Former UAF head coach and UAA assistant coach Don Lucia has deep roots in Fairbanks -- it's where he started coaching, where he met his wife, Joyce, and where their four children were born.

Even though he's a big-timer now as head coach at Minnesota -- making high six figures, two national titles in the bag, a No. 1 ranking and one win shy of 600 -- Lucia well remembers the modest beginnings of his college coaching career. Man, back in the day, he had a sweet, modest mullet, and that comes first-hand because The Blog knows whereof he speaks when it comes to mullets because his was outrageously awesome or egregious, depending on your point of view.

Anyhow, you can read all about Lucia's years in Fairbanks here in a Minneapolis Star-Tribune story by Michael Russo, who is doing some college pucks because his usual gig is writing about the NHL, which you may have noticed is not playing actual hockey games.