Here's a great story (as we've come to expect from Mike Mastovich of the Johnstown Tribune-Democrat) about the Johnstown Blue Birds, the 1941-42 EAHL team that preceded and set the groundwork for the Johnstown Jets and the Cambria County War Memorial Arena. It all started with a hockey game between Pitt and Penn State, and a horse player form Baltimore...
Here's a more detailed article on Art Dorrington, his induction into the African American Ethnic Sports Hall of Fame, and his work with the Art Dorrington Ice Hockey Foundation by John McGourty at NHL.com. Well worth the read... http://www.nhl.com/ice/news.htm?id=380666
Here's a brief article about Art Dorrington who was the Eastern Hockey League's leading goal scorer in it's first two seasons (1954-56) after reforming from the old EAHL. The article is by Lori Hoffman of Atlantic City Weekly and was posted February 10, 2005. The photo of Dorrington is from the New Haven Tomahawks of 1951-1952 EAHL.
Eddie Ferenz was best known as the traveling secretary for the Philadelphia Phillies for 30 years. He was also a player for the Johnstown Jets back in the 1950s, a PA announcer and front office guy with the Philadelphia Ramblers in the early 60s, Assistant GM with the Johnstown Jets, and GM for the Jersey Devils. In 1967 alone, Ferenz started the year in the Johnstown Jets front office, spent the summer as PA announcer at Connie Mack Stadium for the Phillies, and then in September was named General Manager of the EHL Jersey Devils. Nice work if you can get it.
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.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.)
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."
The January 9, 1956 edition of the Baltimore Sun speaks of how the Carlin family, owners of Carlin's Iceland Arena - where the Clippers played, donated the John J. Carlin Trophy to be presented to the EHL's leading scorer each season.
Goalie Guy DeNoncourt is as out of place on this shot as his Long Island Ducks teammates were in the 1973 playoffs when they became the Massachusetts Ducks. The South Yarmouth, MA based Ducks played a total of 4 Eastern Hockey League games, all losses, in the 1973 playoffs against the Cape Cod Cubs.03-06-73 Syracuse Post-Standard, p 14Unstated here is the fact that the Long Island Ducks failed to win any of their last 14 games in the last 4 weeks of the season (and their existence). They still made the playoffs by one point over the Jersey Devils (Jersey would have won the tiebreaker for taking on the tougher schedule after the New England Blades dropped out of the league in November). On the final day of the regular season, the Devils beat the Ducks 9-3 at Long Island. Afterwards, Al Baron congratulated Devils coach Jim Hay and told him that the Ducks were dropping out of the playoffs and that Devils were in since they were a much more deserving team. (The fact that the Devils were only 4 points behind Long Island and Rhode Island as of January 31, and still couldn't catch them might dispute this point.)
DUCKS REINSTATED IN EHL PLAYOFFS
By DON PICKARD
An apparent player-owner feud which resulted in Long Island Ducks owner Al Baron yanking his team out of the upcoming Walker Cup Playoffs has been settled at EHL headquarters and the Ducks will begin opening round play Friday in Cape Cod. Baron, reportedly having difficulty meeting certain bonus provisions in the contracts of several of the Long Island players, had earlier Monday announced that his team was going out of business and that it would not be able to meet its 1973 playoff obligations.
At a hastily-called meeting of EHL executives in New York City, a stop-gap arrangement was made in which the Ducks will be home-based in the same arena as their Cape Cod foes. Should they win. the opening series, the Ducks will continue to use the South Yarmouth rink as their home ice in any ensuing series. For the remainder of the playoffs they will be known as the Massachusetts Ducks.
With Veterans Day upcoming this week, I am reminded of American hockey pioneer Larry Pleau who won EHL Rookie of the Year honors in 1968-69 with the Jersey Devils while serving as an Army Private at Fort Dix. The original NHL.com article by John McGourty which I had bookmarked seems to have disappeared. Fortunately it was saved by Spider-man (really) at this link.
..."After my third season, I got drafted into the U.S. Army and took basic training at Fort Campbell, Ky. I got my orders for advanced basic training and then on Labor Day weekend, I got a call from Murray Williamson, who was coaching the U.S. Olympic team. In those days, the military was big on its association with amateur athletics. I had a tryout in Minnesota, made the team and was assigned there by the Army. I was lucky I was able to continue my career. I'm not sure it's fair but it happens.
