It’s an electric feeling when the Bobcats take the ice.
Students are packed in tightly in the bleachers of historic Bird Arena, anxiously awaiting the puck drop. “Stand up and cheer” blasts over the PA system.
The team’s mascot – a dinosaur holding a hockey stick makes the rounds in the stands. Rufus is nowhere to be found here. It’s one of many enigmatic elements of the team.
While the sport is popular at OU – few know about the deep lore of the team – it’s history, conference and league which the squad plays in are all much different from the rest of the university’s athletics.
The NCAA Has No Power Here
Most college athletics, at OU and elsewhere, are governed by the National College Athletic Association – more commonly known as the NCAA. Additionally, the Bobcats play in the Mid-American Conference, a division of the NCAA containing various schools from the Midwest like Bowling Green and Ball State.
Neither are the case for the hockey team.
The ‘cats compete in the American Collegiate Hockey Association (ACHA) in the Central States Collegiate Hockey League (CSCHL). Yeah, I know those names read like alphabet soup.
All you need to really know is that the ACHA is its own entity – it exists entirely outside of the NCAA. It has its own rules and its national champion is not the same as the one anointed in its rival league.
While the leagues are separate, ACHA can be seen as a bit of junior organization in comparison to the mighty NCAA. That being said, the quality of play at the Bobcat’s level is nothing to scoff at. Other major universities – some of whom are powerhouses in other sports, like the University of Indiana or University of Arizona, play in ACHA with OU as well.
In the CSCHL, the Bobcats share their division with Iowa State University, University of Illinois and Maryville University.
The History of Ohio Hockey
The Bobcats won their first ever matchup, defeating an outmatched Ohio Northern University 22-0 in December 1958.
“From that moment on, Bird became more than just a building with a sheet of ice on the ground — it became home to a winning, breathing program. With a program win percentage at .681, winning is the only thing expected; unlike some athletic programs, winning is achieved often,” reads one Post article.
The Bobcats would finish with six wins, two losses and one tie in their inaugural season. The following year, the team would lose just one game.
The team would join the ACHA in 1991 and win three consecutive national championships between 1994-1997. Their last championship came in 2004.
Since that season, OU has still performed well. They made it to the national semifinal round in 2012 and the national champ game in 2017.
Bird Arena
Located on South Green – the venue that the Bobcats play in is just as historic as the team on the ice.
Built in 1957, Bird Arena has played host to many magical moments, from high stakes tournaments to national championship games. The stadium was named in honor of Ossian Clinton Bird, a former football coach and athletic director for the Bobcats.
Bird has seen numerous renovations since its construction, the most recent of which took place between 2000 and 2001, when a wide range of amenities like new bleachers and locker rooms were added to the facility.
A Prehistoric Mascot
Another oddity of the Bobcat hockey team is their mascot – a T-Rex.
The tradition started back in 2017, when a local high school student repurposed an old Halloween costume, a rubber T-Rex donning a hockey jersey and wore it to Bird Arena. Since then, the dinosaur, aptly nicknamed “Rex,” has been a boon for the Bobcats and a thorn in the side of the opposing team.
Rex is the perfect symbol of the Bobcats’ unique hockey squad. From a T-Rex mascot to playing in a league of their own, what happens in Bird Arena is different from every other sport at Ohio University.