Sports

The Omaha Lancers and UNO Mavericks will play hockey outdoors next February at TD Ameritrade Park.

The Omaha Sports Commission announced Tuesday that a hockey doubleheader will happen February 9, 2013. It’s being called the “Mutual of Omaha Battles on Ice.”

Sports Commission president Harold Cliff says it’ll be a family-friendly event, with the first game, between the Lancers and the Lincoln Stars, happening at 12:30 pm. Cliff says the outdoor hockey doubleheader has been in the works for two years.

He says the hockey doubleheader probably won’t be an annual event.

TD Ameritrade Park hosts the College World Series. It also hosted the Red Sky Music Festival last summer. Tickets will go on sale in October.

Three exhibits coming to Omaha in May tell the story of the Negro Leagues.

“Discover Greatness” opens May 20th at Conestoga Magnet School in north Omaha. Discover Greatness uses a series of photographs to discuss the history and significant of the Negro Leagues. The exhibit is being presented in partnership with Omaha’s Great Plains Black History Museum, and the Kansas City-based Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.

Omaha Press Club’s January Noon Forum featured Trev Alberts, UNO’s Director of Athletics.

Alberts started at UNO in 2009.  Last year, Alberts’ plan to reclassify UNO athletics from Division 2 to Division 1 was approved by the board of regents.  In July of 2011, Alberts secured a spot for the UNO Hockey Team in the new National Collegiate Hockey Conference. 

He said UNO Hockey makes up 92% of the total revenue generated in the department and that the move would help strengthen Maverick Hockey as UNO’s flagship sport.  Alberts said that moving men’s basketball to the new Ralston arena is going to be a positive move for the university, the students and the fans.