This Week in EHL History - July 20-27

* July 21, 1971 - The St. Petersburg entry in the Eastern Hockey League lacks a name and players but it does have a coach. Lloyd Hinchberger (pictured right), a veteran of 22 years in pro hockey, has signed to coach the team which will be based at the Bayfront Center.


* July 22, 1963 - Don Davidson, 28, of Ottawa Chaudiere, professional hockey player, used power driving and sharp putting to defeat Brian McGuian three and two Sunday and win the Quebec amateur golf championship. Davidson plays centre for Greensboro, N.C., Generals of the Eastern Hockey League.

* July 22, 1970 - Pat Kelly has signed a two-year contract to coach the Clinton, N.Y., Comets in the Eastern Hockey League, the Minnesota North Stars announced Tuesday. Wren Blair, manager of the National Hockey League North Stars, said the working agreement with Clinton was renewed. Kelly has won three straight championships and was the league's coach of the year in 1969-70.

* July 22, 1971 - Johnstown Jets' player-coach Dick Roberge (pictured right) sought, and was granted permission to relinquish his duties as Jets' ice boss. Jets' fans breathed easier July 7 when Roberge signed his 1971-72 player contract. Entering his 17th season as a Jet, Roberge is the all-time scoring champ in the Eastern Hockey League and the United States Amateur Hockey Association. The hunt for a coach to replace Roberge still continues, although Mitchell interviewed one applicant with outstanding credentials over the weekend. He is Eddie Kachur (Catcher), a veteran performer in the American Hockey League. An outstanding right winger, the 37- year-old Kachur scored 47 goals for the Providence Reds of the AHL in 1967-68.In addition to hunting a coach, Mithcell will also be on the lookout for a defenseman to replace Blake Ball, who announced his retirement July 10.


* July 23, 1971 - Jack Bownass (pictured left) was named the new coach of the Jacksonville, Fla., Rockets of the Eastern Hockey League. Last season he coached at Halifax in the Maritime Junior League. The Rockets have a working agreement with Toronto Maple Leafs of the National League. Bownass is 39 years of age and a native of Winnipeg.


* July 24, 1959 - Officials of the Greensboro Generals of the Eastern Hockey League have announced the club has signed a working agreement with the New York' Rangers of the National Hockey League. This marked the first deal, in which, an Eastern League club tied up with a major league hockey organization. Greensboro is making its debut in the Eastern League. The Generals will open their home schedule at the new Greensboro Coliseum on Nov. 11.


* July 25, 1956 - The Charlotte Clippers of the Eastern Hockey League will play 30 regular season home matches, opening Nov. 8, In their first professional hockey season. Jim Whittington of Charlotte, vice president of the club, also announced today the Clippers' president will be Charles Rock of Baltimore. Rock was president of the Baltimore Clippers last year when the team's home rink burned and it played the rest of its home schedule before enthusiastic Charlotte crowds. Whittington said he will meet this week with the Charlotte Coliseum Authority to sign a lease for use of the building at home games. Other Clippers officers are William O. Allen, a Charlotte accountant, secretary; Joe Small, partner with Rock in his Baltimore contracting business, treasurer. The tentative list of Eastern Hockey League teams includes Clinton, N. Y., New Haven, Conn, Johnrtown, PA., Philadelphia, Washington, and the only other new entry, the New York Rovers of Long Island.

* July 25, 1967 - Syracuse became the 12th member of the Eastern Hockey League Monday when league officials unanimously approved a Syracuse group's bid for a Northern Division franchise. Syracuse joins Long Island, New Haven, Jersey, Clinton and Johnstown in northern play. Jacksonville, Nashville, Knoxville, Charlotte, Greensboro and new addition Salem comprise the Southern Division. There'll be no inter-division competition this year except that between the winners of the respective divisions. It's expected that the Syracuse team will soon sign a working agreement with the Boston Bruins of the National Hockey League and that the parent club will stock Syracuse's entry with numerous fine, young players. In addition to the Bruin recruits, Syracuse will be allowed to select players from a pool ol EHL competitors at the Aug. 15 draft in Roanoke, Va. Each of the 10 veteran EHL teams will place two players on the draft list for selection by Syracuse and Salem.


* July 26, 1957 - A backer has been found to build an ice plant and Raleigh, North Carolina will have an ice hockey team in the Eastern Hockey League next season, a Charlotte businessman said today. P. G. (Pete) Benard of Charlotte, would-be owner of the Raleigh team, told the Raleigh Times a northern backer would put up money for a plant which would furnish ice for a hockey arena. He did not identify the backer.

* July 26, 1964 - Bernard "Buzzy" Deschamps (pictured left) , who scored 57 goals to lead the Eastern Hockey league as an amateur last season, has signed a professional contract with the Baltimore Clippers of the American Hockey league.


* July 27, 1972 - Jack Wells, 24, was named Wednesday the new coach of the Charlotte Checkers of the Eastern Hockey League. His selection was announced at a news conference by Al Manch, Checkers' president.

Clinton Comets' Pat Kelly Won Over Fans

"http://www.uticaod.com/sports/x968907595/Clinton-Comets-Kelly-won-over-fans

Clinton Comets' Kelly won over fans
Former player-coach headed to Greater Utica Sports Hall of Fame
By JOHN PITARRESI, Utica Observer-Dispatch

Pat Kelly heard it good the first time he took the ice in a Clinton Comets jersey.

“They booed me!” Kelly remembered.

Yes, they did. Kelly had been an enemy, invading the Clinton Arena with a couple of opposing Eastern League Hockey teams over the course of the previous half-dozen seasons, and he had arrived in a trade the team’s boisterous fans didn’t like much.