"After the Olympics, I was assigned to Fort Dix (in New Jersey). My commanding officer said, "What am I going to do with you, you've only got 10 months left?" I told him I had worked at a golf course and I got assigned to the base golf course. While I was there, I played for the Jersey Devils in the old Eastern League, out of Cherry Hill, N.J. My sergeant loved hockey and let me go. I never practiced, just played, and won rookie of the year. We had Forbes Kennedy's brother Jamie, a good little player from Windsor, Bobby Brown, and goalie Bobby Taylor, who played for the Flyers. Longtime Flyers scout Marcel Pelletier was our coach. We had one goalie in those days and Taylor got tossed one game. Pelletier filled in for him. Only problem, Bobby was a left-hand glove and Marcel was right-handed so Marcel wore hockey gloves the whole game." "The funniest part was Marcel asked the players who would play goal and they all ran for the bathroom," said Taylor, now a color analyst for the Tampa Bay Lightning. "The trainer was supposed to be the backup but he didn't even come into the room and we never saw him again until we were on the bus. They never scored on Marcel and we won, 2-1.
Larry was by far the best player in the League. He'd have never been there but for his military commitment." "We had a southern division and I remember a road trip where we left Cherry Hill on a Monday morning and drove to Jacksonville, Fla., and played the next night," Pleau said. "We got on the bus after the game and drove to Charlotte and played the next night and got on a bus and drove to Knoxville, Tenn. Got in at 7 a.m., woke up at 2 p.m., played in Nashville that night and drove back to New Jersey. Got in at 6 a.m. and played that night, then drove to Syracuse and played the following night. All that for $40 a game and $6 a day meal money?"
Pleau spent the 1969-70 season between the Canadiens and their AHL affiliate in Montreal, then made the big club the next season, only to be hurt and limited to 19 regular-season games. That was enough to get his name engraved on the Stanley Cup, though...
As a side note, the goaltender on that 1968 US Olympic Team with Pleau was Pat Rupp who had been the Devils original netminder starting the 1964-65 season.
I just got back from a 2-week vacation in western Canada. It was fun passing through towns like Abbotsford (with their new AHL franchise), Chilliwack, New Westminster, Kamloops and their various hockey histories, wondering if I would spy the arena where the teams played.“My first job in broadcasting was the Eastern Hockey League, broadcasting the Syracuse Blazers games for WSYR radio. They paid me 30 dollars a game plus five dollars meal money on the road. I rode the bus with the team, plugged an electronic gadget into the phone line in the press box and broadcast back to SYR. My very first game was at Johnstown, the team they based a team on in the movie Slap Shot.
“To prepare, I got the rosters of the teams and studied them till the players were like members of my own family. Then, just before game time, I noticed that the Johnstown owner had sprung for new uniforms – all the numbers were different.
“There was no time to relearn the numbers, so when the first Johnstown player on the ice was a guy wearing number 2 named François Ouimet, I decided that he was about to play the game of his life.”
Costas continued, with a big grin on his face, “No matter what the play, François was in on it. He scored all the goals and even assisted on his own. He checked everybody, including himself, into the boards. He was in on every play. He was everywhere.”
Eric G. "Jerry" Frizzelle 
The International Hockey League named former Knoxville Knight, Dennis Hextall as commisioner this week. Hextall played the 1966-67 season with Knoxville racking up 20 goals, 56 assists and 202 penalty minutes in 61 games at left wing.
Anyone who has done any basic web searching on the EHL has come across Chuck Millers' classic "FROM ATLANTIC CITY TO TORONTO: The Boardwalk Trophy and the Eastern Hockey League". It's one of the first articles you come to on the front page of http://TheEHL.com
We lost another EHL veteran this week in Russ McClenaghan, from a heart attack at 74. Here's a nice article on him from the Moncton Times and Transcript...It’s the wee hours of the morning at the Fredericton Motor Inn two decades ago in early June of 1989.Russell (Mert) McClenaghan, who passed away Saturday, Aug. 8 of a heart attack in Long Island, N.Y., and a group of teammates from the 1950s Maritime junior baseball champion Lewisville Keefe Cubs, who had been inducted into the New Brunswick Sports Hall of Fame the night before, are reminiscing about the good old days.
I wrote in my column afterwards that McClenaghan’s situation was different than his teammates’ experience — he played both professional baseball and semi-pro hockey in the same calendar year.
