It has been almost 20 years, but Joe Gould can still feel the bitter cold and stinging winds on his face when he thinks about the first USA Hockey Pond Hockey Championships. The year was 2006 and while most of the sporting world was focused on the Olympic Winter Games in Torino, Italy, Gould and five friends made the trip from Dunkirk to Eagle River, Wis., to take part in the inaugural tournament. 

Their team, the Chadwick Bay Bullets, was among the 40 teams that made the trek to Wisconsin’s Northwoods to participate in what has become one of USA Hockey’s marquee events. Over the years the tournament has swelled to more than 300 teams and 2,500 players. 

Looking back on that first year, all Gould can remember is the bone-chilling temperatures and the winds that whipped across the expansive lake, shaking the warming tents where players sat on haybales to lace up their skates as they tried to fend off the cold.

“Oh my God, it was bad,” he recalls. “I remember getting up Saturday morning and it was negative 40 with the wind chill and just being like, ‘God, I don’t want to go skate around at 8 o’clock in the morning.’ It was definitely a different level of cold than anything we were used to.”

It was more than Gould and his friends bargained for when they first saw the announcement in USA Hockey Magazine and decided to put a team together. Most of the players grew up playing youth and high school hockey in the Fredonia area and would skate every winter in Allegheny State Park. They were joined by their former hockey coach, Dick Pachol.

After reading the criteria provided by USA Hockey, they signed up to play in the highest division at the time. As it turned out, the Bullets held their own but still didn’t win a game. Undaunted by their results on the ice, the group headed home with a hockey bag full of stories and a bunch of new friends.

After a few more humbling experiences where they were looking to find the right division that matched their skills, Gould’s friends slowly opted out of the yearly trip. He would go on to join a group from Chicago that skated under the moniker of the Paisans.

It was a relationship that grew as the event continued to gain in popularity. Over the years new divisions, including several women’s categories as well as 60 and 70 & Over teams, were added to the program as the sleepy town of Eagle River, known as the Snowmobile Capital of the World, became the epicenter of the pond hockey universe with thousands of players and fans coming to town every February.

“We always talked about how we liked the beginning better because there were 40 teams or something like that the first year,” says Gould, a special education teacher in Buffalo. “At one point it got to over 300 [teams]. It just seemed like it got too big.”

More than just the fun they had on the ice, teams shared a common bond sitting around campfires at the edge of the lake or during long nights inside some of Eagle River’s local watering holes.

As the tournament grew, so too did Gould’s involvement. With the help of his former coach Don Fadale, Gould created the Mullet Cup, a modified milk jug with a small bowl fixed to the top that would serve as their own version of the Stanley Cup and the informal mascot for the pond hockey tournament. Over the years the legend of the Mullet Cup grew as players from around the country were eager to have photos taken with it.

“After that first year people started reaching out and messaging me on Facebook or texting me and asking, ‘Hey, are you bringing the Mullet Cup?’” Gould recalls.

“There were times where we would just sit in tents after our games and talk to people and people to come up and take pictures and this and that and would say ‘I heard about this and always wanted to see it.’”

Gould was more than happy to play the role of Keeper of the Cup, often dressing in a suit and white gloves similar to what real escorts wear when they carry the Stanley Cup to center ice at the end of the NHL playoffs.

On two separate occasions Mike Bolt, one of the escorts of the real Cup, came to Eagle River with the greatest trophy in team sports. In 2010 it made an appearance at Dollar Lake, and followed it up in 2017, with players and families lining up outside the nearby Derby Track in the bitter cold waiting for a chance to take a photo with the Cup. Seizing on the opportunity, Gould came decked out in full costume and was able to get photos taken with the real deal.

“I walked up to him with the suit and white gloves and he looks at me and says, ‘I’ll be right back,’” Gould recalls with a laugh. “He ran to his car and grabbed his NHL blazer and white gloves. We took pictures and laughed. I think we held up the line for about 20 minutes.”

Gould’s run at the Pond Hockey Championships ended in 2020 as the pandemic put the event temporarily out of business. The event would return the following winter and continued for the couple of years before unseasonably warm temperatures forced the cancellation of this year’s tournament.

Today, photos of Gould and his teammates hang proudly inside Coughlin’s Pub, a Fredonia bar. while the Mullet Cup is stashed in a case in his family room. 

While his passion for the game is as strong as ever, other commitments have kept Gould away from the pond and the rink. Once a registered USA Hockey referee, he has seen the number of games he is able to work dwindle as other things have taken a priority. 

As for a return engagement to Dollar Lake, it’s become harder to carve out the time to make the annual pilgrimage, and more of a challenge to find a division where Gould and his teammates feel they can be most competitive.

Still, the memories of all the good times on and off the ice hold a special place in his heart and are rekindled whenever an old teammate reaches out through social media or connects during a business trip to western New York. 

“As I get older I have some really great memories that I’ll never forget,” Gould says. “Looking back at that original year and the thought of making a trip like that and all the people we met, I smile every time I think about it. There was never a bad time.”