October 10, 2024
Utah professional sports made history in 2024 with the announcement that the National Hockey League was coming to the Beehive State. The expanding professional sports portfolio adds to the state’s hockey roots, including the humble beginnings of the man who invented the Zamboni ice resurfacing machine. Although he was to be a prolific entrepreneur, he was certainly no overnight success.
Frank Zamboni was born in 1901 to Italian immigrants in the rural town of Eureka, Utah. The family relocated to a farm in Idaho, where Zamboni grew up tinkering with machinery. As a teen, he worked as a mechanic at a local garage until the family again relocated to Southern California, where he continued working on cars at his brother’s auto garage.
After training in electrical work at a trade school, Zamboni’s business ventures led him to found a company with his brother, specializing in electrical work, water wells, water pumps, and eventually an ice-making plant. After the invention of refrigerated units made block ice in shipping railcars obsolete, the brothers looked for ways to pivot.
The brothers sold the block ice business and repurposed its refrigeration equipment to build an ice rink. Frank Zamboni realized the ice at his rink needed faster, more efficient maintenance, as resurfacing the ice usually took three-to-five people over an hour to complete.
Despite his dedication, Zamboni faced many failed iterations of an ice-resurfacing machine, starting from a simple concept of a sled-mounted machine pulled by a tractor. After nearly a decade, Zamboni patented the Model A, which utilized a Jeep engine and a surplus hydraulic cylinder from a military bomber plane. The game-changing machine resurfaced the ice in only 15 minutes, requiring one person to operate. An Olympic skater recognized the new invention’s potential, and it was soon adopted by the NHL.
With the growing recognition of his visionary ability to solve problems, Zamboni was hired to invent machinery to maintain artificial turf. While his name has become synonymous with ice resurfacing, he amassed 15 patents in various fields by the end of his lifetime.
Frank Zamboni’s story is a masterclass on innovation, resourcefulness, and perseverance. For entrepreneurs, it highlights the power of turning a small-scale problem into a global brand and family legacy.
The information in this article is current as of the publishing date and is intended for informational purposes only. This article does not, and is not intended to, constitute legal, tax, or business advice. Any resources and organizations mentioned, unless an entity of or a partner of the state of Utah, are not formally endorsed by the Startup State Initiative or state of Utah.