NEW ULM — From 1975 until 1981, the New Ulm boys hockey team called Don Roberts Arena in St. Peter home until the 1981-82 season when the Eagles moved to Vogel Arena.

And in 2003, they moved to their current home at the New Ulm Civic Center.

And while the City of New Ulm built the facilities, it was Tom Macho who built the foundation for New Ulm boys hockey.

Fifty years since starting boys hockey, the Eagles have posted a 701-489-25 record thanks to the records kept by the late Card “Red” Wyczawski and the research of Mike Peterson.

That includes seven trips to the Minnesota State Boys Hockey Tournament (1991-92, 2009-10, 2010-11, 2011-12, 2014-15,2018-19 and 2023-24.

Like having three hockey facilities in 50 years, the Eagles have had three head coaches in that same time span.

Macho coached from the inception of the program until 2015 when Eric Setterholm took over the reins.

He held that position for nine years until Ryan Neuman took over for Setterholm.

Both Setterholm and Neuman played for Macho while in high school.

“I played for Tom from 1991 until 1993 — I was a member of that first team that played in the state tournament,” Setterholm said.

Setterholm, who in his nine years as head coach had the Eagles in the sectional finals for eight of those years and earning four state trips, said he got involved in coaching when he talked to his former coach about getting involved again.

“I started out as a volunteer coach — he put me in charge of forwards and then he made me his assistant and if spiraled up from there,” Setterholm said.

Setterholm took over for Macho in the 2006-07 season.

Setterholm said that he learned a lot from Macho.

“The biggest thing was Tom was that he was always calm — he never really got rattled — he had tremendous patience for his players and everyone,” Setterholm said. “And as a young player and then coach I learned a lot from him. He had learned that patience over the years himself.”

Setterholm said that Macho “brought everything that New Ulm hockey is today.”

“Without Tom, there is none of what we have,” Setterholm said. “When I look back at the programs around southwest Minnesota that are years behind New Ulm as far as players and development and numbers of kids, that is because of Tom getting the program going (in 1975). We have a lot of kids playing.”

Setterholm said that playing in the stqte tournament in 1992 was special.

“There were eight teams in the state tournament — that was it,” he said. “And in those days there were teams from Grand Rapids and (Rochester) John Marshall and those were huge school districts — we had no chance of beating them but in 1991-92 they implemented the Tier I and Tier 2 system and now we have a chance. For Tom and coach (Mike) McMillan is was huge for them and it was pure joy for us.”

Neuman, who played for Macho from 1998-2000, said that — like Setterholm said — that everything was very organized under Macho.

“And he got guys to play for him all of the time,” Neuman said. “Tom always had good communication with his players — he built up relationships up with the players — he always got trust from the kids.”

Neuman, who has guided the Eagles to two state trips, said that 50 years of New Ulm High School boys hockey is a huge thing for our community.

“And just the overall hockey culture here in New Ulm,” he said. “You look at a lot of the high school hockey programs have a lot turnover of coaches but in our 50 years I am only the third head coach. I learned some things from Eric and him getting me ready to be a head coach at the high school level.”