Thanks Dave,

Very interesting reading.


--
Jason Kasiorek
Publisher
http://www.griffinscentral.com



From: "goaliedave" <goaliedave@...>
Subject: [hockhist] 1964 Stanley Cup game 6 Toronto Detroit on TV


Hi all, they showed Game 6 of the 1964 Stanley Cup Final on something called
"APTN Stanley Cup Classics" Saturday night while I was vacationing just
north of Barrie Ontario, channel 40. It looks like a Saturday night series
as they are showing the 1967 Final game 7 next Sat Aug 5 at 9pm... if any of
you can locate it on your TV systems. I haven't seen a complete game from
this era replayed and it was a treat. I was stricken by the similarities to
today's game and thought I'd pass on my observations.



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

APTN is the Aboriginal Peoples' Television Network, and it's one of Canada's
four national networks, which means that all Canadian cablesystems are
required to carry it. You can often find it at the high end of the analog
dial (in Toronto, for instance, at Channel 71 on Rogers).

Like many other cable specialty channels, they stretch the boundaries of
their mandates. Half the fun of watching a program on APTN is trying to
figure out the Aboriginal connection. In the case of these hockey
broadcasts, my best guess is George Armstrong's presence in the Leaf lineup
is the key.

(For instance, you'll often see _The Last Waltz_ on APTN, because Robbie
Robertson of The Band is half-Mohawk. And for a while, they were showing
re-runs of the long-running CBC series _The Beachcombers_.)

Regarding defencemen taking face-offs in the defensive zone, Bob Baun
suggested that there were a couple of reasons. First of all, if the
defending team lost the draw, the defenceman would interfere with the
attacking centre. It wasn't until 1964-65 that body contact during face-offs
was banned.

Flip that logic around and apply it to the defending team winning the draw:
why put your centreman in the face-off circle if he's just going to get tied
up? Why not have him in open ice, ready to receive the puck and carry it up
ice? Given the choice of whom you'd rather have in the circle, wrestling
with Jean Beliveau, wouldn't you pick Bob Baun or Allan Stanley over Dave
Keon?


on 8/1/06 12:19 AM, goaliedave at goaliedave@... wrote:

> Hi all, they showed Game 6 of the 1964 Stanley Cup Final on something called
> "APTN Stanley Cup Classics" Saturday night while I was vacationing just north
> of Barrie Ontario, channel 40. It looks like a Saturday night series as they
> are showing the 1967 Final game 7 next Sat Aug 5 at 9pm... if any of you can
> locate it on your TV systems.

--
Lloyd Davis Communications
304-115 Danforth Ave., Toronto, ON  M4K 1N2
416 465 6999 /// 416 462 0230 (fax)
ldavis@...

Great stuff Jason! Is there any stuff out there from the 6 team era?



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Bill,

I am sure there is, but my collection only goes back to 1968. I am always on
the lookout for older stuff though.


--
Jason Kasiorek
Publisher
http://www.griffinscentral.com



From: "William Underwood" <wausport@...>

Great stuff Jason! Is there any stuff out there from the 6 team era?



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Okay, considering the source is from a story in a Kings-Canucks
program from their March 31, 1972 game, the facts might not be 100%
correct as they would be for something written in the internet age.

But from a profile sportswriter Bob Dunn wrote about Juha Widing,
here is some more detail on how he came over to Brandon:

"...Widing's beginning in hockey, apparently, was playing with a
senior team in Goteburg, at that time preparing to give the world
Ingemar Johansson.  At age 14, Widing had an insatiable desire to
play in the best hockey league in the wold, the one he had heard
about across the waters of the Atlantic.

Gordon Rice, a Canadian coaching a junior team in Sweden, learned of
young Juha's ambitions and persuaded Ulf Jannsen, a Swedish hockey
official, to do something about it.

Jannsen wrote to Dennis Ball, at that time the New York Rangers'
chief western scout.  Ball contacted Jake Milford, head man of the
Rangers' Brandon operation, the Wheat Kings juniors.  Rice, who
started it all, played his hockey in Brandon.

He solved the language barrier with relative ease, and he soon
became touted as one of Canada's outstanding junior prospects.  The
day he graduated from Brandon, upon completion of a 62-goal season
in the Manitoba Junior League, Widing was assigned to the Rangers'
Central League farm club in Omaha...."

Rob in 905

Thanks Jason and Lloyd... too bad I refuse to pay a nickel for TV as that game
was almost enough to make me turn in my rabbit ears. I get 10 TV stations that
send "pictures floating thru the air" into the Whitby sky and unfortunately APTN
isn't one of them. I wonder how long I have until digital takes over and puts an
end to my rabbit ears?

In one of Ross Brewitt's 'old-timer interview collection' books, he shares a
conversation he had with Bobby Hull and a few others about the differences
between the game of his day and the game of his son Brett. Brewitt tried to say
that today's game was faster, the coaching better, the players bigger... and to
each assertion Hull said hogwash (or something more colourful). After watching
that game I have to side with Hull now. The game from 1964 seemed to revolve
around the forwards. There was no interference, no stickwork in the corners or
in front of the net, no defensive systems strangling the natural offensive
beauty of the game. The current NHL has made baby steps back to that, but I
would love to see today's stars be able to wheel around the ice like 1964.
Forget the tinkering with the goalie equipment, just keep getting rid of the
interference.

Lloyd...you mention the defense... what you say makes sense. It was really
intriguing... and it seemed to work great with Gadsby. Also I had an email that
I think was intended for the whole group so I'll copy it here...

Dave in Whitby


I printed it so I can keep it handy for my own research
for oral history of the original six era. With regards to Gadsby taking
face-offs, it must have been more common to that era. In a book about
the 67 Leafs, Punch Imlach kept using his defensemen to take face-offs
even they were losing them most of the time.

Your theory as to why is intriguing and I respect the logic of it.

Does anyone know whether other coaches of that era were more likely to
use defensemen in face-off situations? Was Doug Harvey used for face-
offs?

What about Orr?

What about Kelly when he was a defenseman for the Wings?

Matt


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, July 29, 2006:

Captain Matt Klingsporn and First Officer James Findley of Midwest
Airlines can be our wingmen anytime. They were among two pilots
honored Thursday by the Air Lines Pilots Association in Washington,
D.C. It was just seconds before their Midwest flight out of Newark was
about to leave the runway Feb. 3 when Klingsporn and Findley - who
lives in Oak Creek - realized something was wrong. When they pulled
back on the yoke of the MD-88 charter jet, it didn't lift off. They
immediately aborted the takeoff, reversing the jet's engines - and
likely saving the lives of 37 passengers, which included members of
the New Jersey Devils hockey team.

New release recounts
Seals' sorry saga
By John McGourty | NHL.com | August 2, 2006


----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------

There was more to the California Golden Seals than white skates, and
in a new book -- Shorthanded: The untold story of the Seals, hockey's
most colorful team published by AuthorHouse -- author Bradley
Kurtzberg recounts the nine-year history of the various incarnations
of the only 1967 NHL expansion team that failed to establish a
permanent base.

Chronic under-funding, ownership turnover and bad management doomed
the California Seals, then Oakland Seals, who became the California
Golden Seals under the control of wacky Oakland Athletics owner
Charles O. Finley and, again, the California Seals when owned by
would-be, but ill-fated savior Mel Swig.

The book is replete with stories of wandering goaltenders, disgusted
coaches, front-office treachery and bag-skates for overmatched losing
teams. But it's also about the hopes and dreams of players, coaches,
front-office types and owners who believed they could be successful,
given an NHL opportunity.

Related Links

----------------------------------------------------------------------
----------

California's hockey history
Sealshockey.com
NHL Insider Archive


While it's popular to think of the Seals as lovable losers, this was
an organization that included solid, old-time hockey men like Bert
Olmstead, Earl Ingarfield and Vic Stasiuk and future League leaders
like Marshall Johnston, Craig Patrick, Terry Murray, Gerry Ehman, Tom
Webster, Ted Hampson, Bert Marshall, Al MacAdam and Bob Murdoch.
Dennis Maruk, Charlie Simmer, Gilles Meloche, Wayne Merrick and
Reggie Leach were Seals before moving on to more famous roles later
in their careers.

The first, biggest and most enduring problem for the Seals was that
there was no real demand for a hockey team in Oakland. The NHL had
ready buyers in five of the six expansion cities, but it was the
negotiating television networks that wanted a second West Coast team
for a rivalry with the Los Angeles team. The first ownership group,
headed by Bing Crosby and the Von Gerbig family, eventually expanded
into 52 owners, including San Francisco 49ers quarterback John Brodie
and former New York Mets owner Nelson Doubleday.

The popularity of the West Coast League's San Francisco Seals
persuaded some that hockey could be successful in the Bay Area, but
the Seals' rink, the Cow Palace, was too small for an NHL arena. The
demographics of the East Bay were much different, less conducive to
launching a hockey team, than "The City" and the peninsula. Poor
marketing generated sparse East Bay attendance. Tellingly, a
significant part of the fan base made the trek from San Jose to the
ill-suited Oakland Coliseum, a cavernous concrete structure that made
middling crowds seem even smaller.

Rudy Pilous was hired as the first GM and named Olmstead coach.
Before play started, Pilous was out and Olmstead was coach and GM.
Frank Selke Jr. was hired as team president. After a disastrous
season, on and off the ice, in which the team averaged only 4,950
fans and finished 15-47-17, Olmstead was out and Selke demoted to GM.

A group that owned the Harlem Globetrotters became a major owner and
hired Bill Torrey, who would later mastermind the New York Islanders
to four Stanley Cups, to work with Selke. Joining a frugal operation,
Torrey spent his first night on the team's hospitality in a rundown
hotel room with a large rat. That group failed to keep up with
payments and sales to interested parties in Vancouver and Buffalo
fell through. Those bids were not fruitless, though. The NHL
appreciated the strength of the would-be investors and awarded
franchises in both cities.

The team, heavily in debt, was then sold to a conglomerate with
plenty of partners and little cash. Management was haphazard and
chaotic. One famous partner, an athlete from another sport, would
pocket gate receipts while another, an equally famous retired
athlete, hustled in one day to meet a $30,000 payroll with his own
cash. The team ended the season in bankruptcy, with a judge calling
the owner a "con man."

That's when Finley stepped in, with his green and gold uniforms
identical to the Oakland Athletics, right down to white skates. Each
player got green suitcases for road travel.

"We had those green suitcases," recalled defenseman Rick Smith, who
was traded to the Seals for defenseman Carol Vadnais after winning a
Stanley Cup in Boston. "We felt like we had joined the circus. We
also had the white skates. Back then, I was thinking, white skates,
girl's figure skates, sissies. We never got past that. It was so bad,
opposing teams didn't say anything. The other players felt so bad for
us."


Under the ownership of Charles O. Finley, the Seals skated in green
and gold uniforms identical to the Oakland Athletics, right down to
white skates.
Finley believed in marketing teams, but he wasn't impressed with
individual players. Defensemen Harry Howell and Vadnais were holding
out for more money when Finley called Howell and told him he didn't
care if signed or not because the team wouldn't be a winner either
way. Another time, he told a Seals player he wouldn't meet Athletics'
pitcher Vida Blue's demand because "he wouldn't pay a man $1 million
to throw a baseball."

Finley ran the team into the ground, chasing off most of the
executive talent, while trying to move to another city. Von Gerbig's
antitrust suit blocked that and the League wanted a new owner in
Oakland. The Seals won only 13 games in 1973-74 when the NHL bought
the team from Finley, giving him a profit he bragged about.

The 1974-75 Seals switched to blue-and-gold uniforms but dealt off
four of their top five scorers for more players who were younger and
earned less. Bill McCreary was named director of hockey operations
and Johnston the coach. McCreary fired Johnston and took over as
coach in midseason. McCreary tried to install a walkie-talkie system
to Johnston on the bench, but it was scrapped after the first
transmission Johnston heard was a dispatcher sending a cab "to 66th
and Seminary."

Finally, the team was sold to Swig, a San Francisco hotel owner, in
1975-76. Swig had been in the background, trying to get San Francisco
and state politicians to build a hockey arena there so he could move
the team. Jack Evans was promoted coach after winning the Calder Cup
with the Seals' AHL affiliate in Salt Lake City. Maruk and Merrick
were star rookies and attendance reached a high of 6,949. Swig
brought aboard the Cleveland-based Gund brothers as investors, a
propitious move that led to the Gund's moving the team to Cleveland
two seasons later. The Gunds then merged the Barons with the
Minnesota North Stars, ending the Seals' legacy, and later founded
the San Jose Sharks.

