Anchorage’s Anton Maxwell was simply sensational as a sophomore with the Oregon State University baseball team. The left-handed pitcher posted an 11-1 record in 17 appearances in 2005 as the No. 3 starter for the Pac-12 power that advanced to the College World Series....
No boxer from Alaska did more than Anchorage’s Cody Koch, whose rapid and remarkable rise to prominence in the 1990s was unlike anything we’ve ever seen in the sport. Koch broke into pro boxing in 1995 after winning a national Toughman Contest. He won his first 24...
Regg Simon wasn’t a particularly big winger, though not tiny, either – UAA’s 1999-2000 roster listed him at 5-foot-11, 190 pounds. He wasn’t particularly fast, or overly skilled. His skating was, uh, a work in progress. But no one ever doubted his work ethic, or...
Pavel Bure’s speed was so electrifying he became known as The Russian Rocket. Teemu Selanne’s speed and deadly shot were so explosive he became referenced as The Finnish Flash. Americans Jeremy Roenick and Mike Modano never got tagged with killer nicknames – man, we...
It was the dunk heard around Alaska; a two-handed thunderbolt hammered home by Seawolves' star Jason Kaiser of Anchorage. The 6-foot-5 guard out of Service High was a smooth jump shooter, not a rim rocker. But there he was alone on the break, throwing down a jam as...
In early January 2013, it was hardly surprising the Alaska Aces owned the best record in the ECHL, a 23-team, minor-league circuit two rungs below the NHL on North America’s hockey ladder. That’s in part because the Aces savored the services of four NHL forwards from...
Dig, if you will, the picture: Sullivan Arena, packed to the rafters, all 6,206 seats sold, another 200 standing-room tickets sold, for each of the UAA hockey team’s 17 home games, actual ticket scalpers outside that concrete building before games and cheers so loud...
Anchorage tennis player Emma Lewis made her name in doubles at Bowdoin College, but her claim to fame came in singles. In 2012, she rallied for a thrilling three-set victory in the decisive match to lift Bowdoin to a 5-4 win over Middlebury in the NCAA D3 national...
Man, the 1982-83 edition of the United States Hockey League’s Dubuque Fighting Saints, who seized the Clark Cup, was loaded with Alaska firepower. Anchorage’s Steve MacSwain led the league in scoring with 60-62—122 totals in just 48 games. Yeah, the early 80s were...
Anchorage’s Nina Kemppel was a true trailblazer in every sense of the word, changing the landscape for American cross-country skiing in the 1990s and 2000s. Back in the day the United States racers rarely cracked the top 30 of World Cup races. But Kemppel changed that...
There will never be another Brad Oleson and so it makes sense the UAF men’s basketball program will retire his No. 24 jersey. His story of rags to riches is one for the ages, going from a high school kid out of North Pole who never made the all-state team to a...