November 30, 1971: "Brian's Song" Premieres

James Caan as Brian Piccolo (left)

and Billy Dee Williams as Gale Sayers

November 30, 1971: The ABC Tuesday Night Movie airs the film Brian's Song. Billy Dee Williams plays African-American Chicago Bears running back Gale Sayers, and James Caan plays his white teammate Brian Piccolo.

While some dramatic license was taken, the story is mostly true: The two men overcome their respective biases and form a bond of friendship, first with Piccolo helping Sayers, the best running back in the game in the late 1960s, return from a devastating knee injury; then with Sayers helping Piccolo deal with the cancer that struck him, and ultimately brought his life to a close on June 16, 1970.

The film made stars of both Williams and Caan, and is often regarded as the first movie that allowed tough guys to cry.

A remake was made, airing on ABC almost exactly 30 years later, on December 2, 2001. The additional 30 years of changing sensibilities allowed some things to be filmed that couldn't be put on TV for the original. Sayers was played by Mekhi Phifer, and Piccolo by Sean Maher.

Phifer and Maher in the remake

By a coincidence, Sayers wore uniform Number 40, and Piccolo Number 41. Thus, they were given lockers next to each other. Both numbers were retired by the team.

November 30, 1951: The New Jersey Turnpike Opens

November 30, 1951, 70 years ago: The New Jersey Turnpike opens, mostly. For the moment, it runs from Exit 1 in Penns Grove, near the newly-opened Delaware Memorial Bridge, to Exit 11 in Woodbridge, an interchange with U.S. Route 1, U.S. Route 9, State Route 440, and, by 1956, the Garden State Parkway. (On that road, that interchange will be Exit 129.)

The Turnpike was extended to its full 117-mile length the next year, connecting with New York City via the Lincoln Tunnel (Exit 16) and the George Washington Bridge (Exit 18). One notable problem was the Pulaski Skyway, which has carried Routes 1 and 9 from Newark to Jersey City since 1932. If they built the Turnpike under the Skyway, there might not be enough room for trucks to fit. If they built the Turnpike over the Skyway, there would be room, but construction would take a lot more time and money. The decided to build under, and no truck has ever gotten stuck under it. Just in case, a few years ago, a big construction project was undertaken, and it lowered the roadway.

The Hackensack River span of the Pulaski Skyway

In 1956, the Newark Bay Extension opened at Exit 14, near Newark International Airport. This includes the Newark Bay Bridge, and 3 new exits in Jersey City: Exit 14A for Bayonne, Exit 14B for downtown, and Exit 14C for the Holland Tunnel into New York.

The Newark Bay Bridge

That same year, an extension was built from Exit 6 to the new Delaware River-Turnpike Toll Bridge, connecting the New Jersey Turnpike with the Pennsylvania Turnpike. It is named the Pearl Harbor Memorial Turnpike Extension. From here on north, the New Jersey Turnpike is bannered as part of Interstate 95.

In 1970, the Western Spur was opened, designed to aid travelers going around New York City to New England (taking the Tappan Zee, now Mario Cuomo, Bridge to the New England Thruway). It was also meant to access the planned Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford. The new exits were labeled 15W, 16W and 18W; while the former Exits 15, 16 and 18 were relabeled 15E, 16E and 18E. In 2005, the newest exit opened: Exit 15X, for the Secaucus Junction Rail Station.

The Turnpike has become not just a great method for getting people from one point in New Jersey to another, or from New York to points south and west (or vice versa) without having to go through Philadelphia, but it's become a cultural icon. Chuck Berry, The Mamas & the Papas, Paul Simon and Bruce Springsteen have all written songs mentioning it. And the opening montage of The Sopranos showed James Gandolfini as Tony Soprano, driving out of the Lincoln Tunnel and down the Turnpike.

Of course, for a lot of people not from New Jersey, the Turnpike is all they see of the State: Things like the Meadowlands' stadiums and swamps, the Skyway, the Airport, the big oil refinery in Linden, and vast swaths of not much south of Trenton. These people never see the nice parts of New Jersey, and never understand why it's called "The Garden State."

The Bayway Refinery

The Turnpike's exit numbers are sequential, not by milepost as the Parkway's will be. As a result, when new exits need to be built, they require letters. Between Exit 7 in Bordentown Township and Exit 8 in East Windsor is Exit 7A in Robbinsville; and between Exit 8 and Exit 9 in East Brunswick is Exit 8A in Monroe.

If the exits were by mileposts, they would be, as follows: 

* Exit 1, Penns Grove, Salem County, connecting with Interstate 295, U.S. Routes 40 and 130, New Jersey Route 49 and the Delaware Memorial Bridge: Exit 0.

* Exit 2, Woolwich, Gloucester County, U.S. Route 322 and the Commodore Barry Bridge: Exit 13.

* Exit 3, Runnemede, Camden County, N.J. Route 168 and, by extension, the Atlantic City Expressway and the Walt Whitman Bridge to Philadelphia: Exit 26. Oddly, despite the access to the Expressway, this exit, unlike Exits 7A and 11, is not labeled "Shore Points."

* Exit 4, Mount Laurel, Burlington County, N.J. Route 73 and, by extension, the Ben Franklin Bridge to Philadelphia: Exit 34.

* Exit 5, Westampton, Burlington County, County Route 541: Exit 44.

* Exit 6, Mansfield, Burlington County, Interstate 95 and, by extension, Interstate 276 and the Pennsylvania Turnpike: Exit 51.

* Exit 7, Bordentown Township (surrounding Bordentown City), Burlington County, U.S. Route 206: Exit 53.

* Exit 7A, Robbinsville, Mercer County, Interstate 195: Exit 60. This exit can be used for both the State capital of Trenton and the Six Flags Great Adventure theme park. For drivers going north on the Turnpike, this exit is labeled "Shore Points," due to the access to I-195.

* Exit 8, East Windsor, Mercer County, N.J. Routes 33 and 133: Exit 67.

* Exit 8A, Monroe, Middlesex County, N.J. Route 32 for access to U.S. Route 130 and County Route 535: Exit 74. For me, growing up in East Brunswick in the 1970s and '80s, this was the exit we used for southbound points like Philadelphia, Washington and Virginia.

* Exit 9, East Brunswick, Middlesex County, N.J. Route 18 for access to U.S. Route 1: Exit 83. This was the exit we used for North Jersey and New York City. East Brunswick's main bus terminal was here, and, from 1991 to 2020, I lived 1 mile away, for relatively easy access to The City.

* Exit 10, Edison, Middlesex County, Interstate 287 and N.J. Route 440, and, by extension, the Outerbridge Crossing into Staten Island, New York City: Exit 88.

* Exit 11, Woodbridge, Middlesex County, the Garden State Parkway, U.S. Routes 1 and 9: Exit 91. For drivers going south on the Turnpike, this exit is labeled "Shore Points," due to the Parkway access.

* Exit 12, Carteret, Middlesex County, County Route 602: Exit 96.

* Exit 13, Elizabeth, Union County, Interstate 278 and the Goethals Bridge into Staten Island: Exit 99.

* Exit 13A, Elizabeth, Union County, N.J. Route 81 and, by extension, Newark Liberty International Airport and Elizabeth Seaport: Exit 101. It also provides access to the Jersey Gardens Mall and that big IKEA store visible from the road.

* Exit 14, Newark, Essex County, Interstate 78, U.S. Routes 1, 9 and 22, with access to the Airport and the Newark Bay Extension: Exit 104.

* Exit 15E, Newark, Essex County, U.S. Routes 1 and 9, and thus the Pulaski Skyway toward Jersey City: Exit 107.

* Exit 15W, Kearny, Hudson County, Interstate 280: Exit 108. Theoretically, any of Exits 14, 15E or 15W can be used for downtown Newark and the Prudential Center arena. For Red Bull Arena, Exit 15W is the most convenient.

* Exit 15X, Secaucus, Hudson County, the Secaucus Junction Rail Station: Exit 110.

* Exit 16E, Secaucus, Hudson County, N.J. Routes 3 and 495, accessing the Lincoln Tunnel into Manhattan: Exit 112.

* Exit 16W, East Rutherford, Bergen County, N.J. Route 3 and the Meadowlands Sports Complex: Exit 112.

* Exit 18E and Exit 18W, Carlstadt, Bergen County, Interstates 80 and 95, U.S. Routes 1, 9 and 46: Exit 114.

How to Be a Devils Fan In Winnipeg -- 2021-22 Edition

This coming Friday night, December 3, the New Jersey Devils will be in the capital of the Province of Manitoba to play the reborn Winnipeg Jets.

If this were a World Hockey Association game in the 1970s... well, it wouldn't be that big, since we'd be the New York Raiders, and we'd stink.

Before You Go. Winnipeg is in Canada. Read this before even planning a trip into the country.

Winnipeg is in Canada, so you're going to need to have, and bring, a valid passport. It's also in the Central Time Zone, 1 hour behind New York and New Jersey. Adjust your timepieces accordingly.

Do yourself another big favor: Change your money before you go. There are plenty of currency exchanges in New York City, including one on 42nd Street between 7th and 8th Avenue.

Leave yourself $50 in U.S. cash, especially if you're going other than by plane, so you'll have usable cash when you get back to your side of the border. At this writing, the exchange rate is US$1.00 = C$1.28, while C$1.00 = US 78 cents, so, for the moment, it really favors us.

Winnipeg is in Manitoba. Manitoba is in Canada. In the entire National Hockey League, only Edmonton and Calgary have arenas further north. It's early December. It's going to be cold.

The website for the Winnipeg Free Press is predicting temperatures in the mid-20s during the day, and the single digits at night. That's Fahrenheit. Don't look at the Celsius numbers: The ones you're used to are cold enough. Bundle up! Also, they're predicting "snow showers" for the Friday, so the streets and sidewalks could be tricky.

