanigans and a run to a championship with a dying fran- chise, all took place in Marquette. "There's a lot of pride in being from Marquette and being a native here," MacIver said. "The legacy and history we have, it's great to see the amount of people coming back out this excited about hockey because of (Kraft Hockeyville). "It kind of started last year when Hockeyville first came to the United States. We had a lot of people submit some nominations last year. We got people excited and then we didn't get selected. We were disappointed. "When it came to this year, I don't think as many people were paying attention to it. People were like: 'we didn't get it last year, what are our chances this year?' But we had an excellent nomination from our essay writer, Dr. Fritz Hoenke. He wrote a fantastic article with his nomination, and that's where it started. How he portrayed the issues that we're going through, the history and the legacy of this building and our hockey community. "It started getting really big (this year) when we got through that first round of voting. We basically started getting every- one to believe. When it got to the second round, it started exploding. We had Mickey Redmond from the Detroit Red Wings give Lakeview Arena a shout-out during one of the (Red Wings) playoff games. People from across the state, all the way down to Detroit, were giving Marquette shout-outs on social media. We got a lot of the state of Michigan on board behind us. That was an absolutely humbling and great thing to see. "Even the Hansons were tweeting us!" Receiving New Life As sweet as the Hockeyville title is for the folks at Lakeview, it also couldn't have come at a better time. While hockey remains part of the fabric of Marquette with nearly 1,000 skaters based out of Lakeview, participation num- bers have plummeted in the wake of the economic collapse of 2008. Hockey's great, but just too expensive, many locals say. An underrepresented perk of being Kraft Hockeyville is how receiving $150,000 through the program allows these outside funds to provide the facility its most-needed renovations, rather than increasing registration fees. "THERE'S A LOT OF PRIDE IN BEING FROM MARQUETTE AND BEING A NATIVE HERE. THE LEGACY AND HISTORY WE HAVE, IT'S GREAT TO SEE THE AMOUNT OF PEOPLE COMING BACK OUT THIS EXCITED ABOUT HOCKEY BECAUSE OF (KRAFT HOCKEYVILLE)."