Aberdeen Wings owners Greg and Nancy Odde were honored Friday night during an intermission of an NAHL playoff hockey game at the Odde Ice Center.

The Oddes were two of 15 member of the inaugural class inducted into the South Dakota Amateur Hockey Hall of Fame last weekend in Sioux Falls.

“To Nancy and me it means a lot. We’ve been involved in hockey since the 1990s era, with our sons and our grandsons and our granddaughter. We’ve just lived hockey for the last 30 years, basically,” Greg said. “And the Wings came along and Nancy and I were able to put that together and just build on what’s been started across the state, and just helping support hockey across the state. For the kids mostly, that’s why we do it.”

When asked if she ever thought she would own a hockey team one day, Nancy responded, “Not really, because I was just getting out of Cougar hockey when we decided to do this team, but we love it and we wanted to give back.”

Being able to help aspiring hockey players move on to play collegiate hockey has been extremely rewarding, Greg said.

“We’ve put hundreds of kids into college, Division I, Division III,” he said.

Greg recalled one moment in particular.

“The parents were in tears when their son got a commitment to the Air Force Academy,” he said. “That’s a big deal.”

Of course, winning the Robertson Cup a few years ago was also pretty meaningful.

“That was right up there, too,” Greg said. “That was the culmination, I think, of everything that we’ve put together and tried to do. We’ve always tried to do everything the right way in our lives.”

The Wings have been one of the most successful teams in the NAHL and the Oddes have enjoyed the journey.

“It’s very satisfying,” Nancy said, “and we get so much out of it.”