Broomball goes back to 1938 in St. Paul

From April 11-13, the American Broomball Alliance National Championships will be held at Bob Suter Legacy 20 Arena near Madison, Wis. Around 40 teams will compete in two Women’s divisions, two Co-Rec divisions, and three Men’s divisions. The year is 2025, but Saint Paul’s history with the sport runs back much further.
Fame goalie and broomball historian Al “Woody” Stauffacher wrote a college research paper in 2001 “History of Twin Cities Broomball.” He wrote, “I viewed a videotape from the Minnesota Historical Society of the 1938 St. Paul Winter Carnival” which showed men playing broomball on Lake Phalen. Decades later broomball would grow from an exhibition at the Winter Carnival to having enough teams for four divisions of Men’s, three divisions of Co-Rec, and two divisions of women’s broomball.

Como Rec vs. Stillwater Prison
Jack Pojar remembers the city’s broomball league starting in the early 1960s. He was playing for a hockey team sponsored by a bar called Como Rec, now called Half Time Rec, at 1013 Front Ave. He played softball and hockey for Como Rec, and several of the hockey players joined a Como Rec broomball team back in the early 1960s.
Pojar recalled, “We won the city championship, and then a teammate got a call from the Stillwater penitentiary, and they said, ‘We would like city champions to come down here and play the inmates.’” Pojar said that there were five or six gates to get to the rink: “They got a rink out in the courtyard in the back. They had the broomball nets and the boards set up like a hockey rink. So we’re playing, and we finally scored a goal. Then we scored one at the end, and we barely beat them 2-0. In the meantime, the one wall that faces alongside of the building that faces the rink, every window had inmates looking out watching.”
Pojar explained that inmates “made their own brooms. They made the handles like two inches in diameter, like a baseball bat. So if you hit the ball, it’d go 50 yards.” The Como Rec team asked the inmates if they could have some of their custom-made brooms and received four large brooms to take back to St. Paul. Pojar remembered, “The prisoners said, ‘Oh yeah, we make these all the time’ Wow, when we had them, my goodness: the goalie could score from the other side of the rink.” Pojar now runs Knight Promotions that prints hockey and broomball jerseys, as well as promotional t-shirts and other items.

Fred’s Tire
Ozzie St. George interviewed Fred Macalus Sr. for the Jan. 27, 1974 issue of the Pioneer Press. The article mentions the four bars at the corner of Dale and University: Lendways, the New Bar, the Badger Lounge, and the Belmont. Macalus Sr. said, “That’s where broomball – I mean organized broomball, broomball as we know it today – got its start.”
Retired Hall-of-Famer Chris Blair grew up in St. Paul. His first broomball memory was from the mid-1970s. Blair was about 10 when his dad took him to watch Fred’s Tire play at an ice rink outside Mangini’s at 1177 Clarence St. The Parkside Lounge right next to it also supported broomball. “You cannot talk about St. Paul broomball history without talking about Fred’s Tire,” Blair said.
Sean Gibbons also grew up in St. Paul. In the 1980s, he remembered skating outdoors with his brother Casey at West Minnehaha. From their rink they could see a rink at the Overtime Bar on Pierce Butler Rte. Gibbons said, “Tommy Macalus and his dad had league going there. It was 8-man broomball, and it was the craziest thing I ever saw.” Sean and Casey would eventually become teammates with Tom Macalus, whose earliest broomball memory was before his playing days: “riding in a bus to the Thunder Bay tournament and sleeping in the luggage rack above the seats.”
Fred’s Tire was sponsored by the automotive shop of the same name, once at 519 University Ave. According to Tom Macalus, his dad Fred Macalus Sr. started the broomball team in 1953. The team started competing in the St. Paul city league from the 1970s through the 1980s. Fred’s Tire would win the AA (highest level) State Championships for the Minnesota Recreation and Park Association (MRPA) from 1973-1985.
Stauffacher noted, “Fred’s teams were the first to travel to Canada and play Canadian teams. Fred brought back the smaller Canadian broomball that would eventually replace the soccer-style ball” Minnesotans had previously used. Eventually, Fred’s sons all joined the team: Fred Jr., Frank, and Tom. All four are in the USA/ABA Broomball Hall of Fame as individuals or as part of teams.

STANDOUT Women PLAYERS
Deb Holtkamp first played broomball at North Dale Recreation Center when she was in seventh grade. “That was with actual broom brooms. You cut them down and then taped them up.” She remembered the North Dale director Chet Petrie had enough kids for four teams. Her adult career would start in the 1970s when her friend Mikki Mascotti asked her to play on the women’s team Steamers at the World Tournament at the Civic Center, which sat where Xcel Energy Center is now. Holtkamp and Mascotti became friends because their dads worked together at the St. Paul Dispatch newspaper.
Mikki Mascotti remembered playing softball leagues at Arlington playground because women’s high school sports didn’t exist yet. She got her start in broomball looking for more sports to play: “I played softball with the same Steamers team in St Paul, and we just continued to play every sport that they had.” The Steamers got the name from their sponsor Showboat Bar in downtown St. Paul, likely named for the Minnesota Centennial Showboat, a steamboat theater on the Mississippi River. Eventually, that women’s team were sponsored by Patrick’s Lounge on Larpenteur. They played against Fred’s Tire (women’s), Maplewood Bowl, and Taney’s Construction which consisted of women from Como Park area.
Eventually, Mascotti would manage a women’s indoor league that first played at the Doug Woog Arena (South St. Paul) and eventually the Oscar Johnson Arena near Bandana Square. Mascotti and Holtkamp both remember when the top indoor women’s league eventually moved to Augsburg Ice Arena.
Mascotti spoke of Holtkamp: “She’s just a great team player. She’s a phenomenal athlete.” In 2004, Deb Holtkamp became the first women inducted in the U.S. Broomball Hall of Fame. Holtkamp not only played broomball and softball, but she also managed the city broomball league for years. At age 16, she worked at the Northwest Como Rec Center and over time became a Rec Leader. Around 1989, she took an opening in the Municipal Athletics office under Bill Peterson. Holtkamp recalled, “We had hockey leagues at that time, broomball, basketball, volleyball, everything. Then somehow, because I played broomball, I just kind of fell into the role as the broomball coordinator.”

