J-Club Hall of Honor | Event Registration

COLLEGEVILLE, Minn. - Even miracles need to start somewhere.
 
And when it came to the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team – which went on to stun the world by winning the gold medal in Lake Placid in February 1980 – that road started at an open tryout held almost a year earlier at the Bloomington Ice Garden.
 
Bob Hanson, who had just wrapped up his senior season in goal at Saint John's, was there – having received an invitation from legendary goalie coach Warren Strelow.
 
"At some point during my senior year Coach Strelow started showing up at some of our games," recalled Hanson, a two-time All-American for the Johnnies. "At one point, (Strelow) pulled me aside and told me that they were holding an open tryout and that I should come down for it. I was surprised because I was kind of a little fish in a little pond at Saint John's. But Coach said he'd like me to be there."
 
The tryouts were the first of three scheduled – the others were held in Oak Park, Mich. (near Detroit) and Danvers, Mass. (near Boston) – before invitations were issued to the actual tryouts in Colorado Springs that summer. 
 
Some players, like Minnesota-Duluth standout John Harrington, who went on to coach the Johnnies from 1993-2008, knew they were likely shoo-ins to advance to the summer. Others, like Hanson, went in knowing it was a long shot.
 
But they still relished the chance to compete against the top-tier competition on hand.
 
"When I got there, I saw every goaltender I'd ever known or heard of (from the amateur and college ranks)," Hanson said. "Dick Bain from Augsburg (who joined Hanson on the All-MIAC team that season) was there. Guys from the bigger schools. We started out at one end of the ice doing goalie drills, then a bunch of people went away. We moved on to practice drills. More people went away. Then we were divided into teams, with a couple goaltenders in each group. We played round-robin. It took me awhile to get up to speed. The game was much quicker and the players had tremendous depth. I was in the big pond and these were big fish."
 
"Then, the round robin was over. The locker room coaching staff told us not to steal our practice jerseys or we'd never get a call back. Apparently, people steal practice jerseys. And that was that. I do remember Herb Brooks and Coach Strelow being there and seeing them in the bleachers breaking things down. It was an exciting time."


 
And it was even more exciting to see the team – which included Harrington as a player and Strelow as a coach – become the toast of the nation 11 months later after upsetting the heavily favored Soviets in the semifinals and beating Finland for the gold.
 
"After the tryouts, Coach Strelow called and said he was scout for both the Minnesota North Stars and Washington Capitals," Hanson said. "(He) told me he could get me into either camp if I wanted to pursue hockey. At the time, I didn't think my odds were very good, I thanked him and said that I'd pass." 
 
"Then I watched everything unfold at the Olympics and started to get the bug again. Following the Olympics I called (Strelow) and asked him if he could still get me into a camp. (He) said that he could and thought the Capitals weren't quite as established (having entered the NHL in 1974), and that their franchise might have more opportunity. (He) told me to get ready and I lined up some ice time coaching at hockey schools in the Minneapolis area. Camp was set to start late in July. But I ruptured a disc in my lower back at the beginning of June and that was it - time to move on."
 
But the fact Hanson was in position to receive those opportunities is a testament to the skill he demonstrated during his four seasons in net for the Johnnies. The St. Cloud Cathedral graduate arrived in Collegeville in the fall of 1975 and immediately won the starting job as a freshman, earning team MVP honors his junior and senior years.
 
"I thought about going to Canada to play junior hockey because I had gone to hockey school up in Canada during high school and had contacts up there," Hanson said. "But my mom thought an education with some hockey was the better path. Charlie Bash, who coached at St. Cloud State, talked to me about playing there. Then Dave Igo, who was the coach at Saint John's at the time, approached me as well. He told me that if I came to St. John's I would start as a freshman. Coach Igo was true to his word.
 
"The transition to Saint John's and dorm life was exciting. There were so many people to meet and the campus was really beautiful. The people were really welcoming. Saint John's is the type of place where people (professors/monks/students) call you by name. You really feel like you're a part of something. It felt like a great fit."

His new teammates were happy to have him in the fold.

"It was obvious he had a lot of talent," said then-senior All-MIAC standout Stacy Christensen, who finished his career with 142 career points, a school record at the time that lasted until 1996 and still good enough to rank him fourth in program history. "After just a few games, we knew we could trust him to make big saves.

"He was quiet, but he was diligent and put in the work he needed to in order to make himself successful."
 
Indeed, Hanson remained in net the next three seasons, earning All-MIAC honors each of those years. He was named an NAIA All-American as a junior following the 1977-78 season when he averaged 33 saves-per-game, the first SJU goalie to be so honored.
 