Swig's bid to move to San Francisco ended when he backed the wrong
candidate for mayor in 1975. The NHL then gave him permission to move
the team. The Gunds, who had invested far more than they expected or
intended, persuaded Swig to move into their building in Richfield,
Ohio, halfway between Cleveland and Akron. With only six weeks to
sell tickets before the season, the Barons got off to a bad start
from which they never recovered. Swig suffered a heart attack later
and began to miss payrolls. The team was disbanded, with its best
talent moving to Minnesota, after two seasons.

Kurtzberg, a hockey fan and former attorney who turned to writing,
did dozens of interviews and research to compile this thorough
compilation of not only the Seals' history but the stories of its
players, coaches and off-ice leaders. Some of it's sordid and some
uplifting. Many Seals' veterans were discouraged by their years in
Oakland, others saw it as a gateway to future success.

Kurtzberg and his publisher no doubt realize fame and riches won't
flow from a story about a ragged sports franchise that folded 30
years ago, but this is a book that hockey fans of all ages will enjoy.

The author's love of his subject matter combined with extensive
research and the "oral history" way of letting the players tell their
own stories makes it both a fun read and an authoritative resource.

http://www.nhl.com/features/insider/sealsbook080206.html

Brad,

Great work! You can be very proud of what you accomplished here!

Craig




   ----- Original Message -----
   From: reorgman
   To: hockhist@yahoogroups.com
   Sent: Wednesday, August 02, 2006 2:21 PM
   Subject: [hockhist] Book on California Golden Seals - article from nhl.com


   New release recounts
   Seals' sorry saga
   By John McGourty | NHL.com | August 2, 2006

   ----------------------------------------------------------
   ----------

   There was more to the California Golden Seals than white skates, and
   in a new book -- Shorthanded: The untold story of the Seals, hockey's
   most colorful team published by AuthorHouse -- author Bradley
   Kurtzberg recounts the nine-year history of the various incarnations
   of the only 1967 NHL expansion team that failed to establish a
   permanent base.

   Chronic under-funding, ownership turnover and bad management doomed
   the California Seals, then Oakland Seals, who became the California
   Golden Seals under the control of wacky Oakland Athletics owner
   Charles O. Finley and, again, the California Seals when owned by
   would-be, but ill-fated savior Mel Swig.

   The book is replete with stories of wandering goaltenders, disgusted
   coaches, front-office treachery and bag-skates for overmatched losing
   teams. But it's also about the hopes and dreams of players, coaches,
   front-office types and owners who believed they could be successful,
   given an NHL opportunity.

   Related Links

   ----------------------------------------------------------
   ----------

   California's hockey history
   Sealshockey.com
   NHL Insider Archive

   While it's popular to think of the Seals as lovable losers, this was
   an organization that included solid, old-time hockey men like Bert
   Olmstead, Earl Ingarfield and Vic Stasiuk and future League leaders
   like Marshall Johnston, Craig Patrick, Terry Murray, Gerry Ehman, Tom
   Webster, Ted Hampson, Bert Marshall, Al MacAdam and Bob Murdoch.
   Dennis Maruk, Charlie Simmer, Gilles Meloche, Wayne Merrick and
   Reggie Leach were Seals before moving on to more famous roles later
   in their careers.

   The first, biggest and most enduring problem for the Seals was that
   there was no real demand for a hockey team in Oakland. The NHL had
   ready buyers in five of the six expansion cities, but it was the
   negotiating television networks that wanted a second West Coast team
   for a rivalry with the Los Angeles team. The first ownership group,
   headed by Bing Crosby and the Von Gerbig family, eventually expanded
   into 52 owners, including San Francisco 49ers quarterback John Brodie
   and former New York Mets owner Nelson Doubleday.

   The popularity of the West Coast League's San Francisco Seals
   persuaded some that hockey could be successful in the Bay Area, but
   the Seals' rink, the Cow Palace, was too small for an NHL arena. The
   demographics of the East Bay were much different, less conducive to
   launching a hockey team, than "The City" and the peninsula. Poor
   marketing generated sparse East Bay attendance. Tellingly, a
   significant part of the fan base made the trek from San Jose to the
   ill-suited Oakland Coliseum, a cavernous concrete structure that made
   middling crowds seem even smaller.

   Rudy Pilous was hired as the first GM and named Olmstead coach.
   Before play started, Pilous was out and Olmstead was coach and GM.
   Frank Selke Jr. was hired as team president. After a disastrous
   season, on and off the ice, in which the team averaged only 4,950
   fans and finished 15-47-17, Olmstead was out and Selke demoted to GM.

   A group that owned the Harlem Globetrotters became a major owner and
   hired Bill Torrey, who would later mastermind the New York Islanders
   to four Stanley Cups, to work with Selke. Joining a frugal operation,
   Torrey spent his first night on the team's hospitality in a rundown
   hotel room with a large rat. That group failed to keep up with
   payments and sales to interested parties in Vancouver and Buffalo
   fell through. Those bids were not fruitless, though. The NHL
   appreciated the strength of the would-be investors and awarded
   franchises in both cities.

   The team, heavily in debt, was then sold to a conglomerate with
   plenty of partners and little cash. Management was haphazard and
   chaotic. One famous partner, an athlete from another sport, would
   pocket gate receipts while another, an equally famous retired
   athlete, hustled in one day to meet a $30,000 payroll with his own
   cash. The team ended the season in bankruptcy, with a judge calling
   the owner a "con man."

   That's when Finley stepped in, with his green and gold uniforms
   identical to the Oakland Athletics, right down to white skates. Each
   player got green suitcases for road travel.

   "We had those green suitcases," recalled defenseman Rick Smith, who
   was traded to the Seals for defenseman Carol Vadnais after winning a
   Stanley Cup in Boston. "We felt like we had joined the circus. We
   also had the white skates. Back then, I was thinking, white skates,
   girl's figure skates, sissies. We never got past that. It was so bad,
   opposing teams didn't say anything. The other players felt so bad for
   us."

   Under the ownership of Charles O. Finley, the Seals skated in green
   and gold uniforms identical to the Oakland Athletics, right down to
   white skates.
   Finley believed in marketing teams, but he wasn't impressed with
   individual players. Defensemen Harry Howell and Vadnais were holding
   out for more money when Finley called Howell and told him he didn't
   care if signed or not because the team wouldn't be a winner either
   way. Another time, he told a Seals player he wouldn't meet Athletics'
   pitcher Vida Blue's demand because "he wouldn't pay a man $1 million
   to throw a baseball."

   Finley ran the team into the ground, chasing off most of the
   executive talent, while trying to move to another city. Von Gerbig's
   antitrust suit blocked that and the League wanted a new owner in
   Oakland. The Seals won only 13 games in 1973-74 when the NHL bought
   the team from Finley, giving him a profit he bragged about.

   The 1974-75 Seals switched to blue-and-gold uniforms but dealt off
   four of their top five scorers for more players who were younger and
   earned less. Bill McCreary was named director of hockey operations
   and Johnston the coach. McCreary fired Johnston and took over as
   coach in midseason. McCreary tried to install a walkie-talkie system
   to Johnston on the bench, but it was scrapped after the first
   transmission Johnston heard was a dispatcher sending a cab "to 66th
   and Seminary."

   Finally, the team was sold to Swig, a San Francisco hotel owner, in
   1975-76. Swig had been in the background, trying to get San Francisco
   and state politicians to build a hockey arena there so he could move
   the team. Jack Evans was promoted coach after winning the Calder Cup
   with the Seals' AHL affiliate in Salt Lake City. Maruk and Merrick
   were star rookies and attendance reached a high of 6,949. Swig
   brought aboard the Cleveland-based Gund brothers as investors, a
   propitious move that led to the Gund's moving the team to Cleveland
   two seasons later. The Gunds then merged the Barons with the
   Minnesota North Stars, ending the Seals' legacy, and later founded
   the San Jose Sharks.

   Swig's bid to move to San Francisco ended when he backed the wrong
   candidate for mayor in 1975. The NHL then gave him permission to move
   the team. The Gunds, who had invested far more than they expected or
   intended, persuaded Swig to move into their building in Richfield,
   Ohio, halfway between Cleveland and Akron. With only six weeks to
   sell tickets before the season, the Barons got off to a bad start
   from which they never recovered. Swig suffered a heart attack later
   and began to miss payrolls. The team was disbanded, with its best
   talent moving to Minnesota, after two seasons.

   Kurtzberg, a hockey fan and former attorney who turned to writing,
   did dozens of interviews and research to compile this thorough
   compilation of not only the Seals' history but the stories of its
   players, coaches and off-ice leaders. Some of it's sordid and some
   uplifting. Many Seals' veterans were discouraged by their years in
   Oakland, others saw it as a gateway to future success.

   Kurtzberg and his publisher no doubt realize fame and riches won't
   flow from a story about a ragged sports franchise that folded 30
   years ago, but this is a book that hockey fans of all ages will enjoy.

   The author's love of his subject matter combined with extensive
   research and the "oral history" way of letting the players tell their
   own stories makes it both a fun read and an authoritative resource.

   http://www.nhl.com/features/insider/sealsbook080206.html





[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Great stuff Brad.

As a "former attorney", I'm sure you no doubt uncovered that Charlie
Finley's attorney, and alternate to the NHL Board of Governors, was
no other than US Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens.

