penguininnevada
Pittsburgh Penguins |
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Location: member of the honor roll, assistant to the assistant manager of the movie theater
Joined: 09.01.2008
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My name is Joel and I’m the creator of the Minnesota North Stars Change.org petition . The petition is about attempting to return the history and logo of the Minnesota North Stars back to Minnesota where the banners, logo, and anything Minnesota North Stars related will be housed at Xcel Energy Center under control of the Minnesota Wild. I decided that it would be a good idea to write an in-depth article and share it on hockey discussion boards to generate discussion and hopeful support. Before I get into the depth of the article, let me clear some topics up.
1. The petition is not to get the Wild to change their name to the North Stars. They are the Wild and should continue to go by that name. I’m a major fan of the Wild. Even though I live in Packerland (not by choice), I remain true to my home state’s teams. I cheer for them all. I love the Wild! In a house divided of sports team loyalty, the Wild is the one team we can all agree on. I used to work for a company owned by the wife of Wild owner Craig Leipold in the Milwaukee area. Leipold’s office was one floor above where I worked. I used the connection to score an autographed Wild puck from him to go with a 2007-2008 team signed hockey stick that was put up for auction to support a company selected charity. Our team should always be the Wild going now and forever!
2. I understand there is a 99% chance the NHL, Wild and Dallas Stars are going to ignore the petition. However, I’ve never been one to give up. I started the petition around the time the Wild and Stars met in the playoffs. After some initial small time success, the petition hit a roadblock of receiving no support. I was able to secure supports from multiple North Stars Facebook groups, the I Love Minnesota Sports Facebook group, the Hockey Wilderness sharing the petition on a daily Wilderness Walk, and a Duluth radio station doing an article on the petition. I have made several attempts to reach out to Minnesota media members, former North Stars personnel, and people in the hockey community. Unfortunately, nobody has retweeted the petition or spoke out for it to my knowledge. The only way the petition is going to be successful is through a grass roots effort and I’m committed to trying with those who will support it. I will keep pushing it until I’m out of ideas. As you’ll read, the North Stars are a passion to me as is Minnesota sports in general. I might very well be wasting my time, but I must try. You don’t get unless you ask as the old saying goes. I’ll continue to be persistent and hope many will stand with me in trying to accomplish our goal.
3. I know the topic has been discussed to death for years. As you read, I hope you notice that my goals are different. I’m not here to anger Wild or Dallas Stars fans. I’m here to campaign a take that hopefully will generate many signatures in Minnesota and across the hockey community to make the NHL take notice. We will need a miracle to happen, but isn’t that what Minnesota sports fans thrive on? Every season, we come back hoping this will be the time one of our teams breaks through and wins us a championship! The petition is that hope for a miracle in my eyes!
With all of the above being written, let me dive into my history with the North Stars. I was in 6th grade when they moved to Dallas. Unfortunately, I was never able to attend a North Stars game at Met Center. I did make it out to a Minnesota Moose game and absolutely made sure to attend Wild games when I go home to visit family. It was very important to me to attend the Stadium Series in February to support the Wild and hopefully Minnesota gaining a Winter Classic one day. Equally as important I needed to be there to see the North Stars live for the first time in the alumni game. That was special!
Throughout my childhood before they moved, I could watch North Stars games on KMSP 9. It was there that I fell in love with the team. I still find myself saying “And the save by Casey!” in my head at random times when watching or reading about hockey. Brian Bellows, Mike Gartner, Dave Gagner,, Neal Broten, and the lot were the players I loved. I remember being devastated when the move was announced. In 6th grade, I was introduced to the politics of sports relocation watching the news or updates on if the team could be saved. As we all know, it didn’t happen and they were off to Dallas. How bad was it for me? My dad recalls a night that he checked on me to see if I was asleep for the night. What he found was me sitting on my bed with my eyes closed. He asked me what I was doing. All he heard back was me asking him why the North Stars moved. I was sleep talking about it!
After the move, I spent the next 7 years following the exploits of our beloved hockey state trying to secure another team. We flirted with the Winnipeg Jets, Edmonton Oilers and Hartord Whalers. None of them ended up moving here. It looked like we were going to secure the Jets, but Phoenix ended up getting them in the end. Those Jets to Minnesota rumors cost us the IHL’s Minnesota Moose moving to Manitoba. Finally, we did gain the Wild via NHL expansion. Like many fans, I attempted to move on with the new team. I got into the expansion draft, caught up with players and teams around the league, and was eager to make new memories with the Wild as an adult. While I have been able to do that, there always has been something in regards to the North Stars that has stuck with me from my childhood.
