This article was originally published in the February 2026 print edition of The Bark, distributed at the University of Minnesota Duluth campus.

The 2025-26 hockey season has been an exciting one for UMD. Even the Maroon Loon came out of retirement after fifteen years to appear at a couple of games in November. But nothing must have been more exciting, and possibly a bit terrifying, than when the Bulldogs competed in the Soviet Union in December of 1984, making UMD the first US college hockey team to ever compete in the USSR.

Excitement for UMD hockey was at a high after the 1983-84 season. The Bulldogs had competed in the 1984 NCAA championship, the first time ever doing so. So, naturally, the 1984-85 season was going to be a big one. Bob Rich, owner at the time of the local news station, KBJR (Northern News Now), saw this as a huge opportunity.

Bob Rich worked with Bruce McLeod, the UMD Athletic Director at the time, to plan a trip for the Bulldogs to compete in the USSR, and film the games for those in the states.

In the middle of December 1984, this plan would take shape and the Bulldogs would make their way over to the Soviet Union. They would be in the Soviet Union for 6 days, ending on December 22nd, 1984. Things would not go to plan.

From the moment the Bulldogs arrived, it was made clear that the Soviet Union was very different from the US. The schedules for the team were tightly wound, limiting the freewill of the team. And if they thought that was bad, their schedule could change in an instant.

The first of two games they were to play was in Moscow, which got moved from 9pm to 4:30pm, with a scheduled practice for that day that was canceled. Moreover, this was the game that would be filmed and broadcast over in the US, but Bob Rich was told that could no longer happen. They still filmed the game with a single camera though. UMD lost that game unfortunately.

The team would play their second game in Leningrad against a rather scrappy team. The Bulldogs were also given tea in between periods. This game was not filmed. UMD won this game.

After the game in Leningrad, the Bulldogs would be able to return home. They would find out that it would not be the most smooth, as they needed to go through customs.

The assistant coach of the Bulldogs, Jim Knapp, had to be taken in a backroom in order for a suitcase check. Apparently, Soviet teams used KGB agents as their assistants, and the Soviets must have thought American teams would do the same.

The final blunder was that some of the filmed tape for the first game was taken by the Soviets in customs. This meant KBJR would have only been able to show only so much of the game. KBJR would never get the rest of the tape back.

So next time you go to a Bulldog hockey game, take a second to reflect on this moment in our team’s history, a history that seems to have become forgotten.

Hockey History: When the Bulldogs Competed in the Soviet Union