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Doug Woog honored for decades of service

By Sam Wigness, Sport Ngin, 03/03/15, 12:00PM CST

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Former South St. Paul player and coach to receive Cliff Thompson Award


South St. Paul's Doug Woog was a sophomore during the 1959-60 season. Courtesy photo

In the midst of the biggest high school hockey weekend of the year, former South St. Paul player and coach Doug Woog will be honored for his years of service to the game with the Cliff Thompson Award.

The award is given annually by the Minnesota Hockey Coaches Association for outstanding, long-term contributions to the sport of hockey in Minnesota. Woog joins a list of previous winners that includes John Mariucci (1987), Herb Brooks (2004) and Bart Larson (2012). 

“Not many people remember Cliff Thompson,” Woog said. “I’d only need five fingers and thumb to count the number of people that really knew him. He came around at the beginning of an era when hockey was just beginning to catch on, and helped initiate the rise of hockey up north.”

As a youngster in South St. Paul, Woog’s first love was basketball, but due to a heart condition he wasn’t allowed to play on his middle school team and laced up a pair of skates instead. Hockey was just beginning to catch on in Woog’s neighborhood, and the state of Minnesota, thanks in large part to TV and radio.

“You talk about the state of hockey, and it’s crazy, it really is,” Woog said. “This was basketball territory until the fifties. It wasn’t just cold weather that bred hockey, it was guys in small towns pushing the pile and promoting the school hockey programs. Once TV and radio got involved, things really started to move.”


Doug Woog at the 1959 state tournament.

Woog began his hockey career as a freshman in South St. Paul, scored four goals in three state tournament games and made the 15-member all-tournament team. In the next three seasons, he led the Packers back to the state tournament and scored 12 goals in 12 tournament games, but he never finished better than a 1-0 loss to Roseau in the 1961 championship game.

After high school Woog accepted a $1,540 per year scholarship to the University of Minnesota (and turned one down from the University of North Dakota) where he played from 1963-1966, and was named team captain and an all-american in his senior season.

“Today’s scholarships are probably worth $14,000 per year,” Woog noted. “But money didn’t drive me – there was no money. I spoke to the Blackhawks coming out of high school and they offered me four or five thousand dollars. I would have needed a second job just like everyone else playing back then.”

After college Woog took on a role that he would become best known for – coaching. 

“The first time I ever really coached was at Hopkins West Junior High. I was coaching outside and we had to brush off the ice every couple of minutes,” he recalled. “Then I picked up a job at South St. Paul coaching tenth graders – outside again. One job just sort of led to another, and soon Herby called me and asked if I wanted to take the juniors coaching job.”

Woog coached the St. Paul Vulcans for three seasons before the Midwest Junior Hockey League collapsed. He returned to South St. Paul as the head coach and led the Packers to three state tournament berths in six seasons.

“I played for him for two years before he went on to coach the Olympic team,” former Two Harbors and North Shore coach Steve Wasko said. “I always saw him as a great player-coach and he did a great job of working with the talent we had. He worked us to death doing weaves and implementing the European style. He had us moving and staying in our lanes, and it was fun.”

Woog had a knack for bringing out the best of each player, prefer playmaking to hitting and was known for repeating the phrase “You’re in scott-free.”

“Wooger seemed to prefer that wide open skill type stuff, but South St. Paul always had such tough kids,” former Apple Valley and Hibbing coach Mark DeCenzo said. “They always had some highly skilled teams, but he had to find that combination of grit and skill to make it work.”

Finally, after an assistant coaching stint for the 1984 U.S. Olympic Team, Woog was offered the head coaching job at the University of Minnesota where he made his biggest impact on Minnesota hockey.


Doug Woog coached the Gophers for 14 seasons.

“I only recruited local, Minnesota boys, and it was a very conscious effort on my part,” the 14-year Gophers coach said. “Those pros from Canada – they were pros because they had already played tier one in Canada and got paid – would make a run for the NHL and if they didn’t make it would go to college.

“You could go after those guys and build a great team that way, with big, older Canadian guys, but I’ve always been partial to home-grown talent and I think that’s what people around here want to see.”

Woog claims the rivalry with the University of North Dakota, who recruited Canadian players, became almost like an Americans versus Canadians battle. The games were physical, often leading to fights both on the ice and in the stands, but ultimately led the rise of hockey in the Midwest.

“You look at both of the schools, they were both built on this rivalry and the money spent in and around it,” he said. “It was so prideful. There was a game down here at Mariucci when 9,300 people packed into the stadium. You couldn’t tell who was actually in the seats or who was sitting in the aisles.”

Woog remains the winningest coach in Gopher history with a 389-187-40 overall record and six NCAA Frozen Four appearances in 14 seasons, but he never won a national championship.

“Dan Barreiro used to give me crap at the state fair every year and say ‘Why didn’t you just put a Canadian or two on your teams and win a national championship?’ ” Woog said. “But there’s nothing like building a team with players people already recognize from state tournaments.”

Having participated in the state tournament in almost every way possible, Woog is impressed with the level of play by both the boys and girls.

“The top players are as good if not better than in my day, but the bottom end has moved way up,” he said. “So many kids can skate now, and a lot of kids can dangle you good now. I think we’re seeing a game that combines some beautiful skating, speed and handling with physicality and size.”

Cliff Thomson Award Winners

Year Coach School/Affiliation
1977 Rube Gustafson St. Paul Johnson
1978 Oscar Almquist Roseau
1979 Larry Ross International Falls
1980 Willard Ikola Edina
1981 Al Maki Farmington
1982 Rube Bjorkman Warroad
1983 Dennis Rolle Thief River Falls
1984 Glenn Rollie Duluth East
1985 George Perpich Hibbing
1986 Gene Sack Rochester
1987 John Mariucci University of Minnesota
1988 David Peterson Minneapolis Southwest
1989 Leo Goslin Orono
1990 Carl Carlson Minneapolis Washburn
1991 Ronald Castellano Babbitt-Embarrass
1992 John Neihart St. Paul Johnson
1993 Al Godfrey Hopkins Eisenhower
1994 Dave Hendrickson Virginia
1995 Charles "Lefty" Smith South St. Paul
1996 Lou Cotroneo St. Paul Johnson
1997 Dudley Otto Owatonna
1998 Bill Frantti St. Cloud Tech
1999 Gordy Genz Roseville
2000 Jerry Peterson Bloomington Kennedy
2001 Tom Osiecki Burnsville
2002 John Matchefts Eveleth
2003 Jim Baxter Minneapolis West/Ely
2004 Herb Brooks St. Paul
2005 Rod Magnuson St. Paul
2006 Bill Halbrehder North St. Paul
2007 Roger "Bud" Leak Minnetonka
2008 Jim Pohl Red Wing
2009 Tom Saterdalen Bloomington Jefferson
2010 Lyn Ellingson Grand Rapids
2011 Jeff Whisler Hill-Murray/Mahtomedi
2012 Bart Larson Edina West/Edina
2013 Jake McCoy Richfield
2014 Terry Skrypek Hill-Murray
2015 Doug Woog South St. Paul/University of Minnesota

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