The views in this article are from my personal conversation with Craig P. Nelson. They do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of Wisconsin Prep Hockey. Thank you.

On Friday evening, Craig and I met at a local establishment to talk about life and where it has led us after both of us left a common employer around 2017 or so. We talked about our passions and how each of us ended up involved in hockey. Craig's involvement was quite a bit earlier in his life than it was in mine.

We discussed watching our kids play and having coached at different levels of youth hockey. In short, we enjoyed having a discussion about a game we enjoy being part of. If you would like to know more about the book, you can go to http://gobigredhockey.com/

Craig P. Nelson is a longtime hockey enthusiast from Madison, Wisconsin. He grew up playing the game on the west side of town and continued playing in various beer leagues as an old man.

As a youth hockey player, his coach once told the team to be sure to give back to the sport of hockey when you are an adult. Nelson took that to heart as he coached youth hockey for over two decades, served on a variety of hockey related Boards and has helped numerous hockey events earn desperately needed funds to help countless kids and hockey rinks around the Midwest.

After some twenty plus years working in the insurance industry, Nelson elected to depart corporate America and began working on his vision of completing a book covering the UW Hockey programs little known initial era from over 100 years ago. His efforts and contributions with this book, Seasons on Ice – The Birth of Wisconsin Badgers Hockey, on the history of hockey at the University of Wisconsin has literally rewritten the record books and cemented the storied legacy.

These days he is still enjoying following his son around the Midwest to watch him play lacrosse. On weekends you can find Nelson on a field watching his sons’ teams, at a rink catching a local amateur game or downtown cheering on the Wisconsin Badgers teams.

Seasons on Ice – The Birth of Wisconsin Badgers Hockey is a meticulously researched and chronologically arranged narrative that depicts the history of ice hockey at the University of Wisconsin – Madison during the initial era from the 1890s – 1935.

This story tracks the game of hockey from when it first migrated from Canada to the United States, and eventually onto the UW campus. This book is a never before told story about the Wisconsin Badgers men’s hockey program from its infancy in the late 1800s as a club sport, when it was declared a varsity sport in 1922, through the mid-1930s. The book ends when the men’s varsity ice hockey program was cancelled by the University in 1935.

The core mission of Seasons on Ice is to tell the previously untold story of the men and the teams that worked so hard to establish a hockey program at the UW-Madison. It shares with readers how the ice hockey program was built from the ice up. It highlights the coaches and players who fought routinely to ensure games could be played.

Ice hockey was ultimately cancelled at the University, but these pioneering efforts were not lost. In fact, it was the architecture that would lead to six national hockey championships for the University of Wisconsin beginning in the 1970s. Seasons on Ice – The Birth of Wisconsin Badgers Hockey shares this important hockey story and the individuals that made a college hockey dynasty at the UW possible.