Tickets. At 15,321 seats, the Canada Life Centre has the smallest capacity of any current NHL arena. But the fans in Winnipeg are so thrilled to have their Jets back that they've sold out every seat since the re-premiere. Getting tickets might be tough.

The prices I'm citing are in Canadian dollars. Seats in the lower bowl, the 100 sections, are $143 throughout. Seats in the mezzanine, the 200 sections, are $143 between the goals and $120 behind them. Seats in the upper level, the 300 sections, are $97 between the goals and $72 behind them.

Getting There. It's 1,653 miles from Times Square to the Manitoba Legislative Building, the Province's capitol building; 1,648 miles from the Prudential Center in Newark to Bell MTS Place in Winnipeg; and 66 miles from the closest border crossing, at Pembina, North Dakota, to downtown Winnipeg.

Knowing this, your first instinct will be to fly. You may have to, as neither Amtrak nor Greyhound goes to Winnipeg anymore. At any rate, Winnipeg's Union Station is at 123 Main Street at Broadway.

Air Canada offers round-trip flights from Newark Liberty to Winnipeg's James Armstrong Richardson International Airport for as little as $874. (Richardson was a Member of Parliament, and Minister of Defence under Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau in the 1970s.) Unfortunately, you'd have to change planes in either Montreal or Toronto.

Or maybe driving would be better. Keep in mind, it's better to do this with 2 people, so 1 can drive while the other sleeps. And you'll both need passports. And make sure your companion isn't someone who would say or do some wiseass thing at Customs, like answer the question, "Do you have anything to declare?" with, "I declare that I'm proud to be an American."

The most direct route bypasses Buffalo, Hamilton and Toronto -- in fact, it doesn't go through Ontario at all.

You'll need to get into New Jersey, and take Interstate 80 West. You'll be on I-80 for the vast majority of the trip, through New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Ohio. In Ohio, in the western suburbs of Cleveland, I-80 will merge with Interstate 90. From this point onward, you won't need to think about I-80 until you head home; I-90 is now the key, through the rest of Ohio and Indiana.

Just outside Chicago, I-80 will split off from I-90, which you will keep, until it merges with Interstate 94. For the moment, though, you will ignore I-94. Stay on I-90 through Illinois, until reaching Madison, Wisconsin, where you will once again merge with I-94. Now, I-94 is what you want, taking it into Minnesota and the Twin Cities.

However, unless you want to make a rest stop actually in Minneapolis or St. Paul, you're going to bypass them entirely. Take Exit 249 to get on Interstate 694, the Twin Cities' beltway, until you merge with Interstate 494 to reform I-94. Crossing Minnesota into North Dakota, you'll take Exit 349B to get on Interstate 29 North. At Pembina, North Dakota, you'll reach Customs.

Assuming you have everything in order and don't do anything stupid, you'll be allowed to cross over into Emerson, Manitoba, and your highway will continue as Manitoba Route 29. This will soon flow into Manitoba Route 75, the Lord Selkirk Highway. Upon crossing Route 300, it will become Manitoba Route 42. Take that to Manitoba Route 62, and that will take you into downtown Winnipeg.

If you do it right, you should spend about an hour and a half in New Jersey, 5 hours and 15 minutes in Pennsylvania, 4 hours in Ohio, 2 and a half hours in Indiana, an hour and a half in Illinois, 2 and a half hours in Wisconsin, 4 and a half hours in Minnesota, 2 hours and 45 minutes in North Dakota, and a shade over an hour in Manitoba. That's 24 hours and 30 minutes.

Counting rest stops, preferably halfway through Pennsylvania and just after you enter both Ohio and Indiana, outside Chicago, halfway across Wisconsin, outside the Twin Cities, outside Grand Forks, and counting Customs, which should have a bathroom and vending machines, it should be no more than 33 hours, which would save you time on both Greyhound and Amtrak, if not on flying.

And, on October 14, 2016, President Obama finally ended the ban on bringing Cuban cigars into America. This also applies to rum, for which Cuba is also renowned. It is still considerably easier to buy these items in Canada than in America, but, now, you can bring them back over the border.

Once In the City. The name Winnipeg comes from the Western Cree words for "muddy waters." (As far as I know, there's no town nearby whose name is a tribal word meaning "howlin' wolf.") The region was a trading center for aboriginal peoples (usually called "First Nations" in Canada, rather than "Indians" or "Native Canadians") before the arrival of Europeans. French traders built the first fort on the site in 1738. A settlement was later founded by the Selkirk settlers in 1812, the nucleus of which was incorporated as the City of Winnipeg in 1873.

The Manitoba Legislative Building,

equivalent to a State Capitol or State House

According to the figures I have, Winnipeg has a population of 705,000, more than fellow NHL cities Washington, Boston, Las Vegas, Detroit, Vancouver, Raleigh, Miami, Minneapolis, Tampa, Anaheim, Newark, St. Louis, Pittsburgh and Buffalo -- but only 778,000 in its metropolitan area, meaning their "suburbs" add up to only 67,000 people. The people are about 68 percent white, 13 percent East Asian, 11 percent Aboriginal, 4 percent South Asian, 3 percent black, 1 percent Hispanic and 1 percent Middle Eastern.

Nevertheless, with all the fuss over having its team taken away once, plus the sellouts since they got their team back, the chances of having its team taken away twice are very long.

Since Canada is in the British Commonwealth, there are some subtle differences. Every measurement will be in the metric system. Dates are written not as Month/Day/Year, as we do it, but as Day/Month/Year as in Britain and in Europe. So the game is played for us on "December 3, 2021," but for them on "3 December 2021" -- we write it as 12/3/21, they write it as 3/12/21.

They also follow British custom in writing time: This game is scheduled to start at 6:00 PM, and will be listed as 1800. (Those of you who have served in the military, you will recognize this as, in the words of M*A*S*H's Lt. Col. Henry Blake, "all that hundred-hours stuff.") And every word we would end with -or, they will end with -our; and some (but not all) words that we would end with -er, they end with -re, as in the arena's former name, "MTS Centre."

Another thing to keep in mind: Don't ask anyone where the "bathroom" is -- ask for the "washroom." This difference was a particular pet peeve of mine the first time I visited Toronto, although it wasn't a problem in Montreal as I knew the signs would be in French.

Every measurement will be in the metric system: Temperatures will be in Celsius, not Fahrenheit; distances will be in "kilometres," not miles (including speed limits, so don't drive 100 thinking it's miles); and gas prices will be per "litre," not per gallon (so don't think you're getting cheap gas, because a liter is a little more than a quart, so multiply the price by 4, and you'll get roughly the price per gallon, and it will be more expensive than at home, not less). Better to get gas at one of your rest stops before going into Canada.

Manitoba's sales tax is 13 percent -- in 2010, this replaced the former Provincial sales tax of 5 percent and the federal GST (Goods & Services Tax) of 8 percent. In other words, the Conservative Party government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper wanted Canadians to think he'd killed the hated GST, when, in fact, Manitobans are paying pretty much the same taxes that they did before. See how stupid it is to vote for conservative candidates? It doesn't work in any country, as Canada recently admitted by dumping Harper and his Tories for Justin Trudeau and his Liberals.

The Red River divides street addresses into east and west, and the Assiniboine River divides the city into north and south. There's no freeway "beltway." Winnipeg also doesn't have a subway, and its buses are $2.50 cash and $2.15 for a prepaid ticket. Again, that's in Canadian dollars, making it cheaper than New York's MTA or New Jersey Transit.

The drinking age in Manitoba is 18. Postal Codes in Manitoba begin with the letter R. The Area Codes are 204 and 431. Utilities are run by Manitoba Hydro.

Going In. The Canada Life Centre is downtown. The official address is 300 Portage Avenue, at Donald Street. If your hotel is downtown, you can walk there, and you won't need a bus. If you drove all the way in, and aren't staying in Winnipeg overnight, most parking in downtown Winnipeg is $10 or less.

The arena under its former name, the Bell MTS Centre

The arena was originally named the True North Centre. By the time it opened in 2004, it was named the MTS Centre, for Manitoba Telecom Services. In 2017, Bell Canada acquired MTS, and the naming rights to the arena, which thus became Bell MTS Place. Earlier this year, the naming rights were sold to Canada Life.

The arena was built in the hopes of attracting a moved or expansion team to the former city of the team now known as the Arizona Coyotes. In the meantime, the minor-league Manitoba Moose played at the old Winnipeg Arena from 1996 to 2004, and at the new arena from 2004 to 2011.

One of the first events held there was the 2005 Juno Awards, Canada's equivalent of the Grammys. After a few preseason exhibition games, including one by the ex-Jets (then named the Phoenix Coyotes), the Atlanta Thrashers made the move, and played their 1st regular-season home game as the new Winnipeg Jets on October 9, 2011.

The rink is laid out north-to-south. The Jets attack twice toward the south end.

Food. Centerplate operates the arena's concessions. Among the chains with stands there are Canadian favorites Pizza Pizza, behind Sections 214, 221 and 319; Bella Pasta, at 307; and that hockey-connected must-have of Canada, Tim Hortons, at 210, 221, 305 and 319.

The arena also has the "jet"-themed Aviators Grill at 203, 216 and 314; the Runway Bar at 212, behind the west goal; and the Observation Deck Bar & Buffet at 329, behind the east goal.

Team History Displays. In their 1st 6 seasons back in Winnipeg, the new Jets only made the Playoffs once, in 2015, and got swept in the 1st Round by the Anaheim Ducks. But they made the Playoffs again in 2018, and reached the Western Conference Finals, beating the Minnesota Wild and the Nashville Predators before falling to the Vegas Golden Knights. To put it another way: Between the old Jets (1979-96) and the new Jets (2011-17), the team won 19 Playoff games in the NHL. They've made the Playoffs every season since, winning 16 Playoff games.

