The capital city in the “State of Hockey” is down to just one public boys varsity team.

St. Paul Highland Park, the city’s best hope for significant hockey growth, is still making a gradual climb from the abyss.

And St. Paul Johnson, once the envy of hockey programs throughout Minnesota, has seen its vaunted dynasty crumble.

The Johnson Governors made the state tournament 22 times and won four state championships (1947, 1953, 1955 and 1963), becoming the pride of St. Paul’s East Side.

But all that history, all those iconic moments, couldn’t prevent the program from folding last February and its players being absorbed by Highland Park. Like other longtime Minnesota hockey powers such as Bloomington Kennedy and Richfield, Johnson essentially ran out of players.

The late Herb Brooks was a proud Johnson alum, and he’d be “absolutely devastated” by the fall of Governors hockey, younger brother Dave Brooks said:

“I remember talking to Herbie many times. He said the greatest moment in his hockey career was winning the state championship for Johnson High School.”

St. Paul’s only team, based at Highland Park but representing all of the city’s public high schools, plays under one heading — St. Paul Hockey — with no nickname yet to pair with its crisp blue and white uniforms.

While many top players from the eastern metro flock to private schools at Cretin-Derham Hall, St. Thomas Academy and Hill Murray, “I want the kids who are in the public schools to know there’s an option,” St. Paul coach Paul Ryan said. “If they want to play high school hockey, there’s going to be a venue for them, and more importantly, it’s going to be good.”

Highland Park shuttered its hockey program in 1987 and didn’t bring back a varsity team until the 2010-11 season. Determined boosters have breathed life into the program in recent years, and now it’s the hub for this new St. Paul team.

Of St. Paul’s varsity players this season, 11 attend Central High School, with five from Highland Park, three from Johnson and one from Como Park.

Student-athletes from nontraditional St. Paul high schools, such as Open World Learning Community and Washington Technology Magnet High School, are welcome, too.

Their home rink is Charles Schulz Highland Arena near the old stone water tower on Snelling Avenue. But first, St. Paul has a special game Tuesday against Rochester Lourdes at Gustafson-Phalen Arena. That’s the 50-year-old home of Johnson hockey. It’s filled with historic photos, jerseys and banners celebrating the Governors.

“I’m so excited for that; it’s probably my last one at Phalen,” said Alex Robles, a former Johnson player who’s now one of three St. Paul co-captains.

A hockey giant

Johnson’s longtime coach walks with a limp. Steve “Moose” Younghans had both knees replaced after hockey ended last spring. And then there’s the hole in his heart from the Governors program closing.

Younghans, 68, got his coaching start with Johnson’s bantam team in 1977. This is his first time without a hockey team to coach in 48 years.

He still keeps busy as general manager of Strauss Skates & Bicycles off Hwy. 36 in St. Paul.

“I’m just trying to get healthy,” Younghans said at Strauss on a recent Friday.

Back in Johnson’s heyday, the East Side of St. Paul swelled with Governors pride.

“Wherever you’d go, you’d see Johnson posters in every restaurant on the East Side. Every clothing store,” Dave Brooks said. “It was something that they could hang their hat on.”

The Governors, playing a relentless, physical style, had rivalries with other St. Paul teams, especially Harding, which made the state tournament eight times and finished runner-up in 1958.

Younghans took over as Governors head coach in 1993, working his players hard but with a lot of love, too.

That love was seen by many. They were media darlings, playing on “Hockey Day in Minnesota” three times. Fox Sports North went behind the scenes to cover Johnson’s 2019-20 season for its six-part “Dream State” documentary.

Former Gophers defenseman Carl Fish is among the Johnson graduates who sing the program’s praises.

“It wasn’t so much about being the best at hockey but being the best at life in general,” Fish said. “Moose and the entire Johnson community got me prepared for what came after high school, the kind of man you wanted to be once you leave.”

The numbers challenge

When Johnson advanced to the 1991 state tournament, it was hard to imagine that four of that tourney’s eight teams — Johnson, Richfield, Bloomington Kennedy and Burnsville — would later fold or form a co-op, as Burnsville did when merging with Apple Valley.

Each of those programs struggled to produce hockey players during a time of significant demographic change.

Hockey remains predominantly a white sport. It’s not as popular with Minnesota’s minority communities, whose talents have spurred Johnson’s success in such sports as basketball, soccer, wrestling and badminton.

In 1990, Johnson had 34% students of color, according to the Minnesota Department of Education. That number spiked to 48% by 1995, when Johnson made its last hockey state tournament appearance.

This year, Johnson has 94% students of color, similar to St. Paul Harding (96%) and Humboldt (94%).

For comparison, Highland Park had 47% students of color in 1990 and has 63% this year.

Girls hockey has taken a hit, too. In St. Paul, the public high schools have also combined to form one girls hockey team, which is a co-op with Two Rivers.

Fewer student-athletes of color grow up with older friends or siblings in hockey who might stimulate their own interest. In this age of one-sport specialization, with huge offseason training costs just to keep up, there is even less allure for some families.

The slippage is national. Ten years ago, 5,792 high school athletes in the U.S. played boys hockey, according to the National Federation of State High School Associations. That number was 5,077 last school year.

