FOUNDING
Founded in the summer of 2007, the Columbus Ducks Hockey Club has a long and storied history that stretches back into the 1800s. John H. McConnell, II was, for all intents and purposes, looking for a way to gather all his friends together once a week and have a little fun. He thought, why not play a team sport? When he decided to get a team together to play sport, he thought, why not hockey? Fun, fast paced, and a great workout, hockey would be the best way to get a group of buddies together that would be fun, but also help keep them in shape, and turn them on to one of America’s best kept sporting secrets, our gift from Canada, the sport of Ice Hockey.
With the growing popularity of the local professional Ice Hockey Team the Columbus Blue Jackets, Ice Hockey in Columbus is growing at break neck speed. The time is now, to capitalize on the growing sport. Thus was the foundation of the Columbus Ducks Hockey Club.
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WHY THE DUCK?
While members come from all walks of life and all parts of the professional and personal spectrum, there are two things that have brought them together to form the Columbus Ducks Hockey Club. The first is the game of Hockey. The second is the Duck.
Are the Columbus Ducks named after the team that won the Stanley Cup the year of the Club’s inception? Absolutely not! In the early 1990s there was a movie about a hockey team called the Mighty Ducks. At the time the Chairman and CEO of the company was a member of a fraternity, whose mascot is the Duck. Oddly enough, the founder of the Columbus Ducks Hockey Club and many of its players are members of the same fraternity. The naming of the club the Ducks is a tribute to the fraternity that has provided the link for all of the teams members. While not all players on the team may be members of the same fraternity it is that Fraternity that has brought them to the club. Each member of the Columbus Ducks Hockey Club has been, or is, a co-worker or friend or relative of a member of the fraternity. That fraternity is Delta Upsilon International Fraternity, the Ducks.
Don’t believe me about the movie and team being named after the fraternity? While there is no doubt that the hockey team was named after the movie. In 1993 when the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim were formed they were owned by the Disney Corporation. The Disney Corporation Produced the film the Mighty Ducks. The Chairman and CEO of the Disney Corporation at the time was, Michael Eisner, Delta Upsilon Alumnus (Dennison, ’64). Also in the famous “Quack, Quack, Quack, Quack, Quack, Mr. Ducksworth” scene from the movie, “Mr. Ducksworth” (the teams benefactor and namesake in the movie) has a team jersey that has been presented to him hanging on the wall of his office framed so the name and number on the back of the jersey is showing. Now the name on the jersey is, obviously, Ducksworth, but it is the number that Mr. Ducksworth has chosen on his jersey that is of interest. Mr. Ducksworth has chosen number 34 for his personalized jersey. The Delta Upsilon Fraternity was founded in 1834, coincidence? We think not!
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