Photo courtesy Penn State Athletics Joe Battista is considered the “Godfather” of ice hockey at Penn State University.

The Penn State hockey team will appear in its first-ever Frozen Four beginning tonight against Boston University (8:30 p.m., ESPN2), and Joe Battista will be playing in a national softball tournament in Tampa.

Talk about bad timing.

“Oh my God,” Battista lamented from his home in South Carolina. “Before the season, who thought we were going to be in the Frozen Four? I’ve already told my (softball) manager, ‘When I see the outcome of (tonight’s) game, I reserve the right to jump in a plane or my car and go to St. Louis for the championship game (Saturday).”

Though he’ll have to concentrate as the third baseman for his high-level softball team these next couple of days, Battista’s heart will be in St. Louis.

After all, he’s the founding father of the Penn State hockey program, having coached it to 512 wins and six national championships through 18 seasons starting in 1987 when the Icers were a club-sport program playing in the Greenberg Sports Complex.

Battista, though, always had a greater vision, and his relationship with Terry Pegula turned his dream into a reality.

Pegula, a Penn State graduate, fracking tycoon and avid hockey enthusiast who would later purchase the Buffalo Sabres and Buffalo Bills, called Battista in 2005 and wondered if the two could meet for a steak dinner at Kelly’s in Boalsburg.

“He said, ‘You’re not going to remember me, my kid used to come to (Penn State) hockey games,” Battista, now 64, said.

They settled into a booth at Kelly’s, and Pegula asked what it was going to take for Penn State to start playing Division I hockey.

Battista said, “$50 million.”

Pegula, whose fortune is now worth about $7 billion, put his hand on his chin and said, “I can help you with that.”

From there, Battista became involved in fundraising, high-level feasibility studies, tours of other facilities, “Team Pegula” collaboration and ultimately helped secure Pegula’s $112 million gift to Penn State, its largest ever.

Plans were temporarily sidetracked during the 2008 recession.

Initially, Battista thought the proposed arena “would be on the outskirts somewhere, probably beyond Beaver Stadium.”

But it was instead placed opposite the Jordan Center, at the behest of then-president Graham Spanier, who thought, “If we’re going to do this, we want it where people can see it,” Battista said.

Ground was broken in 2011 — “a bright shining light in a cloud of darkness (Sandusky scandal),” Battista said — and on Oct. 11, 2013, the Pegula Ice Arena opened.

“One of the greatest moments of my career, if not my life,” Battista, who used to sell tickets and programs for the Icers as a student (1978-83), said.

As an associate athletic director under Tim Curley, Battista was responsible for hiring Guy Gadowsky, whose office was later named for Battista.

“Terry and (wife) Kim were in Philadelphia because the Sabres were playing the Flyers,” Battista said. “When I got done interviewing Guy, I called Terry and said, ‘You need to meet this coach. He’s going to blow you away.”’

Canadian-born but then the coach at Princeton, Gadowsky and Battista drove to Philly, and a deal was consummated in 2011.

Now Gadowsky, who lifted the Nittany Lions from an 0-8-1 start this season, is a national coach of the year candidate and has Penn State in elite company.

Battista’s phone hasn’t stopped buzzing since the Lions punched their ticket on Matt DiMarsico’s overtime goal to beat UConn, 3-2, in a regional in Allentown two weeks ago.

Battista watched that game with his wife, Heidi, and leaped into her arms on the game-winning goal.

“When people say ‘you’re the godfather,’ I tell them I was the band leader,” Battista, who now works for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, said. “I was in the right place at the right time, and I surrounded myself with people who were a lot smarter than me.”

This week has brought stories of Gadowsky’s PSU journey, which started with Battista.

“Joe obviously was a part of everything that this program did and certainly echoed and reinforced that vision,” he said.

And in a year when Penn State has already won national championships in women’s volleyball and – again – wrestling, hockey has skated to the doorstep.

“We’ve won Big Ten championships and had great victories, but getting to the Frozen Four is special,” Battista said. “It’s a credibility thing.”

Which is why he hopes his softball team needs another third baseman on Saturday night.

Rudel can be reached at nrudel@altoonamirror.com.