Hanson repeated as an All-American the following season, recording a save percentage of .870, setting school records for saves (887) and minutes played by a goalie in a single season (1,610). A record that has yet to be broken. His 2,769 career saves also stands as a program career mark.
 
"Bob was always a very good guy and an excellent teammate," recalled Andy Overman, an All-MIAC forward for the Johnnies who graduated a year ahead of him and is now a professor in the humanities and fine arts at Macalester. "He was almost always in good spirits – upbeat and positive.
 
"When you have a goalie that good – a goalie who often faced 40-or-more shots a game and really stood in there – a team plays with more confidence and can really take some chances. You can play more boldly."
 
Hanson is quick to share the credit for his success with his teammates and his head coaches – Igo and Jerry Haugen, who took over the job his final two seasons.
 
"Igo was patient and quiet, but really supportive," Hanson said. "Dave had been a goaltender himself and he was helpful that way. Today, you have guys coaching the wingers, guys coaching the defensemen and guys coaching the goalies. I'd never had a goaltending coach before then. My dad bought me books – there was one by Jacques Plante (a legendary Hall of Famer) and another by a guy from Minneapolis (Dr. Harry Brown). But Dave knew the position and provided a lot of guidance and encouragement which helped as I was adjusting to the college game."
 
"Jerry was young," Hanson continued. "He'd been a standout football and baseball player for the Johnnies. I'm not sure what Jerry knew about hockey prior to assuming the reins, but he got up to speed quickly. It was apparent right away that he was a natural born leader of young men. He came in and grabbed the bull by the horns. We had a lot of success my junior season (finishing 10-4 in the MIAC and in third place in the conference standings). We beat St. Thomas, Gustavus and (non-conference foe) Mankato State. It was a lot more fun to win some of the games you were expected to lose."
 
Haugen said a big reason for that success was having Hanson in net.
 
"You knew he'd keep us in every game we played," Haugen said. "He had good hands and great quickness. He knew the game and could anticipate what was coming at him. He saw a ton of shots, but he came up with so many huge saves."
 
Hanson was also grateful to Haugen for welcoming his father, who worked for DeZURIK, into the team fold.
 
"We lived in Sartell when I was in high school before my dad went to run a plant in Georgia," Hanson said. "He moved back to Sartell to work in corporate for DeZURIK and one of the reasons he did that was to watch me play hockey. He was there at almost every one of my games."
 
"Jerry noticed that and said as long as he arrived on time, he could ride the team bus. I told my dad that and he asked if I'd be OK with it. I said, 'For sure' and he ended up becoming my seat mate during my senior season."
 
Igo was also there for advice when Hanson put hockey behind him and was ready to move on to graduate school.
 
"Dave was in Texas and he told me that school was super cheap because of the state taxes on the oil business," Hanson said. "I ended up at TWU in Denton paying three-or-four dollars a credit hour and worked at a TGI Friday's to pay my way through."
 
After an internship in Philadelphia, Hanson returned to Texas, working as a clinical child/adolescent psychologist before retiring in 2023. He met his wife Lynn there and the couple settled in Muenster, raising two children. 
 
But he said the connection he feels to SJU remains strong all these years later.
 
"The hockey community and the guys I played with were fantastic," Hanson said. "It was so great to have a chance to be part of that group. There was never a ton of pressure on us. We were expected to be middle of the pack in the MIAC. We would beat the teams we were supposed to beat, generally lost to the teams that had their own rinks and more evolved programs and would try to steal a game every now and then. Everyone went out and did everything they could to advance the cause."
 
"Looking back on my days at Saint John's, to be a part of a team and to experience a hockey locker room is extraordinary: the confined space of the room, the men and staff, the funky smell, sticks tape gear and bags, the superstitions, the singular and simple purpose of the game. Being in that room and with those men was one of my life's greatest pleasures."

2026 Hall of Honor Class 
The 2026 class will be inducted into the Saint John's University J-Club Hall of Honor in a ceremony this Homecoming Saturday – Oct. 17 - in Guild Hall (Old Gym). 

The dinner and enshrinement ceremony begins at 5 p.m. in Guild Hall (Old Gym). A Homecoming Celebration social will again take place outside the venue from 4-5 p.m. following SJU's football game against Concordia in Clemens Stadium prior to the dinner and program. 

Registration is $100 per person and includes dinner and beverages. Children ages 6-12 are $35 and those ages six-and-under are free. All proceeds go to the J-Club to support SJU athletics.

To register to attend, click here. 

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