Willard Ikola was born in Eveleth in 1932, when the Great Depression was going full steam, several mining facilities were closing and unemployment on the Iron Range was 70%. Which would tell you that “Ike” and everyone else in that melting pot of northern Minnesota had a considerable appreciation for a quarter, much less a buck. Ikola was the goalie for three Eveleth state hockey champions (1948-50), an All-America at Michigan, the goalie for the U.
S. Olympic silver medalists in 1956 in Cortina, Italy, and in 1958 as an Air Force officer serving in California. He was making $7,200 a year in that capacity.
He received a call from the Twin Cities, with Gophers coach John Mariucci and jack-of-all-sports Sid Hartman on the phone, informing Ikola the hockey coaching job at Edina High School suddenly had opened. “Edina could have been a St. Paul suburb for all I knew,” Ikola said years later.
“I graduated from Eveleth and left for Michigan in 1950. I had never heard of Edina. “Ken Yackel was coaching there in ‘58.
The Boston Bruins offered him a contract. It was October. Edina needed a coach right away, and I could get out of the service immediately.
” Not so fast, though, Maroosh and Sid. That number — $7,200 — carried considerable importance with this now 26-year-old Iron Ranger. “Edina was paying $5,400,” Ikola said.
“There was an Air Force Reserve Unit in the Twin Cities. I could make another $1,800 in the Reserves. That made me even financially, so I t.