On June 9, 1979, The Salt Lake Tribune announced the arrival of the NBA to our residents.

“Now We Has the Jazz,” read the headline on the front page.

But I’m not sure we have any idea of ​​what we were doing (certainly not from a grammatical standpoint, at least) or what the Jazz would mean for the state.

This week we opened a new chapter of sports in Utah. And just like when the Jazz first arrived, there will be a significant portion of Utahns who don’t really know what all the fuss is about.

Sometimes these can also be the operators of the team.

“There are times when, especially in hockey, we learn a lot along the way,” said team owner Ashley Smith.

The Jazz certainly found their learning curve to be steep when they moved here 45 years ago. It took five years for the team to make the playoffs in Utah; In the meantime, attendance averaged less than 10,000 fans per match. Clearly, the Utah Hockey Club is now in a better position competitively and financially than the Jazz were then.

But there is a difference between surviving and thriving – a difference between simply existing in a community and taking root in it.

That’s the path the Jazz took in the ’80s and ’90s. To make that leap, the Jazz needed ambassadors who would open the game to a broader audience. Frank Layden certainly knew that, playing the entertaining promoter role from his head coach’s chair. It also took hardcore fans who clung to their own culture – like those who played instruments in the jazz band that irritated opponents in the early days of the Salt Palace.

That path is now the path the hockey club must take to truly matter to Utahns.

Certainly, the first steps toward that effort were on display Tuesday in an opening game that took on all the self-evident historical significance the Smiths hoped for. The club’s first TV interview of the day took place at 4:45 PM along the Delta Center ice, while coach André Tourigny’s press conference did not take place until 11:30 PM.

Between:

• NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and the Smiths spoke outside the arena at noon, in an unusual news conference attended by dozens of local politicians. It was also open to cheering fans. The theme: thanking those who worked hard to make this event possible. Commissioner Bettman gave a shoutout to the mayors of “the County of Salt Lake City and Salt Lake City itself,” to the President of the Senate and to the Smith Entertainment Group. Unusually for Bettman, who is traditionally booed by every other fan base in the league, the commissioner received cheers for helping bring the NHL to Utah.

• At 2 p.m., ESPN’s NHL show began its national broadcast just outside the arena, with the Utah Hockey Club’s new puck statue, Jazz nut statue and mountains in the background. The hosts, including hockey legends Mark Messier and PK Subban, missed no opportunity to note the parallel between the Hockey Club’s first game against the Chicago Blackhawks and the Jazz’s NBA Finals series against the Chicago Bulls.

• Some of the team’s players walked a blue carpet into the Delta Center around 5 p.m. after being dropped off at the corner of 300 West and South Temple as lines of fans five or six deep welcomed them to their first game.

• The Utah Department of Transportation closed 300 West for a fan fest and concert on the street. Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy)” has been the No. 1 song in America for 13 weeks this year; he sang it three times in the space of 30 minutes. In my defense, at least two of these were on national television for the benefit of the public. Later, that stage turned into a television for a viewing party for 1,000 to 2,000 fans who did not have tickets to the game but wanted to come out for the event; 16,020 attended the match.

• Jazz star Lauri Markkanen – a natural skater thanks to his Finnish homeland – brought out the commemorative puck, as a nod to the Jazz fan base in the building.

Then the real puck dropped.

Hymns from ‘Let’s Go Utah’ (clap clap clap clap clap) sounded immediately and was repeated at least twice per period. Other indications that Utah fans were really getting into the action followed: the desperate oohs and ahs of goal chances, the rally towels that followed goals, the chanting of the names of “Spicy Tuna” and “Durzi” as both got into more action. than their fair share of arguments.

Lines even formed from an expansive team store at the Delta Center as fans rushed to get their hands on merchandise. The team’s only preseason game at the arena netted the team $160,000 from merchandise sales alone, ranking it second for one night in Delta Center history; the regular season opener undoubtedly surpassed this total.

But perhaps there was no more important sign of passionate fan engagement than a timeout with the Jumbotron camera, when two friends poured their $15 beer into their shoe and chugged it. That moment, more than any other, was the one that earned Utah’s crowd respect from national hockey fans on social media. Of course the 5-2 victory also helped.

The truth is, hockey in the United States has always been somewhat of a counterculture sport – certainly accessible to everyone, but perhaps not always embraced by the cool kids. Below the border, it has always been somewhat of an underdog of a sport, the smallest of America’s Big 4.

Hockey fans are therefore often a bit hardcore.

So when this big opening day arrived, the great machinations of Utah – the Smiths, the politicians, even UDOT – tried to make this moment resonate with the widest audience possible.

It meant just as much, if not a lot more, to Utah hockey fans. These are the people who have largely lied for decades, spending time at the Maverik Center or in the comfort of their own homes, simply dedicated to the sport they love. It will be those fans who serve as the hockey club’s hardcore base – perhaps less bluesy than early Jazz, but a bit more shoe-like.

For the first group they now have the Utah Hockey Club.

But for those who wanted this so badly? Now they have hockey.

Tuesday’s events resonated for both of them.

May that root continue to grow for decades to come.