KALAMAZOO, Mich. — In February 2022, Dan Bartholomae, the newly appointed athletic director at Western Michigan, held his first all-staff meeting.

After weeks of learning about the university and its athletics profile, Bartholomae delivered a message for anyone willing to hear it: Think big.

“We are going to win conference championships, we’re going to put ourselves in a position to win national championships,” Bartholomae said that day. “But we all have to believe we can do it, and we ought to agree that that’s important. If you agree and you’re willing to do the work, you belong in this room. If not, like, that’s cool, you don’t have to stick around.”

Bartholomae’s directive sounded like what many new ADs would tell their staff. But those words needed to be said, and ultimately believed, at Western Michigan, which hadn’t won any Division I national championships since men’s cross country went back-to-back in 1964 and 1965.

Shortly after the meeting, hockey coach Pat Ferschweiler went to Bartholomae with his own message: What you’re saying is true. Keep saying it. When Ferschweiler played for WMU in the early 1990s, he thought the team could win a national title. But there was always hesitancy around campus.

“For too long, we’ve been shy about saying we want to be great, in case we’re not great,” Ferschweiler said “We second-tiered ourselves as a university. That’s not the case anymore.”

The Western Michigan men’s hockey team was top tier last season — actually, in a tier of its own. National champions. The regional school in southwest Michigan won it all. On Thursday night, a championship banner will be revealed at Lawson Arena as WMU opens the season against Ferris State.

Men’s hockey is distinct in that teams from a range of schools can contend for the sport’s top prize. From 2001 to 2010, seven titles went to teams from schools that have Power 4 football. From 2013 to 2024, all but one championship went to a school without a team in the Football Bowl Subdivision. Title winners included Denver, Providence and Quinnipiac, which don’t have football teams at all and can sink resources into hockey. Other winners included North Dakota, which plays in the Football Championship Subdivision, and Minnesota-Duluth, which plays Division II football.

Then, in April, Western Michigan captured its first championship. WMU plays football in the Mid-American Conference, a proud but financially challenged FBS league, and hockey in the NCHC, which Ferschweiler calls “the SEC of hockey” because of its surge in national titles, winning seven of the last nine NCAA tournaments.

“There’s nothing more exciting than a national championship for a regional university like us,” WMU president Russ Kalvahuna said. “The story of a regional university is always thinking you might have a chance, but learning you don’t. And that’s what this team completely demolished for all of us.”

Bartholomae views Western Michigan’s championship as distinct, even from those won by others in the NCHC, where only one other member, Miami (Ohio), plays FBS football. When he attends athletic director meetings in the MAC, he can sense the other two longstanding members of the league that have hockey teams, Miami and Bowling Green, “looking to replicate our success.” (UMass, which just joined the MAC this season, plays in Hockey East, winning the national title in 2021.)

But Western Michigan also faces the pressure of: What’s next? After surging to the summit of the sport, how does WMU stay there? The plan involves the people and homegrown ingredients that fueled the program’s rise and a massive facilities project designed to put WMU on or near the top rung for good.

LAWSON ARENA OPENED in 1974 and looks its age, from the earth-tones exterior and low ceiling to the cramped concourse and cinderblock hallways. There are markings of WMU’s national championship both inside and outside, but the building oozes history, including the faded photos of past teams and individual standouts. The late ESPN host and play-by-play broadcaster John Saunders played at Lawson, as did his brother, Bernie, a WMU Ring of Honor member who logged 10 games for the NHL’s Quebec Nordiques.

The arena has a seating capacity of just 3,667, nearly half of which is assigned to the Lawson Lunatics, WMU’s student section, which uplifts the Broncos and torments visitors, especially the unfortunate souls sent to the penalty box right in front of them.

“Insane,” star goaltender Hampton Slukynsky said of playing in Lawson.

“Crazy, in the best way possible,” said forward Owen Michaels, WMU’s captain.

“The coolest thing ever,” added defenseman Cole Crusberg-Roseen.

After a recent practice at Lawson, Ferschweiler walked into the team’s cozy meeting room and sat down with a Diet Mountain Dew. Ferschweiler is the face of WMU hockey, a former player who returned as coach and accomplished the unthinkable at his alma mater.

But when WMU recruited him out of Rochester, Minnesota, he didn’t know much.

“That was pre-internet, so we had to pull out the old paper maps and figure out where it was,” Ferschweiler said. “Since I stepped foot on campus, I fell in love. The cool thing about Western to me has always been, it’s big enough to offer everything, but small enough where you still feel valued as an individual.”