“I’m really kind of sorry I didn’t concentrate on just baseball and give it a better shot,” said the barrel- chested, bullet-like throwing former catcher and outfielder who played with both the Pittsburgh Pirates and Milwaukee Braves organizations in the 1950s.
“There were so many people in baseball who said I had a good chance of making the Major Leagues — my teammates would have in my opinion — but it was one of those things. I was young and liked to play both baseball and hockey. However, the two seasons overlapped. If you made the playoffs in hockey, it meant you arrived at the tail-end of spring training (in baseball), which hindered your chances,” said McClenaghan, a carpentry supervisor in Long Island, N.Y., at the time.
“I was in shape for hockey when I reported to spring training, but I had to start all over when I got there. The co-ordination is a bit similar, but you use different muscles and it takes time to get adapted. Having a bat in your hand and a hockey stick in your hand is an entire different story.”
* Al Kubski, who managed the Grand Forks, N.D., Chiefs in the Northern League when McClenaghan played there, pleaded with him to stick to baseball only. “He wanted me to play winter ball in San Juan where he was managing,” recalled McClenaghan. “I probably should have and forgotten about hockey, but it’s like I said before...I really enjoyed playing both hockey and baseball.” His older brother Murray, a pitcher with the Keefe Cubs, had suggested he stick to baseball as well, but Mert told him the money was better in hockey at the time.
McClenaghan was signed off the Keefe Cubs by the late Clyde Sukeforth in 1953. That was the same season the Lewisville team won their first of two consecutive Maritime junior baseball titles.
They won when McClenaghan tripled home Keith Bourgeois from first with one out in the bottom of the ninth, with the Cubs beating Reserve St. Joseph of Cape Breton 4-3 to sweep the best-of-five series at Lewisville, 3-0.
* Meanwhile, Sukeforth had joined the Pittsburgh Pirates organization from the Brooklyn Dodgers, where he had played catcher and later coached and scouted with the National League team. Sukeforth, who had done the scouting, was the only other person in the room when Dodgers president Branch Rickey told Jackie Robinson of his plans to sign him to a contract to play in Montreal (the Triple A Royals) in 1946. Robinson became the first black to play in the Majors in 1947.
Sukeforth, coaching in the Dodgers’ bullpen, passed over Carl Erskine and sent in Ralph Branca, who served up the famous three-run homer (the one heard around the world) in the bottom of the ninth to Bobby Thompson. The homer gave the New York Giants (now San Francisco) a come-from-behind 5-4 win over the Dodgers in the third and deciding game of a best-of-three playoff series and the 1951 National League pennant.
Sukeforth also played a role in drafting Roberto Clemente from the Brooklyn organization in the 1954 Rule V draft. He died at age 98.
* The Philadelphia Phillies were also interested in McClenaghan, but Sukeforth really impressed the Ormstown, Que.-born/Monctonraised athlete, so he signed with the Pirates. “He came to my house and talked to my parents. He went that extra mile and really convinced my folks to have me sign with the Pirates,” recalled McClenaghan.
* I recall Sukeforth taking a ferry trip to P.E.I. to watch Mert play against Summerside Curran and Briggs. After we won the series and later the Maritime title, Mert signed with the Pirates (he received a modest bonus) and worked out in their bullpen before joining Brunswick, Ga., of the Class D Georgia Florida for the end of their season.
* By the late 1950s, more than half a dozen baseball and hockey combined seasons were behind McClenaghan, The injuries on the diamond had piled up, so Mert decided to hang up his spikes and concentrate on semi-pro hockey, but unfortunately, he suffered more injuries.
He played hockey until the 1970s in the Eastern and International Leagues with such teams as Philadelphia Ramblers, Long Island Ducks, New Haven Blades, Omaha Knights and Toledo Blades.
McClenaghan, who played with Moncton High Purple Knights, was also a top junior player with Sussex Rangers and North Sydney Franklins and attended the Detroit Red Wings training camp one season.
