Johnstown's Hockey History - EHL Video

Johnstown Jets fan, Tim Barndt, is at it again.

* First he gave us the Johnstown Jets Photo Album, (go to "Collections" at http://TheEHL.com) composed of photos taken by his father, Johnstown Jets and Johnstown Tribune-Democrat photographer, Robert C. Barndt.

* Then he found this Gene Peacosh Retrospective on YouTube.

* And then, last week, while going through some old VHS tapes, Tim found the Johnstown's Hockey History documentary below and uploaded it to YouTube so we can all enjoy. This is a fabulous find. Thanks once again, Tim!

Here's Tim's commentary on the video...
It is a half-hour WJAC video about the history of hockey in Johnstown. I believe it was produced in 1990 or so. I think someone at Channel 6 sent it to my Dad back then, making the tape I have around 20 years old. There are pictures and video of the old Jets, along with the Bluebirds, Wings, and Chiefs. A couple of interesting clips are John Brophy mugging a Jet during play around 6:20 into the video and, probably the most unique footage, I think it is longtime Trainer/Equipment Manager/Backup Goalie Ken "Gunner" Garrett in a suit as some function around 8:53.
Just some fun information I thought you might be interested in. Enjoy!



YouTube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhxRR6mdtbs

Photos from Ted Scharf - Jersey Devils & Long Island Ducks

A couple of weeks ago I received a couple of cool photos from former EHLer Ted Scharf.

Ted is currently an executive for the Kitchener Rangers, which he captained back in the early 1970s.
http://www.kitchenerrangers.com/page/ted-scharf

Ted was drafted by the Philadelphia Flyers with pick #50 in the 1971 draft, and assigned him to the Jersey Devils for the 1971-72 season. He roomed with John Brophy and Bob Miller, and had his best pro season with 24 goals, 57 points and 221 PIM. In the summer of 1972, Ted signed with the WHA New York Raiders, along with Devils teammates Jamie Kennedy, Claude Chartre and goalie Pete Donnelly. Ted split that last EHL season between the Raiders and the Long Island Ducks. The following year the Raiders became the Golden Blades, and then moved to the former EHL Devils home in Cherry Hill to become the Jersey Knights in 1973-74.

The shot above is Ted at Cherry Hill Arena in 1971-72. #10 on the right is Ted's linemate Wayne Hawrysh. I had personally forgotten the blue seats at Cherry Hill Arena. Alternate sections were blue or orange. They had been all red, before the team color makeover in 1970-71.

In the shot below, Ted is front row center, wearing the "C" as captain of the Kitchener Rangers. On the back row right are Hall-of-Famers Bill Barber and Larry Robinson. Future NHLers Chris Ahrens, Tom Cassidy and Jerry Byers were on the team. Back row left is Phil Iwaskiewicz, who played for the 1972-73 EHL Rhode Island Eagles.

Ted Scharf at hockeydb.com : http://hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php?pid=10548

In 1956, Charlotte Discovered Hockey

On the day of the the Charlotte Checkers first game in the AHL, the Charlotte Observer remembered back to the first game ever in Charlotte, back in 1956. Link to Charlotte Observer article.

On January 23, 1956, Carlin's Iceland Arena, home to the EHL Baltimore Clippers, burned to the ground. The Clippers quickly rescheduled five of their remaining "home" games for the new Charlotte Coliseum. Charlotte had applied for membership in the EHL for 1956-57, but were by no means accepted. This gave the league a chance to test-market hockey in the south. The first game was January 30, 1956, with the Baltimore Clippers taking on the New Haven Blades. Needless to say, it was quite the success.

Here are the AP and UP national stories from the first game in Charlotte January 30, 1956...

Pro Ice Hockey Goes Over Big In Charlotte CHARLOTTE -- (AP) --Professional ice hockey came to Charlotte for the first time last night, and it may be-here to stay. Owner Charlie Rock of the Baltimore Clippers surveyed the 10,363 persons jammed into the coliseum here and announced that if interest keeps up he'll urge the Eastern Hockey League transfer his franchise to Charlotte.
The Clippers' lost a 6-2 game to the New Haven Blades. An estimated 3,000 persons were turned away because all available standing and sitting space was taken. Those that did get in saw a jarring, bruising game, complete with fist fights. The big crowd loved it. They shouted their approval, and gave the Clippers the home town treatment throughout the contest. The Baltimore team lost its arena in a fire. It will play at least four more games here this season.