Morey


--- In hockhist@yahoogroups.com, "reorgman" <reorgman@...> wrote:
>
> New release recounts
> Seals' sorry saga
> By John McGourty | NHL.com | August 2, 2006
>
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------
---
> ----------
>
> There was more to the California Golden Seals than white skates,
and
> in a new book -- Shorthanded: The untold story of the Seals,
hockey's
> most colorful team published by AuthorHouse -- author Bradley
> Kurtzberg recounts the nine-year history of the various
incarnations
> of the only 1967 NHL expansion team that failed to establish a
> permanent base.
>
> Chronic under-funding, ownership turnover and bad management
doomed
> the California Seals, then Oakland Seals, who became the
California
> Golden Seals under the control of wacky Oakland Athletics owner
> Charles O. Finley and, again, the California Seals when owned by
> would-be, but ill-fated savior Mel Swig.
>
> The book is replete with stories of wandering goaltenders,
disgusted
> coaches, front-office treachery and bag-skates for overmatched
losing
> teams. But it's also about the hopes and dreams of players,
coaches,
> front-office types and owners who believed they could be
successful,
> given an NHL opportunity.
>
> Related Links
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------
---
> ----------
>
> California's hockey history
> Sealshockey.com
> NHL Insider Archive
>
>
> While it's popular to think of the Seals as lovable losers, this
was
> an organization that included solid, old-time hockey men like Bert
> Olmstead, Earl Ingarfield and Vic Stasiuk and future League
leaders
> like Marshall Johnston, Craig Patrick, Terry Murray, Gerry Ehman,
Tom
> Webster, Ted Hampson, Bert Marshall, Al MacAdam and Bob Murdoch.
> Dennis Maruk, Charlie Simmer, Gilles Meloche, Wayne Merrick and
> Reggie Leach were Seals before moving on to more famous roles
later
> in their careers.
>
> The first, biggest and most enduring problem for the Seals was
that
> there was no real demand for a hockey team in Oakland. The NHL had
> ready buyers in five of the six expansion cities, but it was the
> negotiating television networks that wanted a second West Coast
team
> for a rivalry with the Los Angeles team. The first ownership
group,
> headed by Bing Crosby and the Von Gerbig family, eventually
expanded
> into 52 owners, including San Francisco 49ers quarterback John
Brodie
> and former New York Mets owner Nelson Doubleday.
>
> The popularity of the West Coast League's San Francisco Seals
> persuaded some that hockey could be successful in the Bay Area,
but
> the Seals' rink, the Cow Palace, was too small for an NHL arena.
The
> demographics of the East Bay were much different, less conducive
to
> launching a hockey team, than "The City" and the peninsula. Poor
> marketing generated sparse East Bay attendance. Tellingly, a
> significant part of the fan base made the trek from San Jose to
the
> ill-suited Oakland Coliseum, a cavernous concrete structure that
made
> middling crowds seem even smaller.
>
> Rudy Pilous was hired as the first GM and named Olmstead coach.
> Before play started, Pilous was out and Olmstead was coach and GM.
> Frank Selke Jr. was hired as team president. After a disastrous
> season, on and off the ice, in which the team averaged only 4,950
> fans and finished 15-47-17, Olmstead was out and Selke demoted to
GM.
>
> A group that owned the Harlem Globetrotters became a major owner
and
> hired Bill Torrey, who would later mastermind the New York
Islanders
> to four Stanley Cups, to work with Selke. Joining a frugal
operation,
> Torrey spent his first night on the team's hospitality in a
rundown
> hotel room with a large rat. That group failed to keep up with
> payments and sales to interested parties in Vancouver and Buffalo
> fell through. Those bids were not fruitless, though. The NHL
> appreciated the strength of the would-be investors and awarded
> franchises in both cities.
>
> The team, heavily in debt, was then sold to a conglomerate with
> plenty of partners and little cash. Management was haphazard and
> chaotic. One famous partner, an athlete from another sport, would
> pocket gate receipts while another, an equally famous retired
> athlete, hustled in one day to meet a $30,000 payroll with his own
> cash. The team ended the season in bankruptcy, with a judge
calling
> the owner a "con man."
>
> That's when Finley stepped in, with his green and gold uniforms
> identical to the Oakland Athletics, right down to white skates.
Each
> player got green suitcases for road travel.
>
> "We had those green suitcases," recalled defenseman Rick Smith,
who
> was traded to the Seals for defenseman Carol Vadnais after winning
a
> Stanley Cup in Boston. "We felt like we had joined the circus. We
> also had the white skates. Back then, I was thinking, white
skates,
> girl's figure skates, sissies. We never got past that. It was so
bad,
> opposing teams didn't say anything. The other players felt so bad
for
> us."
>
>
> Under the ownership of Charles O. Finley, the Seals skated in
green
> and gold uniforms identical to the Oakland Athletics, right down
to
> white skates.
> Finley believed in marketing teams, but he wasn't impressed with
> individual players. Defensemen Harry Howell and Vadnais were
holding
> out for more money when Finley called Howell and told him he
didn't
> care if signed or not because the team wouldn't be a winner either
> way. Another time, he told a Seals player he wouldn't meet
Athletics'
> pitcher Vida Blue's demand because "he wouldn't pay a man $1
million
> to throw a baseball."
>
> Finley ran the team into the ground, chasing off most of the
> executive talent, while trying to move to another city. Von
Gerbig's
> antitrust suit blocked that and the League wanted a new owner in
> Oakland. The Seals won only 13 games in 1973-74 when the NHL
bought
> the team from Finley, giving him a profit he bragged about.
>
> The 1974-75 Seals switched to blue-and-gold uniforms but dealt off
> four of their top five scorers for more players who were younger
and
> earned less. Bill McCreary was named director of hockey operations
> and Johnston the coach. McCreary fired Johnston and took over as
> coach in midseason. McCreary tried to install a walkie-talkie
system
> to Johnston on the bench, but it was scrapped after the first
> transmission Johnston heard was a dispatcher sending a cab "to
66th
> and Seminary."
>
> Finally, the team was sold to Swig, a San Francisco hotel owner,
in
> 1975-76. Swig had been in the background, trying to get San
Francisco
> and state politicians to build a hockey arena there so he could
move
> the team. Jack Evans was promoted coach after winning the Calder
Cup
> with the Seals' AHL affiliate in Salt Lake City. Maruk and Merrick
> were star rookies and attendance reached a high of 6,949. Swig
> brought aboard the Cleveland-based Gund brothers as investors, a
> propitious move that led to the Gund's moving the team to
Cleveland
> two seasons later. The Gunds then merged the Barons with the
> Minnesota North Stars, ending the Seals' legacy, and later founded
> the San Jose Sharks.
>
> Swig's bid to move to San Francisco ended when he backed the wrong
> candidate for mayor in 1975. The NHL then gave him permission to
move
> the team. The Gunds, who had invested far more than they expected
or
> intended, persuaded Swig to move into their building in Richfield,
> Ohio, halfway between Cleveland and Akron. With only six weeks to
> sell tickets before the season, the Barons got off to a bad start
> from which they never recovered. Swig suffered a heart attack
later
> and began to miss payrolls. The team was disbanded, with its best
> talent moving to Minnesota, after two seasons.
>
> Kurtzberg, a hockey fan and former attorney who turned to writing,
> did dozens of interviews and research to compile this thorough
> compilation of not only the Seals' history but the stories of its
> players, coaches and off-ice leaders. Some of it's sordid and some
> uplifting. Many Seals' veterans were discouraged by their years in
> Oakland, others saw it as a gateway to future success.
>
> Kurtzberg and his publisher no doubt realize fame and riches won't
> flow from a story about a ragged sports franchise that folded 30
> years ago, but this is a book that hockey fans of all ages will
enjoy.
>
> The author's love of his subject matter combined with extensive
> research and the "oral history" way of letting the players tell
their
> own stories makes it both a fun read and an authoritative resource.
>
> http://www.nhl.com/features/insider/sealsbook080206.html
>

Thanks for posting this, Dave.

Does anyone know if there is a post or list published somewhere for all the
"old" (say, pre-1974) that have aired on Canadian Television over the last ten
or even 20 years?  I'm curious as to what's available.  For example, I've seen
games between the Rangers and Toronto in the '71 playoffs but I've never seen
any between the Rangers and Montreal from '72.

If they've aired certain games then they might air them again or someone may
have taped them.  Thanks.

Jay in Milford


-----Original Message-----
From: goaliedave@...
To: hockhist@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Tue, 1 Aug 2006 12:19 AM
Subject: [hockhist] 1964 Stanley Cup game 6 Toronto Detroit on TV


Hi all, they showed Game 6 of the 1964 Stanley Cup Final on something called
"APTN Stanley Cup Classics" Saturday night while I was vacationing just north of
Barrie Ontario, channel 40. It looks like a Saturday night series as they are
showing the 1967 Final game 7 next Sat Aug 5 at 9pm... if any of you can locate
it on your TV systems. I haven't seen a complete game from this era replayed and
it was a treat. I was stricken by the similarities to today's game and thought
I'd pass on my observations. I apologize in advance for the length of the post.

Some of the things I had expected... white boards, few helmets (only Red Kelly
and Billy Harris), Sawchuck with the mask and Bower without, forwards skating
through the D like a knife thru butter, and long shifts. One strange sight was
no wall between the player's bench and the fans.

Bill Gadsby (D) took most of the face-offs in the defensive zone ... something
you never see today... I wonder what the reason was?

Here is my long winded game summary and observations on the differences in
goaltending styles.

The thing that stood out in the first period was that there was no chippy play
or stickwork - none. This meant the D relied on poke checks, hook checks (been a
while since I saw one of those), and good timing to intercept rushes. Coupled
with the lack of backchecking by the forwards, the action, skating, and passing
were at least equal to today's game and the excitement level was higher. There
was very little dump and chase, and only 2 or 3 times the D stood a guy up at
the blue line; mostly it was end to end action.

The goaltending was terrible. I know these 2 were among the very best, but if
any part of the game is better today it is clearly the goalies. The announcers
remarked several times about remarkable saves which were routine by today's
standards. Sawchuck was his diving best, sprawling in the opening 10 seconds to
rob Allan Stanley. Both goalies spent all game back on the goal line fighting to
get a body part in front of the puck. Rebound control was terrible. Bower stood
straight up the whole time, even on rebounds. I remember learning to play as a
young goalie in 1964 but it is hilarious to see how it looks given what we know
today.

The first intermission had Ward Cornell interviewing Stan Mikita about the game.
They both had awesome insights, much more enjoyable than what we get these days.
Mikita profoundly predicts that the play is wide open and the goal floodgates
will open in period 2. This was followed by a guy named Ed describing the goal
and then showing a replay. Next Frank Selke Jr. interviewed Foster Hewitt.
Finally, Ward Cornell returned with Harry Howell and Jerry Toppazini - the main
question being, who was the strongest NHL players in the corners? The top 3 in
order were Hull, Howe and Horton. They both mentioned that Hull just held out
his arms to keep players away and there was nothing you could do to get in to
the puck. (These days the stick is used so much for leverage and as a weapon in
these situations). Toppazini also gave a funny account of a fight he had with
Bobby Hull, getting killed then having to go sit in the penalty box separated by
a cop.

2nd period: Henderson scored a beauty at 4:20. Gadsby won the face-off in his
own zone with Henderson taking off like a bullet as the puck dropped, he got in
behind the Leaf D of Baun and Brewer and took a perfect pass from Pit Martin at
centre with 4 Leafs chasing him, putting the puck up over Bower's glove.

Keon was all over the ice, double shifting, and the major force in the game.
They mentioned Al Langlois was the biggest guy on the ice at 205lbs.

2-1 Detroit as MacMillan (#12) came around the net with the puck to Bower's
glove side, curled in at the face-off circle with Bower reaching his stick out
to prevent the pass in front. Bower is hugging the post with his catching glove
turned backwards, standing on the goalline straight up. MacMillan fires a pass
in the slot to Pit Martin (#8) who tips it in before Bower can react. Nowadays
the goalie would have out of the crease on his knees as MacMillan curled and
fired, and then shuffled over to the middle to make a routine stop.

2-2 Pulford on a similar goal to the previous one, except to the right this
time, Stewart took it, curled and fired a quick pass to Pulford standing tot he
left of Sawchuck. The move Sawchuck made took me waaay back to how we were
taught in those days. As Sawchuck followed the pass across to his left (glove
side) his right leg stayed planted, and he turned his left skate sideways and
pushed off, stretching it towards the post. The goalstick stays flat on its
blade and tight to the skate, the idea being to stretch over quickly and stop
the expected low one-timer with the stick. This motion necessarily makes you
fall backward, with the glove hand flailing and hoping to get lucky and catch a
high shot. Honestly, you would have to watch a lot of old hockey games to see
even one of those shots saved, I don't know why they taught us that way, it is
simply too slow to get there before the puck. Today of course the goalies push
off totally differently, using the opposite leg, with a shuffle then slide
motion onto their knees covering everything except the top corner.

3-2 Howe backhands one thru Bower after Horton is blatantly tripped at the
blueline by a sly Delvecchio moving across the blueline out of the play so that
the ref didn't see him. Bower just stood there straight up without moving.

The goalies play most of the shots with their stick, especially clearing any
rebounds into the corner. We were taught to always keep the puck in play, it
doesn't seem so odd given that this use of the stick had been common since the
turn of the century. Now that we are forty years along from this game, it seems
that 1964 is easily grouped with the turn of the century play. These days
goalies trap all loose pucks as the forwards are in the crease jamming
everything with their sticks. Back in 1964 no one every went near the crease ...
I didn't see one stick from an opponent anywhere near a goalie clearing a
rebound into the corner.

3-3 Billy Harris in the slot takes a beauty pass from Armstrong after the puck
kicked out from he corner on a bad pass.

2nd intermission followed the same script. Cornell with Mikita - Mikita says
goals are due to forwards aren't coming back with their man, especially Detroit.
Ed with the goal highlights. Frank Selke Jr interviews Milt Schmidt. Schmidt
says Detroit is known for those long breakout passes that Henderson scored on.
He also says Detroit is being too cautious thinking they have the Cup in the bag
up 3-2 in games. Cornell then interviews Boom Boom Geoffrion who says if rumours
are true that he will be traded from Montreal, if would be hard but he would go
as he is a pro.

3rd period resumes with Bill Hewitt on the play by play and "Steve Dancy (?)
with me tonight from HNIC Montreal crew. Hewitt apologizes for late / incomplete
goal and penalty calls, as he can't hear the rink announcer and his view of the
clock is blocked so that he can only see the ice !

Early on Sawchuck makes the mirror image of the awkward skate slide move from
the Pulford goal. From the standup stance, he turns his right skate blade
sideways, slides it towards the far post with his stick 'glued to it', falling
backward with the blocker hand moving toward the post hoping to block a high
shot. I did that move hundreds of times and all you can do is hope that the
forward rushes the shot. We goalies used to do a lot of praying in those days.

Hewitt remarks that the smog in the arena now has descended near ice level, he
can see a blue green haze. He doesn't say, but I assume it is from the
accumulation of cigarette smoke during the game.