“It’s hard to have a whole team of good [hockey] players,” said Johnson activities director Don Bross. “In our community, they’re getting introduced to it at a later and later age. Whereas in the suburbs, families are taking kids to ‘Learn to Skate’ programs at 3 years old.”

In 2009, Minnesota had 160 varsity boys hockey teams. Now there are 141, with Bloomington Jefferson absorbing Kennedy’s players after last season, and St. Paul’s consolidation into one team.

Other notable mergers in recent years include Apple Valley-Burnsville, Armstrong-Cooper and the folding of all Minneapolis programs into one team 15 years ago.

Younghans closely tracked his program’s numbers, along with those of the bantam feeder program. Johnson nearly dropped hockey three years ago, but Younghans found enough players to keep competing.

“We bridged the gap a couple times, but I knew we had five or six guys coming back this year,” Younghans said. “It was a great run, you know — a great run.”

Highland Park’s rise

When Highland Park brought back its varsity hockey program 15 years ago, it was another bumpy ride. Because there was no dedicated locker room at Highland Arena, Scots players would leave their sweaty equipment under the bleachers, where it would stay cold and not dry properly.

At that time, a strong group of players was making its way through the St. Paul Capitals youth program. A dozen families wanted to send those players together to Highland Park, but the program needed some TLC.

“We had warned them, ‘Hey, we’re coming,’ ” Highland Park booster Jay O’Neill said.

In the two seasons before those players arrived at Highland, the Scots went a combined 2-47. As freshmen and sophomores, they took baby steps, and then as juniors and seniors they went 16-11 and 17-9.

Cretin-Derham Hall also uses Highland Arena, and by 2015, the Raiders had an elaborate new locker room/meeting space, thanks to a large donation from CDH alum and Stanley Cup winner Ryan McDonagh.

Highland Park’s boosters made it their mission to build their own varsity locker room and raised more than $20,000 to finish that project by 2016.

“We just had a bunch of doers for dads,” O’Neill said. “We spent many a night up there building out that locker room and putting sweat equity into the program.”

Building something

After eight years coaching in Cretin-Derham Hall’s program, Ryan took over as Highland Park’s head coach in 2022.

The number of players has steadily increased, from about 30 in his first season to 35 and now into the 40s.

Highland Park went 8-17-2 last season, then beat Southwest Christian-Richfield to reach the section semifinals for the first time since 1976.

The St. Paul team will pick up where the Scots left off, playing in the Tri-Metro conference and in Class 1A, Section 4 with Mahtomedi, which has won two state championships since 2020.

In another sign of progress, St. Paul has added a junior varsity locker room, adjacent to the varsity’s. The boosters are raising money and tapping sweat equity for that project, as well.

“There’s been momentum,” Highland Park activities director Pat Auran said. “Last year, the JV was kind of depleted with injuries. I think with bigger numbers, hopefully that’ll improve our varsity in the next year or so.”

Anger, acceptance

After Johnson finished 9-14-2 last season, Younghans called a team meeting and broke the news about the team being folded into Highland Park’s program.

“Initially, there were a lot of emotions, just seeing some guys not wanting to do it,” said Alex Robles, the senior co-captain from Johnson. “But through the end of the school year, I feel like everybody kind of settled in.”

Added Younghans: “Our guys were good. I mean, they obviously want to be Johnson guys. I told them, ‘Take the high road. Go over there. Be a leader. Be a great guy in the locker room. Enjoy your senior year. You’re playing high school hockey.’ ”

The plan then was to play under the Highland Park umbrella and wear the Scots’ red and white uniforms. The rebranding to “St. Paul” seemed to galvanize everyone involved.

“[Johnson’s players] were set to go, and then when [school district officials] switched it to ‘St. Paul,’ that made it a new start for everyone,” Younghans said. “And I think they’re excited about it.”

The new jerseys have a patch on each shoulder, one for Johnson and one for Highland Park. Johnson’s program has been combined with St. Paul Como Park for years, and Highland Park has combined with St. Paul Central, so some of this mixing has played out before.

Gavin Olsen, a senior captain from Highland Park, is embracing the St. Paul blue.

“Oh, 100 percent,” he said. “With the jerseys, the socks, the whole new gear, whole new merch and stuff, I’m really liking it.”

St. Paul pride?

Dave Brooks, who went from Johnson to the Gophers to the 1964 U.S. Olympic team, was asked if he could see himself going to St. Paul games now.

“You know, probably not,” he said. “It seemed like it just died. … When Johnson did it, I thought, ‘There goes hockey in St. Paul.’

“But can they resurrect it? Who knows? I hope so.”

As for Younghans, you’ll probably find him at some St. Paul games. This is the coach who never misses a grad party.

“I’ll watch the guys from last year for sure,” he said. “They did everything I ever asked them to do for me, so I feel like I owe it to them.”

And what’s next for Moose?

“I’ve got a lot of gas in the tank,” he said. “I’d love to coach. … I’ll pop up somewhere. I think that we’ve got something to offer. Try to turn those young guys into men.”

MaryJo Webster of the Minnesota Star Tribune contributed to this story.

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