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Saint Louis University Billikens

In the 1958-59 season he played for the Fort-Frances Canadians. A native of Fort Frances, Ont., Selman is a 1963 graduate of UND with a Bachelor of Science degree in education. He was a three-year letterwinner (1961-62-63) as a defenseman for the Sioux hockey team and played for UND's second national championship team in 1962-63. Selman's career scoring totals were 1 goal and 19 assists for 20 points in 72 games. He became head coach of the Sioux hockey program in 1966, guided UND to the NCAA Tournament in both of his seasons as head coach and was named WCHA Coach of the Year in 1967.

Riding the wave of St. Louis' newfound affection for hockey, the Saint Louis University Billikens hockey program was formed in 1970. Under the leadership of Bill Selman, who says he bought the first puck the university ever owned, collegiate hockey thrived under the lamella roof.

Selman credits the Salomons for the program's nine years of success. "They were committed to maintaining a great place to play hockey," he says. "Their generosity helped put the Billikens on the ice."

Selman coached the St. Louis University Billikens from 1970-79 and when he started there were only two college conferences in the nation – the WCAC (Western Collegiate Athletic Conference) and the ECAC (East Coast Athletic Conference).

St. Louis University made an application to join the WCAC but was turned down. Selman’s response was to join with Lake Superior State University and Bowling Green State University to form a third conference. And, as they say . . . the rest is history.

Three coaches - Jack Vivian of Bowling Green State University, Ron Mason of Lake Superior State College, and Bill Selman of St. Louis University - meet at the Parker House in Boston and establish a "coaches' league." A scheduling agreement is then reached among Bowling Green, Ohio State University, Ohio University and St. Louis. Lake Superior State joins a year later.

The host St. Louis University Billikens defeat the Ohio State University Buckeyes, 3-2, in the first CCHA game on November 12, 1971. St. Louis's Dave Davies scores the first goal in league play at 8:39 of the first period. OSU's Dave Hoyles scores the first power-play goal at 3:15 of the third, tying the score at 1-1. SLU's Charlie Labelle scores the game-winning goal at 18:34 of third period. Buckeyes' netminder Bill McKenzie makes 22 saves, while Billikens' goaltender Carl Sapinsky turns aside 20 shots.

Back when he coached St. Louis, the majority of Selman’s roster was from Canada, Minnesota, Michigan and the Eastern U.S. He says recruiting student athletes to come to St. Louis wasn’t a problem. "One of the attractions was playing in an NHL building,” says Selman. "The Blues let us use their facility. We would have games on Friday night and the Blues would play Saturdays, and we’d play Sunday afternoon again. On Saturday there would be two NHL teams and two college teams (taking) pre-game skates. For the NHL practices, you would have two college teams watching them.”

His ability to put a team on professional ice to practice and play gave Selman a recruiting edge. "We had a good team. As a matter of fact, I always heard stories that when we made an application to the Western Collegiate, they were mad because we out-recruited them and they didn’t want us in. That’s why we formed our own association. They also said we were sponsored by the Blues, and we weren’t. We just had a wonderful building to play in.”

Selman also says the Blues went out of the way to make his team feel part of the St. Louis hockey community. "The Blues were great to us. They didn’t want anything in there to take the ice away. They didn’t want concerts and shows. They wanted the Blues and us to have perfect ice. I remember Mr. (Sidney) Solomon, Jr. (former Blues president) and Scotty Bowman (former Blues head coach), seeing the two of them on the ice before a Blues game with a hammer, pounding on the boards to make sure the puck didn’t bounce the wrong way. Playing in an NHL arena and playing in a city that was not in the winter belt was another big attraction.”

Selman and Kennedy remember many great moments at the Arena. Among them is the night of Feb. 17, 1974. A crowd of 15,348 set a NCAA regular-season attendance record for hockey and got what it was looking for in the process.