Finally I get to see a classic Bower pokecheck, a thing of beauty. Soon after
McGregor rings one off the post that could have won it for Detroit. Hewitt ways
Detroit is desperate for Pit Martin's young legs, but he's been in the box with
a misconduct.

I notice that there is no close checking. The guys always pull up and circle 6
feet from the puck carrier, stretching with their leg and stick to try to
intercept a predicted pass. I guess it just never occurred to them to go right
at a guy, as it surely would have been called for interference in those says.
Even the few decent hits at the blue line were called for penalties this game.

13:15 Baun goes down hard on 1 leg away from the play, no one it, the announcers
speculate he caught a skate in a rut. As the stretcher makes its way, Baun combs
his hair out of his face. Definitely not in any pain.

16:30 Delvecchio cuts thru centre "a la Lindros", makes a left to right deke
that puts him in prime "lindros hit" vulnerability, but Kelly angles him off
rather than crush him. Baun returns to the ice for his regular shifts.

The period ends and the OT intermission follows the same script again.Cornell
with Mikita. Selke this time has Ted Lindsay, they talk about the 1950 Pete
Babando goal. Foster Hewitt had called it his favourite game, Lindsay recalled
how the Rangers were playing their home games in Toronto. Cornell brings all 3
guys back this time - Howell, Toppazini, and Geoffrion in a long panel
discussion. They talk about how in Detroit it is tough for the visitors to
change lines as the benches are so far into the corners. Toppazini comes up with
a proposed rule change for fights... just let the fights go to the end until one
guy gets beaten. He figures fights are broken up too early and guys count on
that protection ... so by removing it, guys would be less apt to fight.

1:43 of OT and Baun puts one in from the right point. It bounces in front taking
a crazy hop past Sawchuck. Langlois had rifled it around the boards but not past
Baun... he had lots of time, too bad he didn't put it up the middle again to a
streaking forward.

Post game interview, Mikita picks Baun as first star. Baun confirms the shot
took a crazy hop in front. Baun says he's in no pain, just had the leg frozen
and he expects it's an injury that is common, a pinched nerve "similar to what
Sawchuck had" and that he'll be fine tomorrow.

Broadcast fades away showing George Retzleff (?) as producer.

Summary:
- the 1964 game is more exciting than the 2006 game
- the 1964 broadcast was better than the 2006 version
- the goalies in 1964 were terrible
- I have seen it with my own eyes now, the big legend of Baun scoring his goal
on a "broken leg" is hogwash. Turns out all he had was a small fracture of his
ankle bone, something players play through all the time these days.

Hope that brought back some memories for some.

Dave in Whitby

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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Hi Morey:

A small world, isn't it.  Finley was a one of a kind character and John
Paul Stevens...well...small world.  It's amazing who got caught up in
the Seals saga...Whitey Ford, Pat Summerall, George Gillette, Charlie
Finley, Bing Crosby, the Doobie Brothers almost bought in, the Knox
brothers did for a time....

Glad you enjoyed the article.  I would love to hear your feedback on the
book.

Brad

epenaltybox@... wrote:

> Great stuff Brad.
>
> As a "former attorney", I'm sure you no doubt uncovered that Charlie
> Finley's attorney, and alternate to the NHL Board of Governors, was
> no other than US Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens.
>
> Morey
>
> --- In hockhist@yahoogroups.com <mailto:hockhist%40yahoogroups.com>,
> "reorgman" <reorgman@...> wrote:
> >
> > New release recounts
> > Seals' sorry saga
> > By John McGourty | NHL.com | August 2, 2006
> >
> >
> > ----------------------------------------------------------
> ---
> > ----------
> >
> > There was more to the California Golden Seals than white skates,
> and
> > in a new book -- Shorthanded: The untold story of the Seals,
> hockey's
> > most colorful team published by AuthorHouse -- author Bradley
> > Kurtzberg recounts the nine-year history of the various
> incarnations
> > of the only 1967 NHL expansion team that failed to establish a
> > permanent base.
> >
> > Chronic under-funding, ownership turnover and bad management
> doomed
> > the California Seals, then Oakland Seals, who became the
> California
> > Golden Seals under the control of wacky Oakland Athletics owner
> > Charles O. Finley and, again, the California Seals when owned by
> > would-be, but ill-fated savior Mel Swig.
> >
> > The book is replete with stories of wandering goaltenders,
> disgusted
> > coaches, front-office treachery and bag-skates for overmatched
> losing
> > teams. But it's also about the hopes and dreams of players,
> coaches,
> > front-office types and owners who believed they could be
> successful,
> > given an NHL opportunity.
> >
> > Related Links
> >
> > ----------------------------------------------------------
> ---
> > ----------
> >
> > California's hockey history
> > Sealshockey.com
> > NHL Insider Archive
> >
> >
> > While it's popular to think of the Seals as lovable losers, this
> was
> > an organization that included solid, old-time hockey men like Bert
> > Olmstead, Earl Ingarfield and Vic Stasiuk and future League
> leaders
> > like Marshall Johnston, Craig Patrick, Terry Murray, Gerry Ehman,
> Tom
> > Webster, Ted Hampson, Bert Marshall, Al MacAdam and Bob Murdoch.
> > Dennis Maruk, Charlie Simmer, Gilles Meloche, Wayne Merrick and
> > Reggie Leach were Seals before moving on to more famous roles
> later
> > in their careers.
> >
> > The first, biggest and most enduring problem for the Seals was
> that
> > there was no real demand for a hockey team in Oakland. The NHL had
> > ready buyers in five of the six expansion cities, but it was the
> > negotiating television networks that wanted a second West Coast
> team
> > for a rivalry with the Los Angeles team. The first ownership
> group,
> > headed by Bing Crosby and the Von Gerbig family, eventually
> expanded
> > into 52 owners, including San Francisco 49ers quarterback John
> Brodie
> > and former New York Mets owner Nelson Doubleday.
> >
> > The popularity of the West Coast League's San Francisco Seals
> > persuaded some that hockey could be successful in the Bay Area,
> but
> > the Seals' rink, the Cow Palace, was too small for an NHL arena.
> The
> > demographics of the East Bay were much different, less conducive
> to
> > launching a hockey team, than "The City" and the peninsula. Poor
> > marketing generated sparse East Bay attendance. Tellingly, a
> > significant part of the fan base made the trek from San Jose to
> the
> > ill-suited Oakland Coliseum, a cavernous concrete structure that
> made
> > middling crowds seem even smaller.
> >
> > Rudy Pilous was hired as the first GM and named Olmstead coach.
> > Before play started, Pilous was out and Olmstead was coach and GM.
> > Frank Selke Jr. was hired as team president. After a disastrous
> > season, on and off the ice, in which the team averaged only 4,950
> > fans and finished 15-47-17, Olmstead was out and Selke demoted to
> GM.
> >
> > A group that owned the Harlem Globetrotters became a major owner
> and
> > hired Bill Torrey, who would later mastermind the New York
> Islanders
> > to four Stanley Cups, to work with Selke. Joining a frugal
> operation,
> > Torrey spent his first night on the team's hospitality in a
> rundown
> > hotel room with a large rat. That group failed to keep up with
> > payments and sales to interested parties in Vancouver and Buffalo
> > fell through. Those bids were not fruitless, though. The NHL
> > appreciated the strength of the would-be investors and awarded
> > franchises in both cities.
> >
> > The team, heavily in debt, was then sold to a conglomerate with
> > plenty of partners and little cash. Management was haphazard and
> > chaotic. One famous partner, an athlete from another sport, would
> > pocket gate receipts while another, an equally famous retired
> > athlete, hustled in one day to meet a $30,000 payroll with his own
> > cash. The team ended the season in bankruptcy, with a judge
> calling
> > the owner a "con man."
> >
> > That's when Finley stepped in, with his green and gold uniforms
> > identical to the Oakland Athletics, right down to white skates.
> Each
> > player got green suitcases for road travel.
> >
> > "We had those green suitcases," recalled defenseman Rick Smith,
> who
> > was traded to the Seals for defenseman Carol Vadnais after winning
> a
> > Stanley Cup in Boston. "We felt like we had joined the circus. We
> > also had the white skates. Back then, I was thinking, white
> skates,
> > girl's figure skates, sissies. We never got past that. It was so
> bad,
> > opposing teams didn't say anything. The other players felt so bad
> for
> > us."
> >
> >
> > Under the ownership of Charles O. Finley, the Seals skated in
> green
> > and gold uniforms identical to the Oakland Athletics, right down
> to
> > white skates.
> > Finley believed in marketing teams, but he wasn't impressed with
> > individual players. Defensemen Harry Howell and Vadnais were
> holding
> > out for more money when Finley called Howell and told him he
> didn't
> > care if signed or not because the team wouldn't be a winner either
> > way. Another time, he told a Seals player he wouldn't meet
> Athletics'
> > pitcher Vida Blue's demand because "he wouldn't pay a man $1
> million
> > to throw a baseball."
> >
> > Finley ran the team into the ground, chasing off most of the
> > executive talent, while trying to move to another city. Von
> Gerbig's
> > antitrust suit blocked that and the League wanted a new owner in
> > Oakland. The Seals won only 13 games in 1973-74 when the NHL
> bought
> > the team from Finley, giving him a profit he bragged about.
> >
> > The 1974-75 Seals switched to blue-and-gold uniforms but dealt off
> > four of their top five scorers for more players who were younger
> and
> > earned less. Bill McCreary was named director of hockey operations
> > and Johnston the coach. McCreary fired Johnston and took over as
> > coach in midseason. McCreary tried to install a walkie-talkie
> system
> > to Johnston on the bench, but it was scrapped after the first
> > transmission Johnston heard was a dispatcher sending a cab "to
> 66th
> > and Seminary."
> >
> > Finally, the team was sold to Swig, a San Francisco hotel owner,
> in
> > 1975-76. Swig had been in the background, trying to get San
> Francisco
> > and state politicians to build a hockey arena there so he could
> move
> > the team. Jack Evans was promoted coach after winning the Calder
> Cup
> > with the Seals' AHL affiliate in Salt Lake City. Maruk and Merrick
> > were star rookies and attendance reached a high of 6,949. Swig
> > brought aboard the Cleveland-based Gund brothers as investors, a
> > propitious move that led to the Gund's moving the team to
> Cleveland
> > two seasons later. The Gunds then merged the Barons with the
> > Minnesota North Stars, ending the Seals' legacy, and later founded
> > the San Jose Sharks.
> >
> > Swig's bid to move to San Francisco ended when he backed the wrong
> > candidate for mayor in 1975. The NHL then gave him permission to
> move
> > the team. The Gunds, who had invested far more than they expected
> or
> > intended, persuaded Swig to move into their building in Richfield,
> > Ohio, halfway between Cleveland and Akron. With only six weeks to
> > sell tickets before the season, the Barons got off to a bad start
> > from which they never recovered. Swig suffered a heart attack
> later
> > and began to miss payrolls. The team was disbanded, with its best
> > talent moving to Minnesota, after two seasons.
> >
> > Kurtzberg, a hockey fan and former attorney who turned to writing,
> > did dozens of interviews and research to compile this thorough
> > compilation of not only the Seals' history but the stories of its
> > players, coaches and off-ice leaders. Some of it's sordid and some
> > uplifting. Many Seals' veterans were discouraged by their years in
> > Oakland, others saw it as a gateway to future success.
> >
> > Kurtzberg and his publisher no doubt realize fame and riches won't
> > flow from a story about a ragged sports franchise that folded 30
> > years ago, but this is a book that hockey fans of all ages will
> enjoy.
> >
> > The author's love of his subject matter combined with extensive
> > research and the "oral history" way of letting the players tell
> their
> > own stories makes it both a fun read and an authoritative resource.
> >
> > http://www.nhl.com/features/insider/sealsbook080206.html
> <http://www.nhl.com/features/insider/sealsbook080206.html>
> >
>
>

Thanks Craig...I hope its the first of many hockey books for me...I
didn't even know about the article being up until u sent the email.

