Eric Madison’s knuckles betray no visible signs of damage. 

There are no scars or cuts on his face. He still has all of his teeth. 

Cosmetically, Madison has been incredibly fortunate, since the dying art of fighting has been his foot (or fist) in the door since his first season in the Superior International Junior Hockey League.  

“My first year, I came in and I was to do what I needed to do to make the team,” Madison said. “I’d fight anybody.”

At the time, Madison was 5-foot-8 and estimates he weighed around 140 pounds. 

“My second game in, I fought and took the dude down,” Madison said with a grin. “That’s what I needed to do to prove myself.”

Madison’s road to NCAA Division III’s Neumann University (PA) is speckled with “prove it” moments. 

Between jumping from Bantams to the now-defunct St. Paul Saints varsity as a freshman, to joining the Utah Regulators in the North American Prospect Hockey League for his final two years of high school, to rising from third-line grinder to two-year captain with the Minnesota Iron Rangers, Madison has never shied away from a new challenge. 

The closure of St. Bernard's High School on St. Paul's north side in 2010 sapped the Saints' program of its primary feeder school, as the bulk of hockey players migrated to Concordia Academy in Roseville for one final season. After the 2010-2011 campaign, in which he totaled 19 goals and 36 points, Madison and his teammates learned the team was being folded into the Legacy Christian Academy program.  

As a 16-year-old high school junior Madison opted to depart the Legacy Christian team for the Utah Regulators in Salt Lake City, where his first test of adaptability included meeting his billet family and three other billeted players for the first time. 

Like any teenager away from home for the first time, Madison admitted to feeling anxious prior to meeting his bunkmate, a native of Wyoming, noting the differences between a self-described city-kid from St. Paul and a cowboy from The Equality State. 

“The first night, we just hit it off, and he’s been my best friend ever since,” Madison said. “The friendships that happened, it’s unbelievable,” Madison continued, adding that he’ll also be the best man in another one of his former roommate's wedding. 

So much for leaving all of his friends behind in Minnesota, the common fear among Minnesota high school hockey observers regarding players who dare to venture past the state's borders.

“Going to Utah was probably the best thing I’ve ever done,” Madison said without a hint of hyperbole, adding that his academics improved markedly after moving west thanks to edict from his mother. 

“My mom was like ‘if you’re pulling terrible grades you’re coming home,’” Madison said with a chuckle. 

After nearly 100 games with the Regulators, Madison returned to Minnesota to skate with the Iron Rangers, the SIJHL team based in Hoyt Lakes.

Like the other rungs of his career, Madison climbed steadily, with his physical play earning time on the Rangers’ top unit protecting the team’s finesse players. As previously mentioned, Madison was a two-time Ranger captain, becoming a fan-favorite while embracing a visible role in the community. 

“We’d do highway clean-ups, we’d go to the school and read to the kids,” Madison explained, adding that the team hosted youth skating nights throughout his time in Hoyt Lakes. 

But being the captain of the only hockey team in town and diving headfirst into the part came with a particularly painful casualty. 

Madison injured his back while participating in a donkey-basketball game--which is exactly what it sounds like. At the behest of students and teammates, Madison drew the assignment of riding an ornery animal, which bucked him off during the game. 

With his coach less-than-thrilled with how he sustained his injury, Madison proved his (relative) health after missing just two scheduled games, dropping his gloves again during his first game back on the ice. 

Now a junior at Neumann, Madison’s days of jabs and haymakers are all but over, but he doesn’t forget what his grind to the collegiate level has brought him. 

“I got an unbelievable scholarship (and) it was strictly academic,” Madison said, candidly remarking how thrilled he is that he won’t be saddled with considerable student debt when he graduates and that without his previous stops in Utah and Hoyt Lakes he would not be in the same position. 

“If I would’ve stayed, I don’t even know what I’d be doing,” Madison said.

Madison has maintained a 4.0 grade-point-average for all four semesters of college, and he doesn't plan on letting that number dip for his last four.  

For now, Madison will concentrate on skating as much as he can during the offseason while completing the workouts administered by the Neumann training staff, with his eye toward continued his career after college someway, somehow. 

“Right after school, I’d like to play a year or two, just to see where I fall,” Madison said. 

“If I can get at least a season of pro somewhere, I can say that I did it, and no one can take that away from me.”