Allen Van is the oldest American to ever win a medal in Olympic hockey. With a 1945 letter in hockey from Minnesota, he also is that school’s oldest hockey letterman. Van had one of the longest amateur careers ever He first played for the U.S. National team at the 1938 World Championships and repeated on the team in the following year. He would eventually represent the United States seven times internationally – a mark bettered only by John Mayasich, and matched only by 1980 Olympic coach, Herb Brooks. One of Van’s international appearances was at St. Moritz in 1948 as a member of the AAU team which did not actually participate in the Olympics, because of the controversy surrounding that Olympic ice hockey tournament.
United States