They didn’t boo for long.

The Comets already were an EHL power, but as a defenseman and player-coach, Kelly helped transform them into a revered small-town hockey legend. They eventually won three consecutive Walker Cup championships under his leadership, recorded one of the most dominating seasons in professional hockey history, and cemented their mythic position in Mohawk Valley sports history.

For that, and an ongoing six decades as a player, coach, and administrator everywhere from the EHL to the National Hockey League, Kelly will be inducted in the Greater Utica Sports Hall of Fame June 6.

Kelly has worn many hats in his 57 years in the game. He played for a quarter century and he’s coached in eight different leagues, including the NHL with the Colorado Rockies and the World Hockey Association with the Birmingham Bulls. He’ll be 75 in September, is in great shape, plays a lot of golf near his home in Charlotte, N.C., and still works as commissioner emeritus of the ECHL, which named its trophy for him.

His teams won six playoff championships, and his record in 25 seasons behind the bench was 936-798-170. He had fun doing it all.

“I never had a real job,” he said. “Hockey’s not a job. Hockey’s something I love. If there is such a thing as reincarnation, I want to come back as a hockey player.”

Maybe in Clinton, where he made many friends and left a imposing legacy that was
built with the help of a core group that included Jack Kane, Borden Smith, Ian Anderson – all Greater Utica Sports Hall of Famers - Dave Armstrong, Pete Prevost, Len Speck, Don Davidson, and Bill Bannerman. That group was bolstered regularly by first-year and replacement players like goalies Ed Babiuk, Ted Tucker and Lyle Carter.

It took a while, but Clinton fans soon were cheering Kelly, who was obtained from the Jersey Devils by general manager Wren Blair along with Smith and Ed Babiuk in exchange for popular coach Benny Woit, Orval Tessier, Hec LaLande, Norm Defelice, and Ted Szydlowski.

The Comets had won the Walker Cup as EHL champions in 1959 and 1964. After two strong seasons under Kelly, they grabbed the title again in 1968, 1969, and 1970. The 67-68 team went 57-5-10 during the regular season, believed to be the fewest losses in pro hockey history. That run is Kelly’s favorite memory.

“Winning that third championship, that hasn’t been done often in any league,” he said. “That topped any
thing.”

Kelly said the Comets were easy to coach.

“They wanted to play!” he said. “The hardest part was trying to get them off the ice. ‘Come on,’ they’d holler from the bench, ‘You’re taking half my shift.’ They’d come to work. They got along great together. The wives and kids got along. It was a team that just got along on and off the ice. When I put Kane, Smith and Bannerman together, it seemed they’d known each other forever.”

Anderson, the Comets much-feared defenseman, said Kelly kept everybody happy and everybody working.

“He did a great job; the record speaks for itself,” he said. “He had a system that worked. It was basically simple. And we all (the veterans) came together to help him. He didn’t panic, ever. He got upset when he had good reason to, but he’d say, ‘Don’t push the panic button.’ He was pretty good at that.”

Kane was well-established as the Comet captain when Kelly arrived, but said their relationship was good.

“It’s not easy being a player coach; he handled it very well,” he said.

They might have had words once or twice, though.

“One time he decided to put Smith back on the point on the power play where Anderson normally played,” Kane said. “Smitty let one go and nearly took my head off. I skated to the bench and said, ‘Kelly, you get Anderson back there and get Smitty up front or I’m not going back out there.’”

Whatever. It worked, and Kelly did his job on the ice, too, as a hip-checking, puck moving 5-foot-9, 180-pound defenseman, having moved to the blue line as a teenager despite a great desire to be a lefthanded-shooting right wing.

“The coach said you either play defense or we let you go,” Kelly said. “My dad said, ‘Try it. You might like it.’ I’ve played defense ever since. I was a pretty good playmaker. I pride myself on being able to get the puck to people.”

Kelly is a native of Sioux Lookout, an outpost in far Western Ontario that is a lot farther from Toronto – about 700 miles – than Clinton is. His father was a logger, but the family moved to Welland, not far across the Niagara River, in the early days of World War II. He played on a three-time Southern Ontario juvenile team in St. Catharines, then moved up to that city’s junior team. He began his professional career with the Trois Rivieres Lions in the Quebec Hockey League in 1957, starting the long journey to Clinton and beyond.

Along the way, he got to room with Don Cherry for a while in training camp with the Springfield Indians, owned by Eddie Shore, an all-time great player, a stern taskmaster, and, by most accounts, more of a pitiless skinflint than Ebenezer Scrooge ever thought of being.
“Tell me about it,” Kelly said. “Eddie Shore was a nightmare.”

Kelly and his wife June had three sons, one lost to cancer several years ago, with the other two living in Charlotte. The couple will celebrate their 57th wedding anniversary in October.

Clinton Comets Revisited

Here's a remembrance of the Clinton Comets by Richard L. Williams, Town and Village Historian, for the Clinton Historical Society.

According to Wikipedia, the original Clinton Arena burned down September 11, 1953. The Comets played in both the Western Ontario League and a partial schedule in the EHL for the 1954-55 season. The Comets played a combined 74 games (35-35-4), which at that time was considered a very long season.
This makes me wonder if Clinton had been a new franchise for the 1953-54 EAHL season, and if their arena burning down had an affect on the EAHL not playing that year. After that year off, the EAHL reformed into the "modern" EHL for the 1954-55 season. Ed Later Note: No, Clinton was not in the EHL's plans until September 1954, when a meeting for a New York State league was held at the same time as a meeting for restarting the EHL.