I’m not alone with still thinking about the North Stars. Look at many Minnesota hockey fans who still rock the North Stars appeal today. Look at the retailers selling it in Minnesota and even nationally. The NHL keeps selling Minnesota North Stars merchandise. The hunger for our former franchise is alive and well. Check out the link below for a great article written by Rachel Blount of the Star Tribune during the time the Wild and Stars were facing each other in the playoffs earlier this year:
http://www.startribune.co...-not-forgotten/376008371/
What exactly am I trying to do? It’s quite simple. The North Stars were created in Minnesota in 1967 and departed for Dallas in 1993. They accomplished 26 years of history in Minnesota that should remain in the state proudly on display at Xcel Energy Center. Click on the link below as an example:
https://blackoutdallas.co...e-in-franchise-history/2/
You see three numbers retired with the old N logo with a star. That is a Minnesota logo. Two of those players (Bill Masterton and Bill Goldsworthy) spent their careers in Minnesota. Neither stepped foot into Dallas. The third player (Neal Broten) spent a majority of his career in Minnesota over that of Dallas. I absolutely understand Mike Modano being identified with Dallas much more than he was with Minnesota. I don’t dispute his number hanging in the Dallas Stars’ arena. I do dispute the other three. Those banners should be hanging in the Xcel Energy Center where the history and logo of the North Stars belongs. My petition proposes that of Minnesota being the rightful owner of the North Stars’ hockey history from 1967-1993 and the Wild hockey history from 2000-present. The petition is not to combine the two teams’ histories. It is to recognize both of them with Xcel Energy Center being the proud home to banner from what both teams have accomplished. Dallas should be owners of the Stars’ history from 1993-present. In other words, the petition is requesting the Minnesota North Stars and Dallas Stars become two separate teams history wise. The N logo with the star on it should be returned to Minnesota with the Wild being the main user of it. The Wild should have permission to use the logo on jerseys, promotions, and other marketing endeavors with the North Stars’ history living back in Minnesota where it belongs. The Masterton, Goldsworthy, and Broten (edited Broten banner) banners should be transferred to Minnesota to hang in Xcel Energy Center with any other Minnesota North Stars banner currently being hung in Dallas’ arena (such as when the team made is to the two Stanley Cups while in Minnesota).
There are similar situations where the city that lost a professional sports franchise were able to keep the name and/or history. Recently, the NBA’s New Orleans Hornets decided to drop the Hornets name and rename themselves the Pelicans. That allowed the Charlotte Bobcats franchise to take back the Hornets name. When the NBA’s Seattle Supersonics moved to Oklahoma City to become the Thunder, the city worked out a relocation deal to retain the Supersonics name and history should they get a new NBA team. I know there are various clauses in the deal, but something was worked out. When the NFL’s Cleveland Browns moved to Baltimore, the city of Cleveland could keep the Browns name and history or the new expansion team that took the place of the former team. The NHL’s Atlanta Thrashers moved to Winnipeg and the city could rename them the Jets, which was the name of the old team before they moved to Phoenix. With examples like these happening, is it that farfetched that Minnesota should not be able to rightfully reclaim the history and logo of the North Stars in the years they played in the state?
I understand there are many examples where the team name and/or history moved with the team to the new city. MLB’s Brooklyn Dodgers took everything to Los Angeles. The NFL’s Baltimore Colts took everything to Indianapolis. The NBA’s New Orleans Jazz took everything to Utah. Even the NBA’s Minneapolis Lakers took everything to Los Angeles. I won’t deny that the area is quite gray when it comes to something like this, but that is why there is a petition to try and be successful at reclaiming history where it rightfully belongs.
Why should you consider supporting the petition? We Minnesotans love our hockey. Minnesota is hockey! It is our identity in the winter months. We love our high school teams. We love the Gophers’ hockey team. We love the hockey teams of the smaller colleges in state. Minnesota is the state that produces the most hockey players. We also love our hockey history. The hockey Hall of Fame is in Minnesota! We want all of our history to be where it belongs in state. Texas fans can claim the same about football. I bet many Houston Texans fans are still crushed about losing the NFL’s Houston Oilers to Tennessee. I believe the history and logo of the Oilers should be returned to Houston and placed in the care of the Houston Texans. Nobody knows hockey like Minnesota and nobody knows football like Texas.
I encourage that you sign the petition, share it, and discuss it. I encourage anyone with media connections to pick it up and write about it/discuss it. I encourage those in support of the petition to speak up and help it grow with signatures. I encourage those that disagree with it to speak up about why the history and logo should not be returned to Minnesota. Any publicity is good publicity in my eyes. It gets people talking. In the Star Tribune article cited earlier in the article, Wild executive John Maher was quoted in the article. Check out the following:
“The NHL owns and controls all teams’ trademarks. Wild executive John Maher said the league and the Wild have been “very respectful’’ of the fact that the North Stars are ancestors of the Dallas franchise, not the Wild. The first time that the NHL and Dallas allowed the Wild to use the logo was two months ago, when a team of retired North Stars and Wild played the Chicago Blackhawks’ alumni as part of the Stadium Series.”
“Our fans are interested in it, and that makes us interested,’’ said Maher, who plans to seek more opportunities for the Wild to incorporate the logo. “The North Stars are definitely a piece of hockey history here that our fans are hoping we can keep alive.’’
What is the best way to tell the Wild and the league the North Stars’ history and logo should come home? Sign the petition! We are just at above 1,500 signatures at the time of the article. That isn’t going to cut it. We need many more. If the 1% chance we have to be successful has a prayer of working, the fan base and those in the hockey community that supports the ideas needs to sign and share the petition. This isn’t my petition. This is our petition! We either make our voices heard together or we remain quiet. Will you please join me in trying to bring a special hockey history back to Minnesota? If so, sign here:
You can e-mail the author at: jcpotter11 @gmail.com 
- jcphitman
fascinating
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