Trading MBA briefcases for hockey sticks

Once a week, from October to April, MBA students trade in their briefcases for hockey sticks to engage in fun — albeit unskilled — competition against their peers.

The Wharton Wildmen Hockey Club is a co-ed, intramural league of approximately 200 first- and second-year MBA students who are divided into eight teams of 25. The league is one of the most popular clubs for MBAs on campus, with 100 students on the waiting list this past fall.

The most inexperienced students play in the D league, while the 20-25 students who have had more extensive experience play in the B or C league and compete against Philadelphia hockey teams. The season ran from mid-October and finished on April 6 with the annual “Fall-Star” tournament that featured the D-league teams.

The majority of the Wildmen hear about the club during Welcome Weekend while visiting Penn the April prior to commencing their studies.

“It’s pretty well-publicized,” second-year MBA student and co-commissioner of the league David Light said. “A couple friends said this is a must-do.”

Fellow player and second-year MBA student Caitlin Souther also knew she wanted to be involved in the hockey team before coming to Wharton. “In a couple of conversations I had with [past students], the common theme was that those people who played hockey had found it a formative experience,” she said.

While the league is known to almost all MBA students, its origins are shrouded in mystery. “There is rumor and legend that there was an NHL player 5-10 years ago that went to Wharton who founded the club,” second-year MBA Tom Austin said.

One unique aspect of the league is that the players often have no experience whatsoever on ice.

According to second-year MBA student and Wildmen social chair Kevin Shiau, 90 to 95 percent of players had never picked up a hockey stick before, and a number of those had never put on skates. Most students end up buying their gear used from graduating students.

Each team plays one game per week, and the players often go to bars together after games.

“You bond on the ice and the bench, but a lot of it is hanging out with your friends afterwards,” first-year MBA Brian Clapp said. “The dues for the first year are $500, and so all of the drinks are paid for by the league.”

Austin spoke enthusiastically about his team’s — the Ugly Puckling’s — time at the bar. “My team has invented an entirely new party game that we do after games called Inflippity cup,” Austin said. “It is now a staple game at a lot of Wharton parties.”

Although it is a student league, Senior Associate Director of MBA Student Life Eric Morin also plays among the students. Morin said he had not wanted to take away the opportunity from an MBA candidate to play, but that the commissioners were “thrilled” when he asked to join.

During the “Fall-Stars” final D-league hockey game, the future business leaders wear costumes over their uniforms ranging from grass hula skirts to bridal veils. Gesturing toward a player in a pink tutu, Morin said that any player “might be the CEO of the top five biggest companies in a few years.” For now, however, playing on the team can simply be a fun and unique graduate school experience.

“We push the idea with the MBAs that you have two years to have these new experiences,” Morin said. “I think the league is so popular because it is the type of thing that people would never ever have the opportunity to do. You can really be a complete failure and have the greatest time in the world.”

Shiau echoed that the experience of being part of the league complements the MBA program.

“The whole goal of business school is to be a risk-free environment where students can step outside of what they’ve been good at,” he said. “The vast majority of students come to Wharton having done the same things their whole lives. [The league] is all about just putting yourself out there, about keeping yourself thinking about other opportunities you would have never considered before. You could be good, other people might not be better, so why not try it.”

But even while the MBA students might battle it out in Huntsman Hall, Light noted that the hockey league puts them on a level playing field.

“Given that people have such little experience, people don’t take it too seriously,” Light said. “It’s kind of this great leveler.”

Austin also mentioned that, like many other MBA students who are in their late twenties and early thirties, age was a factor in his decision to join the league.

“It’s my last chance at glory and athletic competition,” he said.

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