But they haven't won the Stanley Cup, nor the Conference, nor even the Central Division, though the revived version of the team has finished 2nd 3 times. And the old Jets won nothing in the NHL, not even a Division title, so there's no banners to hang. They do hang banners for the old Jets' WHA Championships of 1976, 1978 and 1979.

True North Enterprises, which had owned the Manitoba Moose, have kept the Moose's banners up: The retired Number 12 of Mike Keane, a Winnipeg native whose 1st pro team was the Winnipeg Monarchs of junior hockey, and played the last 5 seasons of his career after 16 years in the NHL, Stanley Cups in 1993 with the Montreal Canadiens, 1996 with the Colorado Avalanche, and 1999 with the Dallas Stars; Division Championships in 2007 and 2009, the 2009 regular-season league title and the 2009 Conference Championship.

Along the side of the east stands, in front of the luxury boxes, the Jets show the retired numbers of the old Jets: 9, left wing Bobby Hull; 10, center Dale Hawerchuk; 25, right wing Thomas Steen; and 27, defenseman Teppo Numminen. Wayne Gretzky's universally-retired 99 is also up there.

These numbers were kept semi-retired by the Phoenix/Arizona Coyotes, who also added the 7 of center Keith Tkachuk, whose number, as yet, isn't shown at the Canadian Life Centre. (The Coyotes also added the 97 of center Jeremy Roenick, who never played for the Jets/Coyotes franchise in Winnipeg.)

Left wing Evander Kane wore 9 with the Atlanta Thrashers, and, when they became the new Jets, he asked Hull for permission to continue wearing it. He got it. He's now gone, but Andrew Copp has it. Brandon Tanev now wears the 13 with which Teemu Selanne began in Winnipeg. The Coyotes haven't retired it, but the Ducks have retired 8 for him.

Bobby Hull holding up a modern mockup

(note the Canadian flag on the label)

of his 1970s Jets jersey, with son Brett,

wearing that franchise's Number 9 in Arizona, 2005.

While the Thrashers didn't have any officially retired numbers, they had withdrawn 37 from circulation following the car crash death of Dan Snyder. The Jets kept it out of circulation until 2016, but it has now been given to Connor Hellebuyck. Rick Rypien, who was with the Coyotes, had suffered from clinical depression, and committed suicide before the franchise could make its Winnipeg debut. His Number 11 hasn't been retired, but it hasn't been returned to circulation, either.

Hull, Hawerchuk, Serge Savard (a Jet for only 2 years at the end of his career), Phil Housley (a Jet for only 3 years in the middle of his career) and Brian Mullen represent the old Jets in the Hockey Hall of Fame. The new Jets are represented by Marian Hossa (2005-08), Mark Recchi (2007-08) and Chris Chelios (briefly in 2010).

Hedberg, Housley and Numminen have been elected to the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) Hall of Fame. Hull, Housley and Mullen have received the Lester Patrick Trophy for contributions to hockey in America.

The Manitoba Hockey Hall of Fame is located at the Canadian Life Centre. Its inductees include original Jets founder Ben Hatskin; old Jets Hull, Hawerchuk, Anders Hedberg, Ulf Nilsson (the last 2 being ex-Rangers) and Randy Carlyle; and Manitoba-born NHL legends, including Terry Sawchuk, Bobby Clarke, and ex-Rangers Murray Murdoch, Babe Pratt, Ivan "Ching" Johnson, Art Coulter, Bryan Hextall, Alex Shibicky, Chuck Rayner, Andy Bathgate, Pete Stemkowski and coach Fred Shero. (Hextall's sons, Bryan Jr. and Dennis, have also been elected; Bryan Jr.'s son Ron has not yet been.)

Hull, Hedberg and Ulf Nilsson, the old "Hot Line," were the 1st inductees into the Jets' team Hall of Fame. They have since added Steen, Hawerchuk, Selanne, Numminen, Carlyle (Number 8), Lars-Erik Sjoberg (4) and Ab McDonald (another 14).

Hull, Hedberg, Nilsson, Sjoberg, Kent Nilsson, Joe Daley, Danny Lawson, Ernie Wakely, Ted Green and Terry Ruskowski were named to the WHA's All-Time Team. Hull was the only Jet named to The Hockey News' 100 greatest Players in 1998. He and Selanne were named to the NHL's 100th Anniversary 100 Greatest Players in 2017. Dave Silk and Dave Christian from the 1980 U.S. Olympic team played for the old Jets. Since his death, a statue of Hawerchuk has been announced, and Dale Hawerchuk Way has been dedicated outside the arena.

Stuff. The Jets Gear Authentic Team Store calls itself "the best place in Winnipeg to pick up authentic Winnipeg Jets merchandise. With 3 locations to serve you, and open year-round, we're looking forward to outfitting every Winnipeg Jets fan."

There aren't yet any good books about the revived Jets, but there are some about the old ones. Curtis Walker and Timothy Gassen wrote Winnipeg Jets: The WHA Years Day By Day. And Curtis Walker wrote the next chapter: Coming Up Short: The Comprehensive History of the NHL's Winnipeg Jets (1979-1996).

Videos on the Jets are in short supply. The only one I could find on Amazon.com was a rivalry piece on the WHA version of the Jets and the Houston Aeros, Bobby Hull vs. Gordie Howe. Between them, in the 7 seasons the WHA existed, one of those teams was in the Finals every season -- and, in 1976, they both were, as the Jets' ended the Aeros' 2-year dominance of the league.

During the Game. A November 19, 2014 article on The Hockey News' website ranked the NHL teams' fan bases, and listed the Jets' fans 7th, 5th among Canadian teams: "Jet fans pay through the nose but come out in droves despite no playoff games." The novelty of having the NHL back in town has not yet worn off. It remains to be seen if 'Peg fans will come out to watch a team that has disappointed them repeatedly.

You do not need to fear wearing Devils gear to a Jets game at the Canada Life Centre. Their rivals are the Toronto Maple Leafs, the Ottawa Senators, the Edmonton Oilers (due to the WHA connection) and, to a lesser but understandable extent, the Arizona Coyotes. They don't care any more about the Devils than they would about any other team. You will be safe.

Stacey Nattress is the Jets' regular singer for the National Anthems. She teaches music at a local high school. As far as I know, she is not related to former NHL defenseman Ric Nattress. 

Since "True North" is the name of the company that owns the team and the arena, the fans shout those words during the line, "With glowing hearts, we see thee rise, the true north, strong and free." The Jets use Primal Fear's "Higher Power" as their fight song and the Isley Brothers' "Shout!" as their goal song.

Jet fans are noted for their creative chants. When the Buffalo Sabres came in with Ryan Miller, the goalie for the U.S. team that finished 2nd to Canada at the 2010 Winter Olympics, the Winnipeggers showed some Hoser pride by chanting, "SIL-ver ME-dal!" When the Washington Capitals came in with Alexander Ovechkin, they invoked the other chosen superstar of this generation of NHL players, the Pittsburgh Penguins' Sidney Crosby, and chanted,"CROS-by's BET-ter!" When the San Jose Sharks came in last year, having just stripped Joe Thornton of the captaincy, they chanted, "WHO'S your CAP-tain?"

The Winnipeg White Out is a hockey tradition that dates back to 1987, when fans were asked to wear white clothing to home Playoff games, creating a very intimidating effect and atmosphere. It was created as a response to the "C of Red" created by fans of the Calgary Flames, who the Jets were facing in the 1st round of the Playoffs. The Jets eliminated the Flames in 6 games, and fans wore white for every home playoff game thereafter. Marketing for the team during the Playoffs referred to the "charge of the white brigade." Fans of the now relocated AHL Manitoba Moose (now the St. John's Ice Caps in St. John's, Newfoundland) also continued this tradition, as did fans of the continuing Jets/Coyotes franchise in Phoenix.

The Winnipeg White Out. That looks like a lot of snow and ice.

True North Enterprises, which owns the Jets and Bell MTS Place, kept the Moose' mascot, Mick E. Moose. Obviously a play on "Mickey Mouse," he had averaged over 100 community appearances per season for the past 15 years in Winnipeg and rural Manitoba. Slight modifications to the costume were made, including a Jets jersey with Number 00 on the back, and a vintage leather aviator helmet, one that far preceded jet airplanes.

Mick E. and our own N.J. Devil pose

with a Devils fan at the NHL's All-Star FanFest.

After the Game. Winnipeg is a city, but it's a Canadian city. You're going to be safer than in most American cities. And while Canadians like to drink, the fact that the Devils and the Jets have no rivalry means that, if you behave yourself and don't antagonize anyone, the home fans will do the same.

The Canada Life Centre is downtown, so there are plenty of places to get a postgame meal or drink. A bar named Tavern United and a Japanese restaurant named Portage Samurai are across Hargrave Street on the arena's west side. A restaurant called The Allen is across Donald Street on the arena's east side, although it looks more like "fine dining" than "postgame meal" territory.

There is unlikely to be a bar in Winnipeg that caters to expatriate or visiting New Yorkers and New Jerseyans. Your best bet is to look for red or white Devils jerseys, see which fans look like they've been there before, presume that they know what they're doing, and follow them.

If your visit to Winnipeg is during the European soccer season, as we are now in, your best bet to watch your club is at The King's Head Pub, at 120 King Street, downtown.

Sidelights. Despite Winnipeg's hockey struggles after leaving the WHA, they've actually got a decent sports history.

There was a 3-building complex at 1430 Maroons Road, at the corner of Empress Street. This included the Winnipeg Arena, Winnipeg Stadium and the Polo Park horse racing track.

