UT Ice Vols fostering unique culture on campus, community

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Senior forward John Bunch has been playing for 18 years, four of which have been with the Ice Vols. Bunch also served as assistant captain in the 2022-23 season.

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For the first time in 14 years, Tennessee Hockey, better known as the Ice Vols, competed at the national championship to top off a season of excitement and success. As the team has achieved seemingly exponential prosperity throughout the last few seasons, UT’s hockey club has become a spectacle on campus.

UT’s hockey club has been around since 1966 and is the oldest hockey program in the southeastern United States. Their “barn,” or where you can see them play, is at the Civic Coliseum. The Ice Vols practice there twice a week and play games most weekends throughout the season, which typically lasts seven months – September through March. Additionally, everything that goes on off the ice is entirely student-led and operated.

The nature of the club has fostered a unique culture not just within the team, but also around UT and the greater Knoxville community.

Andrew King, a center, just finished his fifth season playing for Tennessee, though hockey has been a part of his life since he was just three years old. After realizing that NCAA Division I hockey wasn’t in his future, the long-time Vol fan knew that he wanted to join the Tennessee

“All my family attended UT and I wanted to participate in the engineering program here, so being able to play hockey while being at UT is just the cherry on top,” Bunch said.

This is the story that most of the Ice Vols can relate to, best put into words by club president and senior forward, Benjamin Northern.

“Hockey and Tennessee have always been the two things I’ve been most passionate about. I always wanted to be a part of this team,” Northern said.

Throughout the years that Bunch, Northern and King have donned the orange and white checkerboard sweaters, the shift in atmosphere has been undeniable.

“My freshman year, our record was 2-20,” King said. “Our average crowd for home was around 50 to 75, made up of mostly team family. As we have progressed in team results and off-ice operations, we have steadily grown in home game attendance and social media following.”

From internet trends to getting the word out about game dates, times and ways to watch, much of the journey on Hockey Top throughout the season is documented on the team’s social media presence on TikTok, Twitter and

“I think both our success and our team behind the scenes has helped grow the organization,” Bunch said. “Most of the team’s recognition can be credited to the club’s officers over the last few years such as Camrun Martz who spent the last several years growing the team’s social media and organizing team events.”

Off the ice, Northern has helped in running the club as well by serving as president.

“Every day, something new comes up that I get to take care of,” Northern said. “Almost all of my free time outside of class goes back into administrative work for the club, usually spending five or six hours per day working on something. To me, it’s not just work to keep me busy. It’s a passion and I truly enjoy what I get to do to help build and grow the club.”

As competition and success on Hockey Top has improved, and as the word has spread, the atmosphere in the Civic Coliseum has reflected as much. Everyone who loves the Big Orange knows their way to a Tennessee Hockey game.

Star basketball player for the Volunteers, Josiah-Jordan James attended a press conference repping the Ice Vols’ sweater. Cedric Tillman and Hendon Hooker have dropped the puck at the Civic Coliseum as well.

“The team always loves when fans come out to the home games,” King said. “Having a great crowd feeds the team to perform at a high level. The same goes for big names coming out like Hendon Hooker and Cedric Tillman. We are a part of one of the most powerful college fanbases in Vol Nation, and being a part of that is a great honor.”

Good atmospheres and fun times aside, the Ice Vols were able to transfer the buzz around the team into wins on the ice, an effort that culminated in a birth to nationals, and their journey to the competition in West Chester, Pennsylvania, was representative of the comradery among Vol Nation.

An entirely student-run organization, it was up to fundraising and donations to fund the Ice Vols’ trip to the tournament. Setting up a GoFundMe with a goal of $18,000, the team exceeded their goal by more than $3,000 after a massive outpour of support from the community.

“Tennessee has the best fan base of any college, and they love to back their teams,” Northern said. “The support from our community helped us to give our best efforts against some great teams.”

Bunch described seeing the impact over the years as “crazy.”

“During my freshman year any time I mentioned to someone I was on the hockey team, they would say, ‘UT has a hockey team?’” Bunch said. “We hadn’t been thinking about our impact until we realized the change in what people know about the club.”