When North Dakota was preparing to bring back its ice hockey program after World War II, brothers Buzz and Prince Johnson were playing amateur hockey for the Grand Forks Amerks and came to the attention of Cal Marvin, who was leading the effort to rekindle the team. Both players began attending the University of North Dakota and made their debuts in the 1947–48 season. The team played well with Johnson on the team, posting their first double-digit win season. The team flagged the following year because Johnson had played well enough to be included on the US national team for the 1949 Ice Hockey World Championships. While missing the entire season for North Dakota, Johnson was nearly a point-per-game player over the eight games as the US won the bronze medal. He did, however, have an even greater impact after the championship was over; Zdeněk Marek, a member of the gold-medal-winning Czech team had decided to hide in Stockholm rather than return to Czechoslovakia because he was not a member of the Communist Party. During his time playing for the team he had confided his trepidation at returning home to Johnson and his brother. The two promised to assist Marek in earning a student visa so he could defect to the United States. The plan came to fruition when North Dakota offered Marek a scholarship on July 12, 1949. Marek was eventually granted permanent resident status by an act of congress and lived in the United States until his death in 2019.