Supporting Hockey in the Capital City since 1998…
By Jason Simonsen


George Goldring heard rumblings before the hockey season started that Topeka would never support the ScareCrows a Central Hockey League team.  Goldring, who was a season ticket holder for the National Hockey League's Colorado Avalanche in Denver before moving to Topeka in 1997, took his chances and bought season tickets. Little did he know then just how involved he would become with the team.

As a big hockey fan, Goldring was interested when he heard ScareCrows General Manager Chris Preston had plans to start a team booster club. He was somewhat disheartened, however, by the rumblings that the chances the city would support the team were slim. "At first, I was very apprehensive," said Goldring, who worked in the merger claims department for Burlington Northern and Santa Fe Railway. "I was told that people wouldn't support the booster club, because why would they support that when they won't support the team, so that was kind of a setback."But Goldring decided to attend the organizational meeting of the booster club in October 1998 anyway.

"There were six of us there," he said. "We decided we would meet again the next week and hope for each of us to bring one person, so that at least we might have enough people to elect officers. I think we had eight that next meeting, and I guess I drew the shortest straw, because I was elected president."

From there, the Haymakers, as they were named "to stay with the theme of hay, since the team is the ScareCrows, and the mascot is Haywire," Goldring said, have grown steadily.

"The other people in the group thought I was nuts when I said I wanted 100 members by the end of the season," Goldring said. "But we've got 104 now, and it's just the middle of February. The season doesn't end until March. My goal now is to double our membership by the end of next season."

The club conducted meetings on the night of the first Saturday home game of every month and acted as a support group for the players, most of whom were far from home.

"We supported the team," said Denise Gum Secretary/ Treasurer, we were kind of an extended family. The players were far away from home, therefore they needed us. We promoted that Topeka was the best place for them to come and play and grow as atheletes”.

Goldring once said the organization, which gets two or three membership applications a week, soon will have a booth set up at ScareCrows games where new members can join.

It seemed logical that Goldring liked the game. He was the originally club president for the Haymakers, the booster club for ScareCrows hockey.

"It's a great group," Goldring said. "We're all very much a family."

Since the Haymakers started in 1998, the number of people involved jumped from eight to 406, making it the largest booster club in the Central Hockey League.

The group did everything from supporting the team to selling Crows gear.

"It was great to have them around," ScareCrows center Blair Manning said. "Off the ice, they did a lot for us."

The Haymakers also traveled to away games. Former Topeka Captain Blair Manning said "Away games, it's you and 18 guys against the other team and a whole stadium of people, so it's always nice to have some fans there."

The Haymakers provide home-cooked meals after games for the team and for the opponents.

On top of it all, the club helped spread the word about hockey in Topeka, said Kelly Hale, the Crows' director of communications.

After the first 3 seasons in the CHL the team was sold and joined the USHL an amateur league with kids ages 16-20 and the club went dormant as the booster organization was run by the organization.  After the team relocated to Chesterfield MO that club went dormant only to be resurrected behind the scenes by a group soon to be know as the Topeka Hockey Booster Club a name not tied to any specific team but just the sport they all loved and wanted to support.  After one dormant hockey season the Tarantulas brought hockey back to Topeka once again in the Central Hockey League. The Topeka Hockey Booster Club continued to do what its predecessor the Haymakers had started in 1998 to support Hockey in the Capital city.  The Booster club continued to strive to make Topeka a place were players loved to play.  The club again went dormant after the Tarantulas closed up shop after just one season Topeka.  The resurrection began again behind the scenes as a group of fans formed Topeka Hockey ’07 when the RoadRunners relocation was finally revealed to the public the Boosters once again hit the ground running to support the players and organization the best they could.

The Topeka Hockey Booster club currently boasts the largest known independent booster club in the NAHL with over 160 members and is growing everyday.  In a unified effort with the Topeka RoadRunners and the JR RoadRunners the booster club in 2009 took on a new name The Topeka RoadRunners Booster Club continuing to support hockey at every level in Topeka.

We look forward to many more years of supporting hockey in Topeka and hope you too will join in our efforts.

We strive to once again reach those membership highs in the 400’s so help us and join in our efforts to support one of the greatest organizations around RoadRunners Hockey.

The Topeka RoadRunners Booster Club supporting hockey in Topeka since 1998.