Tourney Time

Stories from the Minnesota Boys State Hockey Tournament (Revised)

Author David La Vaque and L.R. Nelson

Minnesota Historical Society Press (February 20, 2024)

Eight decades of big names and memorable games—chronicling the highs and lows, the memories, and the legends from the Minnesota boys' state high school tournament—fully revised and updated with all the action through the 2023 tournament.

Description

Every spring, the state of Minnesota—from urban metropolises to remote border towns—is riveted by the spectacle of the boys' high school hockey tournament. Going back to the inaugural competition in 1945, the state tournament has produced incredible drama on and off the ice, featured legendary players, invigorated communities—and showcased some of the best hockey hair the world has ever seen. The tournament draws thousands to St. Paul, and countless more tune in on television screens around the state.

In Tourney Time, longtime sports journalists David La Vaque and L. R. Nelson take readers year by year through the tournament, highlighting the key games, the backstories, and the players that made each one shine. Interviews with players, coaches, and fans bring firsthand perspectives and insights to the games and tournaments, while in-depth statistics and results reveal the numbers behind the memories. In addition, the authors share their rankings of the most memorable moments, performances, characters, nicknames, upsets, and more from eighty years of tournament play.

Combining archival research, personal recollections, and vivid imagery, Tourney Time offers a detailed and insightful history of the nation’s greatest high school sports event and one of Minnesota’s most cherished institutions.

"It is the Stanley Cup, the World Series, and the Super Bowl, all rolled into one. You young men will go on from here and play in many other sports events, but you'll always remember the Minnesota High School Hockey Tournament as the best."
—Herb Brooks

Author information

David La Vaque is a reporter for the Star Tribune and has been the newspaper's point person for high school hockey since 2010. He has covered the state tournament in its entirety each year, writing enterprise pieces on the sport and selecting the paper's All-Metro teams and Metro Player of the Year. A graduate of the University of Minnesota, he covered sports for the Minnesota Daily and his work has also appeared in such media as Athlon Sports Magazine, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, CSN-Chicago, Duluth News Tribune, Miami Herald, Cleveland Plain Dealer, USA Junior Hockey Magazine, and US College Hockey Online Magazine, among others. He lives in Woodbury, Minnesota.

L.R. Nelson is an author, freelance journalist, and photographer and the founder and president of Legacy Hockey.net, Minnesota's number one resource for high school hockey's past, present, and future. A recipient of numerous state, regional, and national writing awards, he researched, wrote, and published a series on Minnesota's top 100 high school players as managing editor of the Minnesota Hockey Hub. He covered Stanley Cup runs as a beat writer for the Tampa Bay Lightning and Anaheim Ducks, and he has covered multiple Super Bowls, college football national championship games, golf major championships, and the World Series. Nelson lives in Excelsior, Minnesota.
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• Paperback
• 304 pages
• 11 in H | 8.5 in W
• ISBN: 9781681342887