Marquette is a real hockey town. Bylsma played here himself in travel showcases as a teenager and still recognized the banners in the rafters at Lakeview Arena. Just a few years ago, Jack Eichel came through as a member of the National Team Development Program and played against the Northern Michigan Wildcats at their home right down the street at Berry Events Center.
In fact, if you picked a person at random from the crowd on Tuesday morning there was a good chance they could share with you some hockey roots of their own. Take Jim Tallio, for example, a Marquette native who is old enough to remember Gordie Howe and the Detroit Red Wings coming into town to play against inmates at an outdoor rink at Marquette State Prison in 1956. Tallio says he played at the prison's rink several times himself. Not as an inmate, he was sure to point out.
Prior to playing at the prison, Howe and the Red Wings played against the Marquette Sentinels at the Palestra, the arena that preceded Lakeview and stood until 1974. That's the building where Mike Camilli says his grandfather, a chemist, used to be brought into to prevent the rink's cooling coils from rotting. Camilli says people still have pictures of the Palestra in their homes today.
"My son was just saying he was surprised that Marquette won out of all the cities," Camilli said as he watched the Sabres skate. "But I'm not really surprised because it's got a long history of both semi-professional and college and junior hockey. It's really engrained in everybody here."
It's also brought the community together. Charlie Enright volunteered as an usher for the morning skate on Tuesday, and said there were hundreds more volunteers who assisted in cleaning and painting the rink as well as staffing the practices and the game.
