Fear The Deer

I'll admit that I don't believe in a lot of mythical creatures that go bump in the night. Hockey has had its share of those creatures represented on jerseys as the Savannah Ghost Pirates, the Odessa Jackalopes, the Lake Erie Monsters, the Grand Rapids Griffins, Lehigh Valley Phantoms, Lowell Lock Monsters, and Youngstown Phantoms all have some sort of paranormal or mythical name, but I can't say that reality shows these names to be anything more than myth or legend. We'll add one more mythological creature to that list starting next season when the Wisconsin Windigo look to haunt the NAHL in the 2022-23 season after landing in Eagle River, Wisconsin!

You might be asking what a "Windigo" is at this point. Unless you're a fan of Stephen King novels, a fan of TV show Supernatural, or a longtime horror movie fan, the windigo - also spelled wendigo or weendigo - are "evil man-eating giants of Anishinabe mythology". While the Indigenous portrayal of the windigo is far less horrifying than the fiction writers who have utilized the mythical creature in their stories, there's an agreement that most of the versions seen in popular culture are nothing close to what the Indigenous communities imagined. The imagining of the windigo with a deer-like head seems to be the newest variation on the legend.

Regardless of what legend is used or believed, the Wisconsin Windigo are going with the deer's head as seen to the right for their primary logo. Chosen from 153 different names that were submitted in a contest, Jonathon Gould, a thirteen year-old goaltender in the Eagle River Hockey Association, chose Windigo for the team's potential name, and the Copper Island Hockey Club settled on his as the winner! According to Jonathon's emailed entry into the contest, "I came up with the name after remembering about stuff (my teammates and I) would talk about last year in the locker room. I was thinking it goes well because it just rolls off the tongue. I suggest you call the team the Wisconsin Windigo." Six weeks later, the Windigo will officially skate in the NAHL next season!

There's a lot of work to be done between now and September when the Windigo set up shop at the Eagle River Ice Arena, more affectionately known around those parts as "The Dome". It's not hard to see how it got its nickname. The Dome holds a special place in US history as the wooden lamella-domed arena was one of three built in the US, and the Eagle Creek structure the last one standing!

The small cabin-like structure on the front of The Dome is the Wisconsin Hockey Hall of Fame, and people such as NHLers Gary Suter and Craig Ludwig, legendary NCAA coach Jeff Sauer, and "Miracle on Ice" American Mark Johnson have been inducted into the Hall of Fame. The Windigo are moving into a historical building while being surrounded by rich hockey history, so here's hoping they can write a few chapters into Wisconsin hockey history!

It might be a bit of a goofy name, but the logo is very respectable that Copper Island Hockey Club had designed. Like the other new deer team in the Iowa Heartlanders, a name that might raise eyebrows can be made good with a solid logo. I'd say that Eagle River is on the right track based on their logo thus far, and the Wisconsin Windigo may indeed give other NAHL teams a reason to fear the deer!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!