By Tim Harwood

 

Hockey has consistently held a prominent place in the athletic and entertainment life of Waterloo since 1962 when the Waterloo Black Hawks began as a semi-professional team in the United States Hockey League. Each winter, for nearly 60 years, sports fans in the city have enjoyed a busy schedule of home games and cheered for many players who have gone on to the National Hockey League (NHL). Yet Waterloo’s hockey roots actually go back to the 1920s. In that era, opponents traveled to Waterloo from other Iowa cities, Chicago, Minnesota and even the birthplace of the sport, Canada.

 

The games were staged by an unlikely organization. During the early 1920s, veterans of World War I returned home to form American Legion posts in their hometowns. In Waterloo, Becker-Chapman Post 138 was named for Fred Becker and Carl Chapman, two promising young lieutenants who had been war casualties in France. More than a social or fraternal club, the American Legion of that period was determined to be a force for community betterment.

 

Post 138 tried to intervene wherever war veterans were struggling and leaders vouched for comrades who were seeking jobs or bank loans. They negotiated with area hospitals to provide discounted services for sick or injured veterans and their families, sometimes paying the bills from Legion funds when necessary. In the event of troubled times due to physical or financial infirmity, they provided relief by purchasing groceries or other essentials. When a brother-in-arms died, the Legion assisted with last military rites.

 

The Becker-Chapman Post was also broadly involved within Waterloo as a civic organization. Many local legionnaires were in their 20s and 30s, able and enthusiastic family men hoping to make the town they had fought for a better place for their children.  

 

In 1927, Post Commander Arthur Zimmerman explained the interest in improving the community, saying, “It is our belief that the ex-serviceman has an obligation to discharge a duty, and an opportunity to perform a service to his community on account of the experience and point of view he gained in the service.”

 

The post funded its relief and service projects in several ways, generating as much as $25,000 in successful years. Annual membership fees in the 1920s ranged from $3.50 to $5 per man or, in some cases, woman. By 1930, the post’s rolls included more than 950 members. 

 

Additional fundraising was creatively mixed with sponsorship of various community activities. Beginning in May 1921, the post organized an annual theatrical production featuring actors from among its membership and the community. For many years, they managed a much-admired waffle stand during Waterloo’s annual Dairy Cattle Congress festivities. When the Legion’s national leadership began to advocate consistent rules for proper display and handling of the American flag, Becker-Chapman members instructed local businesses on the procedures, selling them flags and accessories at the same time.

 

During an era before television, or even radio saturation, sports were popular as ever in local communities. The Legion presented occasional golf tournaments and boxing matches. Then in 1926, the idea was proposed to bring a game to northeast Iowa which most Waterloo residents had never before seen.  

 

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