Bob Gillson, Goaltender, EHL Washington Presidents & Johnstown Jets, 1958-59

Bob Gillson - Owen Sound Mercurys

Bob Gillson was the regular netminder for the Owen Sound Mercurys for the ten years of their existence in the Senior Ontario Hockey Association. (SOHA) from 1947  to 1957. As a boy, Bob had ”rickets” and it was feared he would not be able to walk. His strong determination got him beyond this problem. Bob became part of the Toronto Maple Leaf system but was 4^th or 5^th on the depth chart. The Leafs wanted to send Bob to one of their western teams for development, but he opted to jump ship in 1947 and go to Owen Sound, where he had a very successful career. He was regarded as one of the top senior hockey goaltenders in Canada. Owen Sound won the Allan Cup (senior hockey supremacy of Canada) largely due to Bob in 1951. (On a side note: Les Binkley (Baltimore and Charlotte Clippers) played in an Allan Cup playoff game for the injured Gillson. Binkley had just turned 16 and the Sarnia Sailors overwhelmed him that night, scoring 8 goals.)  Bob Gillson was voted into the Owen Sound Sports Hall of Fame and still lives there. He is one of two surviving members of that Allan Cup winning team.

‘Mr. Gillson goes to Washington’ His boss Jim Keeling owner of the Owen Sound Mercurys and the then Collingwood Mercurys told Bobby to go to Washington – they had goaltender problems and needed help to get in the playoffs. Keeling was an owner of a Ford dealership in Owen Sound, hence the Owen Sound and Collingwood Mercurys. Jim was a long time friend of Lou Pieri, owner of the Providence Reds, and for this season, also the Washington Presidents as a farm team for Providence. Gillson had also signed a “C” contract with Providence in 1948 which might still have been in force in 1958. At any rate it seems the call to Washington came through Pieri. Several players who played with the Mercurys were one time Providence property - Tom Burlington, Pat McReavy, Bill McComb and Andy McCallum. Another Providence connection - it seems Pieri sent old Providence hockey equipment up to Owen Sound. Bob still has the pants which had been in a museum in Southampton Ont. but discarded and returned to Gillson via Doug Gillespie (former teammate) a few years ago.

Bob Gillson
Toronto Staffords 1946-47

Gillson flew from Toronto to New York. He took a cab from the airport to the railroad station in New York He took the train to New Haven and met the Washington team there. He is uncertain if he played that night or the next. Bob was carrying his goal pads and equipment for the entire journey.(everything but the hockey stick.). In Washington he stayed at the Dodds Hotel. He was the only hockey player staying there. Washington did not make the playoffs. Bob says he is not sure if Georges Vezina or Terry Sawchuk could have got them in (with a good-natured laugh).

Here's 8 games I can verify he played with Washington, as per the Washington Post:
Jan 29, 1959 Washington 3 at New Haven 5
Jan 31, 1959 Washington 6 at Charlotte 5 (OT)
Feb 5, 1959 Washington 1 at Charlotte 4
Feb 7, 1959 Washington 6 at Charlotte 4
Feb 10, 1959 Washington 1 at Philadelphia 5, Gillson 31 Saves
Feb 11, 1959 Washington 1 at Clinton 3, Gillson 31 Saves
Feb 14, 1959 Charlotte 3 at Washington 6, Gillson 25 Saves
Feb 15, 1959 Charlotte 13 at Washington 2
Totals: 8 Games, 42 Goals against. 3 Wins 5 Losses.

Feb 17, 1959 Nipper O'Hearn brought in by the Presidents to replace an ailing Gillson.
Feb 21, 1959 Goaltender Harvey Bennett acquired by the Presidents from the Providence Reds.
Feb 25, 1959 The Washington Presidents will use their 6th goalie of the season tonight, Ed Giacomin.

Bob Gillson - October 2010

EHL history is not cut and dried as it may seem. The 1959-60 EHL Yearbook says that Bob Gillson played 9 games giving up 44 goals for Washington and Johnstown combined. If we subtract out the Washington stats above, then Gillson would have given up 2 goals in 1 game for Johnstown. Bob himself is "absolutely sure" that he played a game for Johnstown, replacing an injured goalie, possibly even in a playoff game. Johnstown used a slew of replacement goaltenders at the end of the season and throughout the playoffs.

However, the book Slap Shots and Snapshots, which has extensive game by game stats for the Jets does not show Gillson having played for Johnstown. I contacted Mike Piskuric who did stats for the Slap Shots and Snapshots. He verified that he found no record of Gillson playing for Johnstown. However, he does show Frazer Gleason, Jets backup goalie having played 33 minutes, and giving up 2 goals, as a replacement on Feb. 27, 1959. (The EHL Yearbook does not show Gleason having played.) Is it possible that Gillson actually played, and the statistician or newspaper sports reporter just assumed that it was Gleason who played? We have no way of knowing for sure. Which is why EHL stats, like any hockey stats that were kept on type written pages, are not as cut and dried as things are in today's computer age.

Bob Gillson Stats from 1959-60 Eastern Hockey League Yearbook:
Games: 9 (Washington-Johnstown)
Goals Against: 44
Shutouts: 0
Goals Against Average: 4.89
(In case you're wondering, 9 full games divided by 44 goals would come to 4.89, so it's probable that the GAA is not taking into account Overtime or any partial games played.)