Brad

argonauts25@... wrote:

> Brad,
>
> Great work! You can be very proud of what you accomplished here!
>
> Craig
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: reorgman
> To: hockhist@yahoogroups.com <mailto:hockhist%40yahoogroups.com>
> Sent: Wednesday, August 02, 2006 2:21 PM
> Subject: [hockhist] Book on California Golden Seals - article from nhl.com
>
> New release recounts
> Seals' sorry saga
> By John McGourty | NHL.com | August 2, 2006
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------
> ----------
>
> There was more to the California Golden Seals than white skates, and
> in a new book -- Shorthanded: The untold story of the Seals, hockey's
> most colorful team published by AuthorHouse -- author Bradley
> Kurtzberg recounts the nine-year history of the various incarnations
> of the only 1967 NHL expansion team that failed to establish a
> permanent base.
>
> Chronic under-funding, ownership turnover and bad management doomed
> the California Seals, then Oakland Seals, who became the California
> Golden Seals under the control of wacky Oakland Athletics owner
> Charles O. Finley and, again, the California Seals when owned by
> would-be, but ill-fated savior Mel Swig.
>
> The book is replete with stories of wandering goaltenders, disgusted
> coaches, front-office treachery and bag-skates for overmatched losing
> teams. But it's also about the hopes and dreams of players, coaches,
> front-office types and owners who believed they could be successful,
> given an NHL opportunity.
>
> Related Links
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------
> ----------
>
> California's hockey history
> Sealshockey.com
> NHL Insider Archive
>
> While it's popular to think of the Seals as lovable losers, this was
> an organization that included solid, old-time hockey men like Bert
> Olmstead, Earl Ingarfield and Vic Stasiuk and future League leaders
> like Marshall Johnston, Craig Patrick, Terry Murray, Gerry Ehman, Tom
> Webster, Ted Hampson, Bert Marshall, Al MacAdam and Bob Murdoch.
> Dennis Maruk, Charlie Simmer, Gilles Meloche, Wayne Merrick and
> Reggie Leach were Seals before moving on to more famous roles later
> in their careers.
>
> The first, biggest and most enduring problem for the Seals was that
> there was no real demand for a hockey team in Oakland. The NHL had
> ready buyers in five of the six expansion cities, but it was the
> negotiating television networks that wanted a second West Coast team
> for a rivalry with the Los Angeles team. The first ownership group,
> headed by Bing Crosby and the Von Gerbig family, eventually expanded
> into 52 owners, including San Francisco 49ers quarterback John Brodie
> and former New York Mets owner Nelson Doubleday.
>
> The popularity of the West Coast League's San Francisco Seals
> persuaded some that hockey could be successful in the Bay Area, but
> the Seals' rink, the Cow Palace, was too small for an NHL arena. The
> demographics of the East Bay were much different, less conducive to
> launching a hockey team, than "The City" and the peninsula. Poor
> marketing generated sparse East Bay attendance. Tellingly, a
> significant part of the fan base made the trek from San Jose to the
> ill-suited Oakland Coliseum, a cavernous concrete structure that made
> middling crowds seem even smaller.
>
> Rudy Pilous was hired as the first GM and named Olmstead coach.
> Before play started, Pilous was out and Olmstead was coach and GM.
> Frank Selke Jr. was hired as team president. After a disastrous
> season, on and off the ice, in which the team averaged only 4,950
> fans and finished 15-47-17, Olmstead was out and Selke demoted to GM.
>
> A group that owned the Harlem Globetrotters became a major owner and
> hired Bill Torrey, who would later mastermind the New York Islanders
> to four Stanley Cups, to work with Selke. Joining a frugal operation,
> Torrey spent his first night on the team's hospitality in a rundown
> hotel room with a large rat. That group failed to keep up with
> payments and sales to interested parties in Vancouver and Buffalo
> fell through. Those bids were not fruitless, though. The NHL
> appreciated the strength of the would-be investors and awarded
> franchises in both cities.
>
> The team, heavily in debt, was then sold to a conglomerate with
> plenty of partners and little cash. Management was haphazard and
> chaotic. One famous partner, an athlete from another sport, would
> pocket gate receipts while another, an equally famous retired
> athlete, hustled in one day to meet a $30,000 payroll with his own
> cash. The team ended the season in bankruptcy, with a judge calling
> the owner a "con man."
>
> That's when Finley stepped in, with his green and gold uniforms
> identical to the Oakland Athletics, right down to white skates. Each
> player got green suitcases for road travel.
>
> "We had those green suitcases," recalled defenseman Rick Smith, who
> was traded to the Seals for defenseman Carol Vadnais after winning a
> Stanley Cup in Boston. "We felt like we had joined the circus. We
> also had the white skates. Back then, I was thinking, white skates,
> girl's figure skates, sissies. We never got past that. It was so bad,
> opposing teams didn't say anything. The other players felt so bad for
> us."
>
> Under the ownership of Charles O. Finley, the Seals skated in green
> and gold uniforms identical to the Oakland Athletics, right down to
> white skates.
> Finley believed in marketing teams, but he wasn't impressed with
> individual players. Defensemen Harry Howell and Vadnais were holding
> out for more money when Finley called Howell and told him he didn't
> care if signed or not because the team wouldn't be a winner either
> way. Another time, he told a Seals player he wouldn't meet Athletics'
> pitcher Vida Blue's demand because "he wouldn't pay a man $1 million
> to throw a baseball."
>
> Finley ran the team into the ground, chasing off most of the
> executive talent, while trying to move to another city. Von Gerbig's
> antitrust suit blocked that and the League wanted a new owner in
> Oakland. The Seals won only 13 games in 1973-74 when the NHL bought
> the team from Finley, giving him a profit he bragged about.
>
> The 1974-75 Seals switched to blue-and-gold uniforms but dealt off
> four of their top five scorers for more players who were younger and
> earned less. Bill McCreary was named director of hockey operations
> and Johnston the coach. McCreary fired Johnston and took over as
> coach in midseason. McCreary tried to install a walkie-talkie system
> to Johnston on the bench, but it was scrapped after the first
> transmission Johnston heard was a dispatcher sending a cab "to 66th
> and Seminary."
>
> Finally, the team was sold to Swig, a San Francisco hotel owner, in
> 1975-76. Swig had been in the background, trying to get San Francisco
> and state politicians to build a hockey arena there so he could move
> the team. Jack Evans was promoted coach after winning the Calder Cup
> with the Seals' AHL affiliate in Salt Lake City. Maruk and Merrick
> were star rookies and attendance reached a high of 6,949. Swig
> brought aboard the Cleveland-based Gund brothers as investors, a
> propitious move that led to the Gund's moving the team to Cleveland
> two seasons later. The Gunds then merged the Barons with the
> Minnesota North Stars, ending the Seals' legacy, and later founded
> the San Jose Sharks.
>
> Swig's bid to move to San Francisco ended when he backed the wrong
> candidate for mayor in 1975. The NHL then gave him permission to move
> the team. The Gunds, who had invested far more than they expected or
> intended, persuaded Swig to move into their building in Richfield,
> Ohio, halfway between Cleveland and Akron. With only six weeks to
> sell tickets before the season, the Barons got off to a bad start
> from which they never recovered. Swig suffered a heart attack later
> and began to miss payrolls. The team was disbanded, with its best
> talent moving to Minnesota, after two seasons.
>
> Kurtzberg, a hockey fan and former attorney who turned to writing,
> did dozens of interviews and research to compile this thorough
> compilation of not only the Seals' history but the stories of its
> players, coaches and off-ice leaders. Some of it's sordid and some
> uplifting. Many Seals' veterans were discouraged by their years in
> Oakland, others saw it as a gateway to future success.
>
> Kurtzberg and his publisher no doubt realize fame and riches won't
> flow from a story about a ragged sports franchise that folded 30
> years ago, but this is a book that hockey fans of all ages will enjoy.
>
> The author's love of his subject matter combined with extensive
> research and the "oral history" way of letting the players tell their
> own stories makes it both a fun read and an authoritative resource.
>
> http://www.nhl.com/features/insider/sealsbook080206.html
> <http://www.nhl.com/features/insider/sealsbook080206.html>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>

In the late 1980s I participated in a Men's
Adult Recreational Hockey League at the
Owens Ice Center in Peoria, Illinois.
(At the time the Rivermen were the
St. Louis Blues' IHL affiliate.)

One of my teammates for part of one
season was named Mike Pelletier.
For several games, he loaned me
what appeared to be an "official"
Muskegon Mohawks jersey.

I never saw him after a few games
and was unable to return the jersey
to him.

A few years ago, armed with the Internet,
I attempted to find him, assuming that
he had actually suited up for the Mohawks.
I found a Gerard Peltier thru hockeydb.com
had played for Muskegon, then learned that
a Michael Pelletier had played for St. Lawrence
University during the mid- to late-1980s.

The latter tragically perished in the World
Trade Center attack in 2001 while working
on the 105th floor.  Pictures of him on the
Internet look similar to the man
I vaguely remember two decades ago
but I can't confirm they are identical.

Before I attempt to contact his widow,
Sophie, to confirm if the two men are
actually one and the same, any suggestions
or insight would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Frank
Shotsave@...

Brad, I've already given you some feedback on your book but I wanted everyone
to know that the interviews make this both unique and a very interesting
read.

Jay


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

NHL legend seeks respect in oilpatch

Jon Harding
Financial Post


Wednesday, August 02, 2006



CREDIT: Greg Fulmes for National Post file photo
Dave (Tiger) Williams, CEO of Pacific Rodera, keeps a picture of
himself being hit in the face by NHL player Chris Nilan in his
Calgary office to remain humble: "I like to be reminded of my
limitations."

Pacific Rodera Energy Inc.'s tiny downtown Calgary headquarters are
typical of the hundreds of other junior explorers in this city.

The office is barely large enough for two full-time staffers and an
occasional visiting geologist brought in on contract. Maps plaster
the walls and a little glass-encased vial of clear liquid
hydrocarbon, known as condensate, serves as a paperweight token from
a big oil and gas discovery the company made last year.

But beside the desk of president and CEO Dave (Tiger) Williams is a
distinctly non-energy image that stands as a reminder of both a past
life and of the challenges now facing a late bloomer trying to make a
name for himself in Calgary's close-knit oilpatch.

It's a black-and-white close-up of Mr. Williams' sweaty face in the
heat of battle, a long arm extending into the frame and a fist
connecting squarely with his nose.

For the 52-year-old executive who skated through one of the most
colourful, tumultuous playing careers in National Hockey League
history, the picture, a gift from fellow tough guy Chris Nilan (the
one delivering the punch), helps keep him humble.

Mr. Williams is finding the oilpatch can be a tough place for an
unpolished rookie -- "a little guy from Weyburn [Sask.]," as he says -
- to gain a measure of respect.

"Only a guy with his head up his butt puts up the pictures where he
always looks good. It's not realistic," Mr. Williams said.

"For a little outfit like ours, you have to be honest with yourself.
I'm a realist -- I always have been -- and I like to be reminded of
my limitations."

Mr. Williams, the ultimate underdog in a city awash in cash and
excess, doesn't stray far from his humble rural roots.

He spent nights during the recent Calgary Stampede shovelling horse
manure and doing other odd jobs for chuckwagon racing giant and
friend Jerry Bremner.

He's also been known to spend Saturday afternoons filling garbage
bags with litter beside busy 14th Street near Calgary's posh
Kensington area, where Mr. Williams and his wife own a home.

"I've seen up close what a tonne of money can do to some guys and it
isn't pretty," he said. "In hockey, it's the same. You've had a lot
of one-hit wonders who come in and score a lot of goals in the first
two years and then the fourth year they're done. They can't handle
success and have forgotten all of the basics about what got them
there."

Having a name that registers with hockey fans has opened more doors
than otherwise might be opened since Pacific Rodera moved its
headquarters to Calgary from Vancouver four years ago. But in the oil
business, once inside the boardroom, you'd better bring something
more to the table than just a name, Mr. Williams said.

"I think [the name] is a huge advantage, especially in this town,
because relationships are everything here. But once you step inside a
big oil company, you're in there as an oil person. You maybe got in a
little quicker because of what you did previously, but for me, it's a
matter of proving myself all over again."

In his hockey-playing days in Toronto, Vancouver, Detroit, Los
Angeles and Hartford, the team he retired from in 1986, Mr. Williams
was brash and at times brutal. He remains the NHL's career penalty-
minutes leader, although he also scored more than 20 goals in a
season four times.

Business allies have found the tough exterior (for this interview,
Mr. Williams is seated behind his computer wearing a baseball cap and
he occasionally sends a stream of tobacco juice into a trash can at
his feet) hides a contemplative side.

"I got a very different perspective of the Dave Tiger Williams
everyone thought they knew," said Grant Fagerheim, CEO of Kereco
Energy Ltd., who joined Pacific Rodera's board of directors last fall.

