The first shovel was ceremoniously plunged and lifted at Front Street and Nationwide Boulevard 17 years ago this summer, just months after the National Hockey League awarded an expansion franchise to Columbus. The groundbreaking brought a symbolic end to a blighted corner of Downtown and signaled the dawn of Nationwide Arena and the surrounding Arena District. Something else happened that day, too. The growth of hockey as an amateur participation sport in Columbus already was in its early stages, thanks to the foresight of the now-defunct minor-league Columbus Chill and because of a few hearty souls who loved and played and coached hockey here long before most of their neighbors could...
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