Note: This article is written from e-mails from Charlie MacDougall hockey historian from Owen Sound, about his discussions with Bob Gillson. The photos were also sent by Charlie.

An event at Washington's Uline Arena - Swampoodle

Uline Arena in Washington, DC, home of the EHL Washington Lions and Washington Presidents, is back in action. This week you can do more than park your car in it, you can buy tickets to go see...
Swampoodle . http://swampoodledc.com/


It sounds a bit like Cirque du Soliel meets history of DC's notorious, historic and forgotten Irish neighborhood, which was mostly where Union Station's rail yard is now.

I know I'd go, just to experience an event in the building. I'll be interested to see how they represent hockey, if at all. The video looks to show late sixties hockey, going by the haircuts, well after the EHL was gone from DC.

5/24/11 Update...
Here's a review from Jenn Larsen of We Love DC that makes me wish I could experience it. The building itself is the main event. I guess I'll just have to park my car there sometime...
http://www.welovedc.com/2011/05/24/we-love-arts-swampoodle/

EHL Franchise History

1954 is the first year that the old Eastern Amateur Hockey League (EAHL) formed in 1933 became known as simply the Eastern Hockey League (EHL), which is the major reason I use that as the starting year for TheEHL.com. (Whereas the EHL 1959-60 yearbook refers to that year as the 25th anniversary of the EHL.) The EAHL shut down for the 1953-54 season, and when it reformed as the EHL, such standard EAHL teams as the Boston Olympics and the Atlantic City Seagulls, and the MSG based New York Rovers were no longer in the league. 1954-55 was the first EHL season of the Clinton Comets and New Haven Blades. The following year, Worcester dropped out and the "modern day" EHL footprint really started with the re-admitance of the Johnstown Jets back from two years in the IHL, the addition of the Philadelphia Ramblers, and Baltimore moving to Charlotte after their arena burned down.

Within that 20 year period, the EHL was a relatively stable league as minor leagues go. Most of the franchise movement was in the first two years and the last two years. There were 17 total "new" franchises, of which two only lasted 1 year and both were experiments of sorts. The 1954-55 Worcester Warriors were allegedly the old Boston Olympics franchise. However, they were also an attempt to see how a team of local US amateurs would fare up against teams of mostly Canadians. Their main purpose was to fill a spot in the league, so that the other teams could fill out their schedules for that year. The 1964-65 NY Rovers were created as a test of having a development team at MSG for the Rangers. In the end, the development was deemed a success, but the cost of running the franchise was deemed not.

Below is a list of "new" franchises, and where they moved to. It's possible that all of these moves were not exact franchise shifts. In the case of the Jersey Larks moving to Knoxville, I've seen it written as the Jersey franchise being discontinued and at the same time Knoxville starting, and I've seen it written as a straight franchise shift. Since the GM, Ray Miron, and most of the players remained the same (even back from the Washington Presidents), I list that as all one franchise.

On the other hand, the Suncoast Suns appeared at the same time the Nashville Dixie Flyers disbanded. They were clearly a new franchise, though at least in their first exhibition game wore the old Nashville pants. They also received a lot of Nashville players, but this was after Greensboro had purchased all the Nashville players and then sold the players they didn't want from the combined Nashville/Greensboro rosters to Suncoast.

Simple name changes were the Charlotte Clippers becoming the Checkers, the Washington Lions becoming the Presidents, and the NY Rovers becoming the Long Island Ducks. If like me you saw the Charlotte Clippers being as silly as the Hartford Whalers - nautical names for land based cities - know that there was actually a minor league football Charlotte Clippers that played all through the 40s.

The Salem Rebels became Roanoke Valley when they started splitting their home games at the Roanoke Civic Center. Likewise, the Jacksonville Rockets became the Florida Rockets for several seasons, playing part of their home schedules in West Palm Beach and St. Petersburg. They later reverted back to just Jacksonville.

No team played a full schedule of games every season in the same city. Clinton played a partial season in 1954-55, while also playing in the Eastern Ontario League that year. Johnstown was in the IHL for the 1954-55 season. New Haven was forced out of town to Springfield, MA for the 1972-73 season, but the New England Blades folded by Thanksgiving. The Baltimore/Charlotte franchise played full schedules every year, but were not in the same location.

The most franchises in any year was 12, in both 1967-68 and 1972-73.

1954-55
Baltimore Clippers (1954-55) -> Charlotte Clippers (1956-60)-> Charlotte Checkers (1960-73)
Clinton Comets (1954-73)
New Haven Blades (1954-1972) -> New England Blades (1972)
Washington Lions -> Washington Presidents (1957-60)-> Jersey Larks (1960-61)-> Knoxville Knights (1961-68)
Worcester Warriors (1954-55)

1955-56
Johnstown Jets (1955-73)
Philadelphia Ramblers (1955-64) -> Jersey Devils (1964-73)

1959-60
Greensboro Generals (1959-73)
New York Rovers/Long Island Ducks (1959-61/1961-73)

1962-63
Nashville Dixie Flyers (1962-71)

1964-65
New York Rovers (1964-65)
Jacksonville Rockets/Florida Rockets (1964-71)

1967-68
Syracuse Blazers (1967-1973)
Salem Rebels/Roanoke Valley Rebels (1967-73)

1971-72
Suncoast Suns (1971-73)

1972-73
Rhode Island Eagles (1972-73)
Cape Cod Cubs (1972-73)