A real minor-league hockey team in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, where much of the movie was shot, is named the Johnstown Chiefs in honor of the fictional Chiefs and the city's involvement in the movie.
There is a real Minnesota State University, with campuses bearing that name in Mankato and Moorhead, but neither adopted the "Minnesota State" name until after the series ended. Sports teams at the real Minnesota State campuses are respectively Mavericks and Dragons.
North Dallas Bulls - in the 1979 film North Dallas Forty