The North Dakota Fighting Hawks men's ice hockey team (formerly The North Dakota Fighting Sioux) is the college ice hockey team at the Grand Forks campus of the University of North Dakota. They are members of the National Collegiate Hockey Conference (NCHC) and compete in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I ice hockey. North Dakota is widely regarded as a premier college hockey school and has one of the most storied programs in NCAA history. UND has made over 30 appearances in the NCAA tournament, appeared in the Frozen Four 22 times, and has won 8 NCAA Division I Championships. The program has also achieved 15 WCHA Regular Season Championships, 5 NCHC Regular Season Championships, and 12 Conference Tournament Championships. The school's former nickname was the Fighting Sioux, which had a lengthy and controversial tenure before ultimately being retired by the university in 2012 due to pressure from the NCAA. The official school nickname is now the Fighting Hawks, a name that was chosen by the university on November 18, 2015. History Early history Varsity ice hockey at the University of North Dakota began in 1946 with John Jamieson as the first coach. The 1946–47 season was the first winning season in UND history with a record of 7 wins, 6 losses, and 0 ties. UND joined Michigan Tech, Colorado College, University of Denver, University of Michigan, Michigan State University, and University of Minnesota as founding members of the Midwest Collegiate Hockey League (MCHL) in 1951. In the program's first season in league play UND finished with a record of 13–11–1. After two seasons the MCHL became the Western Intercollegiate Hockey League (WIHL) and later in 1959 became the Western Collegiate Hockey Association. Artificial ice was installed in UND's Winter Sports Building, commonly known as "The Barn", in 1953. Bob May became the 5th coach in UND history for the 1957–58 season and led the team to the 1957–58 WIHL Regular Season Championship. UND also received a bid to the 1958 NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Tournament. The team advanced to the championship game with a 9–1 win over Harvard in the semi-final round. UND fell in their first championship and post season tournament appearance to University of Denver 2–6. Following the 1957–58 season the WIHL broke up, after Michigan, Michigan State, Michigan Tech, and Minnesota left the conference following a dispute over recruiting practices. Despite not violating