United States International Gulls men's ice hockey

Not to be confused with American International Yellow Jackets men's ice hockey.

United States International Gulls men's ice hockey
University	United States International University
First season	1979–80
Arena	San Diego Ice Arena San Diego, California
Conference regular season champions
GWHC: 1986

The United States International Gulls men's ice hockey program represented United States International University in college ice hockey at the NCAA Division I level during the 1980s.

History

In 1978 Ph.D candidate Maynard Howe, the former head coach of Maine at Portland–Gorham, put together the first hockey team for the university and, with the support of University President Dr. William Rust, the team was soon sponsored as an NCAA Division I program. ^[1] The Gulls had early success, winning 24 games in their first season of NCAA play, but they could not keep that pace. USIU produced just 8 wins the following year (albeit in 21 games) and, after surging back with an 18-win year in 1982, the program put up losing records three straight seasons before Howe was replaced by former Minnesota head coach Brad Buetow. The new coach coincided with U.S. International forming the Great West Hockey Conference with Alaska–Anchorage, Alaska–Fairbanks and Northern Arizona.

In Buetow's first season he got the Gulls back on their winning ways, producing a 20 win season and winning the inaugural conference championship. After a mediocre second season the Gulls returned in force in 1987–88, winning 23 games and being a finalist for the last at-large bid to the 1988 NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Tournament. 1988 was the last hurrah for the program, however. After Northern Arizona couldn't continue after their first season in the conference, USIU had only the Alaska schools as conference partners and travelling to the largest state was just as prohibitively as expensive as anywhere else in the country. The university had tried to induce several nearby schools to begin their own ice hockey programs, including USC, UCLA and Arizona but after three years the school was no longer able to financially support the program and it was shuttered. ^[2]

Season-by-season results

Source: ^[3]

NCAA D-I Champions

NCAA Frozen Four

Conference Regular Season Champions

Conference Playoff Champions

Season	Conference	Regular Season [a]											Conference Tournament Results	National Tournament Results
		Conference						Overall
		GP	W	L	T	Pts*	Finish	GP	W	L	T	%
Maynard Howe (1979–1985)
1979–80	Independent	–	–	–	–	–	–	34	24	8	2	.735
1980–81	Independent	–	–	–	–	–	–	21	8	13	0	.381
1981–82	Independent	–	–	–	–	–	–	30	18	12	0	.600
1982–83	Independent	–	–	–	–	–	–	32	13	17	2	.438
1983–84	Independent	–	–	–	–	–	–	36	4	31	1	.125
1984–85	Independent	–	–	–	–	–	–	32	7	23	2	.250
Brad Buetow (1985–1988)
1985–86	GWHC	12	9	3	0	18	1st	33	20	13	0	.606
1986–87	GWHC	16	7	8	1	15	2nd	35	17	17	1	.500
1987–88	GWHC	8	4	4	0	8	2nd	36	23	13	0	.639
Totals								GP	W	L	T	%	Championships
Regular Season								289	134	147	8	.478	1 GWHC Championship
Conference Post-season								0	0	0	0	–
NCAA Post-season								0	0	0	0	–
Regular Season and Post-season Record								289	134	147	8	.478

Footnotes

1. Code explanation; GP—Games Played, W—Wins, L—Losses, T—Tied games, Pts—Points

Olympians

This is a list of United States International alumni were a part of an Olympic team.

Name	Position	United States International Tenure	Team	Year	Finish
Darren Lowe	Right Wing	1979–1980	CAN	1984	4th

Gulls in the NHL

See also: Former NCAA players in the National Hockey League

Player	Position	Team(s)	Years	Games	Stanley Cups
Darren Lowe	Right Wing	PIT	1983–1984	8	0
Pat Mayer	Defenseman	PIT	1987–1988	1	0

References

1. "The beach boys on blades". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved August 7, 2019.
2. "Hockey Dropped by USIU". LA Times. April 23, 1988. Retrieved August 7, 2019.
3. "United States International University Statistics and History". Hockey DB. Retrieved August 7, 2019.