Ice Hockey Lures 10,363 to Coliseum CHARLOTTE -- (UP) -- Residents of Charlotte apparently have taken the northern sport of ice hockey to their hearts. The largest indoor sports crowd in the Queen City's' history, 10,363 fans turned out last night to watch the New Haven Blades down the "homeless" Baltimore Clippers, 6-2, in an Eastern Hockey League game. And officials said another 3,000 persons, were turned away from the city's new multi-million dollar coliseum.

The Charlotte fans may not have picked up the fine points of the game as explained over the public address system, but they quickly learned like hockey fans everywhere that the fights are more interesting than the game. There were two battles during the contest, a small number considering the highly publicized "Feud" between the two teams.

New Haven, currently leading the six-team Eastern loop, had little trouble with the fifth-place Clippers. The Blades' top line of John Sherban, Claude Boileau and Yvan Chasle turned in four goals, Sherban providing two. Ron Rohmer and Alf Lewsey also contributed to the scoring. Defensemen Mike Desilets and Ralph De Leo scored for Baltimore both in the final period after New Haven had a comfortable lead. The. game was the first of six to be played here by the Clippers whose home arena in Baltimore was destroyed-by fire last week.

The list of Clippers-in-Charlotte (they were still the Baltimore Clippers until the following season) firsts is a nice Hockey Who's Who.

First Save: Les Binkley.
First Penalty: John Brophy.
First Opposition Penalty: Don Perry.
First Goal: Mike Desilets (okay, maybe not all are household names, but assisted by John Muckler).
Second Clippers Goal: John Muckler.
First Opposition Goal: Johnny Sherban. (Four goals in total by the famed CBS line of Chasle, Boileau and Sherban for New Haven.)

Here's your boxscore...

Where Else But In The Eastern Hockey League?

Here's a fine job of stating why the EHL was more fun to watch than the NHL by the Baltimore Clippers beat writer Edward C. Atwater from "Sunlight on Sports" in the December 9, 1955 Baltimore Sun...

"Let them have their Rockets and their Pocket Rockets, their tie games, their low scores, their 20,000 screaming fans.

So they are big league -- the National Hockey League. We're the minors with the Clippers, and we like it. Where else but in the Eastern could you see results like 8-7, 7-6 and 3-2 and 4-3 in overtime all under the same smoky ceiling?

Where else could a team win, 11-1 on Sunday and lose 14-1 on Tuesday? Where else could three teams (Baltimore, Washington and Clinton) be tied for second -- two games off the pace -- with the season one-third gone?

So the league is populated with veterans on the way out and youngsters hoping to go up. Do you know a better combination? It's perfect for smoothness and calmness -- and for pure slam-bang flailing away, I-hope-I-hit-the-goal hockey.

We've got Bibber O'Hearn to glide down the ice, contemptuously faking foes to their knees, the fulfillment of his every man's desire to get rid of his enemies with a flick of the wrist.

And we've got youngsters -- Ken Murphy, Ralph DeLeo, Gerry Sullivan and the others -- with their great speed to buzz around the net and shoot, and shoot and finally to look and shoot and score.

And when that score comes, the roar will rock Carlin's rafters. Don't try to talk above it. The goal was made through a thousand shouted instructions and each coach shares in the exultation.

Don't sit next to Charley Rock, the owner. He'll split your ear drums as the battle flows and if it ebbs too far, he may sell you the franchise.

Fights? Yes, we've got them too, but nobody tries to wipe out the other side, plus the officials a la Richard. It's more like neighborhood boys grappling, punching the air, and pulling each other's sweaters off; or an exchange of calling cards to signify that one or both has reached the limit of sly nudges with the stick or skates or elbows or maybe just words.

The fights are minor, like the league is minor, but it's fun. Fun for the spectators at least.

Some of the players' fun may diminish at times. For instance, starting tomorrow, the Clippers will play seven games in nine days. They'll be in Clinton tomorrow night and home against Washington Sunday; at New Haven Tuesday and home against the same club Wednesday; at Philadelphia Friday, at Clinton again the following day, and then home against Clinton Sunday Dec. 18."

