MSU senior Patrick Swartz has logged a lot of miles to participate in his favorite sport. From age 11, the history major would drive weekly with his parents from Columbus to Tupelo just to play in the North Mississippi Amateur Hockey Association when playing in the local in-line hockey league no longer fit the bill. Later, he would begin driving to Birmingham to engage in pick-up games to get his fix on the Ice.
After arriving at MSU, he joined a local in-line hockey league, but still felt the void of not being able to compete on ice, as the university did not sponsor a team. After some discussion with fellow students and hockey enthusiasts Alex Palmer, a junior aerospace engineering major, and junior landscape architecture major Michael Miller, the trio decided to remedy the situation and founded the MSU Ice Dawgs as a club league in MSU recreational Sports.
The team played their first full season in 2008-09 and enjoyed widespread support from the MSU fan base, with large turnouts to all of their "home" games, which were played at the BancorpSouth Arena in Tupelo.
"It's great that I had the chance to represent my university playing the sport I love before I graduated," Swartz said. "But what really stands out is that we built something that wasn't here and will hopefully be around a long time."