* Notes: McClenaghan’s death brought the number of former Junior Keefe Cubs players who are deceased to 11. Others from the N.B, Sports Hall of Fame, N.B. Baseball and Moncton sport shrines teams (1951-54) who have passed away include — Eddie Belliveau, Eddie Booth, Val Caissie, Frank Cleveland, Paul Goguen, Jim Hopper, Allie Maddison, Don Mitchell, Don Simmons and Keith Nelson. Also deceased are team sponsor Jack Keefe; head coach Gene (Foggy) Boudreau and assistant coaches Art Mellish and Johnny Gordon. The Keefe Cubs won the N.B. title 1951- 54; the N.B.-P.E.I crown 1952, ‘53 and ‘54 and the Maritime crown in 1953 and ‘54.* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Russ McClenaghan Links:
* Baseball Stats at Baseball-Reference.com
* Hockey stats at Hockeydb.com
* New Haven Blades Team Photo from "Hockey in New Haven"* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
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.
I was looking for a shot of the Nashville Dixie Flyers "pegasus" uniforms and came across this blog from Lowetide (an Edmonton Oilers based blog) on Wally Sprange. Jackpot on the photo, eh? As I recall, the one time I saw Sprange and the Dixie Flyers in the 1969-71 timeframe, they had "NASHVILLE" written across the front of their purple jerseys. I still haven't found a photo confirming that jersey.
Here's a link to something called buyroadwarrior, which cranks out seemingly totally random blogs for no particular stated reason: http://buyroadwarrior.com/?p=2176 . This blog is on Edgar "Chirp" Brenchley. Here's an excerpt:Not only was Brenchley a gold medalist with Great Britain in 1936, but he also scored the game winning gold medal goal. http://ezinearticles.com/?Olympic-Hockey---The-Early-Years-Trivia&id=2132928Coaching career
In 1955, Brenchley became the head coach of the Philadelphia Ramblers in the EHL. He stayed with the Ramblers for three seasons — also having iced for them once in the 1955–56 season. He became the head coach for the Sudbury Wolves for the 1962–63 season. The following season, 1963–64, he joined the Port Huron Flags as head coach before joining the St. Catharines Black Hawks for the 1964–65 season. Brenchley retired from coaching after the 1965–66 season which he had spent with the Toledo Blades
Retirement and after
Between 1967 and 1974 Brenchley served as a professional scout for both the Washington Capitals and the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Brenchley was posthumously inducted into Niagara Falls Sports Wall of Fame in 1990 and the British Ice Hockey Hall of Fame in 1993.
Awards and honours
- Olympic gold medalist in 1936.
- World Championship silver medalist in 1937.
- European Championship gold medalist in 1937.
- Inducted to the Niagara Falls Sports Wall of Fame in 1990.
- Inducted to the British Ice Hockey Hall of Fame in 1993.
Edgar (Chirp) Brenchley, a scout for Washington Capitals of the NHL, died Thursday morning at the age of 63 ... He had been with the Capitals for a little over one year.Brenchley moved to Niagara Falls from England when he was 12, and as an adult actually ran a tourist boat at the falls. So, if you're old enough to have been at the Niagra Falls back in the 50s and had a guide with a British accent, maybe it was Chirp Brenchley.
From the Rangers Ramblings blog, a look back at #19 draft selections by the Blueshirts, including Barry Buchanan (listed as "Bruce") who played defense for the 1968-69 Clinton Comets.Other Barry Buchanan listings on the web:Before we look ahead at potential Rangers’ targets in the first round, let’s take a look at the team’s history with the 19th overall selection.
The Rangers have made the 19th overall selection three times in their history.
In 1968, the Blueshirts drafted defenseman Bruce Buchanan with the 19th overall pick – which was the final selection of the second round that year. Buchanan never played a game in the NHL and his post-Junior career highlight was being a part of the 1968-69 Clinton Comets who won the EHL’s regular season title. The 5-9/160 blueliner was the Rangers lone pick among 24 selections.
Back in 1968, the only players eligible for the Draft were those 17 and older who were not being sponsored by an NHL team. The next year, the NHL changed the eligibility requirements and opened the Draft up to any amateur player under the age of 20.
Butch Martin was a two-time 2nd team EHL All-Star winger(1963 & 64) with the Johnstown Jets. He was also first team All-Star coach in 1963...Martin later returned to play for the Dutchmen and, after his two Olympic appearances, played pro for the Johnstown Jets of the Eastern Hockey League and briefly for the Pittsburgh Hornets of the AHL.From: The Waterloo County Hall of Fame:
...After a stint at player-coach with the Jets, Martin returned home to become the second head coach of the Kitchener Rangers. In his one season with the major-junior club, he helped develop future NHLers Walt Tkaczuk and Mike Robitaille.
