Penn State to Add Men’s and Women’s Varsity Ice Hockey – Intercollegiate Athletics
PRESS RELEASE – Pegulas Commit Historic Gift To Penn State For New Arena And Hockey Program – Intercollegiate Athletics
Press Conference Transcript – Intercollegiate Athletics
Friday was a great day for Penn State and hockey. Alumnus Terry Pegula (’73 B.S. petroleum and natural gas engineering) and his wife Kim donated $88 million to start up the varsity hockey program and build an arena that will seat 5,000 to 6,000 fans. Former Icers head coach Joe Battista will be the Associate Athletic Director for Ice Arena Operations and the Director of the Ice Arena and Hockey Campaign. Battista had been instrumental been working for years to bring NCAA hockey to Penn State.

Quick hits:

• Both the men and women hockey team will debut as an independents in 2012.
• Conference affiliation is expected for the 2014 season. That has yet to be determined and is being closely watched by college hockey observers because the Big Ten will be eligible to create a conference with Penn State being the 6th team. I think they will wind up in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association, but a Big Ten hockey conference may not be too far off. Some form of conference championship is likely once the Nittany Lions go varsity.
• The Big Ten Network will certainly broadcast some games. They must be thrilled by this announcement.
• The target date for the arena is spring 2014. The Ice Pavilion at the Greenberg sports complex will be used until then. The new arena may be built across from the Bryce Jordan Center and adjacent to Holuba Hall, the indoor football practice facility.
• They will probably be called the Nittany Lions, but I am sure Icers will stick around as an unofficial nickname.
• The arena will have have the main rink and a practice rink.
• Schloarships: Men 18 Women 20
• Pegula made his fortune in natural gas, selling East Resources Inc. to Royal Dutch Shell earlier this year. He was a major player in all of that natural gas mining that has started in Northern Pennsylvania.
• The process began in 2006 when Pegula asked Battista why Penn State wasn’t D-I.
• I am thrilled for JoeBa, he’s worked and waited a long time for this to happen
• AD Tim Curley thinks hockey can be a revenue producer. We shall see.
• I think 5,000 may be a little small, I was hoping for 7,000 to 8,000. There are a lot of hockey fans in Happy Valley.
• I hope the sweaters have either “PENN STATE” or the oval Nittany Lion logo (“the chipmunk”) and not both like the current Icers jerseys. The white helmets with the blue stripe need to stay too.
• Joe Paterno is on board.
• It will be interesting to see if Penn State can become and year-in-year-out power. Pennsylvania has more hockey players than ever, but not as many as New England and the upper Midwest. That being said, I am sure a few from those regions can be lured to Happy Valley. I anticipate that players from New York, New Jersey and points south would also find Penn State very attractive.