"He's got a soft side, which can be very difficult to get to,
especially because he doesn't present himself that way very often.
There is also a very thoughtful way about him."

Mr. Fagerheim, a proven star in the industry, is on to his third
startup, and last year Kereco was one of the junior sector's best
performers.

The two go back 20-some years to the Vancouver Canucks, for which Mr.
Fagerheim, 47, from Estevan, Sask., tried out, and Mr. Williams, a
seasoned veteran, took the rookie under his wing.

They later connected while Mr. Fagerheim was chief operating officer
at Northrock Resources Ltd., with Northrock eventually farming in
alongside Pacific Rodera and International Frontier Resources Ltd. on
lands the two juniors acquired in the Central Mackenzie in 1994.

The two companies were the first to arrive immediately following the
end of a 10-year drilling moratorium that once cloaked the entire
Northwest Territories.

"That showed a lot of foresight on their part," Mr. Fagerheim said.

Since then, other large companies have joined the five-member
partnership, namely Husky Energy Inc. and EOG Resources Canada Inc.,
and in the past 18 months, about $100-million worth of wildcatting
paid off with two significant oil and gas discoveries.

Mr. Williams believes the proposed Mackenzie Valley pipeline project
will ultimately get built and become a conduit for the joint-
venture's resource.

Until then, he is the first to acknowledge that Pacific Rodera, of
which he and his family own about 9%, represents a big-risk but
potentially big-reward play for investors.

"The only reason us explorers are up there is we want to be on the
front line, which we have been," Mr. Williams said.

"This is either a home run or it's a strike out. There's no in
between here. The in between might come some day, but that'll be long
after I'm gone."

Despite the recent drilling developments, Pacific Rodera's stock has
been pummelled since January, falling 50% to about 70 cents -- far
removed from its peak of $2.60 in March, 2005. Millions have been
shed from the company's market value.

The oil business, particularly on the exploration side, isn't for the
faint-hearted, which is partly why Mr. Williams believes he'll
succeed in taking Pacific Rodera from long-shot underdog to
established producer. He's been savouring that level of risk all his
adult life.

"In the 20 years I played hockey to make a living, every once in a
while on a Saturday night I had to stand at centre ice and try to
survive in a fight -- to try to win it for my teammates knowing that
10-million people across Canada could see me get knocked out," Mr.
Williams said.

"I didn't mind doing it. I didn't mind shouldering that
responsibility. That's not bragging, it's just that that's the kind
of person I am."

jharding@...

© National Post 2006
http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/financialpost/story.html?
id=f4f8547d-15a1-4435-a949-a1231260654f&k=77994

I would like to get people's feedback on the last version of the
Seal's uniform.  I remember Sport Illustrated hating the light blue
(was it call California Blue?) and yellow when they came out.  But I
kind of liked it.

Doug

--- In hockhist@yahoogroups.com, "reorgman" <reorgman@...> wrote:
>
> New release recounts
> Seals' sorry saga
> By John McGourty | NHL.com | August 2, 2006
>
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
--
> ----------
>
> There was more to the California Golden Seals than white skates,
and
> in a new book -- Shorthanded: The untold story of the Seals,
hockey's
> most colorful team published by AuthorHouse -- author Bradley
> Kurtzberg recounts the nine-year history of the various
incarnations
> of the only 1967 NHL expansion team that failed to establish a
> permanent base.
>
> Chronic under-funding, ownership turnover and bad management doomed
> the California Seals, then Oakland Seals, who became the California
> Golden Seals under the control of wacky Oakland Athletics owner
> Charles O. Finley and, again, the California Seals when owned by
> would-be, but ill-fated savior Mel Swig.
>
> The book is replete with stories of wandering goaltenders,
disgusted
> coaches, front-office treachery and bag-skates for overmatched
losing
> teams. But it's also about the hopes and dreams of players,
coaches,
> front-office types and owners who believed they could be
successful,
> given an NHL opportunity.
>
> Related Links
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------
--
> ----------
>
> California's hockey history
> Sealshockey.com
> NHL Insider Archive
>
>
> While it's popular to think of the Seals as lovable losers, this
was
> an organization that included solid, old-time hockey men like Bert
> Olmstead, Earl Ingarfield and Vic Stasiuk and future League leaders
> like Marshall Johnston, Craig Patrick, Terry Murray, Gerry Ehman,
Tom
> Webster, Ted Hampson, Bert Marshall, Al MacAdam and Bob Murdoch.
> Dennis Maruk, Charlie Simmer, Gilles Meloche, Wayne Merrick and
> Reggie Leach were Seals before moving on to more famous roles later
> in their careers.
>
> The first, biggest and most enduring problem for the Seals was that
> there was no real demand for a hockey team in Oakland. The NHL had
> ready buyers in five of the six expansion cities, but it was the
> negotiating television networks that wanted a second West Coast
team
> for a rivalry with the Los Angeles team. The first ownership group,
> headed by Bing Crosby and the Von Gerbig family, eventually
expanded
> into 52 owners, including San Francisco 49ers quarterback John
Brodie
> and former New York Mets owner Nelson Doubleday.
>
> The popularity of the West Coast League's San Francisco Seals
> persuaded some that hockey could be successful in the Bay Area, but
> the Seals' rink, the Cow Palace, was too small for an NHL arena.
The
> demographics of the East Bay were much different, less conducive to
> launching a hockey team, than "The City" and the peninsula. Poor
> marketing generated sparse East Bay attendance. Tellingly, a
> significant part of the fan base made the trek from San Jose to the
> ill-suited Oakland Coliseum, a cavernous concrete structure that
made
> middling crowds seem even smaller.
>
> Rudy Pilous was hired as the first GM and named Olmstead coach.
> Before play started, Pilous was out and Olmstead was coach and GM.
> Frank Selke Jr. was hired as team president. After a disastrous
> season, on and off the ice, in which the team averaged only 4,950
> fans and finished 15-47-17, Olmstead was out and Selke demoted to
GM.
>
> A group that owned the Harlem Globetrotters became a major owner
and
> hired Bill Torrey, who would later mastermind the New York
Islanders
> to four Stanley Cups, to work with Selke. Joining a frugal
operation,
> Torrey spent his first night on the team's hospitality in a rundown
> hotel room with a large rat. That group failed to keep up with
> payments and sales to interested parties in Vancouver and Buffalo
> fell through. Those bids were not fruitless, though. The NHL
> appreciated the strength of the would-be investors and awarded
> franchises in both cities.
>
> The team, heavily in debt, was then sold to a conglomerate with
> plenty of partners and little cash. Management was haphazard and
> chaotic. One famous partner, an athlete from another sport, would
> pocket gate receipts while another, an equally famous retired
> athlete, hustled in one day to meet a $30,000 payroll with his own
> cash. The team ended the season in bankruptcy, with a judge calling
> the owner a "con man."
>
> That's when Finley stepped in, with his green and gold uniforms
> identical to the Oakland Athletics, right down to white skates.
Each
> player got green suitcases for road travel.
>
> "We had those green suitcases," recalled defenseman Rick Smith, who
> was traded to the Seals for defenseman Carol Vadnais after winning
a
> Stanley Cup in Boston. "We felt like we had joined the circus. We
> also had the white skates. Back then, I was thinking, white skates,
> girl's figure skates, sissies. We never got past that. It was so
bad,
> opposing teams didn't say anything. The other players felt so bad
for
> us."
>
>
> Under the ownership of Charles O. Finley, the Seals skated in green
> and gold uniforms identical to the Oakland Athletics, right down to
> white skates.
> Finley believed in marketing teams, but he wasn't impressed with
> individual players. Defensemen Harry Howell and Vadnais were
holding
> out for more money when Finley called Howell and told him he didn't
> care if signed or not because the team wouldn't be a winner either
> way. Another time, he told a Seals player he wouldn't meet
Athletics'
> pitcher Vida Blue's demand because "he wouldn't pay a man $1
million
> to throw a baseball."
>
> Finley ran the team into the ground, chasing off most of the
> executive talent, while trying to move to another city. Von
Gerbig's
> antitrust suit blocked that and the League wanted a new owner in
> Oakland. The Seals won only 13 games in 1973-74 when the NHL bought
> the team from Finley, giving him a profit he bragged about.
>
> The 1974-75 Seals switched to blue-and-gold uniforms but dealt off
> four of their top five scorers for more players who were younger
and
> earned less. Bill McCreary was named director of hockey operations
> and Johnston the coach. McCreary fired Johnston and took over as
> coach in midseason. McCreary tried to install a walkie-talkie
system
> to Johnston on the bench, but it was scrapped after the first
> transmission Johnston heard was a dispatcher sending a cab "to 66th
> and Seminary."
>
> Finally, the team was sold to Swig, a San Francisco hotel owner, in
> 1975-76. Swig had been in the background, trying to get San
Francisco
> and state politicians to build a hockey arena there so he could
move
> the team. Jack Evans was promoted coach after winning the Calder
Cup
> with the Seals' AHL affiliate in Salt Lake City. Maruk and Merrick
> were star rookies and attendance reached a high of 6,949. Swig
> brought aboard the Cleveland-based Gund brothers as investors, a
> propitious move that led to the Gund's moving the team to Cleveland
> two seasons later. The Gunds then merged the Barons with the
> Minnesota North Stars, ending the Seals' legacy, and later founded
> the San Jose Sharks.
>
> Swig's bid to move to San Francisco ended when he backed the wrong
> candidate for mayor in 1975. The NHL then gave him permission to
move
> the team. The Gunds, who had invested far more than they expected
or
> intended, persuaded Swig to move into their building in Richfield,
> Ohio, halfway between Cleveland and Akron. With only six weeks to
> sell tickets before the season, the Barons got off to a bad start
> from which they never recovered. Swig suffered a heart attack later
> and began to miss payrolls. The team was disbanded, with its best
> talent moving to Minnesota, after two seasons.
>
> Kurtzberg, a hockey fan and former attorney who turned to writing,
> did dozens of interviews and research to compile this thorough
> compilation of not only the Seals' history but the stories of its
> players, coaches and off-ice leaders. Some of it's sordid and some
> uplifting. Many Seals' veterans were discouraged by their years in
> Oakland, others saw it as a gateway to future success.
>
> Kurtzberg and his publisher no doubt realize fame and riches won't
> flow from a story about a ragged sports franchise that folded 30
> years ago, but this is a book that hockey fans of all ages will
enjoy.
>
> The author's love of his subject matter combined with extensive
> research and the "oral history" way of letting the players tell
their
> own stories makes it both a fun read and an authoritative resource.
>
> http://www.nhl.com/features/insider/sealsbook080206.html
>

I can tell you the players were mixed on the new uniforms.  Most liked
the home whites but the road Pacific Blues were a bit much for some.
After the white skates, not too many guys could complain.

