Hey Cleve: What are your three most memorable Peoria Rivermen games?

PEORIA — You've got sports questions, the Journal Star has answers.

Check out "Hey Cleve," the mailbag column for Journal Star sportswriter Dave Eminian.

Send your questions about teams, players, buildings, plays, rules, history or present — anything on your mind in the Peoria area sports arena from youth to preps to pros — and I'll do my best to answer them or track down someone who can.

Send to "Hey Cleve" at Twitter @icetimecleve, by email to deminian@pjstar.com or on the Journal Star's sports Facebook page.

More:Sports mailbag: Bradley basketball, prep awards, Rivermen sellouts and soccer support

Hey Cleve, what are your three most memorable Rivermen games? — Joe, East Peoria

Hey Joe, I'm blessed to be heading into my 38th season covering the Peoria Rivermen for the Journal Star. I've presided over 2,610 regular-season games and more than 100 playoff games, so I have a lot to choose from.If I could re-live three of them? I'd take Game No. 15 of the Rivermen pro hockey record 18-game win streak in November of 1990 in the old IHL. They were down at home, 3-1, against Salt Lake with under 8 minutes to play and staged a thrilling comeback in front of a packed Carver Arena, eventually winning in a dramatic shootout tiebreaker to save the streak. The sound level was like a jet engine.

Another great game was a 6-5 overtime thriller in Game 5 of the 1999-2000 ECHL championship series down in Louisiana. The Gators had won 21 straight games there and Peoria, in an 0-2 series deficit, went down and swept all three and went on to the Kelly Cup. But that Game 5, won by Trevor Baker in the second OT, included 104 shots on goal, guys on their hands and knees in front of the net, exhausted, trying to clear pucks. Afterward, veteran goaltender Duane Derksen said "It was like Braveheart in the crease."

Game No. 3? I could pick the night fans in sold out Carver Arena tossed roses onto the ice as the Rivermen paraded the Turner Cup following a Game 7 win in the IHL. Or the time the team, with just 10 skaters, went to Milwaukee and won 11-5 in a game that saw winger David Bruce net 5 goals and 4 assists. Or the game that never ended -- when Milwaukee and Peoria in the old IHL produced over 400 penalty minutes and the Admirals ran out of players and had to forfeit with over five minutes remaining.

But I think I'd go with the President's Cup clinching Rivermen win at Roanoke last May, the overtime goal that sealed it happening right on the other side of the glass in front of me, and then the ultimate honor -- the team inviting me to lift the Cup. It was a moment that meant a lot to an old sportswriter.

Can't wait to see what 2022-23 brings.

Hey Cleve, I'm curious if there is a public list of the 50 people who are the initial investors in Home of the Brave? I’d love to see it. — Bart, Peoria

Hey Bart, While no such formal list exists for the NIL organization, those who are part of Home of the Brave are not hiding, either.

In late August, at the HOB signing ceremony with the Bradley players, the NIL group members on hand included co-founder Joe Messmore, of Molly Maid Peoria/Quad Cities, Craig Thompson, of Thompson Electronics, the Gardner family, of Oberlander Electric.

There was co-founder and PIPCO owner Steve Cicciarelli, Louisville Slugger Complex vice-president Rick Gaa, Steve Shaw (Alexander's and Famous Dave's restaurants), Ryan Pierson (principal at RSM US, LLC.), Matt Wiesner (Envision Insurance personal and commercial broker) and others.

Over time, more names will surface and the picture will become more complete. The group's membership could change, too, as some exit while others join in.

More:What we know about the NIL collective supporting Bradley men's basketball

Hey Cleve, What promos are you hoping to see at the Rivermen games this season? — @theLILWOOLEY

Hey Wooley, If there's one thing I'm an expert at, it's spending the Rivermen's money.

The team, 20 years ago, was ahead of everyone in this market in terms of marketing and promotions, bringing in actors and sports celebrities for appearances and national-level musical acts for post-game mini-concerts.

Now they've pioneered the specialty jersey nights — a concept sweeping sports for the last few years — and I really like those creative canvases.

I'd like to see a mega event once a month: Free Food Night (which set the franchise's single-game attendance record at more than 10,000); a superstar from the sports world; an actor from a currently popular show.

But that's a hard wish-list for a team in the revenue-strapped pandemic era that is playing in an aging facility that I believe is a negative draw, and under a lease with the Civic Center that is very unfavorable.

We'll have a look at the Rivermen entertainment plans next month, and I suspect there will be lots of championship-themed nights and a few surprises.

Background:Why the long-term relationship between the Civic Center and Rivermen remains in limbo

Dave Eminian is the Journal Star sports columnist, and covers Bradley men's basketball, the Rivermen and Chiefs. He writes the Cleve In The Eve sports column for pjstar.com. He can be reached at 686-3206 or deminian@pjstar.com. Follow him on Twitter @icetimecleve.

This article originally appeared on Journal Star: Peoria sports mailbag: Bradley basketball, Peoria Rivermen hockey