The Arena was home to the Winnipeg Warriors of the Western Hockey League from its opening in 1955 until 1961, the Winnipeg Jets of the Western Canada Hockey League from 1967 to 1972, the orginal WHA/NHL Jets from 1972 to 1996, and the Manitoba Moose of the International Hockey League and the American Hockey League from 1996 to 2004, when the MTS Centre Opened.

It also hosted Game 3 of the 1972 Canadian-Soviet "Summit Series," even though Winnipeg was, at the time, not an NHL city, and was, in fact, pandering to the WHA. This was awkward because Team Canada only included players from the NHL, barring defectors to the WHA like Bobby Hull (Chicago to Winnipeg), Bernie Parent (Toronto to Philadelphia, before Philly again in the NHL) and Gerry Cheevers (Boston to Cleveland).

That, plus Bobby Orr's injury, made the series a down-to-the-last-minute-of-the-last-game affair. Had Hull been allowed and Orr able to play, the legend of the great Red Army team might have been strangled in the crib.

Note the steep stands, and the portrait of

Canada's head of state, Queen Elizabeth II.

Like the Colisee de Quebec, 10,000 seats was enough for the WHA, but not for the NHL. So, like their WHA bretheren the Nordiques, they expanded their Louis St. Laurent-era arena to 15,000 seats. Unfortunately, also like the Nords, the Jets found the NHL rough going from 1979 onward, losing the core of their WHA dynasty in a dispersal draft, and setting a league record in 1980-81 for longest winless streak: 30 games (23 losses, 7 ties), and earning the nickname "Loseipeg."

Also like the Nords, they got better in the 1980s, and made the Playoffs again in the 1990s. But, again, like the Nords, it was too late, as the combination of a bad exchange rate and an outdated arena led to them moving. Like Winnipeg, Quebec City now has a new arena, too, so, like the Jets, the Nords could come back, too.

Winnipeg Stadium stood at 1465 Maroons Road, and was home to the Canadian Football League's Winnipeg Blue Bombers from 1953 to 2012. The Bombers have won 10 Grey Cups, 7 of them on Maroons Road: 1958, 1959, 1961, 1962, 1984, 1988 and 1990. It was also home to baseball's Winnipeg Whips in 1970 and '71. Another baseball team, the Winnipeg Goldeyes, played there from 1954 to 1964, as a farm team of the St. Louis Cardinals, winning Northern League Pennants in 1957, 1959 and 1960. The new version of the Goldeyes played there from 1994 to 1998.

The Stadium seated about 33,000 at its peak, although temporary seating for the 1991 Grey Cup raised it to 51,985. In 2000, a hotel chain bought the naming rights, and it became Canad Inns Stadium for the rest of its existence.

The Arena and the Stadium did not share space with Polo Park for long. Polo Park hosted thoroughbred racing from 1925 to 1956, and was demolished shortly thereafter. The Polo Park Mall opened in 1959. Today, an industrial site sits across Maroons Road from the mall, where the Arena and the Stadium once stood. Bus 11 from downtown.

Today, the Blue Bombers play at Investors Group Field. Opening in 2013 on the campus of the University of Manitoba, it is a 33,500-seat facility that can be expanded to 40,000. It hosted the 2015 Grey Cup (Edmonton beat Ottawa), and 7 games of the 2015 Women's World Cup, including the U.S.' win over Australia and draw with Sweden en route to winning the Cup.

It is also home to Valour FC, a team in the Canadian Premier League that began play in 2019, owned by, and groundsharing with, the Blue Bombers.

Taylor Swift played its 1st concert, but its 1st sold-out concert was by then 71-year-old Paul McCartney. (For comparison's sake: When Taylor Swift was born in 1989, Paul was 47, on one of his biggest tours and was still making the U.S. Top 40. Taylor should be so lucky in 2036.) The King and Queen of recent pop music, Jay-Z and Beyonce, played it in 2014, 1 of only 2 Canadian venues on their tour (the other being the Rogers Centre in Toronto). In 2016, it hosted the NHL Heritage Classic, but the Jets lost 3-0 to the Edmonton Oilers.

315 Chancellor Matheson Road at University Crescent, about 6 miles south of downtown. Number 60 bus.

The University of Manitoba Bisons won the Memorial Cup, the championship of Canadian junior hockey, in 1923. Other Manitoba-based teams to do so were the 1921 Winnipeg Junior Falcons; the 1931 Elmwood Millionaires; the 1935, 1937 and 1946 Winnipeg Monarchs; the 1938 St. Boniface Seals; the 1941 and 1943 Winnipeg Rangers; the 1942 Portage la Prairie Terriers; the 1957 Flin Flon Bombers; and the 1959 Winnipeg Braves.

Prior to the construction of Winnipeg Stadium, the Blue Bombers played at Osborne Stadium from 1935 to 1952, winning the Grey Cup in 1935, 1939 and 1941. A baseball team called the Winnipeg Reo Rods also called it home. Opened in 1932, with just 7,800 seats it was too small for CFL play. It was demolished in 1956, and the Great-West Life Assurance Building now stands on the site. 60 Osborne Street at Granite Way, across from the Manitoba Legislative Building.

The current version of the Winnipeg Goldeyes has played at Shaw Park since it opened in 1999. Formerly named CanWest Global Park, it seats 7,461, making it ideal for independent leagues like the current version of the American Association (not to be confused with the longtime Triple-A league or the 1880s major league of the same name).

These Goldeyes have won 9 division titles, and Pennants in 1994 and 2012, making for 5 Pennants for Winnipeg baseball teams. "The Fishbowl" stands at 1 Portage Avenue East, at Waterfront Drive along the Red River. Number 1 or 10 bus from downtown.

From 1909 to 1955, Winnipeg's hockey center (or, should I say, "centre") was Shea's Auditorium. For many years, it held Canada's only artificial ice surface between Toronto and Vancouver. The University of Winnipeg Library now stands on the site, although their hockey rink, the Duckworth Centre, is adjacent. 515 Portage Avenue, 6 blocks west of Bell MTS Place. In other words, when the new arena opened in 2004, Winnipeg hockey was coming home, even if it took the Jets a little longer.

Winnipeg has won the Stanley Cup 3 times. Did you know that? But it was a really long time ago. In fact, they've gone longer without winning the Cup than any city that has actually won it: 114 years. The Winnipeg Victorias won it in 1896, 1901 and 1902. The Victorias played at the Winnipeg Auditorium, at Garry Street and York Avenue, downtown. The Auditorium was destroyed by a fire in 1926. A bank and a parking deck now stand on the site of the greatest achievement in the history of Manitoba sports.

The Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame is at 145 Pacific Avenue at Lily Street. Number 20 bus.

Minneapolis is both the closest MLB city and the closest NBA city to Winnipeg: 456 miles away. Don't count on Winnipeg ever getting a team in either league: It would rank dead last in metropolitan area population. It already ranks last in the NHL, and still would if Quebec City returns, although not if Hamilton, Ontario gets a team as it has tried to do for the last 30 years. Even in the CFL, the Blue Bombers, at least in terms of metro population, have a "Borg ranking": 7 of 9, ahead of only the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and the Regina-based Saskatchewan Roughriders.

According to an article in the May 12, 2014 New York Times, the most popular NBA team in the city of Winnipeg is the Miami Heat, but in the suburbs, it's the Los Angeles Lakers. I don't know why there's a difference.

Like most major (or major-wannabe) cities, Winnipeg has museums. The Canadian Museum for Human Rights is at 85 Israel Asper Way, at York Avenue, across Pioneer Avenue from Shaw Park. Number 1 or 10 bus. Across Asper Way and the railroad tracks is the Winnipeg Railroad Museum. The Manitoba Planetarium and Science Gallery is at 190 Rupert Avenue at Main Street. Number 20 bus.

Adjacent to the Museum for Human Rights is The Forks, named for the splitting of the Red and Assiniboine Rivers. Because of this confluence, it was a meeting place for early Aboriginal peoples (Indians/Native Canadians/First Nations), European fur traders, hunters, riverboat and railway workers, and Manitoba's immigrants.

The complex now includes the Forks Market, in effect Winnipeg's South Street Seaport, Reading Terminal Market, Harborplace or Faneuil Hall/Quincy Market. 1 Forks Market Road, at Israel Asper Way. The Manitoba Children's Museum is also part of the complex, at 45 Forks Market Road. Number 1 or 2 bus.

Arthur Meighen, who served briefly twice (1920-21 and for a few weeks in 1926), is the only Prime Minister of Canada to have represented a riding (district) in Manitoba, in his case the nearby town of Portage La Prairie. There is no historical site in his honor, though.

The tallest building in Winnipeg is 201 Portage, standing a mere 420 feet at the intersection of Portage Avenue and Main Street, 3 blocks from Bell MTS Place. It looks nice, but it's no skyscraper.

Any TV shows set in Winnipeg would only be shown on Canadian television, and wouldn't be familiar to Americans. There have, however, been major films that you would recognize shot in and around Winnipeg.

Many of these have been Westerns, or more recent period pieces that take advantage of the surrounding prairies, such as The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (set in 1882 Missouri) and Capote (set in 1959 Kansas while Truman Capote was researching the murders that became the basis of his book In Cold Blood). Other movies with scenes filmed in Winnipeg include K-19: The Widowmaker, Shall We Dance, The Constant Gardener and The Haunting In Connecticut (despite the title).

*

Winnipeg is not very big city, and it's far away, with little to attract the local hockey fan besides hockey. But once you're there, it turns out to be a much more interesting place. Give it a go, whether you're a hockey fan or not. 