Martin continued to play old-timers hockey into his early 70s and still plays golf a few times a week at the Westmount Golf and Country Club. (Martin was asked if his handicap was still under 10. "No. When your age increases, so does your handicap," he said.)
FLOYD "BUTCH" MARTIN
b. 1929
Floyd Martin was born in Floradale in 1929. He began his hockey career with the Waterloo Siskins Jr. B., Guelph Biltmore Jr. A and the K-W Dutchmen. Because of his Mennonite upbringing, he wouldn't play hockey on Sundays and in October 1950, he quit the Dutchmen. He also cancelled a contract which he had signed with the New York Rangers. He resumed his career with intermediate and senior teams in Elmira but returned to the Dutchmen in 1956. He went with them to the Olympics in Cortina, Italy (1956) and Squaw Valley, California (1960) where they won bronze and silver medals. In 1961 he travelled with the Chatham Maroons on a goodwill trip to Russia and Sweden. From 1961 to 1964 Martin played for the Johnstown Jets of the Eastern league, including two years as coach.
He joined the Kitchener Rangers of the OHL as coach for one season. He spent three years as playing coach of the Guelph Regals and coached Guelph Junior B's in 1968 and 1969. He has played Polar Kings old-timers hockey since 1975.
I used to roll my eyes at the name Nashville Dixie Flyers. Like "Solar Bears", "Sound Tigers", "Ice Bats" (or Ice Anything), or River Blades (or Anything Blades), Dixie Flyers always sounded like a forced pairing of two words that don't go together. I had assumed it was just a southernization of the name "Flyers". The fact that the Dixie Flyers were named in 1962, five years before the Philadelphia Flyers came into existence never quite dawned on me.
Even the Hockey News was confused on this point. If one looks back they'll find in some papers "-10" after the Nashville in the EHL standings, meaning that the Hockey News thought they were affiliated with the Philadelphia Flyers. To my knowledge the two teams never had a working agreement.
The only place I know of that Nashville used the Dixie Flyer train as part of the logo was on the original 1962-63 program covers.
While looking for pictures of EHL players, I found this shot of Ed "Butch" Songin (hand raised to coach Lou Saban of the Boston Patriots) of the 1954-55 Worcester Warriors. It's from this article in the Boston Globe about Saban's passing.Ed (Butch) Songin, the ex-Boston College football and hockey star, has informed the Worcester Warriors that he will definitely be on hand. Songin signed last week has been resting up after a starring season with the Hamilton Tiger Cats of the Canadian Football LeagueThe Warriors won their first game (1-6) beating league-leading Clinton 6-5, however Songin did not play and no reason was given in the paper.
Ed (Butch) Songin, the ex-Boston College star, and more recently a performer in the Canadian grid league, will make his first appearance tonight and will team with (Rod) O'Connor on defense.Worcester Telegram,December 15, 1954
Songin, making his debut with the Worcesters as a result of little skating or practice and help the starring (Dusty) Burke (from Athol, MA) and the improved O'Connor in the games to come.Songin had two assists in his first game, a 6-5 home win over the New Haven Blades:
O'Grady (Duffy, Songin) 17:09 1st - Frank O'Grady's long shot from the left, after a pretty combination play in which Ed (Butch) Songin, the ex-B.C. star, and Duffy helped, made it 3-2 (New Haven) just before the period closed.
Duffy (Cahoon, Songin) 16:45 2d - Duffy locked it up again at 4-4 on a pass from Songin.Worcester Telegram, December 21, 1954
Songin, the burly ex-B.C. footballer, who made his debut with the Warriors last Tuesday, will be back to the team with Burke at the points. Songin, busy playing football with Hamilton in the Canadian Football League, wasn't in his best shape last week. But he has been skating daily since and expects to be in full stride from here in.There was a huge east coast snowstorm and the Washington Lions, along with the individual Warriors players barely made it to the arena by game time. Songin didn't make it to the game. The Warriors (3-6) won their third game 5-3 in front of 304 fans.
Songin (Ceglarski, Burke) 18:58 2d- The Warriors however after the game stopped for a few minutes because of a pair of fights between Dick Hamm and Don Perry and Rod O'Connor and Al Fontana, broke the ice as Songin drove the puck past goalie Jack Geutens (Also spelled Geuten and Geutin in the box score) at 18:50. Both clubs were playing with three men on the ice at the time.Len Ceglarski, who assisted is better known today as the highly successful hockey coach at Clarkson and Boston College. This may have been his only point as a pro (well, amateur) , but that's another post.