Three "youngsters hoping to go up" on that 1955-56 Baltimore Clippers team that Mr. Atwater didn't mention were John Muckler, John Brophy and the pictured Les Binkley. How fun must that have been? (btw, The Clippers jerseys were orange with black and white trim.)

Jack McIlhargey and the 1972-73 EHL Jersey Devils at Cherry Hill Arena from NHL.com

NHL.com article:
McIlhargey Went From the Low Minors to the NHL
Who knew that Jack McIlhargey, John Brophy and Curt Brackenbury shared an apartment?

For me the essence is this:

McIlhargey made the jump to the NHL, but he thinks people are too judgmental looking at the old EHL as a place filled with legendary tough guys like Brophy, Don Perry, Kevin Morrison, Blake Ball and others who became movie characters in Slap Shot.

"I went to the Richmond Robins, which was the American Hockey League and was the Flyers' (farm team)," he said. "It was a good league. It was a very good league, but the Eastern League was a good league, too. There were a lot of good players back then. The Eastern Hockey League fans were good. They expected a tough brand of hockey and you gave it to them."

which reminds me of this bit from the National Post article on John Brophy's ECHL HOF induction :

The EHL was a blood-and-guts loop with teams scattered across the U.S. eastern seaboard. Games featured stick fights and brawls and a brand of nightly mayhem that inspired the cult movie Slap Shot, starring Paul Newman.

Newman's character, Reggie Dunlop, the player-coach with the bare-knuckle roster, was said to have been inspired by Brophy. But Brophy never liked the movie. He can't even watch it. He says it depicts a goon league and forgets some of the players could actually play.

It seems that a lot of people remember or the younger ones only know of the EHL as a "the Slapshot league". While those elements were present, the fact that there was some very good brand of hockey often missed. Remember the late sixties and early seventies was also the era of the Big Bad Bruins and the Broad Street Bullies, and some nasty stick fights at the NHL level. So it's not as if the EHL was special in this regard. The entire hockey scene was doing the fighting part of Slapshot. The EHL merely had the busrides and the struggle to stay afloat. It had more talent than Slapshot depicts - players who would make the NHL and WHA on skill.

WHen I remember the EHL, I remember how fast and exciting it was. When I saw my first NHL game live, I couldn't believe how slow and plodding it was in comparison to the EHL. And that was a 12-2 NHL game. Certainly part of that is that some of the EHL ice surfaces were smaller, and that even the worst seat at Cherry Hill Arena was much closer to the action than most of the seats I've had NHL games. But most of it was how hard these guys played. This with a roster maxing out at 15, often less, and traveling by bus with one mattress to sleep on where some seats had been torn out to the next game.

Yes, the EHL had talent. Remember, before NHL expansion in 1967, there were fewer combined teams in the NHL, AHL, CHL and WHL, than there are teams in the NHL now. Which means that the players at the EHL and IHL level then were at the same level as today's AHL. Hundreds of EHLers made the NHL. (At some point I will have them all recognized at http://TheEHL.com ). Even a team as obscure as the 60-61 Jersey Larks sent Ross Brooks and Noel Picard to the NHL.

Martin Brodeur's Father Played Goal for the EHL Charlotte Clippers

From A Look at Martin Brodeur's Beginnings at NHL.com, Martin Brodeur's father, Denis Sr., played goal for the Charlotte Clippers in the 1958-59 season.

Denis has a pair of identical images of himself as a goalie in 1958-59 for the Charlotte Clippers of the Eastern Hockey League and Martin in a Devils white uniform during the late 1990s. Denis is not wearing a mask in his photo -- and amazingly, Martin isn't either. "His mask had just fallen off and they got that shot," Denis said.

The November 4, 1958 Florence (SC) Morning News lets us know that Denis (the Menace) Brodeur beat out Les Binkley for the lone goaltender position.