How to Be a Devils Fan In Minnesota -- 2021-22 Edition

This coming Thursday, December 2, the New Jersey Devils will travel to play the Minnesota Wild. The Devils and the Wild -- not "Wildcats," "Wild Dogs," "Wild Things" or "Wild (anything else)," just "Wild" -- are linked by 2 people. Jacques Lemaire was the 1st head coach to take the Devils to the Stanley Cup, and the 1st head coach the Wild ever had. Then, there's Zach Parise. Yeah, let's not talk about him. Zach, ya coulda made us proud...

Before You Go. The game will be played indoors, but you'll only be indoors for 4 hours at most. This is Minnesota, and while it's only early December for us, their winter lasts from Halloween to Easter. A January 30, 2019 article on Thrillist admitted what most of us already suspected: Taking into account that people in Alaska are generally nuts, and don't mind what would, statistically, be worse, Minnesota has the worst Winters of any State.

So you should consult the Minneapolis Star-Tribune and St. Paul Pioneer Press websites for their forecasts. They're predicting the low 50s for Thursday afternoon, and the low 30s for nighttime. So it won't be that cold, and there won't be any snow all week. But you should still bring a Winter jacket.

Minnesota is in the Central Time Zone, 1 hour behind New York. Adjust your timepieces accordingly.

Tickets. The Wild were averaging 17,467 fans per home game in 2019-20, before COVID shut everything down. That's about 97 percent of capacity. So getting tickets will be tough.

In the lower level, the 100 sections, Wild tickets run $119 between the goals and $95 behind them. In the upper level, the 200 sections, they go $59 between and $39 behind.

Getting There. It's 1,199 road miles from Times Square in New York to Nicollet Mall in downtown Minneapolis (the spot where Mary Tyler Moore threw her hat in the air in the opening sequence of her 1970-77 CBS sitcom), and 1,184 miles from the Prudential Center to the Xcel Energy Center. Knowing this, your first reaction is going to be to fly out there.

Flying from Newark to Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport can be done, nonstop and round-trip, for as little as $178. This is the cheapest flight I have ever posted on a trip guide..

When you get there, the Number 55 light rail takes you from the airport to downtown in under an hour, so at least that is convenient.

Bus? Not a good idea. Greyhound runs 3 buses a day between Port Authority and Minneapolis, all with at least one transfer, in Chicago and possibly elsewhere as well. The total time, depending on the number of stops, is between 26 and 31 hours, and costs $608 round-trip, but can drop to $404 with advanced purchase. The Greyhound terminal is at 950 Hawthorne Avenue, at 9th Street North, just 3 blocks from Nicollet Mall, 2 from the Target Center arena, and from there just across the 7th Street overpass over Interstate 394 from Target Field.

Actually, you may be better off just going to St. Paul, whose Greyhound station is at the Union Depot, which is also the Twin Cities' Amtrak station, at 240 E. Kellogg Blvd. The round-trip fare is $488, but advanced purchase can make it as little as $386. From there, you'd have to take Bus 21 to downtown St. Paul.

Train? An even worse idea. Amtrak will make you leave Penn Station on the Lake Shore Limited at 3:40 PM Eastern Time, arrive at Union Station in Chicago at 9:50 AM Central Time, and then the Empire Builder, their Chicago-to-Seattle run, will leave at 2:15 PM and arrive at Union Depot in St. Paul (not Minneapolis) at 10:03 PM -- after the game would end, unless there's a lot of overtime. And it's $396 round-trip. And you'd have to spent not one but two nights in a hotel.

If you decide to drive, it's far enough that it will help to get someone to go with you and split the duties, and to trade off driving and sleeping. You'll need to get into New Jersey, and take Interstate 80 West. You'll be on I-80 for the vast majority of the trip, through New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Ohio. In Ohio, in the western suburbs of Cleveland, I-80 will merge with Interstate 90. From this point onward, you won't need to think about I-80 until you head home; I-90 is now the key, through the rest of Ohio and Indiana.

Just outside Chicago, I-80 will split off from I-90, which you will keep, until it merges with Interstate 94. For the moment, though, you will ignore I-94. Stay on I-90 through Illinois, until reaching Madison, Wisconsin, where you will once again merge with I-94. Now, I-94 is what you want, taking it into Minnesota and the Twin Cities, with Exit 242D being your exit for downtown St. Paul, and Exit 233A for downtown Minneapolis.

If you do it right, you should spend about an hour and a half in New Jersey, 5 hours and 15 minutes in Pennsylvania, 4 hours in Ohio, 2 and a half hours in Indiana, an hour and a half in Illinois, 2 and a half hours in Wisconsin, and half an hour in Minnesota. That's 17 hours and 45 minutes. Counting rest stops, preferably halfway through Pennsylvania and just after you enter both Ohio and Indiana, outside Chicago and halfway across Wisconsin, and accounting for traffic in New York, the Chicago suburbs and the Twin Cities, it should be no more than 23 hours, which would save you time on both Greyhound and Amtrak, if not on flying.

Once In the City. Like the baseball Twins (who arrived in 1961), the NFL Vikings (also in 1961), the NBA Timberwolves (1989) and the departed NHL North Stars (1967-1993), the Wild (2000) are called "Minnesota," because they didn't want to slight either one of the "Twin Cities."

Well, these "twins" are not identical: They have different mindsets, and, manifesting in several ways that included both having Triple-A teams until the MLB team arrived, have been known to feud as much as San Francisco and Oakland, as much as Dallas and Fort Worth, and as much as Baltimore and Washington, if not as much as Manhattan and Brooklyn.

Downtown Minneapolis

Minneapolis has about 430,000 people, St. Paul 312,000, and the combined metropolitan area a little under 4.2 million, ranking 15th in the U.S. -- roughly the combined population of Manhattan, The Bronx and Staten Island -- or that of Manhattan and Queens. Denver is the only metropolitan area with teams in all 4 sports that's smaller. And, despite being the smaller city, St. Paul is the State capital.

The State House in St. Paul

As Twins founding owner Calvin Griffith said, with glee and bigotry, when he moved the Washington Senators there, the people of Minnesota are white -- but no longer overwhelmingly so. The Twin Cities' white population is down to 70 percent, as immigrants come in from Latin America and Africa. Minneapolis, in particular, is now 62 percent white, 19 percent black, 11 percent Hispanic, 6 percent Asian, and 2 percent Native American.

Minneapolis dealt with a race riot on its North Side on July 19, 1967; the racially-motivated police murders of Philando Castile in suburban Falcon Heights on July 6, 2016; and the racially-motivated police murder of George Floyd on the city's South Side on May 25, 2020.

"Minneapolis" is a combination of the Dakota tribal word for water, and the Greek word for city. It was founded in 1867 with the name St. Anthony Falls. St. Paul, founded in 1854, is also named for an early Christian saint. In Minneapolis, Hennepin Avenue separates the numbered Streets from North and South, and the Mississippi River is the "zero point" for the Avenues, many (but not all) of which also have numbers. In St. Paul, Wabasha Street separates East and West, and while there's no North and South, address numbers rise as you get further north of the River.

Each city once had 2 daily papers, now each is down to 1: Minneapolis had the Star and the Tribune, merged in 1982; St. Paul the Pioneer and the Dispatch, merged into the Pioneer Press and Dispatch
in 1985, with the Dispatch name dropped in 1990. Today, they are nicknamed the Strib and the Pi Press.

The sales tax in the State of Minnesota is 6.875 percent. It's 7.775 percent in Minneapolis' Hennepin County, and 7.625 percent in St. Paul's Ramsey County. Bus and Light Rail service is $2.25 per ride during rush hours, $1.75 otherwise.

Light Rail, Stadium Village station

ZIP Codes in Minnesota start with the digits 54 and 55; with Minneapolis having 553, 554 or 555; and St. Paul having 550 and 551. The Area Codes are 612 for Minneapolis, 507 for its suburbs, and 651 for St. Paul. Interstates 494 and 694 are the Twin Cities' "beltway." Xcel Energy supplies electricity, and CenterPoint Energy supplies gas.

Going In. The Xcel Energy Center, which opened in 2000 and is named for the Minneapolis-based energy company, is in downtown St. Paul, about 9 miles from downtown Minneapolis. The official address is 199 W. Kellogg Blvd., at W. 7th Street. The Number 94 bus goes straight there from downtown Minneapolis, in about 25 minutes. The the Green Line light rail goes from Nicollet Mall to St. Paul Central Station. From there, it's a 15-minute walk to the arena. Total travel time: About 40 minutes.

Because the arena is the westernmost part of a complex that includes the Roy Wilkins Auditorium, the Saint Paul RiverCentre and the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts, you won't be entering from the east. Due to where the parking lots are, if you drove in, you are most likely to enter from the north. Parking is just $6.00.

The Wilkins, formerly the St. Paul Auditorium, was built in 1932. On May 13, 1956, early in his career, Elvis Presley sang there in the afternoon, and at the Minneapolis Auditorium in the evening.

The rink at "The X" is laid out east-to-west. The Wild attack twice toward the east goal. In 2004, it was named by ESPN as the best overall sports venue in the U.S. In 2010, a Wild game at The X was listed as the 3rd-best stadium experience in North America, according to ESPN the Magazine. First on the list went to the Twins and Target Field. (Minnesota fans should like both examples, but not the one that was listed 2nd: The Green Bay Packers.)

The XEC hosted the 2008 Republican Convention that nominated John McCain for President and Sarah Palin for Vice President. She probably loved the hockey part, but, unlike Mary Richards, she can only turn on a small part of the world with her smile, and she's not gonna make it after all. (The GOP met in Minneapolis in 1892, renominating President Benjamin Harrison at the Industrial Exposition Building at 101 Central Avenue SE. It was torn down in 1940, and condos are on the site now.)

The Three Tenors -- Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo and José Carreras -- sang at the Xcel Center on December 16, 2002.

