Zamboni comes full circle for Utah Hockey Club’s inaugural season

The Utah Hockey Club will play its first regular-season game on Oct. 8 against the Chicago Blackhawks at Delta Center in Salt Lake City (10 p.m. ET; ESPN, ESPN+). NHL.com is counting down to the first game with a five-part series about hockey in Utah. Today, in Part 1, columnist Nicholas J. Cotsonika looks at the inventor of the Zamboni, who was born in Eureka, Utah:

EUREKA, Utah -- Eureka! We have found the birthplace of Frank Zamboni, inventor of the ice-resurfacing machine.

Start at Delta Center in Salt Lake City, home of the Utah Hockey Club, the NHL’s newest team. Drive south on Interstate 15 for about an hour, around Utah Lake and through Provo. Go west on U.S. Highway 6 for about 25 minutes into the country. Pass Hidden Treasure Spring and wind through Homansville Canyon until you come to the former mining town of Eureka, Utah.

The place has a population of between 650 and 700 people. Its biggest landmark is a 65-foot wooden headframe, the last remnant of the Bullion Beck and Champion Mining Company. It was here that Zamboni was born Jan. 16, 1901, and is still remembered today, even though it was his home for a short time.

“Everybody wants to drive the Zamboni,” said Toni Dever, the mayor of Eureka, whose grandsons played hockey at Utah Valley University near Provo. “I think hockey is just marvelous.”

The Utah Hockey Club knew of the little connection when it ordered two new Zamboni-brand ice-resurfacing machines for Delta Center. The machines helped build the ice for the inaugural season and made their public debut at Utah’s first preseason game Sept. 23. Each time they make a lap, you could say, in a way, they’re coming full circle.

“We are going to somehow tell that story during the course of the season for our fans,” Utah president of hockey operations Chris Armstrong said. “We’re just trying to figure out the best way to do it.”

When Zamboni was a year old, the family moved to a farm in Idaho, according to a history on the Zamboni company website. In 1920, Frank moved to Southern California with his brother Lawrence to join their brother George in the auto repair business.

Soon Frank and Lawrence opened an electrical service business catering to the dairy industry, installing refrigerator units to keep milk cool. Then they built a plant that made block ice used to pack produce for train transport. When demand for block ice cooled, they found another use for their knowledge.

Frank, Lawrence and a cousin opened Iceland Skating Rink in Paramount, California, in 1940. Eventually, they covered it with a roof to keep the ice out of the sun and needed to maintain the indoor surface. Long story short: In 1949, after years of tinkering with ways to do the job most efficiently, Frank invented what we now know as the Zamboni, a machine that shaved the ice, removed the shavings, washed and squeegeed the ice, and held snow in an elevated tank.

Frank founded the Zamboni company in 1950. The first time one of his machines was used in the NHL was Jan. 1, 1954, at a Boston Bruins game at Boston Garden. Frank died July 27, 1988, in Paramount, but his legacy lives on. The company continues to be based in Paramount near the rink that is now called LA Kings Iceland. Modern machines operate all over the world.

Utah’s two machines were manufactured in Brantford, Ontario, and shipped to Salt Lake City. Logan Wescott, regional sales manager for Zamboni, said Utah is one of 19 NHL teams using the newest technology FastICE, billed as an accurate and automated high-pressure fine-mist water application system.

“It makes better ice,” said Paula Coony, brand director for Zamboni. “It makes clearer ice. It’s harder, less snow, and then they use less water. They really get to kind of control that, where a person without FastICE isn’t going to have that, so it’s exciting to see them adopt that technology. A lot more teams are doing that.”

The Zamboni company hopes Utah has fun with the machines as other NHL teams have done, like, say, the San Jose Sharks, who have put a shark fin on them.

“We’re excited to be on their ice, and we’re also excited to see how they enter the space and kind of learn more about what their brand personality is,” Coony said.

Nick Castleton lives in Eureka and is part of the local Tintic Historical Society. He once lived in Salt Lake City and considered himself a big-time fan of the Salt Lake Golden Eagles, who played in the Western Hockey League from 1969-74, the Central Hockey League from 1974-84 and the International Hockey League from 1984-94.

He said he definitely will make it up to Salt Lake City to see the Utah Hockey Club, and when he sees the Zamboni, he’ll think of the man behind the machine.

“He didn’t have much connection here, but we still claim him,” Castleton said. “You have a little bit of pride in the fact that, yeah, I know where he was born, anyway. I’m from the same area. I always think about that when I go to a hockey game.”