Twin Cities Hockey League

[chcarlson23]

So this has been an idea that's been floating around in my head for a while. I've always loved different neighborhoods, and how within the same city, there can be very different feels from neighborhood to neighborhood, having various cultural and developmental backgrounds and histories, but yet very much making up the same city. And having grown up in the Twin Cities, I love the area, and of course, the game of hockey.  The Twin Cities are unique as well, with two large, metropolitan cities sharing a border. This leads to many unique neighborhoods all very close to each other. 

 

There have been other similar projects like this, usually with just distinct cities, including suburbs, and all around the state. But I want to highlight the unique feel of each of the Twin Cities neighborhoods. There are a couple dozen unique neighborhoods spread out through both cities, and there's a lot of passion for the game of hockey throughout both too. They don't call it the State of Hockey for nothing, and that history really does start with St. Paul and Minneapolis. The one of the first games of hockey that took place in the State of Minnesota, happened around the U of M's campus back in 1895, where some students at the U hosted a team from Winnipeg, and it was a true hockey game, much closer to the modern-day sport than the other games of ice polo and bandy. A couple of decades later, and the St. Paul Athletic Club started tearing it up in amateur leagues across the country, all while building a huge fanbase around the state. (And the sport grew all across the state at this time too, but the StPAC's influence really helped to grow the game in the state.) High school hockey started around this time in the 1910s/1920s, leading to the first annual Tourney in 1945, in downtown St. Paul. Back in Minneapolis, the U had teams as far back as the early 1900s, but an official varsity team would start in 1921.

 

So the game has a long, rich history here in the Twin Cities. I wanted to showcase this, as well as all of the unique neighborhoods with sets of sweaters. And maybe someday this could be a real league, with players all hailing from these areas, but for now it will only exist in my head.  So here is my map for the various neighborhoods! 

And to preface here, these are not ALL of the neighborhoods of the Twin Cities. I did have to simplify some, especially in Minneapolis, because all of the designated neighborhoods are very tiny, and often bleed into one another. For example, I spend a lot of time in the Beltrami neighborhood, and if I were to go across Broadway, to Spyhouse Coffee, (which I do a lot haha) then I am technically in the Northeast Park neighborhood, and then if I wanted to go over to Minnesota Nice Cream, just across Central Ave, I move into technically Logan Park. But they somewhat feel a lot like the same neighborhood, and the whole place is referenced as Northeast Minneapolis, (they even have their own flag) so I created the area of Nordeast, to reference all of the Northeast communities and neighborhoods. There are a few other examples like this, and a few cases where I used a smaller neighborhood, just to get to 18 teams in both Cities. 

 

I used this map from the U of M's GIS program as a base to map out all of the neighborhoods. Now, I am not sure exactly when, but I know that both cities went ahead and broke down all of their neighborhoods into real districts on the map, and especially in St. Paul's case, they often combined many really small neighborhoods into one area. For example, on the border of Payne-Phalen and Dayton's Bluff, just about where i-94 would hit Payne-Phalen, there's a little neighborhood called Swede Hollow, named after poor, Swedish immigrants who settled in the small valley. There are many other cases like this, where I will just be including them in the larger neighborhood. The only exception I made was for Cathedral Hill, only because I needed one more St. Paul team, and I have lived there, so I it's a special neighborhood for me. I debated a lot about not including it, but I needed one more team haha.

 

So long story short, I might not have included some smaller neighborhoods that people might be familiar with, and I probably took some liberties about the boundaries, but hey, this is my concept haha. 

 

I did also include a divisional map, so that you could see how I broke down the teams even farther. 

Spoiler

Minneapolis is broken down into the City and Lakes Division, which was a really nice break and boundary.

 

All of the Lake teams are very close to a lake, lake system, or a notable waterway. Some of the ones that might be less obvious are Near North, Central, and Hiawatha-Minnehaha. Near North is bordering Theodore Wirth park, which has a chain of small lakes, and all of that is just outside of Minneapolis proper, in Golden Valley. Central doesn't have a lake, but it is surrounded by lakes and neighborhoods with lakes, so it fit well. Hiawatha-Minnehaha is named after the Minnehaha Creek and Falls, which flows into the Mississippi. These falls inspired the naming Minnehaha, the love interest of Hiawatha in Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's epic poem, "The Song of Hiawatha". 

 

City Division neighborhoods were chosen because they're more city than the Lake neighborhoods haha. 

 

For St. Paul, I used two Minnesota hockey legends for the Division names. Brooks and Goheen Divisions. It essentially breaks down into East and West divisions, but I felt like they needed better names than that. 