Clippers Make Limit For Hockey Squad
CHARLOTTE — Three veteran players and a rookie were sliced by Charlotte Clipper coach Andy Brown as dixie's only ice hockey team got down to the Eastern Hockey League limit of 14.
Cut from the squad were defenseman Bobby Maxwell, goalkeep Les Binkley, winger Yvan
Houle and Rookie defenseman Pete Tuggard.
Binkley had been with the club two and one-half seasons, while Maxwell and Houle have spent two campaigns with the Clippers. The pink slip barrage left the Clipper squad list as follows:
Goalie — Denis (The Menace) Brodeur.
Defense -- Gordie Tottle, Red Barrett, John Muckler and John Brophy.
Centers — Jim McNulty, Chucky Stuart and Herve Lalonde.
Right Wingers — Bibber O'Hearn, Bill Sinnett and Red Murphy.
Left Wingers — Gerry Sullivan, Bobby Ewer and Mike Mahoney.
Both Ewer and Mahoney are 20-year-old junior players. Their presence
on the Clipper roster fulfills the Eastern League requirement that each club use two juniors this season.
Tottle, a massive 214-pound veteran of 10 American League seaions, and Barrett are also newcomers to the squad, as Brodeur, the goalie.

From an October 30th Article in the same paper:

The Clippers, have added five now faces to the squad of 14 including a new goalie. Replacing Les Binkley, a three-season veteran, in the Charlotte nets will be Denny Brodeur, a pint-sized Frenchman.

The Clippers went from first to worst in 1958-59, while the Clinton Comets went from worst to first.

In case, like me, you were wondering, Martin Brodeur was born May 6, 1972, when his father was 42 and been out of hockey since that one season with Charlotte.

John Brophy at Voyageur's Night in Nova Scotia

An article on Nova Scotia Voyageur's night at the Halifax Moosehead's game last night. John Brophy coached the Voyageurs for three years, and was part of the ceremony.

John Brophy inducted into the ECHL Hall of Fame

John Brophy, perhaps the most famous EHLer ever, was inducted into the ECHL Hall of Fame a few weeks ago. Here are links to some video and stories...

Here's the John Brophy ECHL Hall of Fame Induction Video .

Very nice article on John Brophy, and his induction into the ECHL Hall of Fame from the National Post.

Photo of John Brophy from the National Post.

An NHL.com story on Brophy prior to the induction.

http://www.ECHLHallofFame.com/

Welcome to TheEHL.blogspot.com

Welcome to TheEHL.blogspot.com!

I'm Tom T. and I was fortunate enough to have been able to see the old Eastern Hockey League Jersey Devils from the 1969-70 season until the league ended in 1973. I loved the old league, and in July 2008, I got the inspired idea to create a website for the EHL. There was definitely a need. When I saw that the name http://TheEHL.com was actually available (how many stupid webnames are unavailable?), I recognized that I was destined to do this.

One might certainly ask why we need a blog for a league that has been defunct for 36 years, especially when we already have a website. Two good reasons:
1) As I research old newspapers, I extract a lot of data that in its raw form is probably not terribly readable. It's cool to have the game scores and box scores, but that data needs a voice to bring it to life. The blog should allow me to do that.
2) There's a lot more EHL current events than you might think. The blog format allows me to dash off a quick update, that you can see in your particular RSS feed (I use Google homepage myself - you can use the "Subscribe to... Posts" button on the right to add this), without me having to e-mail the TheEHL.com Mailing List to death. This became obvious when John Brophy was inducted into the ECHL Hall of Fame last month. By the time I had a chance to get an e-mail out with all of the info in it, it was only a couple of days ahead of time, which probably precluded anyone jumping in a car to go see John get inducted. With the blog, I could make a quick note when I see it and a bunch of updates as I get them - rather than 5 or 6 e-mails.

The blog is part of what I envision as a 3-pronged EHL website...Site, Blog, Message Boards. The latter is so that we can communicate with each other and build an EHL community sharing our memories. I actually had EHL boards for awhile, but I wasn't happy with the quality, and they were frankly taking up all of the time I wanted to use getting http://TheEHL.com up and running. When they crashed, I took them down. I'll be looking for better boards, but it may be a while as I have a few things I'd like to accomplish - like get some of the great stuff people have sent me up on the site first.

Well, that's quite enough for my first post.

Thanks to all of you for helping keep hockey history alive 36 years later.

Don't forget to add this to your Google homepage. (There's probably other ways to get notified of updates, but I'm new to this.)

- Tom T.