Broomball competitions at St. Paul Civic Center and Auditorium
According to Al Stauffacher, Minneapolis sporting goods store owner Kurt Curry started the Metropolitan All-Star game pitting Minneapolis’ best men against St. Paul. At the Saint Paul Civic Arena in 1973, St. Paul beat Minneapolis 7-1. A few years later Fred Macalus Sr. and Terry Walfoort continued All-Star games, adding a women’s and recreation divisions. Eventually, these all-star games were combined with a World Tournament which was held every year from 1974-1980.
Stauffacher wrote, “Fred created the World Tournaments at the St Paul Civic Center and Auditorium, giving the Twin Cities their first taste of highly competitive broomball.” Mikki Mascotti said that Canadian teams did come down to play in the Worlds Tournament but usually just one men’s, one women’s, and one Co-Rec team each year. It would be 11 years later in 1991 when the International Federation of Broomball Associations (IFBA) organized their first World Championships in Victoria, BC.

Winter Carnival Tournament at McMurray, Como Park
Al Stauffacher said that Deb Holtkamp and St. Paul Municipal Athletics probably started the outdoor Winter Carnival Broomball Tournament held late January. For certain, the first was in the early 1970s. Perry Coonce of the Minnesota Sports Federation (MSF) took over the tournament around 1982. Years later, it was known as the MSF Outdoor State Tournament.
Craig Garcia played hockey growing up as a left wing. He and Casey Gibbons were tiny mites together. When Garcia was 21 he wanted to go out with his friends Bill and Mike Crouch, but they had broomball league game at McMurray. Since they were going to go out afterward, Garcia came to watch broomball but was “all dressed up.” However, their goalie didn’t show. Garcia played goalie “in jeans, penny loafers, and a dress shirt” and played well. They asked him to be their goalie from then on.
Casey Gibbons also played boot hockey with his brother Sean and Ron “Fish” Lopez for Rice Street VFW. Eventually, Garcia would add those three players when he formed his own broomball team sponsored by Vanelli’s in St. Paul. They had many other talented players: Chris Gatti, Michael Bauer, Scott Tempest, Ira Hackner, Tom Macalus, Jason Revels, Jeff O’Neil, Jeff Kittelson, and Chris DeMorett.
Due to roster rules at the time, they had to split into two teams for the Men’s Winter Carnival tournament. In 2004 at McMurray, Vanelli’s II beat QA for the Men’s Class BB (top division) championship with Garcia as manager and goalie. In Men’s Class B, Vanelli’s I beat the Flames to win that championship with Carl Prestly goal-tending.
Sean Gibbons said this about Garcia: “Obviously, the best goalie I ever played with or against, only played against him a few times. Hall of Fame says it all right there and his breakout pass: there are many times he’s won a game where goals were scored off his break out passes.”
Chris Blair also remembered playing at McMurray for the Winter Carnival tournament. Despite playing for St. Paul Park VFW in an Inver Groves Heights league, he remembers referee Bill “Buzz” Evans encouraging him to play up in St. Paul. The late Bill “Buzz” Evans was head referee and helped grow broomball in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. He developed the referee training program, and he refereed and played into the early 2000s.

The St. Paul Wizards: America’s oldest broomball team
Broomball isn’t just a sport played at the highest level. Broomball is accessible and the lower leagues provide a fun atmosphere for veterans and new players. The Wizards competed in the city league at McMurray at the Men’s D level.
According to their previous website, Pat Cunningham made the case that the Wizards were “America’s Oldest Broomball Team” by considering that their roster was unchanged roughly 1977-2001. Cunningham was joined by Bill “Buzz” Evans, Mark “Quiche” Strandberg, Terry Reeves, Tom Wenzel, Tom Boesen, and others.
In honor of their 20-year anniversary, Governor Norm Coleman declared Wednesday, Jan. 8, 1997 to be “International Broomball Wizards Day.” In 2006, the were the Ambassadors to the IFBA World Broomball Championships in Blaine, MN. During the 2000s and 2010s, they also fostered a relationship with CoRec team Japanese Ice Ducks, who would frequently travel from Hokkaido to North America for the IFBA World Championships. While the Wizards’ roster has changed considerably, original members Strandberg and Bosen still play. They are joined by younger players like Marcus Mihelich and Kevin Thompson. They still compete at McMurray, managed by the 42-year-old Travis Dahlen.
Whether you have lived in Saint Paul you’re whole life or just moved here, know that your city has a broomball tradition extending from 1938 to the present. Registration for next year’s outdoor league will start around October, but the Saint Paul Municipal Athletics offers many youth and adult sports year round.