Songin (Sennott) 12:32 3rd - Worcester, however, trailing 3-1 seconds after the third period opened, dispalyed its best hockey of the game and tied the game at 12:32 on Butch Songin's second goal.January 16, 1955
Thanks to a decision by league president Tom Lockhart, acting on a protest by Washington general manager Jack Riley, the Lions received a boost in their bid for second (place). Lockhart ruled that New Haven's 20-3 victory over Worcester Monday was an unofficial game as that game along with Worcester's final matches with Washington and Baltimore had previously been cancelled.So the final EHL tally for Butch Songin appears to be:
NEW YORK (AP) - The Eastern Hockey League, at its annual meeting in New York Tuesday, announced the formal dissolution of the EHL and the creation of two seperate leagues, one based in the north and the other operating out of the south, to fill the void.Binghamton and Lewiston had previously applied for EHL membership, and both were expected to be in the league for 1973-74.
The northern league, titled the North American Hockey League, plans to begin play this fall with a minimum of six teams. Charter members include the Cape Cod Cubs, Mohawk Valley Comets, Johnstown, Pa. Jets and the Binghamton, N.Y. Dusters. At least two additional NAHL entries are expected to be named shortly, with franchises from Rhode Island and Lewiston, Me. having the inside track. A Long Island entry is also a possibility. Cape Cod, Mohawk Valley and Johnstown were members of the now disbanded EHL. The NAHL, which is scheduled to begin a 74-game regular season Oct. 12, chose Jack Newkirk of Cape Cod as temporary chairman and Ed Stanley of Mohawk Valley as treasurer.
Earlier Tuesday, the Southern Hockey League was formed, with franchises granted to Charlotte, N.C., Greensboro, N.C., Winston-Salem, N.C., Roanoke Valley, Va. and St. Petersburg, Fla.
One of the unfortunate realities of a blog about a league that has been out of existence for 36 years, is that a lot of your current news is going to come from obituaries. Today we salute Kent Douglas who, according to hockeydb.com played one game for the Long Island Ducks in the EHL's final season 1972-73.Born Feb.6, 1936, in Cobalt, Ont., Douglas won the Calder Trophy as NHL rookie of the year with the Leafs in 1962-63. He won the Stanley Cup with the Leafs that year and assisted on the Cup-winning goal.
Here's a remembrance of the Clinton Comets by Richard L. Williams, Town and Village Historian, for the Clinton Historical Society.
In 1960 with senior hockey on the skids in Canada Gerry was signed by the Jersey Larks of the Eastern U.S. Hockey League and backstopped the Larks through the 1960 and 1961 season.
Also in the Cornwall Sports Hall of Fame, a 1971 inductee, is Devaney's teammate on the Larks, Bob Bingley (pictured left)The Larks were only around for the 1960-61 season, playing in The Ice House in what was either Haddonfield or Delaware Township, NJ. The Ice House had attempted to host an EHL team as far back as 1956, but the league denied the application on grounds of being within the territorial rights of the Philadelphia Ramblers. For the 1960-61 season the Washington Presidents were moved to The Ice House and renamed the Jersey Larks. The Larks had an instant rivalry with the Philadelphia Ramblers. They even battled for the "Weber Trophy", which was donated by Delaware Township Mayor Christian Weber. I'm pretty sure that the Ramblers won that. They were up 3-1-1 after 5 games in the 8-game season series. The Larks lasted one season, but in spite of increasing attendance, ownership lost money.He then joined the Washington Presidents in 1959-1960 in the Eastern Hockey League, and the Jersey Larks in 1960-61.
The franchise was forfeited when ownership failed to send its required 5% of the gate to the league. A group raised $50,000 to buy the Larks franchise and keep them in Jersey, but backed out when they found out that $25,000 of that would have to go towards paying down debt on the team. The franchise became the essence of the Knoxville Knights for the 1961-62 season. By 1964, Delaware Township had become Cherry Hill and the Ice House had become the Cherry Hill Arena. The Philadelphia Ramblers, after their best financial year in 1962-63, went bankrupt after the 1963-64 season. The team was moved to Cherry Hill Arena and became the Jersey Devils. A couple of years later, Philadelphia was awarded an NHL franchise, the Flyers, and any possibility of reviving the Weber Cup was gone. (Pictured Right: Alex Kuzma in his Jersey Larks jersey)
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