 

Herb Brooks, an easy pick, was the legendary coach of the Miracle on Ice team, as well as leading the Gophers to three National Titles. He attended St. Paul Johnson in the Payne-Phalen neighborhood. I chose more of the eastern neighborhoods, just because Brooks grew up on the east side of St. Paul, even leading St. Paul Johnson to a State Title in 1955.

 

Frank "Moose" Goheen was Minnesota's first hockey star! He was considered to be just as good, if not better than the legendary Hobey Baker, and was the 2nd American ever to be inducted into the hockey hall of fame. He was another obvious choice for a division. Despite being born in White Bear Lake, Minnesota, which is northeast of St. Paul, Goheen played for the St. Paul Athletic Club in the 20s, who played at the Hippodrome, which is now the site of the Warner Coliseum, on the Minnesota State Fairgrounds, which is just north of the neighborhoods of the Midway and St. Anthony Park.  So more western neighborhoods, especially those around the Fairgrounds made a lot of sense. 

 

Teams

MINNEAPOLIS

City Division

• Dinkytown
• Industrial
• Longfellow
• Mill City
• Nordeast
• North
• North Loop
• Phillips
• University

Lakes Division

• Central
• Harriet
• Hiawatha-Minnehaha
• Near North
• Nokomis
• Powderhorn
• South
• Uptown
• West Lakes

 

ST. PAUL

Brooks Division

• Battlecreek
• Dayton's Bluff
• Frogtown
• Greater East Side
• North End
• Payne-Phalen
• Saintly City
• West 7th
• West Side

Goheen Division

• Cathedral Hill
• Como
• Highland Park
• Mac-Grove (Macalester-Groveland)
• Merriam Park
• The Mighty Midway
• St. Anthony Park
• Summit Hill
• University-Rondo

 

I will update this list as I post teams, and give more of an overview about the neighborhood, and kind of how I drew distinction for each particular boundary. 

 

First up will be Dinkytown, home of the U of M!

[chcarlson23]

This is Dinkytown! Home to the University of Minnesota, it's been referred to as Dinkytown for quite a while, although both the starting point, and origin is unknown. The Dinkytown Business Assoc. formed in 1948, so it was in popular use by then.  The whole neighborhood is very much a part of the college, but it does have it's own businesses and restaurants in the area. For those unfamiliar with the U, it's pretty spread out, with academic, dorm, athletic, and student life buildings all spread out around this part of Minneapolis. There are frat and sorority  rows, but everything is just kind of intermingled with one another. Apartments, restaurants, and businesses are all jammed in between the education buildings.  Population wise, it's very diverse, albeit college students, from all over the state, country, and world. 

 

A little bit about the design choices, I chose maroon and gold for the U of M, obviously, even using the same shades as listed on Trucolor.net. I wanted to go with a little bit different of a design for the striping pattern than anything that the U has worn, and I've always like this particular pattern. The lack of white on the maroon sweater was to also separate it from the U's varsity teams as well.  I chose a modern, round font that felt like it fits well for the atmosphere of Dinkytown and the U of M. 

 

C & C appreciated! 

[Section30]

I'm so ready for this series. Dinkytown looks good & I can't wait to see the rest!

 

One question though, will these teams get nicknames like traditional North American sports teams? Or will they be known solely by the neighborhood they represent?

[chcarlson23]

On 12/11/2023 at 8:31 AM, Section30 said:

I'm so ready for this series. Dinkytown looks good & I can't wait to see the rest!

 

One question though, will these teams get nicknames like traditional North American sports teams? Or will they be known solely by the neighborhood they represent?

Thanks!!

 

I guess I was planning on having just the neighborhood names as the team names. If this were a real league, I’m sure nicknames would eventually appear!! 
 

That is the other thing about this series, I am going to be doing pretty much exclusively wordmarks for the logos, as it feels a little more realistic for a league like this, and it kinda harkens to high school hockey, where it’s mostly wordmarks across the chest. 

[chcarlson23]

Here is my next neighborhood! It's been a while, because things got way busier heading into the holidays, and even thought I've had many teams completed for a while, I haven't had the time to put together a post about each one.

 

So about the next one, it's one of my favorite names for a neighborhood, Frogtown in St. Paul! 

