The Illinois Fighting Illini men's ice hockey team is a

college ice hockey College ice hockey is played principally in the United States and Canada, though leagues exist outside North America. In the United States, competitive "college hockey" refers to ice hockey played between colleges and universities within the g ...

program that represents the

University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Univer ...

. The Illini play on campus at historic 2,000-seat University of Illinois Ice Arena. They are a member of the American Collegiate Hockey Association (ACHA) at the ACHA Division I level. The team is a member of the

Central States Collegiate Hockey League The Central States Collegiate Hockey League (CSCHL) is Division I ACHA level hockey-college athletic conference. The CSCHL is in its 51st season of existence and is one of the top ranked ACHA leagues. It currently has 4 member teams in the Midwe ...

(CSCHL) within the ACHA. The team operates as a registered student organization (RSO) at the University of Illinois. The University does not currently have an NCAA varsity team, and thus the club team is the highest level of hockey offered by the University. A feasibility study published in March 2018, and commissioned by the

NHL The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

, NHLPA, and College Hockey, Inc., found a high probability of success for the hockey program to transition to

NCAA Division I NCAA Division I (D-I) is the highest level of intercollegiate athletics sanctioned by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) in the United States, which accepts players globally. D-I schools include the major collegiate athletic ...

. Illinois however reversed course in May 2022, announcing that they were no longer exploring adding a varsity hockey program.

History

Organized ice hockey came to Illinois in the 1930s and played its first official season in 1937 as an independent NCAA team. The first head coach was Ray Eliot, who coached the Fightin' Illini from 1937-1939. The team went winless in the 1937–38 season, going 0–4 before winning their first game in the following season. Vic Heyliger, a former

All-America The All-America designation is an annual honor bestowed upon an amateur sports person from the United States who is considered to be one of the best amateurs in their sport. Individuals receiving this distinction are typically added to an All-Am ...

n at

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

and professional player with the

Chicago Blackhawks The Chicago Blackhawks (spelled Black Hawks until 1986, and known colloquially as the Hawks) are a professional ice hockey team based in Chicago. The Blackhawks compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division i ...

, took over as head coach for the 1939-40 season. In this second year as Illini head coach he led the team to a 17-win season, the most successful season of the Illini NCAA ice hockey team. The team recorded a 10-win season in 1941-42 and a 9-win season in 1942–43 that included only a single loss. The program was ended after the 1942–43 season during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

; that same year in 1943 Heyliger came out of retirement for 1943–44 season to fill in the team's depleted war time roster. The current Fighting Illini men's ice hockey team formed in the

post-war era In Western usage, the phrase post-war era (or postwar era) usually refers to the time since the end of World War II. More broadly, a post-war period (or postwar period) is the interval immediately following the end of a war. A post-war period c ...

during the mid-1950s. The team joined the

CSCHL The Central States Collegiate Hockey League (CSCHL) is Division I ACHA level hockey-college athletic conference. The CSCHL is in its 51st season of existence and is one of the top ranked ACHA leagues. It currently has 4 member teams in the Midwe ...

in 1975, only 5 years after the league formed, making the Illini the longest on-going CSCHL members.

Facility

Notable events

Undefeated season in 2007-2008. Record of 38-0-0. * 2 ACHA Division I National Championships. Won in

Bensenville, Illinois Bensenville is a village located near O'Hare International Airport in DuPage County, Illinois, with a portion of the town in Cook County. As of the 2020 census, the village population was 18,813. First known as Tioga, it was formally establishe ...

in 2005. Won in

Rochester, New York Rochester () is a city in the U.S. state of New York, the seat of Monroe County, and the fourth-most populous in the state after New York City, Buffalo, and Yonkers, with a population of 211,328 at the 2020 United States census. Located in W ...

in 2008. * 48 game winning streak spanning from September 28, 2007 to October 25, 2008.

Season-by-season results

''Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, Pts = Points'' * Winning percentage is used when conference schedules are unbalanced.

Awards

* ''Big Ten Conference Championships; (3)" : 1941, 1942, 1943 * ''ACHA National Championships; (2)'' : 2005, 2008 * ''ACHA Final Four Appearances; (10)'' : 1998, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2018 * ''ACHA National Tournament Appearances; (23)'' : 1993, 1994, 1995, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 * ''CSCHL Regular Season Championships; (2)'' : 2003, 2008, 2013 * ''CSCHL Tournament Championships; (6)'' : 1986, 1988, 1992, 2003, 2006, 2008

Fighting Illini in the NHL

Notable alumni

Lee Archambault Lee Joseph "Bru" Archambault (born August 25, 1960) is an American test pilot and former NASA astronaut. He has logged over 4,250 flight hours in more than 30 different aircraft. Archambault is married with three children. His hobbies include bicy ...

- U.S. Air Force colonel and NASA astronaut. Crew member of Mission STS-117 and Commander of Mission STS-119. *

Amo Bessone Amos "Betts" Bessone (November 22, 1916 – January 9, 2010) was a collegiate ice hockey player and head coach. Bessone was born in Sagamore, Massachusetts, on Cape Cod, and raised in West Springfield, Massachusetts, where he learned to play ho ...

- A 3-year varsity player, Bessone coached college hockey for 31 years, spending most of his career with

Michigan State Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the first of its kind in the United States. It i ...

and led the program to its first National Championship in 1966. * Chad Cassel - Inducted into the Illinois Hockey Hall of Fame (2007). Winningest coach in Illini Hockey history with a record of 326-104-14. *

Gene Honda Eugene "Gene" Honda is a public address announcer for the Chicago White Sox (starting in 1985, full-time since 1991), Chicago Blackhawks (succeeding Harvey Wittenberg since the 2001–02 season), DePaul Blue Demons basketball, Big Ten tour ...

- Public address announcer for the

. * Tommy Karakas - Goaltender in the team's final varsity season, set a modern collegiate record for consecutive shutouts (4, since broken). Brother of Stanley Cup champion

Mike Karakas Michael George Karakas (November 13, 1910 – May 2, 1992) was an American professional ice hockey goaltender in the National Hockey League (NHL). He was the league's first American-born and -trained goaltender and the first player of Greek ...

. * Norbert Sterle - Led program in scoring during the team's championship season in 1940–41. Killed while serving in

References

External links

www.illinihockey.com
{{CSCHL Illinois Fighting Illini ice hockey Illinois Fighting Illini men's ice hockey College men's ice hockey teams in the United States