He was there on business, and his business was ice.
And despite the warm weather and the inch of water that topped the rink’s frozen base Wednesday, Al Osterloh donned a full-fledged smile.
Osterloh wheels and deals in keeping things frozen. He owns Los Tres Papagayos, a California-based company that specializes in portable ice rinks and emergency cooling services.
With some luck - and the help of his 281-ton refrigerator on wheels - the ice in Spartan Stadium’s makeshift rink should remain frozen, rain or shine, for Saturday’s “The Cold War” hockey game between No. 1 MSU and No. 4 Michigan.
“It’s the highest capacity refrigeration trailer in the world,” he said of the 48-foot trailer that houses the freezing machine. “As a result, we get to do the backup for the 2002 Winter Olympics. If they lose their cooling, we can hook up to them and provide cool until they can recover.”
In the six years that Osterloh has dealt with portable rinks, he said his services have been needed about five or six times a year. He even did the freeze job for the pond on the set of the 1999 movie “Mystery, Alaska,” which starred Russell Crowe and Burt Reynolds.
“We were saving a pond that had melted, “ he said. “In the daytime, they’d lose all their ice. In the night we’d fix it up.”
At MSU, he has been collaborating intermittently with a crew of 30 that ranges from Physical Plant maintenance employees and floor-laying specialists to MSU student-athletes and Athletic Department employees.
“It’s been a wonderful effort,” he said. “Some places just cut you loose, but here everyone’s been involved.”
Even students drifting by the stadium took notice of the work efforts.
Human biology senior Jay Saenz stopped his bike and picked up a handful of snow from a small pile outside the north field entrance driveway Wednesday, then glanced at the rink through the entrance. Saenz will play in the stands with the Spartan Marching Band.
He said he hasn’t seen “Mystery, Alaska” or heard of Al Osterloh. But one thing is certain.
“I love hockey,” he said. “It’s going to rock.”
And after the fanfare dies off, there will be equipment and 50 pounds per every square foot of ice to clear away and two days to do it in.
Where will the ice go?
“We pound the ice off with something that looks like a baseball bat, but heavier,” he said. “That chips the ice away. We shovel it into a Bobcat, the Bobcat takes it to a dump trunk, and the dump truck takes it wherever it’s going to take it.”