Ferschweiler won MVP honors for the Broncos in the 1992-93 season and played for teams that had winning records but never advanced to the NCAA tournament, which had only 12 participants at the time. He teamed with Keith Jones, who went on to NHL prominence, and now serves as president of hockey operations for the Philadelphia Flyers. WMU had only one NCAA tournament appearance and three regular-season or conference tournament titles before Fershweiler returned to the school for the first of two stints as a Broncos assistant in 2010, but he had greater aspirations even going back to his playing days.

“I just thought this is a world-class place, and it’s a hidden gem,” he said. “We have tons to offer here.”

Arguably WMU hockey’s greatest asset is Lawson, an arena that reflects the program’s soul. Last year’s Broncos won a team-record 16 games there, with their only two losses coming in overtime. WMU is 52-23-2 at Lawson during the past five seasons.

“I love Lawson Arena, and our players love playing in Lawson Arena,” Ferschweiler said. “On Friday and Saturday nights, it’s as special an environment as there is in college hockey.”

The problem with Lawson, for a program aspiring to be elite, are the other days of the week.

“On a Monday and Tuesday when most of the recruits come through, it’s a 51-year-old building,” Fershweiler said. “It’d be nice to have a prettier wrapping, which we’re certainly going to have in our new building.”

In the fall of 2027, Western Michigan is set to open the Kalamazoo Event Center, a $515 million project that will be the new home for Broncos hockey, WMU’s men’s and women’s basketball programs, and the Kalamazoo Wings, a minor league affiliate of the Vancouver Canucks. The downtown facility, not far from WMU’s campus, was in the works before the hockey team’s national title and had its groundbreaking ceremony last month.

WMU soon will move from a charming but aging barn to possibly the best facility in college hockey. There are other, more immediate changes too, as WMU begins its penultimate season at Lawson.

“Pat and I laugh about this: It was cheaper to go to our hockey games than it was to go to a movie in 2022,” Bartholomae said. “We had to put together a ticket model that actually made us competitive. We hadn’t set up the infrastructure to be big time.”

Kalvahuna took over as president in July but needed no introduction to Lawson. He saw his first game there at 7, sitting next to his father, Eduardo, an immigrant from Brazil who knew little about hockey but sought an outlet away from the house during wintertime. Russ Kalvahuna later watched games from the stands as a WMU student and absorbed Lawson’s intimacy and energy.

“We held off the price inflation for as long as we could, but we’re proud of the fact that you can come to Kalamazoo, like my dad and I did, but unlike us, you can see national talent in a small venue with an extraordinarily vibrant environment,” Kalvahuna said. “And we’re going to amp that up with the arena in two years.”

ON THE NIGHT of April 12, Jackson Hammerschmidt sat in Section 301 of the Enterprise Center in St. Louis, alongside two dozen others from the Lawson Lunatics. They watched WMU play Boston University — a program with five NCAA titles and 25 Frozen Four appearances — for the national championship. Hammerschmidt, president of the group, donned the cowboy hat he wears for every game at Lawson.

When Michaels scored to give WMU a 4-2 lead with 7:16 to play, Hammerschmidt and the others moved down to ice level. During WMU’s on-ice celebration, Bartholomae saw Hammerschmidt beyond the boards and tossed him an official national championship hat.

“It’s my favorite hat, and that includes my cowboy hat,” said Hammerschmidt, a senior from Wheaton, Illinois. “It made it extra special, because everyone was down there. Probably one of the greatest days of my life.”

Hammerschmidt wore the hat and a Lawson Lunatics T-shirt as he spoke in the hallway outside WMU’s dressing room, acknowledging the players and coaches as they passed by. The group became a registered student organization in 2022, the same year WMU earned a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament and recorded its first tournament win.

They’ve been integral in the program’s rise, and part of what makes WMU different.

“I remember a lot of players giving me the trophy, [saying], ‘Man, it’s as much yours as it is ours.’ I’m like, ‘That’s where you’re wrong,'” Hammerschmidt said, smiling. “It’s been really awesome. They treat us like family.”

Hammerschmidt has regular dialogue with Bartholomae and Kalvahuna. He spoke at the groundbreaking event for the new arena and has sat in on design meetings. Bartholomae even had the architects shadow the Lunatics to understand their perspective and how they impact the game-day experience.

