It’s just been a few days since I stood proudly among the Denver Pioneer faithful at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minn., and watched the giant scoreboard clock tick down to zero, leading me to one of the very best moments of my life, as well the lives of so many other fellow Pioneer fans — especially you hard-core LetsGoDU blog readers!

The sight unfolding on the ice below us was one of the most glorious these eyes have ever seen:

DU had become the best program in NCAA history, setting the record with 10 NCAA Division I Frozen Four titles. Twenty-six University of Denver Pioneer players, resplendent in the familiar crimson and gold iconic uniforms that reflect nearly 75 years of our DU hockey excellence and tradition, threw their equipment skyward in the purest form of joy, creating an arcing, random rain of falling sticks, gloves and helmets. They then mobbed their fellow hero goalie Matt Davis into a wonderful, whooping pile as Denver 2024 NCAA Champions. They had just shut out the top-ranked Boston College Eagles, 2-0, behind Davis’ 23 saves in the final period of a BC barrage to emerge victorious in the State of Hockey.

And the sounds?

Cheers came from nearly 19,000 hockey fans in every corner of the arena, representing fan bases from all over college hockey. The loudest of all were, of course, coming from DU’s corner of the ice, where we, some of the most fervent of DU fans, stood absolutely roaring in appreciation. This was accompanied by the spirited pep band in the stands just above us, playing the DU fight song, D-Rah/Fairest of Colleges, which itself dates back over 100 years to the days before hockey even existed at DU. The song, which was also played after both DU goals in the game, provided the sound connection familiar to DU fans from every generation, whether they were standing in the arena in St. Paul, or watching a screen or listening in from anywhere else in the world.

Denver won the 2024 NCAA title just a few miles from the University of Minnesota campus, where Denver had won its first NCAA crown back in 1958 over North Dakota at the old Williams Arena, and that full-circle moment alone was more than reason enough for the elation.

But the special, unique depth of the cheers and celebrations in the arena on this night in 2024 night had a far deeper meaning for Pioneer fans. Winning this title meant Denver had also just won the race for the first NCAA Division I hockey program to win 10 NCAA overall titles, breaking a two-year tie with the University of Michigan at nine titles each at the top of the table. This 10^th DU title now effectively ended years of fan arguments over which NCAA Division I program is the best in the history of the sport. That answer is now definitively Denver, as the Pioneers are now standing alone on the NCAA D-I hockey title mountaintop as the only school with double-digit crowns.

We die-hard Pio fans have been on the front lines of that “who is best?” argument with fans from around the country on message boards and blogs for years, and now, anyone who argues any program other than Denver is merely jealous and even a little bit ridiculous. Sure, Minnesota may have the biggest fan base, Michigan or BC may have the most first-rounders, and North Dakota still has the best arena. But the best overall program now is clearly the Pioneers.

As DU fans, how fortunate are we to cheer on the very best program in the history of the D-I college game? Amazingly, truly, profoundly fortunate, indeed! Every other program would love to be where Denver is now.

It wasn’t always this way. Many remember part or all of the 35 years of largely disappointing DU performances between the 1969 NCAA title and the 2004 NCAA title. The program fell into various stages of decay during this period, resulting from some tough financial years at DU. Some Frozen Four losses in the early 70s, and the 1986 WCHA title, and Frozen Four trip were the bright spots in that trying period. It took the improved finances of DU in the 1990s to enable the building of the Ritchie Center in 1999, a new arena that was sorely needed to prove to recruits that DU was interested in winning again, and to rekindle Denver excellence under coach George Gwozdecky.

How does this year’s NCAA title rank for me? Really special, and in the passage of time, I expect this win to grow even more in importance. But that 2004 title game, an epic 1-0 shutout of Maine in Boston that restarted the NCAA Championship tradition at Denver is still my favorite. I told Mrs. Swami that night that I could “die happy” now that I’d had personally seen the Pioneers win a Frozen Four in my lifetime. Little did I know that the Pios would win four more titles since then to become the greatest program of all time here in 2024.  And more than that, it seems that hockey has been spreading excellence to other sports at DU by showing what is nationally possible for our small 6,000 undergrad school to achieve. For that, I am so grateful.

One of the best things about getting older is you get to see more events, and in the process, you gain more context (and insight) that enhances those very events. I’ve seen the Pioneers play live in all eight Frozen Fours since 1986, and DU has won five of them, an astonishing success rate with all the chips on the line. The Pioneers have been to five of the last nine Frozen Fours, with three titles in the last seven, and the program is now the best college program in history. This doesn’t happen without the efforts of exceptional players, outstanding staff and supportive administration. It also doesn’t happen without amazing fans, who make the entire program possible. I was proud to stand shoulder to shoulder with all of you in St. Paul!

Finally, I want to share my appreciation for what I am hoping is a long overdue recognition by DU of the power and potential of school spirit. Here at this blog, we’ve been beating on the school spirit drum for years – it is our raison d’être – to help build the emotional bonds that sustain our entire community. Our school did a lot of fantastic things last weekend to support our fans in St. Paul, from flying out the DU cheerleaders from Denver, to equipping a pop-up pep band, creating DU swag shops, hosting excellent pre-game parties at 360 St. Peter, putting up DU billboards around the Twin Cities to announce our DU presence in the State of Hockey (as seen in the photo at the top of this article), supplying DU rally towels in our seats and even sending the DU cheerleaders to our own incredible, record-setting pre-game events hosted by our blog’s founder, DU Superfan Damien Goddard. We’re all pulling in the same direction now, and we hope to see the renewed DU effort that went into spirit building in St. Paul transported to Magness Arena next season!

What a great time to be a Pioneer!

Let’s go get #11 and Go Pios!

Puck Swami is the internet moniker of a long-time DU fan and alumnus. He shares his views here periodically at LetsGoDU.