Gophers hockey coach Don Lucia attended a political rally in Blaine on Sept. 19 for GOP candidates John McCain and Sarah Palin and expressed his support for them.

Here’s part of a press release from regional GOP communications director Tom Steward of St. Paul:

At the McCain-Palin rally, Lucia, a native of Grand Rapids, made it no secret who he’s voting for.

“From what I’m hearing this year, it sounds like John McCain and Sarah Palin have a power play going on in northern Minnesota,” Lucia said.

The speech may have been a hit at Friday’s rally, but with some hockey fans at the U of M campus, it landed the coach time in their penalty box.

Gopher fan Chelsey Kueffer thinks a coach at a publicly funded University should keep politics to himself.

“When you are in our school colors and representing our hockey team, I don’t think it is necessarily appropriate to come out with your political views,” Kueffer said.

In a statement released Friday, the University said Lucia is practicing free speech and is speaking as an individual, not as a representative of the school.

Andrew LaValle is a hockey fan and an Obama supporter, but agrees with the university that Lucia has every right to speak his mind.

“It’s his right to. I mean I don’t agree with it, but if other people can endorse Obama and support the Democrats, I don’t see why he can’t,” LaValle said.

Comment: This is not an easy call from my viewpoint. I wish I had been there. If coach Lucia was wearing a Gophers hat and/or sweatshirt, and identifying himself the Gophers coach, I’d be a little squeamish if I were his boss. Representatives of the university should not openly support one candidate or party over another.

If it was just Mr. Lucia, the average citizen talking, that’s perfectly OK in my world although I doubt northern Minnesota will go Republican. The last time a GOP presidential candidate carried the state was 30-some years ago.

Remember always lovable, quirky Mike Tice, the ex-Vikings coach? He took some heat for appearing at a George Bush rally at Target Center in a previous election. 

What do you think about Lucia following his example?

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 2nd, 2008 at 10:27 pm and is filed under Gophers men's hockey. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.