St. Louis Year-by-Year Under Bill Selman St. Louis Billikins | Division: I | Conference: CCHA
Season	W	L	T		RS	LT
1978-79	16	16	3
1977-78	21	17	2
1976-77	27	11	1		X
1975-76	24	15	2			X
1974-75	26	13	1		X	X
1973-74	28	12	0			X
1972-73	27	11	0		X
1971-72	15	15	3
Key: RS - Won Regular Season Conference Title LT - Won Conference Postseason Tournament Championship

The Billikens defeated Ohio State 8-3. Two nights earlier, the Billikens beat the same team 6-5 in front of 11,295 fans. "We just blew visiting teams away with our crowds," Selman says. "When you are used to playing before no more than 2,000 people, it can be overwhelming."

For Kennedy, his teammates and the visiting teams they played, even practice could be a thrill. "On Saturday mornings, the Blues and their opponents would practice before or after us," he says. "It was a tremendous opportunity. I had a lot of opportunities to go to other schools," says Rick Kennedy, a Canadian and leading scorer in college hockey. "The fact that the Billikens played at the Arena made me want to come here."

The CCHA has since grown in stature from a collection of fledgling hockey programs to one of the nation’s most respected conferences on the ice, off the ice and behind the bench. On May 22, 1979, citing financial reasons, St. Louis University, a founding member of the CCHA, announces it is dropping its program effective immediately.

American Collegiate Hockey Association

The American Collegiate Hockey Association (ACHA) is an organization of College/University affiliated programs, which provides structure, regulates operations and promotes the quality of collegiate ice hockey. The ACHA was established on April 20, 1991. Fifteen charter members met during the Chicago Showcase in Skokie, IL at the North Shore Hilton. These member teams had been playing college hockey for many years but wished to legitimize its play by standardizing some of its procedures.

The league quickly grew to over 150 teams in three men's divisions. All ACHA teams are members of USA Hockey and joined the American Hockey Coaches Association (AHCA) in 1999. Don't confuse the ACHA affiliation with varsity programs (NCAA) that compete in the Frozen Four at the end of the year.

The Central States Collegiate Hockey League began play in the fall of 1970 with teams in three divisions. Two divisions were comprised of teams from Illinois, while the Western Division was made up of teams from Iowa. Iowa State University is an original member of the league. After a history of leaving and reentering the league, the Cyclones stayed for good from the 1983-84 season onward. The CSCHL restructured itself for the 1974-75 season after losing the Western Division. The league's members all came from the state of Illinois, and for the 1975-76 season, the name of the league changed to the Illinois Collegiate Hockey League.

For the 1979-80 season, the league changed its name back to the Central States Collegiate Hockey League. Kent State University joined in February of 1994 to bring the full-time membership to a total of eight. In 1997-98, long-time member Marquette University withdrew its full-time status to become an affiliate member.

With an odd number of teams, the CSCHL dropped its East-West Divisions and merged back to one division. For 1998-99 the addition of Western Michigan University brought the league back to eight full-time members, but the league remained one division. The playoffs, however, went back to a six-team format. The 1999-2000 season saw the departure of long-time member Marquette University and the addition of Saint Louis University and the University at Buffalo as affiliate members. In 2000-2001, both Saint Louis and Buffalo became full-time members, making the CSCHL a 10-team league.

On Friday October 11, 1996 Saint Louis University played their first game in the American Collegiate Hockey Association at home against a team that would prove to be one of their best rivals the University of Illinois. With regard to the on going success of Saint Louis University’s Men’s Ice Hockey program, currently Saint Louis is a member in the American Collegiate Hockey Association and fields one team in Division 1 and one team in Division 2. The Division 1 team has been ranked as high as 7th in the U.S. The Division 2 team continues to provide a place for student-athletes to develop their skills and enjoy ice hockey as a team sport. The coaching staff from Saint Louis is nationally recognized as John Bosch – Head Men’s Ice Hockey Coach serves as the Vice President Division 1 of the ACHA and is the Past President of the Central Collegiate Hockey League widely regarded as the most competitive Division 1 conference in the ACHA.

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