Brad

holste42@... wrote:

> I would like to get people's feedback on the last version of the
> Seal's uniform. I remember Sport Illustrated hating the light blue
> (was it call California Blue?) and yellow when they came out. But I
> kind of liked it.
>
> Doug
>
> --- In hockhist@yahoogroups.com <mailto:hockhist%40yahoogroups.com>,
> "reorgman" <reorgman@...> wrote:
> >
> > New release recounts
> > Seals' sorry saga
> > By John McGourty | NHL.com | August 2, 2006
> >
> >
> > ----------------------------------------------------------
> --
> > ----------
> >
> > There was more to the California Golden Seals than white skates,
> and
> > in a new book -- Shorthanded: The untold story of the Seals,
> hockey's
> > most colorful team published by AuthorHouse -- author Bradley
> > Kurtzberg recounts the nine-year history of the various
> incarnations
> > of the only 1967 NHL expansion team that failed to establish a
> > permanent base.
> >
> > Chronic under-funding, ownership turnover and bad management doomed
> > the California Seals, then Oakland Seals, who became the California
> > Golden Seals under the control of wacky Oakland Athletics owner
> > Charles O. Finley and, again, the California Seals when owned by
> > would-be, but ill-fated savior Mel Swig.
> >
> > The book is replete with stories of wandering goaltenders,
> disgusted
> > coaches, front-office treachery and bag-skates for overmatched
> losing
> > teams. But it's also about the hopes and dreams of players,
> coaches,
> > front-office types and owners who believed they could be
> successful,
> > given an NHL opportunity.
> >
> > Related Links
> >
> > ----------------------------------------------------------
> --
> > ----------
> >
> > California's hockey history
> > Sealshockey.com
> > NHL Insider Archive
> >
> >
> > While it's popular to think of the Seals as lovable losers, this
> was
> > an organization that included solid, old-time hockey men like Bert
> > Olmstead, Earl Ingarfield and Vic Stasiuk and future League leaders
> > like Marshall Johnston, Craig Patrick, Terry Murray, Gerry Ehman,
> Tom
> > Webster, Ted Hampson, Bert Marshall, Al MacAdam and Bob Murdoch.
> > Dennis Maruk, Charlie Simmer, Gilles Meloche, Wayne Merrick and
> > Reggie Leach were Seals before moving on to more famous roles later
> > in their careers.
> >
> > The first, biggest and most enduring problem for the Seals was that
> > there was no real demand for a hockey team in Oakland. The NHL had
> > ready buyers in five of the six expansion cities, but it was the
> > negotiating television networks that wanted a second West Coast
> team
> > for a rivalry with the Los Angeles team. The first ownership group,
> > headed by Bing Crosby and the Von Gerbig family, eventually
> expanded
> > into 52 owners, including San Francisco 49ers quarterback John
> Brodie
> > and former New York Mets owner Nelson Doubleday.
> >
> > The popularity of the West Coast League's San Francisco Seals
> > persuaded some that hockey could be successful in the Bay Area, but
> > the Seals' rink, the Cow Palace, was too small for an NHL arena.
> The
> > demographics of the East Bay were much different, less conducive to
> > launching a hockey team, than "The City" and the peninsula. Poor
> > marketing generated sparse East Bay attendance. Tellingly, a
> > significant part of the fan base made the trek from San Jose to the
> > ill-suited Oakland Coliseum, a cavernous concrete structure that
> made
> > middling crowds seem even smaller.
> >
> > Rudy Pilous was hired as the first GM and named Olmstead coach.
> > Before play started, Pilous was out and Olmstead was coach and GM.
> > Frank Selke Jr. was hired as team president. After a disastrous
> > season, on and off the ice, in which the team averaged only 4,950
> > fans and finished 15-47-17, Olmstead was out and Selke demoted to
> GM.
> >
> > A group that owned the Harlem Globetrotters became a major owner
> and
> > hired Bill Torrey, who would later mastermind the New York
> Islanders
> > to four Stanley Cups, to work with Selke. Joining a frugal
> operation,
> > Torrey spent his first night on the team's hospitality in a rundown
> > hotel room with a large rat. That group failed to keep up with
> > payments and sales to interested parties in Vancouver and Buffalo
> > fell through. Those bids were not fruitless, though. The NHL
> > appreciated the strength of the would-be investors and awarded
> > franchises in both cities.
> >
> > The team, heavily in debt, was then sold to a conglomerate with
> > plenty of partners and little cash. Management was haphazard and
> > chaotic. One famous partner, an athlete from another sport, would
> > pocket gate receipts while another, an equally famous retired
> > athlete, hustled in one day to meet a $30,000 payroll with his own
> > cash. The team ended the season in bankruptcy, with a judge calling
> > the owner a "con man."
> >
> > That's when Finley stepped in, with his green and gold uniforms
> > identical to the Oakland Athletics, right down to white skates.
> Each
> > player got green suitcases for road travel.
> >
> > "We had those green suitcases," recalled defenseman Rick Smith, who
> > was traded to the Seals for defenseman Carol Vadnais after winning
> a
> > Stanley Cup in Boston. "We felt like we had joined the circus. We
> > also had the white skates. Back then, I was thinking, white skates,
> > girl's figure skates, sissies. We never got past that. It was so
> bad,
> > opposing teams didn't say anything. The other players felt so bad
> for
> > us."
> >
> >
> > Under the ownership of Charles O. Finley, the Seals skated in green
> > and gold uniforms identical to the Oakland Athletics, right down to
> > white skates.
> > Finley believed in marketing teams, but he wasn't impressed with
> > individual players. Defensemen Harry Howell and Vadnais were
> holding
> > out for more money when Finley called Howell and told him he didn't
> > care if signed or not because the team wouldn't be a winner either
> > way. Another time, he told a Seals player he wouldn't meet
> Athletics'
> > pitcher Vida Blue's demand because "he wouldn't pay a man $1
> million
> > to throw a baseball."
> >
> > Finley ran the team into the ground, chasing off most of the
> > executive talent, while trying to move to another city. Von
> Gerbig's
> > antitrust suit blocked that and the League wanted a new owner in
> > Oakland. The Seals won only 13 games in 1973-74 when the NHL bought
> > the team from Finley, giving him a profit he bragged about.
> >
> > The 1974-75 Seals switched to blue-and-gold uniforms but dealt off
> > four of their top five scorers for more players who were younger
> and
> > earned less. Bill McCreary was named director of hockey operations
> > and Johnston the coach. McCreary fired Johnston and took over as
> > coach in midseason. McCreary tried to install a walkie-talkie
> system
> > to Johnston on the bench, but it was scrapped after the first
> > transmission Johnston heard was a dispatcher sending a cab "to 66th
> > and Seminary."
> >
> > Finally, the team was sold to Swig, a San Francisco hotel owner, in
> > 1975-76. Swig had been in the background, trying to get San
> Francisco
> > and state politicians to build a hockey arena there so he could
> move
> > the team. Jack Evans was promoted coach after winning the Calder
> Cup
> > with the Seals' AHL affiliate in Salt Lake City. Maruk and Merrick
> > were star rookies and attendance reached a high of 6,949. Swig
> > brought aboard the Cleveland-based Gund brothers as investors, a
> > propitious move that led to the Gund's moving the team to Cleveland
> > two seasons later. The Gunds then merged the Barons with the
> > Minnesota North Stars, ending the Seals' legacy, and later founded
> > the San Jose Sharks.
> >
> > Swig's bid to move to San Francisco ended when he backed the wrong
> > candidate for mayor in 1975. The NHL then gave him permission to
> move
> > the team. The Gunds, who had invested far more than they expected
> or
> > intended, persuaded Swig to move into their building in Richfield,
> > Ohio, halfway between Cleveland and Akron. With only six weeks to
> > sell tickets before the season, the Barons got off to a bad start
> > from which they never recovered. Swig suffered a heart attack later
> > and began to miss payrolls. The team was disbanded, with its best
> > talent moving to Minnesota, after two seasons.
> >
> > Kurtzberg, a hockey fan and former attorney who turned to writing,
> > did dozens of interviews and research to compile this thorough
> > compilation of not only the Seals' history but the stories of its
> > players, coaches and off-ice leaders. Some of it's sordid and some
> > uplifting. Many Seals' veterans were discouraged by their years in
> > Oakland, others saw it as a gateway to future success.
> >
> > Kurtzberg and his publisher no doubt realize fame and riches won't
> > flow from a story about a ragged sports franchise that folded 30
> > years ago, but this is a book that hockey fans of all ages will
> enjoy.
> >
> > The author's love of his subject matter combined with extensive
> > research and the "oral history" way of letting the players tell
> their
> > own stories makes it both a fun read and an authoritative resource.
> >
> > http://www.nhl.com/features/insider/sealsbook080206.html
> <http://www.nhl.com/features/insider/sealsbook080206.html>
> >
>
>

I chuckled when recalling the recent stories about drug use in the NHL. When
spell-checking an email, Microsoft stopped at my use of the word "NHLers" and
suggested "inhalers" might be better. Hmmm.

Dave in Whitby

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Bradley Kurtzberg <sealshockey@...> wrote:
>I can tell you the players were mixed on the new uniforms. Most liked
>the home whites but the road Pacific Blues were a bit much for some.
>After the white skates, not too many guys could complain.

Did the white skates have golden blades as well, just like the New York
Golden Blades in the WHA? BTW, which "Golden"-team was the first to
were white skates? California or New York?

What started as a SIHR project has kept going. The virtual World
Wide Hockey Hall of Fame has inducted its class of 2006: Ray
Bourque, Paul Coffey, Slava Fetisov and Jari Kurri. Added in the
Builders category is Sam Pollock.

The World Wide Hockey Hall of Fame was started as a response to the
low stanards of the inductees to the Hockey Hall of Fame in
Toronto. Recent inductees such as Bernie Federko, Clark Gillies and
Dick Duff cheapens the quality of player who were the ultimate elite
players who should continue into eternity. And unlike the Hall of
Fame, we are not ashamed to make our votes public.

Our committee is composed of 20 people, most of whom are
researchers, writers or historians, with a few long-time fans as
well. Our committee is geographically diverse as well, including
representative voices from Europe and the former Soviet Union.

We have five categories:

Honoured Members - a player must be retired five years in order to
be selected as an Honoured Member. A player is only eligible for 15
elections, and then he can be nominated as an Oldtimer. A player
must receive four votes in order to remain on the ballot, unless he
is renominated. Each voter can choose five Honoured Members and
five Oldtimers. Not all votes are required to be used.

Executives/Off-Ice Personnel - Each voter can choose up to three
people from this categeory, which includes general managers,
referees, coaches, league executives, etc.

Contributors - Each voter can choose up to three people in this
category, which includes all people who made a lasting contribution
to hockey, but were generally not employed by the league or teams,
or they may have had a not-so-selfish incentive to make the
contribution.

Builders - Each voter may select up to three builders. Our
definition differs from the Hockey Hall of Fame's. A Builder is
someone who goes above and beyond to build and develop the sport of
ice hockey. Each Builder must have been nominated and elected into
another category, and it is the only spot in our hall that has an
ethics clause - a player once elected as a builder can lose his
status. To date, we have elected only 17 builders, and I doubt
anyone can argue with any of them, although a valid argument can be
made for the exclusion of several others. Here's our list of
Builders:

Patrick, Lester
Patrick, Frank
Ross, Art
Smythe, Conn
Adams, Jack
Hewitt, Foster
Taylor, Fred "Cyclone"
Lindsay, Ted
Howe, Gordie
Richard, Maurice
Orr, Bobby
Beliveau, Jean
Hull, Bobby
Plante, Jacques
Selke, Frank
Gretzky, Wayne
Pollock, Sam

"Rob" <francz39@...> wrote:
>Okay, considering the source is from a story in a Kings-Canucks
>program from their March 31, 1972 game, the facts might not be 100%
>correct as they would be for something written in the internet age.
>But from a profile sportswriter Bob Dunn wrote about Juha Widing,
>here is some more detail on how he came over to Brandon:
>"...Widing's beginning in hockey, apparently, was playing with a
>senior team in Goteburg, at that time preparing to give the world
>Ingemar Johansson. At age 14, Widing had an insatiable desire to
>play in the best hockey league in the wold, the one he had heard
>about across the waters of the Atlantic. Gordon Rice, a Canadian
>coaching a junior team in Sweden, learned of young Juha's ambitions
>and persuaded Ulf Jannsen, a Swedish hockey official, to do
>something about it. Jannsen wrote to Dennis Ball, at that time the
>New York Rangers' chief western scout. Ball contacted Jake Milford,
>head man of the Rangers' Brandon operation, the Wheat Kings juniors.
>Rice, who started it all, played his hockey in Brandon.

The correct spelling is "Ulf Jansson". I'm not sure if he was a
"Swedish hockey official" as such but he had a lot of influence and
he also was the main force behind Ulf Sterner when he went to the
NHL. Basically, Jansson was a reporter, both in papers and radio,
adding color comments to most World Championships from the mid-60s
up 'til the 80s.

Maybe the Canadian coach I mentioned earlier in the case of
Widing, "Gordie Garant", in fact was a garbled reference to Gordon
Rice?

Jason Kasiorek <jkasiorek@...> wrote:
>I have listed the training camp rosters for 1968, 1969, and 1970 on
>my site under the history section. You can get there by following
>this link: http://www.griffinscentral.com/hist/camp.html
>I will be adding 1971-73 either tonight or tomorrow.

With my research on the London Lions in mind, it'll be very interesting
to take part of the 1973 training camp info. Do you have info on the
pre-season games as well?

