Hillsdale College used to have a hockey team, but it was disbanded in the ’80s. With no regulation ice arena in town, the team used to drive to Jackson, Mich. to practice.
Today, the town is still without an official ice arena, but most community members could show you where everyone goes to skate: The Rink.
For the last 21 years, Craig Connor ’77, a former left wing for the Chargers, has built the town’s largest sheet of ice in his backyard. He simply calls it “The Rink.”
Located about five miles from campus in the back of a woody neighborhood, the Rink’s ice ranges from four to eight inches thick and spans a width of 75 feet and a length of 140 feet.
“A regulation rink is 85 by 200, when I was younger I used to think this was too small, now I think it’s almost too big,” Connor said.
After two decades of maintenance trial and error, Connor has accumulated enough knowledge to make his rink a community hot spot in the cold months.
Pulling up to the Connors’ property, one will see a mounted customized road sign reading “The Rink.” Walking up to the ice, one is immediately greeted with sounds of slapshots over the backdrop of oldies rock music coming from Connor’s sound system.
“You’ve gotta have sound out here,” Connor said with a smile.
The slapshots, if not hitting net, will hit regulation ice arena boards. In some areas, the boards are tinted a slight shade of green. They used to belong to Michigan State University’s Demonstration Hall which was the Spartans’ home rink before Munn Stadium was built.
“The boards were going to a landfill when Demonstration Hall was being renovated. I happened to know a guy who knew a guy,” Connor said. “It’s so much better than having to fish pucks out of the snowbanks all the time.”
At the far end of the ice, a wire with a large curtain attached stretches across the rink.
“On warm days I push it over to block the sun to keep it from screwing up my ice,” Connor said. “I call it a sun curtain.”
The wires are attached to two of the four light poles that illuminate the ice for nighttime hockey games.
When the ice melts, Connor leaves the boards up and takes his liner out. The Connors then use the exposed sand beneath as a riding arena for horses.
On the side of the rink sits a sizable warming hut. Inside the hut is a hockey fan’s paradise.
Detroit Red Wings memorabilia line the walls along with a blown up black-and-white photo of Connor’s father in goalie pads. He played for the Boston University team. A black-and-white photo of the Hillsdale men’s hockey team in the ‘70s also has a place on the wall.
At the front of the room, a fire waits to be stoked by guys lacing up their skates and padding up for a game. Shelves of old hockey skates and hockey pads line one of the walls, offered to any visitors to use for play.
Bob Blackstock, professor of business law, played hockey growing up in Sault Sainte Marie, Mich. and again in law school. He occasionally plays a game at Connor’s house when he’s not maintaining his own backyard rink.
“Its a great service that he provides for the community, that he opens it up to everyone the way he does,” Blackstock said. “A lot of Hillsdale kids learned to skate at the Connors. We have two sons and a daughter and they were kind of raised at the Connors.”
Blackstock said he loves playing against college students at the Rink.
“I like to go up against a freshman who doesn’t know me and throw an elbow in just to surprise him,” he said with a grin.
Connor said he welcomes skaters with any level of experience out onto the ice.
“People just learning or old vets, we get a whole range of skaters out here,” he said.
One of the veteran skaters who frequents the Rink is senior Brett Miller.
“It’s fun for us to get out there and relive the glory days,” he said. “We’ll get full five on five games going and it’s a great time. I would recommend it to everyone to go out there, especially if you’ve played hockey, you’ll really enjoy it.”
Connor said it’s fun getting to know the guys and seeing new faces come around every four years.
“He just really enjoys the game,” Blackstock said. “I remember his wife telling me one story: The neighbors called and said the music was too loud by the rink one night. He went out to check on it and didn’t come back for three hours because he started skating with the guys.”
