No player in college hockey history dominated quite like Minnesota’s John Mayasich, who has been named the Western Collegiate Hockey Association’s Player of the Decade for the 1950s.
As a Golden Gopher, Mayasich was a three-time All-American and the WCHA’s only three-time league scoring champion. The Eveleth, Minn., native’s 144 career goals still stand as the league record 65 years after his final collegiate game. His 298 career points rank fourth in WCHA annals and top Minnesota’s career scoring list. He remains the first – and only – player in the history of the star-studded Golden Gopher program to have his jersey retired.
In 111 career games as a collegian, Mayasich averaged 2.68 points, 1.29 goals and 1.38 assists per game. Those numbers would produce 91 points, 44 goals and 47 assists in today’s 34-game NCAA regular season.
After leading Eveleth High School to four-straight state championships as a prep, Mayasich’s hockey talents were already widely known when he arrived at the University of Minnesota as a freshman in 1951. The legend only grew during his time on campus.
Mayasich was Minnesota’s leading scorer in each of his four years with the program and still holds the Minnesota record for career goals while his 154 career assists stood as the school record until 1992 and currently rank 11th all-time in the WCHA.
The Iron Ranger is also in the Minnesota record books for most goals and most points in a single game. As a senior captain, Mayasich scored an amazing six goals against Winnipeg on Dec. 10, 1954 in a 14-1 Minnesota victory and tallied eight points against Michigan a little more than a month later on Jan. 14, 1955 in a 10-4 Gopher win. Those numbers rank tied for third and tied for seventh, respectively, in WCHA history.
Mayasich earned All-America and All-WCHA honors four times during his career at Minnesota – earning first team All-America honors in 1953 and 1954 and first team All-WCHA honors in 1953, 1954 and 1955. He led the Gophers to back-to-back trips to the NCAA national championship game in the school’s first two appearances in the national tournament in 1953 and 1954.
Following his collegiate career, Mayasich was a member of two U.S. Olympic teams as well as several national squads. In 1956, he joined fellow Gophers Wendell Anderson, Gene Campbell, Dick Dougherty, Dick Meredith, Jack Petroske, and Gopher head coach John Mariucci in traveling to the Winter Olympics in Cortina, Italy where their U.S. team surprised the world by taking a silver medal. Against Canada, which had won seven of the eight gold medals up to that point, Mayasich tallied a hat trick in an unbelievable 4-1 U.S. victory.
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