The Seals didn't have golden blades...California started wearing white
skates in 71-72...the NY Golden Blades of the WHA started in 73-74 (and
lasted all of 8 or 9 weeks).

u-line@... wrote:

> Bradley Kurtzberg <sealshockey@...> wrote:
> >I can tell you the players were mixed on the new uniforms. Most liked
> >the home whites but the road Pacific Blues were a bit much for some.
> >After the white skates, not too many guys could complain.
>
> Did the white skates have golden blades as well, just like the New York
> Golden Blades in the WHA? BTW, which "Golden"-team was the first to
> were white skates? California or New York?
>
>

Mikael,

I don't have much information on the preseason games for that year. I am 75%
done with the 1973 training camp roster and will have that up tonight most
likely. I was working on it this morning before work, and 2 things stood
out, the first is that Ulf Sterner was not on the list of training camp
invitees. The second is Duffy McCarthy. He was invited to camp in 73,
assigned to London, and then not invited back in 1974. He is not listed in
the media guide anywhere, and its almost like he didn't exist. Very strange
that he earned an invite and a contract, but was not mentioned anywhere
else.


--
Jason Kasiorek
Publisher
http://www.griffinscentral.com



From: "Mikael Uhlin" <u-line@...>
Reply-To: hockhist@yahoogroups.com
Date: Fri, 04 Aug 2006 16:51:15 -0000
To: hockhist@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [hockhist] Re: First European Goalie in NHL?


Jason Kasiorek <jkasiorek@...> wrote:
>I have listed the training camp rosters for 1968, 1969, and 1970 on
>my site under the history section. You can get there by following
>this link: http://www.griffinscentral.com/hist/camp.html
>I will be adding 1971-73 either tonight or tomorrow.

With my research on the London Lions in mind, it'll be very interesting
to take part of the 1973 training camp info. Do you have info on the
pre-season games as well?



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Bradley Kurtzberg <sealshockey@...> wrote:
>The Seals didn't have golden blades...California started wearing
>white skates in 71-72...the NY Golden Blades of the WHA started in
>73-74 (and lasted all of 8 or 9 weeks).

OK, thanks!

I have a question for your group - why is Ed Giacomin held in such low esteem? 
Is it simply because he never won Cup?  If that's an important reason then
someone like an Ernie Banks shouldn't be in the Baseball HOF, no?  Sure, kinda
mixing apples and oranges here but still...

Giacomin did lead the league 4 years in a row with the most starts and minutes
played, 3 years with the most wins and 3 years with most shutouts.  He won the
Vezina and played in 6 All-Star games.  Another point, albeit weak, is that
while the Rangers did lose the Cup in '72, Eddie did have the most wins of any
goalie in the playoffs that year.

Yep, like I said, a weak point.

I'd be curious to hear your observations about him.


-----Original Message-----
From: epenaltybox@...
To: hockhist@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Fri, 4 Aug 2006 12:34 PM
Subject: [hockhist] Virtual World Wide Hockey Hall of Fame announces class of
2007


What started as a SIHR project has kept going. The virtual World
Wide Hockey Hall of Fame has inducted its class of 2006: Ray
Bourque, Paul Coffey, Slava Fetisov and Jari Kurri. Added in the
Builders category is Sam Pollock.

The World Wide Hockey Hall of Fame was started as a response to the
low stanards of the inductees to the Hockey Hall of Fame in
Toronto. Recent inductees such as Bernie Federko, Clark Gillies and
Dick Duff cheapens the quality of player who were the ultimate elite
players who should continue into eternity. And unlike the Hall of
Fame, we are not ashamed to make our votes public.

Our committee is composed of 20 people, most of whom are
researchers, writers or historians, with a few long-time fans as
well. Our committee is geographically diverse as well, including
representative voices from Europe and the former Soviet Union.

We have five categories:

Honoured Members - a player must be retired five years in order to
be selected as an Honoured Member. A player is only eligible for 15
elections, and then he can be nominated as an Oldtimer. A player
must receive four votes in order to remain on the ballot, unless he
is renominated. Each voter can choose five Honoured Members and
five Oldtimers. Not all votes are required to be used.

Executives/Off-Ice Personnel - Each voter can choose up to three
people from this categeory, which includes general managers,
referees, coaches, league executives, etc.

Contributors - Each voter can choose up to three people in this
category, which includes all people who made a lasting contribution
to hockey, but were generally not employed by the league or teams,
or they may have had a not-so-selfish incentive to make the
contribution.

Builders - Each voter may select up to three builders. Our
definition differs from the Hockey Hall of Fame's. A Builder is
someone who goes above and beyond to build and develop the sport of
ice hockey. Each Builder must have been nominated and elected into
another category, and it is the only spot in our hall that has an
ethics clause - a player once elected as a builder can lose his
status. To date, we have elected only 17 builders, and I doubt
anyone can argue with any of them, although a valid argument can be
made for the exclusion of several others. Here's our list of
Builders:

Patrick, Lester
Patrick, Frank
Ross, Art
Smythe, Conn
Adams, Jack
Hewitt, Foster
Taylor, Fred "Cyclone"
Lindsay, Ted
Howe, Gordie
Richard, Maurice
Orr, Bobby
Beliveau, Jean
Hull, Bobby
Plante, Jacques
Selke, Frank
Gretzky, Wayne
Pollock, Sam



________________________________________________________________________
Check out AOL.com today. Breaking news, video search, pictures, email and IM.
All on demand. Always Free.


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Jason Kasiorek <jkasiorek@...> wrote:
>I don't have much information on the preseason games for that year.
>I am 75% done with the 1973 training camp roster and will have that
>up tonight most likely. I was working on it this morning before
>work, and 2 things stood out, the first is that Ulf Sterner was not
>on the list of training camp invitees. The second is Duffy McCarthy.
>He was invited to camp in 73, assigned to London, and then not
>invited back in 1974. He is not listed in the media guide anywhere,
>and its almost like he didn't exist. Very strange that he earned an
>invite and a contract, but was not mentioned anywhere else.

Incidentally, McCarthy is one of the ex-Lions whom I've been in
contact with. In an email he sent me in March 2005, he wrote:
"...after our season with London I played pro lacrosse that summer
with Toronto Tomahawks. Once it was known there was not going to be a
league in Europe Detroit sent me to Kalamazoo Michigan of the
International league. Once I got there I decided to hang them up and
get a job. Detroit paid me out and I came home. I [...] was offered a
job with the Fire Dept which I took, and had 25 great years there."

As for Sterner, I've read somewhere that he first went to the
Rangers' training camp, as he still belonged to them. He's also
missing on the photo showing the other Swedes (Bergman, Holmqvist and
Lundström) on the airport on their way to the training camp. I'm not
familiar with the procedures but I believe Sterner went to the
Rangers to get the signatures to become a free agent to be able to
join London. He at least was with the Lions when they played their
first game vs the IHL-Toledo Hornets in Detroit 11 October 1973.

While in Port Huron, Detroit played at least one game against
Pittsburgh (or their affiliate). I've got a very brief glimpse from
that game on VCR, showing Leif Holmqvist in goal, and I believe the
team in question is Detroit. There's at least a winged wheel on the
jersey, so it may be one of the affiliates, though - except London
(which of course sported a winged Lion).

Brad has mentioned that the Seals wore white skates in 1971-72. The St.
Louis Blues wore blue skates with gold trim, as can be seen in several
photographs from the Portnoy collection at the Hockey Hall of Fame.

In his autobiography, Bob Baun recalled the circumstances that led to his
return to the Toronto Maple Leafs in the autumn of 1970. Detroit waived him
on November 3, and he was claimed by Buffalo, who almost immediately dealt
him to St. Louis for Larry Keenan and Jean-Guy Talbot. According to Baun,
his skates were to be painted. After meeting with Scotty Bowman, he had
second thoughts about the situation (found him too similar to Punch Imlach
and Ned Harkness) and pulled some strings with Leaf board member Don Giffin
that resulted in his being traded to Toronto for Brit Selby.

Now, that would suggest that the Blues wore blue and gold skates in '70-71.

IIRC, Pittsburgh also wore skates that were either black with blue, or navy
and light blue, like their jerseys.



on 8/4/06 12:33 PM, Mikael Uhlin at u-line@... wrote:

> Did the white skates have golden blades as well, just like the New York
> Golden Blades in the WHA? BTW, which "Golden"-team was the first to
> were white skates? California or New York?

--
Lloyd Davis Communications
304-115 Danforth Ave., Toronto, ON  M4K 1N2
416 465 6999 /// 416 462 0230 (fax)
ldavis@...

FYI

Splendid idea!

I would like to make some suggestions:

How about adding an international player category so that players
like Vladisav Tretiak be added?

Also would adding Terry Sawchuk and Glenn Hall to the builders
category be appropriate since both goalies revolutionized goaltending
tactics in the NHL?

Also how about adding the late red wings scout Carson Cooper since
Ted Lindsay told me in an interview eariler this year that he was
very important in finding the talent that made up the great Red Wings
dynasty from 1947 to 1955?

Okay, nuff sed on my part.

Keep up the good work and maybe you should develop a website for this.

Matt

--- In hockhist@yahoogroups.com, Swanrvr80@... wrote:
>
> I have a question for your group - why is Ed Giacomin held in such
low esteem?  Is it simply because he never won Cup?  If that's an
important reason then someone like an Ernie Banks shouldn't be in the
Baseball HOF, no?  Sure, kinda mixing apples and oranges here but
still...
>
> Giacomin did lead the league 4 years in a row with the most starts
and minutes played, 3 years with the most wins and 3 years with most
shutouts.  He won the Vezina and played in 6 All-Star games.  Another
point, albeit weak, is that while the Rangers did lose the Cup
in '72, Eddie did have the most wins of any goalie in the playoffs
that year.
>
> Yep, like I said, a weak point.
>
> I'd be curious to hear your observations about him.
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: epenaltybox@...
> To: hockhist@yahoogroups.com
> Sent: Fri, 4 Aug 2006 12:34 PM
> Subject: [hockhist] Virtual World Wide Hockey Hall of Fame
announces class of 2007
>
>
> What started as a SIHR project has kept going. The virtual World
> Wide Hockey Hall of Fame has inducted its class of 2006: Ray
> Bourque, Paul Coffey, Slava Fetisov and Jari Kurri. Added in the
> Builders category is Sam Pollock.
>
> The World Wide Hockey Hall of Fame was started as a response to the
> low stanards of the inductees to the Hockey Hall of Fame in
> Toronto. Recent inductees such as Bernie Federko, Clark Gillies and
> Dick Duff cheapens the quality of player who were the ultimate elite
> players who should continue into eternity. And unlike the Hall of
> Fame, we are not ashamed to make our votes public.
>
> Our committee is composed of 20 people, most of whom are
> researchers, writers or historians, with a few long-time fans as
> well. Our committee is geographically diverse as well, including
> representative voices from Europe and the former Soviet Union.
>
> We have five categories:
>
> Honoured Members - a player must be retired five years in order to
> be selected as an Honoured Member. A player is only eligible for 15
> elections, and then he can be nominated as an Oldtimer. A player
> must receive four votes in order to remain on the ballot, unless he
> is renominated. Each voter can choose five Honoured Members and
> five Oldtimers. Not all votes are required to be used.
>
> Executives/Off-Ice Personnel - Each voter can choose up to three
> people from this categeory, which includes general managers,
> referees, coaches, league executives, etc.
>
> Contributors - Each voter can choose up to three people in this
> category, which includes all people who made a lasting contribution
> to hockey, but were generally not employed by the league or teams,
> or they may have had a not-so-selfish incentive to make the
> contribution.
>
> Builders - Each voter may select up to three builders. Our
> definition differs from the Hockey Hall of Fame's. A Builder is
> someone who goes above and beyond to build and develop the sport of
> ice hockey. Each Builder must have been nominated and elected into
> another category, and it is the only spot in our hall that has an
> ethics clause - a player once elected as a builder can lose his
> status. To date, we have elected only 17 builders, and I doubt
> anyone can argue with any of them, although a valid argument can be
> made for the exclusion of several others. Here's our list of
> Builders:
>
> Patrick, Lester
> Patrick, Frank
> Ross, Art
> Smythe, Conn
> Adams, Jack
> Hewitt, Foster
> Taylor, Fred "Cyclone"
> Lindsay, Ted
> Howe, Gordie
> Richard, Maurice
> Orr, Bobby
> Beliveau, Jean
> Hull, Bobby
> Plante, Jacques
> Selke, Frank
> Gretzky, Wayne
> Pollock, Sam
>
>
>
>
______________________________________________________________________
__
> Check out AOL.com today. Breaking news, video search, pictures,
email and IM. All on demand. Always Free.
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>