It is also a veritable home and hall of fame for hockey in Minnesota, the most hockey-mad State in the Union, including the State high school championships that were previously held at the St. Paul Civic Center, which stood on the same site from 1973 to 1998. That arena hosted the Minnesota Fighting Saints of the World Hockey Association from 1973 to 1977. The Fighting Saints had played their first few home games, in late 1972, at the St. Paul Auditorium.

Elvis sang at the Civic Center on October 2 and 3, 1974, and April 30, 1977. The Civic Center is also where Bruce Springsteen and Courteney Cox filmed the video for Bruce's song "Dancing In the Dark."

The NCAA hockey championships, the Frozen Four, were held at the Civic Center in 1989, 1991 and 1994. They've been held at the Xcel in 2002, 2011 and 2018, and will be again in 2024.

Food. Considering that Minnesota is Big Ten Country, you would expect their hockey arena to have lots of good food, in particular that Midwest staple, the sausage. They don't disappoint. According to their website:

A wide selection of food is available ranging from carved sandwiches, wraps, cheese steak sandwiches, fajitas, brick oven pizza, walleye baskets, boneless buffalo chicken wings, specialty baked potatoes and specialty BBQ, but there are also arena favorites – popcorn, hot dogs, bratwurst, hamburgers, personal pan pizzas and chicken tenders. Visit the many Levy Restaurants concession stands on the 100 and 200 level concourses and make dining out at the arena fun and easy. 

Team History Displays. As 1 of the NHL's 4 newest teams, the Wild don't have much in the way of championship banners. There isn't one mentioning their run to the 2003 NHL Western Conference Finals, under Lemaire. But there is one for their 2008 Northwest Division Championship. They're usually good enough to make the Playoffs, having done so in 8 of the last 9 years, but they usually don't get far.

No one who's played for them has yet been elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame. Lemaire has, but, of course, he was elected as a player before he ever coached them, or even before he coached our team. The Hockey News' 100 Greatest Hockey Players was printed in 1998, before the Wild took the ice, but no player best known with the North Stars was listed with them, either. And when the NHL released its 100th Anniversary 100 Greatest Players, the only Wild figure named was Lemaire.

Mike Modano is in the Hall of Fame, and played for the North Stars in their last 4 seasons in Minnesota, but is better remembered for playing for them in Dallas. In 2017, Modano was named to the 100 Greatest Players. Mike "Shakey" Walton of the Minnesota Fighting Saints was named to the World Hockey Association All-Time Team.

Their only retired number is 1, in honor of the Minnesota Fans, a reaction to the slap in the face of Norm Green moving the North Stars to Dallas in 1993. (There is no representation in The X for their achievements.) They do, along with fellow 2000 expansion entries the Columbus Blue Jackets, have banners for all 30 teams in the league, including the Devils, as you can nearly see in this photo.

(UPDATE: On March 13, 2022, the Wild retired the Number 9 of 2005-20 center Mikko Koivu. He played 15 seasons for them, the last 11 as Captain, and is their all-time leader in games played and points.)

From the North Stars, Jean-Paul Parise and Bill Goldsworthy played on the Team Canada that beat the Soviet Union in the 1972 Summit Series. They and the rest of their Canada teammates were named to Canada's Walk of Fame.

Also beating the Soviets, and then Finland to win the Gold Medal, was the 1980 U.S. Olympic team, with several Minnesota natives including head coach Herb Brooks. Jim Craig, Mark Johnson, Neal Broten, Steve Christoff, Steve Janaszak and Mark Pavelich all went on to play for the North Stars.

Brooks has been elected to the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) Hall of Fame. For their contributions to the USA national team, so have Lou Nanne, who both played and coached for the North Stars, and Walter Bush, a former minority owner of the Stars. Brooks, Bush, Nanne, Broten, former North Stars head coach Glen Sonmor, former North Stars owner Robert Ridder, and Wild founding owner Bob Naegele have been awarded the Lester Patrick Trophy for contributions to hockey in America.

The Wild's biggest rivalry is with the Chicago Blackhawks, although it means much more to the Wild than it does to the Hawks. It's very close, but the Wild lead it, 46-45-1. They've met in the Playoffs 3 times, and the Hawks have won them all.

Stuff. The Hockey Lodge Store is in the arena's southeast corner, at Gate 1. It sells Wild, North Stars and University of Minnesota hockey-related items. They also have stores at the Maplewood Mall and the Southdale Center in Edina, both in the Twin Cities' suburbs, and in Duluth, 150 miles northeast of the Twin Cities.

As one of major league sports' newest teams (only the Vegas Golden Knights, the Houston Texans and the Charlotte Bobcats/new Hornets were founded more recently), there aren't many books about the Wild. The best book about Twin Cities hockey is George Rekela's 2014 work A History of Professional Hockey in Minnesota: From the North Stars to the Wild. And the only video I could find about the team was the 2004 production Minnesota Wild: The State of Hockey.

During the Game. Because of their Midwest/Heartland image, Wild fans like a "family atmosphere." Therefore, while they don't like the Chicago Blackhawks (regional rivals) or the Dallas Stars (the former Minnesota North Stars, stolen from them), they don't have any special animus for the Devils.

You might not like Zach Parise, but, remember, he chose the Wild not for money or for a supposed better chance at the Stanley Cup, but to be close to his dying father, former Islander and North Star Jean-Paul Parise. So don't give Zach a hard time. If you avoid that, and don't say anything complimentary about the Green Bay Packers, the University of Wisconsin, the Dallas Stars (the hockey team that used to be the Minnesota North Stars) or Norm Green (the owner who moved them), you'll be all right.

Like the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Colorado Avalanche, the Wild occasionally wear "third jerseys" that look like what they might have worn had they existed in the "Original Six Era." These are not "throwback" jerseys, they are "fauxbacks."

Their game against the Devils on Friday night will feature a promotion: Love Your Melon Hat Night. "Melon" is one of several slang terms for the human head. Since 2012, "Love Your Melon" has sold hats to benefit children battling cancer. It was founded by a pair of St. Paul natives, in response to the fact that chemotherapy causes cancer patients to lose their hair, and they believed that no child should go around bald.

James Bohn, singing the National Anthem

before a Minnesota North Stars alumni game

The Wild have a regular National Anthem singer. His name is Bohn. James Bohn. Their goal song is "Crowd Chant" by Joe Satriani. Their mascot is a... creature called Nordy, apparently tapping into the "northern-ness" of Minnesota. And he seems to have an M for Minnesota as a fur marking on his forehead, as many cats do, but he looks more canine than feline to me.

Nordy, rockin' the fauxback jersey

After the Game. Minneapolis and St. Paul are fairly safe as cities go. As long as you don't go out of your way to antagonize anybody, you should be all right as you make your way out of the arena and back to your car, or to your hotel.

If you're looking for a postgame meal, or just a pint, Tom Reid's Hockey City Pub is located at 258 7th Street West. Eagle Street Grill, Zamboni's Pizza, an Italian restaurant named Cossetta, an Irish-themed pub named Patrick McGovern's, Downtowner Woodfire Grill, and Burger Moe's are also on 7th Street West, and all of these are within a 2-block walk of The X.

The most famous Minnesota sports bar, Stub & Herb's, has been parked on the University of Minnesota campus at 227 SE Oak Street, on the corner of Washington, since 1939, when UM football was not only good, but great. Stadium Village on light rail.

If you want to be around other New Yorkers, I'm sorry to say that listings for where they tend to gather are slim. O'Donovan's Irish Pub, in Minneapolis at 700 1st Avenue North at 7th St., downtown, is said to cater to football Giants fans. Jet fans were said to go to the Lyndale Tap House, at 2937 Lyndale Avenue South, 2 1/2 miles southwest of downtown Minneapolis, but COVID knocked it out.

Another restaurant that may be of interest to New York baseball fans is Charley's Grill. It was popular among visiting players from other American Association cities when they came to play the Millers and the Saints. Legend has it that, when the Yankees gathered for spring training in 1961, they were trying to figure out which restaurants in the new American League cities were good, and someone who'd recently played for the Denver Bears mentioned Charley's. But Yogi Berra, who'd gone there when the Yanks' top farm team was the Kansas City Blues, said, "Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded."

(That Yogi said the line is almost certainly true, but the restaurant in question was almost certainly Ruggiero's, a place in his native St. Louis at which he and his neighbor Joe Garagiola waited tables as teenagers.)

Well, no one goes there anymore. There is still a restaurant in its space at the Depot Renaissance Minneapolis Hotel, but it's now called Milwaukee Road. Downtown, at 225 3rd Avenue South at 2nd Street.

If you visit Minnesota during the European soccer season, the place to go is Brit's Pub, at 1110 Nicollet Mall.

Sidelights. On November 30, 2018, Thrillist published a list of "America's 25 Most Fun Cities," and Minneapolis came in 23rd. Minnesota's sports history is long, but very uneven. Teams have been born, moved in, moved around, and even moved out. But there are some local sites worth checking out.

* U.S. Bank Stadium and site of the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome. Home of the Twins from 1982 to 2009, the University of Minnesota football team from 1982 to 2008, the NFL's Vikings from 1982 to 2013, and the NBA's Timberwolves in their inaugural season of 1989-90, that infamous blizzard and roof collapse in 2010 brought the desire to get out and build a new stadium for the Vikes to the front burner, and it finally led to action. Until then, there were threats that the Vikes would move, the most-mentioned possible destinations being Los Angeles and San Antonio.

The Twins won the 1987 and 1991 World Series at the Metrodome – going 8-0 in World Series games in the Dome, and 0-6 in Series games outside of it. The Vikings, on the other hand, were just 6-4 in home Playoff games there – including an overtime defeat in the 1998 NFC Championship Game after going 14-2 in the regular season.