Frogtown has long been one of the most diverse neighborhoods in St. Paul. The name originates from the old wetland area that the neighborhood was built over. Many German settlers moved to the area back in 1860's and noticed all of the frogs croaking and chirping, so they started calling the area "Froschburg." Along with the Germans, many Scandinavians, Polish, and Irish immigrants moved to the area throughout the late 1800's, early 1900's. The name eventually became English and changed from the more direct translation of Frog City, to Frogtown. As the Twin Cities continued to grow, many new immigrants from all over the world ended up in Frogtown first, and now the area has a wide diversity of both cultural and economic backgrounds. Today, there are many Hmong, Vietnamese, Somali, Latino, Koren, and still all of the previous European groups decedents. It's a beautifully diverse place, and a nice part of the city of St. Paul!

 

As for the jerseys themselves, I chose green as the main color for obvious reasons, for frogs, but the striping pattern and colors was the reflect the diversity of the neighborhood. The colors don't represent any one group specifically, but just to showcase the numerous groups all coming together to settle and love their neighborhood of Frogtown. The number and script fonts also felt like a good fit for Frogtown to me. 

 

C&C appreciated! 

[Section30]

Love that Frogtown script

[chcarlson23]

Next up is Uptown!

This neighborhood envelopes several official neighborhoods in Minneapolis, all centered around Hennepin Ave. on the east side of the lakes. The whole area is notable for its upscale scene, especially right up the street from the shoreline of the lakes. Jumping into the history a bit, it wasn't always called Uptown, but was only pushed to be called that in the early 20's, trying to mimic Chicago's Uptown area. It was usually referred to as Hennepin-Lake. In 1929, a local Theater, the Lagoon Theater, renamed itself the Uptown Theater, and the name really started to catch on. But it wasn't until the 70's that many businesses in the area really adopted the name, leading to its widespread usage into today. The idea of being in the Hennepin-Lake area brought some bad connotations, so many people started to push for the name Uptown, for better or for worse. 

 

As for the style of the jersey, I went with a modern gradient style on the pattern for two reasons. First, is that Uptown is all about being modern and trendy, so I wanted something that would fit that. Trendy doesn't always last forever, and I don't think gradients will either. And secondly, the colors chosen reflect the sunset over Bde Maka Ska, which is where most of my memories of Uptown are from. I have taken my wife on many dates in the area, and we have gone for walks around the lake, especially late into the evening, during the summer. So the colors fit the feel of the area well in my opinion. I also chose a very modern, sans serif font, that I feel reflects the modernness of the area well.

 

C&C appreciated! 

[chcarlson23]

Our next neighborhood is the Mighty Midway!

I've long called the Midway neighborhood "The Mighty Midway" because that's what's often used on signage for the Minnesota State Fair's Midway area. And of course, the Midway is directly south of the State Fairgrounds, and so the connection has always stuck in my mind. I have no clue if anyone else calls it the Mighty Midway, but I'm standing by it. 

 

The name for the Midway is fairly logical, as it's Midway between the downtowns of Minneapolis and St. Paul! Centered around Snelling Ave, and reaching all the way down to University and/or 94, the whole neighborhood is fairly residential. Many of the houses in the area as well, were built by the German and Swedish immigrants who first moved to the area.

However, both Snelling and University have many kinds of businesses, ranging from coffee shops and restaurants to automotive stores and tattoo parlors. There really is a huge mix in the Midway. Also sometimes called the Hamline-Midway neighborhood, one of the more prominent parts of the area is Hamline University. 

 

Hamline was founded in 1854, while Minnesota was still a territory, and is the oldest university in the State. It also was one of the first coed colleges in the nation as well. It started in the Mississippi River town of Red Wing, however, before relocating to St. Paul, and the Midway in 1873-80 (Apparently it took a while to build a campus, and classes didn't resume until 1880.) And despite Minnesota being known for hockey, and this whole thread about hockey sweaters, Hamline is actually notable for being the first school to play (and host) a college basketball game, when they first tipped off in 1895. 

 

As for the design, I wanted the front wordmark to be big and bold, to emphasize Mighty in the Mighty Midway. I also went with a more traditional striping pattern and block font to match the history of the area. The colors also fit well for the Midway, and as a little easter egg, the crimson matches Hamline's color scheme, and the light blue Matches the Loons who play just on the southern end of the neighborhood, just north of I-94. 

 

C&C Appreciated!  

[Section30]

Midway is my favorite team so far, love the deep red with powder blue

[chcarlson23]

1 hour ago, Section30 said:

Midway is my favorite team so far, love the deep red with powder blue

Thank you! It’s definitely a very underrated color scheme! 
 

Glad you’re the only other one enjoying this series so far haha