At the new arena, the student section will be positioned next to the players entrance and will convert from individual seats for non-WMU games to benches, which the Lunatics prefer, since they stand all game.

“I might be a bit biased, but I challenge you to find another institution that highlights a fan base like that,” Kalvalhuna said. “It’s actually a part of our team.”

The Lunatics aren’t the only ones with input in the arena project. Ferschweiler’s wish list included a performance center just for the hockey team, which currently lifts weights in a shared space at WMU’s 68-year-old basketball arena.

The coach also wanted improved nutrition and recovery spaces for the athletes — even a performance chef — and has gotten the green light for it all.

“They haven’t said no to me for three years,” he said.

The upgrades will be significant for Western Michigan hockey, which currently has a facilities setup that’s “worst in our league,” Bartholomae said. “By far.”

While MAC football programs typically don’t have super donors, WMU has Bill Johnston, chairman of the Kalamazoo-based Greenleaf Companies, who is backing the project.

“I’ve never been in a room where somebody said to me, ‘You need to tell us exactly what it is, what you want, and I need you to think as big as you possibly can, and don’t let anybody censor what you think is important for this building to be successful,'” Bartholomae said. “And then that same person is writing one check to cover it.”

The facility isn’t WMU’s only investment area. Ferschweiler, promoted to replace Andy Murray in August 2022, was initially the lowest-paid NCHC coach. After leading WMU to three consecutive NCAA tournaments and the team’s first-ever tournament win, he received a new contract in January that runs through the 2029-30 season and pays him $420,000 in base salary.

There are also the players.

“We’ll probably be the last major sport team to win a national championship with zero NIL dollars — we had zero last year — which I’m certainly proud of,” Ferschweiler said. “We certainly have some this year.”

The challenge going forward might be handling the new luxuries. Should the program that not long ago had an underpaid coach, outdated facilities and meager infrastructure worry about losing its blue-collar edge?

WMU’s CHAMPIONSHIP CELEBRATION began on the ice and continued that night in a giant ballroom at a nearby hotel, which Bartholomae rented out in anticipation of a victory. When the team returned to Kalamazoo, there was a line of limos waiting.

“We rode around town, thousands of people in the streets, just cheering us on,” Slukynsky said.

The Broncos were honored on the field at Comerica Park and Ford Field in Detroit, and at Wrigley Field in Chicago. They got the key to the city in Kalamazoo, and receive congratulations whenever they go around town in their WMU gear.

But Ferschweiler has tried to make it clear where the focus should be.

“Rip the rearview mirror off and look through the windshield,” he said. “We’re going forward at all times in this program.”

The 55-year-old is fixed on the future, even after interviewing with the Flyers for their head-coaching vacancy this spring. Bartholomae knows Western Michigan, even in its enhanced financial position, can’t compete with NHL money, and doesn’t minimize what losing Ferschweiler would mean to WMU.

What Bartholomae can offer is a partnership to try and establish Ferschweiler’s alma mater as an enduring national power.

“That interview was great for me because it validated everything we did here at the highest level,” Ferschweiler said. “I went in there and told them exactly who we are, what we are, why I believe in things for three hours, and walked out going, ‘They believe in that a little bit now, too.'”

WMU didn’t sneak up on anyone last year, as a preseason top-20 team that entered the NCAA tournament as the No. 4 overall seed following its first NCHC title. But the Broncos are the overwhelming No. 1 team in the country entering this season, as they try to become the first team to capture consecutive national titles since Minnesota-Duluth in 2019.

Although All-American Alex Bump and other heroes from the title team are gone, WMU might have an even better roster, bolstered by several returnees who could have pursued the pro route and the arrivals of four transfers or freshmen who are NHL draft picks.

“I expected guys to come in ready to work their asses off and go get it again,” Crusberg-Roseen said. “I don’t think anybody here is going to rest on their laurels.”

The Broncos are accessing higher-level recruits, but since the hockey prospect cycle goes several years out, the benefit of the championship — and the new arena — might not fully be felt for another year or two. Bartholomae expects WMU to be “a mainstay in the Frozen Four,” and a program with the results and resources that others envy, as Denver and North Dakota have been in the NCHC.

Ferschweiler is still thinking big. He will smile when the banner is unveiled at Lawson, mainly because of what it took to reach this point, but also because of where he thinks WMU is headed.

“It’s a pretty amazing thing for Western Michigan University,” he said. “But again, it’s a beginning, it’s not an ending of what we think our success is going to look like.”