From October 19, 1991 to April 6, 1992, the Metrodome hosted 3 major events in less than 6 months: The World Series (Twins over Atlanta Braves), Super Bowl XXVI (Washington Redskins over Buffalo Bills), and the NCAA Final Four (Duke beating Michigan in the Final). It also hosted the Final Four in 2001 (Duke won that one, too, over Arizona).

In May 2012, faced with the serious possibility of the Vikings moving without getting a suitable stadium, the Minnesota State legislature approved funding for a new stadium for the Vikings, to be built on the site of the Metrodome and on adjoining land.

In a piece of poetic justice, just as the damn thing was (with considerable ballyhoo) built and completed ahead of schedule and under budget, so did the demolition take place. The people of Minnesota seemed to be proud of its having been built on the cheap and on time, but it served its purpose, to keep the Twins and Vikings from moving for a generation, and now replacement stadiums are achieving the same purpose.

Billy Martin, who hated the place, had the best word on it, though the awkward wording of it may have been inspired in part by his pal Yogi Berra: "It's a shame a great guy like HHH had to be named after it." (Billy's first managing job was with the Twins, at the Met in 1969.)

U.S. Bank Stadium is now open, and the Vikings continued the Minnesota-Wisconsin rivalry by beating the Green Bay Packers in its 1st regular season game. In 2016, it hosted a preseason tour soccer match in which Chelsea beat AC Milan 3-1. It will host Super Bowl LII on February 4, 2018, and the 2019 NCAA Final Four. 900 South 5th Street at Centennial (Kirby Puckett) Place. Metrodome station on Light Rail.

* Target Field. Home of the Twins since 2010, it gives Minnesota's baseball team its 1st true ballpark after a half-century of waiting, rather than the Bloomington ice tray and the Homerdome. The NHL will hold its 2022 Winter Classic there. The official address is 1 Twins Way, along 3rd Avenue N., between 5th and 7th Streets. It has its own stop on the light rail system.

* Mall of America and sites of Metropolitan Stadium and the Metropolitan Sports Center. In contrast to their performance at the Metrodome, the Vikings were far more successful at their first home, while the Twins were not (in each case, playing there from 1961 to 1981).

The Vikings reached 4 Super Bowls while playing at The Met, while the Twins won Games 1, 2 and 6 of the 1965 World Series there, but lost Game 7 to the Los Angeles Dodgers on a shutout by Sandy Koufax. (So the Twins are 11-1 all-time in World Series home games, but 0-9 on the road.) The Vikings were far more formidable in their ice tray of a stadium, which had no protection from the sun and nothing to block an Arctic blast of wind.

In fact, the Met had one deck along the 3rd base stands and in the right field bleachers, two decks from 1st base to right field and in the left field bleachers, and three decks behind home plate. Somebody once said the stadium looked like an Erector set that a kid was putting together, before his mother called him away to dinner and he never finished it. At 45,919 seats, it had a capacity that was just fine for baseball; but at 48,446, it was too small for the NFL.

Prior to the 1961 arrivals of the Twins and Vikings, the Met hosted the Minneapolis Millers from 1956 to 1960, and 5 NFL games over the same stretch, including 4 "home games" for the Packers. (Viking fans may be sickened over that, but at least University of Minnesota fans can take heart in the University of Wisconsin never having played there.)

The experiments worked: The Met, built equidistant from the downtowns of Minneapolis and St. Paul, in the southern suburb of Bloomington, was awarded the MLB and NFL teams, and Midway Stadium, built in 1957 as the new home of the St. Paul Saints (at 1000 N. Snelling Avenue in the city of St. Paul, also roughly equidistant from the two downtowns), struck out, and was used as a practice field by the Vikings before being demolished in 1981.

The NHL's Minnesota North Stars played at the adjoining Metropolitan Sports Center (or Met Center) from 1967 to 1993, before they were moved to become the Dallas Stars by owner Norm Green, earning him the nickname Norm Greed. The Stars reached the Stanley Cup Finals in 1981 and 1991, but never won the Cup until 1999 when they were in Dallas. Larry Holmes successfully defended the Heavyweight Championship of the World at the Met Center on July 7, 1980, knocking out Minnesota native Scott LeDoux.

The Met Center, with Metropolitan Stadium in the background

The Beatles played at Metropolitan Stadium on August 21, 1965 -- making it 1 of only 3 facilities to host an All-Star Game, a Finals and a Beatles concert in the same year. (The others were the Boston Garden and Maple Leaf Gardens in 1964.) Elvis Presley sang at the Met Center on November 5, 1971 and October 17, 1976.

8000 Cedar Avenue South, at 80th Street -- near the airport, although legends of planes being an issue, as with Shea Stadium and Citi Field, seem to be absent. A street named Killebrew Drive, and the original location of home plate, have been preserved. A 45-minute ride on the Number 55 light rail (MOA station).

* Site of Nicollet Park. Home of the Millers from 1912 to 1955, it was one of the most historic minor-league parks, home to Ted Williams and Willie Mays before they reached the majors. With the Met nearing completion, its last game was Game 7 of the 1955 Junior World Series, in which the Millers beat the International League Champion Rochester Red Wings.

A few early NFL games were played there in the 1920s, including home games by a team a team known as the Minneapolis Marines and the Minneapolis Red Jackets. A bank is now on the site. Nicollet and Blaisdell Avenues, 30th and 31st Streets. Number 465 bus.

* Site of Lexington Park. Home of the Saints from 1897 to 1956, it wasn't nearly as well regarded, although it did close with a Saints win over the arch-rival Millers. The site is now occupied by retail outlets. Lexington Parkway, University Avenue, Fuller & Dunlap Streets.

* Target Center. Separated from Target Field by I-394 and 2nd Avenue, this arena has been home to the NBA's Minnesota Timberwolves since the team debuted shortly after its 1989 opening. The T-Wolves have only made the Western Conference Finals once, and are probably best known as the team Kevin Garnett and GM (and Minnesota native) Kevin McHale couldn't get over the hump, before Garnett went to McHale's former team, the Boston Celtics.

The Minnesota Lynx also play here, and have become the WNBA's answer to the San Antonio Spurs, winning league titles in odd-numbered years: 2011, 2013, 2015 and 2017. 600 N. 1st Avenue at 6th Street.

* University of Minnesota. Coming from downtown, you would take the Green Line light rail to Stadium Village stop to reach the UM campus. Huntington Bank Stadium, known until this year as TCF Bank Stadium, home of the Golden Gophers, is at 420 SE 23rd Avenue.

The stadium opened in 2009, allowing the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers to play home games on campus as they did at Memorial Stadium from 1924 to 1981. Their alumni were sick of playing in the cold, so when the Metrodome opened for the Twins and Vikings in 1982, they wanted in (figuratively and literally). But, even during winning seasons (which have been few and far between since the 1960s), attendance was lousy. So an on-campus facility was built.

Before moving in for the 2014 and '15 seasons, the Vikings played a home game there in 2010, following a snow-caused collapse of the Metrodome roof. The Vikings lost to the Chicago Bears, and it turned out to be Brett Favre's last NFL game. It's also hosted an outdoor game for UM hockey, and on February 21, 2016, it played host to a 6-1 win by the Wild over the Chicago Blackhawks. It hosted a match between soccer teams Manchester City of England and Olympiacos of Athens, Greece.

It hosted a match between soccer teams Manchester City of England and Olympiacos of Athens, Greece, and Major League Soccer's Minnesota Wild began play there in 2017.

Across Oak Street from the open west end of the stadium are the basketball and hockey venues. Williams Arena opened in 1928, has hosted UM basketball ever since, UM hockey from then until 1993, and the 1951 NCAA Final Four (Kentucky beating Kansas State). It hosted the Frozen Four in 1958 and 1966.

Mariucci Arena opened in 1993, and has hosted UM hockey ever since. The Golden Gophers have won 5 National Championships: 1974, 1976, 1979, 2002 and 2003. Memorial Stadium was across University Avenue from Williams Arena. The UM alumni center and swimming venue were built on the site.

Williams Arena and Mariucci Arena

* Site of Minneapolis Auditorium. Built in 1927, from 1947 to 1960 this was the home of the Minneapolis Lakers – and, as Minnesota is "the Land of 10,000 Lakes" (11,842, to be exact), now you know why a team in Los Angeles is named the Lakers. (The old Utah Jazz coach Frank Layden said his team and the Lakers should switch names, due to L.A.'s "West Coast jazz" scene and the Great Salt Lake: "Los Angeles Jazz" and "Utah Lakers" would both make more sense than their current names.)

The Lakers won the National Basketball League Championship in 1948, then moved into the NBA and won the Championship in 1949, 1950, 1952, 1953 and 1954. In fact, until the Celtics overtook them in 1963, the Minneapolis Lakers were the most successful team in NBA history, and have still won more World Championships than all the other Minnesota major league teams combined: Lakers 5, Twins 2, the rest a total of 0. (Unless you count the Lynx, who make it Lakers 5, everybody else 5.)

They were led by their enormous (for the time, 6-foot-10, 270-pound) center, the bespectacled (that’s right, he wore glasses, not goggles, on the court) Number 99, George Mikan. The arrival of the 24-second shot clock for the 1954-55 season pretty much ended their run, although rookie Elgin Baylor did help them reach the Finals again in 1959.

Elvis sang there early in his career, on May 13, 1956. The Auditorium was demolished in 1989, and the Minneapolis Convention Center was built on the site. 1301 2nd Ave. South, at 12th Street. Within walking distance of Target Field, Target Center and the Metrodome.

