One of the first sports writers for The Journal who covered the New Ulm High School boys hockey team in its infancy back in the late 70s was Kevin Oklobzija, who now covers the Buffalo Sabres of the NHL.

“I was a senior in high school for the 1977-78 school year,” said Oklobzija now living in Buffalo, New York. “I started working part-time under (sports editor) Byron Higgin in the spring of ’77 part-time and covered a lot of the Eagles home hockey games in St. Peter.”

Oklobzija graduated from St. Cloud State with a degree in Journalism and worked at the St. Cloud Times until the June of 1985 and then move to Rochester, New York, where he started covering first the Rochester Americans of the American Hockey League before covering the Buffalo Sabres.

While he still covers the Sabres, he has a lot of memories of New Ulm Hgh School’s 50 years of boys hockey.

“The craziness of the team having to practice outdoors because they did not have any indoor ice,” he said. “They played all of their home games in St. Peter (at Don Roberts Arena) and that was their home rink and they are driving 45 minutes — I covered all of their home games there and a few road games.”

Oklobzija said it was strange covering a home game on the road but that was how it was.

“While it was inconvenient for everybody taking County Road 5 to St. Peter, was how it was. It was not a big deal to the players, but I think that eventually helped and fast-forwarded the effort to get a rink built in New Ulm.”

He remembered that 1977-78 season — just two years after the star of boys high school hockey in New Ulm — that the Eagles upset Rochester Mayo 3-1 in the sectionals.

“And I remember reading the headline in the Rochester paper that said, ‘It is true-Mayo 6 falls to New Ulm,'” Oklobzija said. “There was so much disbelief that an established hockey program could lose to a program in only its second year of existence.”

Oklobzija remembers Jeff Schugel was in goal for New Ulm.

“He made maybe 40 saves in the game — he faced a lot of good shots,” Oklobzija said. “And the Macho twins (Peter and Paul) were really good hockey players. And as great of baseball players as the Steinbachs (Terry and Tom) were, they were also good hockey players and I think that they both scored a goal in that game.

“And I think that showed others and swayed some opinions and helped get funding going for the indoor arena.”

Oklobzija said that he worked for head hockey coach Tom Macho in the summer for a few years while in college.

“He was a very good hockey guy — his players respected him very much — and he got them to play hard,” he said. “They played the right systems — systems that allowed them to win — and I was always impressed in the way he conducted himself and wanted his players to conduct themselves.”

He said that the Eagles’ upset of Rochester Mayo in 1977-78 season still stands out in his mind.

“I am not sure that the players believed that they belonged with a program like Mayo, but they go into a neutral site game as a real low seed in their infancy of high school hockey showed what could be accomplished and where the program was headed for a team that did not have their own indoor rink.”

“But when you are practicing hockey outdoors in Minnesota, you are dedicated to the sport that you like,” Oklobzija said.