* Minneapolis Armory. Built in 1936 for the Minnesota National Guard, the Lakers used it as their home court part-time throughout their Minneapolis tenure, and full-time in their final season in Minneapolis, 1959-60. Ironically, the owner of the Lakers who moved them to Los Angeles was Bob Short – who later moved the "new" Washington Senators, the team established to replace the team that moved to become the Twins.

It was later the video-filming site for Minneapolis native Prince's "1999" and Aerosmith's "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing." It's been kept standing as a parking lot. 500 6th Street, downtown.

* Minnesota United. Originally NSC Minnesota and then the Minnesota Stars, they are not, oddly enough, named in tribute to Manchester United, but for UnitedHealth Group, which like the team, is owned by Bill McGuire.

From its 2010 inception through 2016, except for the occasional game moved to the Metrodome for more seats, MNUFC -- never "MUFC," like Manchester United -- played its home games at a 10,000-seat stadium at the National Sports Center in Blaine, about 15 miles north of downtown Minneapolis. 1700 105th Avenue NE at Davenport Street NE. Hard to reach by public transportation: You'll need at least 2 buses, and to then walk a mile and a half.

The team has been promoted from the new North American Soccer League to Major League Soccer, and just ended its 1st season at that level. For 2019, they are planning on opening a new 19,400-seat, soccer-specific stadium, Allianz Field, in St. Paul, at about 400 N. Snelling Avenue, at the intersection of St. Anthony Avenue, just off I-94/U.S. 12/U.S. 52, about a mile and a half south of the site of old Midway Stadium. Green Line light rail to Snelling Avenue.

* Duluth. Minnesota's largest city outside the Twin Cities region is 155 miles to the northeast, at the western edge of Lake Superior. It was home to the State's 1st NFL team. They played the 1923, '24 and '25 team as the Duluth Kelleys, because they were sponsored by the Kelley-Duluth Hardware Store. They played the 1926 and '27 season as the Duluth Eskimos, and featured Hall-of-Famers Ernie Nevers and John "Johnny Blood" McNally.

They played at Athletic Park, which opened in 1903 and served as home of the minor-league Duluth White Sox from 1903 to 1916, and the Duluth Dukes from 1934 to 1940. It seated 6,000, and was replaced by the 4,2000-seat Wade Stadium on the same site in 1941. That was home to the Dukes until 1970, to a new Duluth-Superior Dukes from 1993 to 2002, and to the Duluth Huskies since 2003. In their various leagues, the Dukes/Huskies won Pennants in 1937, 1956, 1961, 1963, 1969, 1970 and 1997. 101 N. 35th Avenue West, about 3 miles southwest of downtown.

The 6,764-seat Duluth Entertainment Center hosted the hockey team at the University of Minnesota at Duluth from 1966 to 2010, one of the better hockey programs (if not as accomplished as their cousins down in Minneapolis). It also hosted the Frozen Four in 1968 and 1981, and Elvis on October 16, 1976 and April 29, 1977.

The 6,726-seat Amsoil Arena -- smaller, but much more convenient -- was built next-door in 2010, and UMD moved in for the 2010-11 season, and went on to win that season's National Championship. Both buildings are downtown, and have an address of 350 Harbor Drive.

* Museums. The Twin Cities are very artsy, and have their share of museums, including 1 of the 5 most-visited modern art museums in the country, the Walker Art Center, at 1750 Hennepin Avenue. Number 4, 6, 12 or 25 bus. The Minneapolis Institute of Arts is at 2400 3rd Avenue South. Number 17 bus, then walk 2 blocks east on 24th Street. The Science Museum of Minnesota is at 120 W. Kellogg Blvd. in St. Paul, across from the Xcel Center.

Fort Snelling, originally Fort Saint Anthony, was established by the U.S. Army in 1819, where the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers meet, to guard the Upper Midwest. It served as an Army post until World War II. It is now a museum, with historical demonstrations based on its entire history, from the post-War of 1812 period to the Civil War, from the Indian Wars to the World Wars. 101 Lakeview Avenue in St. Paul, across from the airport. An hour's ride on the Blue light rail.

Minnesota is famous for Presidential candidates that don't win. Governor Harold Stassen failed to get the Republican nomination in 1948, and then ran several more times, becoming, pardon the choice of words, a running joke. Senator Eugene McCarthy opposed Lyndon Johnson in the Democratic Primaries in 1968, but lost his momentum when Robert Kennedy got into the race and LBJ got out, then ran in 1976 as a 3rd-party candidate and got 1 percent of the popular vote.

Vice President Walter Mondale was the Democratic nominee in 1984, losing every State but
Minnesota in his loss to Ronald Reagan. In the 2012 election cycle, the moderate former Governor Tim Pawlenty and the completely batty Congresswoman Michele Bachmann ran, and neither got anywhere.

Most notable is Hubert Horatio Humphrey. Elected Mayor of Minneapolis in 1945 and 1947, he became known for fighting organized crime, which put a price on his head, a price it was unable to pay off.  In 1948, while running for the U.S. Senate, he gave a speech at the Democratic Convention, supporting a civil rights plank in the party platform, a movement which culminated in his guiding the Civil Rights Act of 1964 through the Senate as Majority Whip. He ran for the Democratic nomination for President in 1960, but lost to John F. Kennedy, then was elected LBJ's Vice President in 1964.

He won the nomination in 1968, but lost to Richard Nixon by a hair. He returned to the Senate in 1970, and ran for President again in 1972, but lost the nomination to George McGovern. He might have run again in 1976 had his health not failed, as cancer killed him in 1978 at age 66. His wife Muriel briefly held his Senate seat.

Not having been President (he's come closer than any other Minnesotan ever has), he has no Presidential Library, but there is the Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota, 301 19th Avenue South, only a short walk from the Dome that would be named for him. Hubert and Muriel are laid to rest in Lakewood Cemetery, 3600 Hennepin Avenue. Number 6 bus.

The tallest building in Minnesota is the IDS Center, at 80 South 8th Street at Marquette Avenue, rising 792 feet high. The tallest in the State outside Minneapolis is Wells Fargo Place, at 30 East 7th Street at Cedar Street in St. Paul, 472 feet.

Nicollet Mall is a pedestrians-only shopping center that stretches from 2nd to 13th Streets downtown. At 7th Street, in front of Macy's, in roughly the same location that Mary Tyler Moore as Mary Richards threw her hat in the air in the opening to The Mary Tyler Moore Show, is a statue of "Mare" doing that. However, the show had no location shots in Minneapolis.

The dedication: Bronze Mary at left, Real Mary at right

Mary's statue was the 1st in a series commissioned by TV Land that now includes Jackie Gleason as Ralph Kramden in The Honeymooners outside Port Authority Bus Terminal, Henry Winkler in Happy Days (a statue known as the Bronze Fonz) in Milwaukee, Bob Newhart as Bob Hartley in The Bob Newhart Show in Chicago, Andy Griffith and Ron Howard as Andy and Opie Taylor in The Andy Griffith Show in Raleigh, Elizabeth Montgomery as Samantha Stephens in the "witch city" of Salem, Massachusetts (even though Bewitched was set in Westport, Connecticut), and Elvis Presley outside the Blaisdell Center in Honolulu where he played the concert for his 1973 TV special.

The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, Little House On the Prairie and Orphan Black were set in Minnesota, although not shot there. The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle was set in the fictional town of Frostbite Falls, Minnesota. Of course, being animated, it had no location shots.

The sitcom Coach, which aired on ABC from 1989 to 1996, was set at Minnesota State University. At the time, there was not a real college with that name. But in 1999, Mankato State University was renamed Minnesota State University, Mankato; and in 2000, Moorhead State University became Minnesota State University, Moorhead.

The University of Minnesota was originally a model for the school on the show, but withdrew its support: Although some game action clearly shows the maroon and gold of the Golden Gophers, the uniforms shown in most scenes were light purple and gold. In one Season 1 episode, the Gophers are specifically mentioned as one of the Screaming Eagles' opponents, suggesting that Minnesota State might have been in the Big Ten. Show creator Barry Kemp is a graduate of the University of Iowa -- like Wisconsin, a major rival of the Gophers -- and most of the exterior shots you see of the campus were filmed there. In addition, the main character, Hayden Fox, was named after then-Iowa coach Hayden Fry. No scenes were actually shot in Minnesota, not even Hayden's oft-snowy lake house.

Movies filmed in Minnesota include the baseball films Little Big League and Major League: Back to the Minors, the George Clooney 1920s football film Leatherheads, The Bishop's Wife (1947, later remade as The Preacher's Wife), Airport (the 1970 film that helped inspire the decade's disaster film craze), the Western The Great Northfield, Minnesota Raid, the Grumpy Old Men movies, Kevin Smith's Mallrats, Juno, and, most memorably due to its use of the Minnesota accent, the Coen Brothers' Fargo (which now has a TV version shot there).

St. Paul is the capital of the State of Minnesota. The Capitol Building is at University Avenue and Capital Blvd. It's a half-hour ride from downtown on the Number 94 bus (named because most of its route is on I-94).

*

Bob Wood, a native of Kalamazoo, Michigan, and a graduate of Michigan State University, wrote a pair of sports travel guides: Dodger Dogs to Fenway Franks, about his 1985 trip to all 26 stadiums then in MLB; and Big Ten Country, about his 1988 trip to all the Big Ten campuses and stadiums. (Penn State, Nebraska, and soon-to-be members Rutgers and Maryland were not yet in the league).

The Metrodome was the only stadium that featured in both books, although if either were updated to reflect current reality, it would feature in neither. In Big Ten Country, Wood said, "Now, don't get me wrong. It's not that I don't like Minneapolis. How can you not like Minneapolis?... No, Minneapolis is lovely. It's the Metrodome that sucks!"

From what I understand, Minneapolis and St. Paul are still terrific cities, including for sports. A Devils fan should definitely take in a game against the Wild there.