A Visit to Cherry Hill Arena - January 2013

Okay, okay, I know they tore down Cherry Hill Arena, aka The IceHouse, aka Delaware Valley Gardens, aka The Centrum in the 80s, and finally put in the grocery store that they had been threatening to put up through the life of the Arena. But I still paid a visit to the hallowed grounds (mostly because I haven't found a shot of the half-empty mall on the web, and I'm here to bring history alive, even if it's from today and not terribly interesting.) Today, the grocery store, in it's last life a ShopRite, is still empty after at least 4 years. But if you stand far enough back you can feel like you're in the parking lot of the Cherry Hill Arena, except there aren't any potholes. Below: Cherry Hill Arena in the 1960s, and more or less the same view in January 2013 (Click on any of the photos to enlarge)...

For those who arrived at this particular blog while searching for something totally else, the Cherry Hill Arena was famous in EHL land as being the home of the Eastern Hockey League Jersey Devils in from 1964-1973. Martin Brodeur started his career playing as an 18 year old for the 1964-65 Jersey Devils and still refuses to retire at age 67.*** For the 1960-61 season the Arena was known as the Icehouse, and was located in Delaware Township, because they hadn't finished the Mall that gave the town its name (Cherry Hill), yet. That year the EHL Jersey Larks played there at the corner of Brace and Berlin Roads. The team was also known as the Haddonfield Larks. Though you could walk to downtown Haddonfield from there, it was not in Haddonfield, unless PO Boxes count.The Larks, carrying debts from their previous season as the Washington Presidents, sold so well that the following year they moved to Tennessee to become the Knoxville Knights. The Philadelphia Ramblers played some home games at the renamed Delaware Valley Gardens, until they moved to the once again renamed Cherry Hill Arena themselves in 1964, becoming the Jersey Devils until going defunct in 1973, along with the EHL.

But enough about history, lets see what is up at the current location. The view from Berlin Road (the ShopRite is straight back in the center)...

 The view from the Brace Road entrance, and a list of shops in the mall...

 If you want to put an ice plant in the ShopRite, call Kimco Realty...

 And finally, one last look across the parking lot as we say "Good Night and Good Hockey"...

***Okay I fibbed on Martin Brodeur, but you initially bought it, right? However, his father Denis Brodeur did play goal for the EHL Charlotte Clippers, leading the team from first to worst in the 1958-59 season. http://theehl.blogspot.com/2009/03/matin-brodeurs-father-played-goal-for.html

I did see Martin Brodeur's actual first game with the New Jersey Devils, which he won 4-2 over the Bruins. We didn't really know it was Martin, instead assuming that the Devils had acquired veteran goaler Richard Brodeur. The game was especially memorable, since my Bruins fanatic friend, got to see my contention, which was that Ray Bourque, while an offensive star was also a defensive liability. Bourque gave up the puck on the Devils first two goals, and then basically assisted on a beautiful pass right up the slot on the Devils' game winning goal. I think that was the game I asked my buddy to be my best man at my wedding. So, all in all, a memorable event. But, seriously Martin, time to retire. Okay, I still resent the NHL New Jersey Devils stealing the EHL Jersey Devils' name, and not even getting that it's about the "Jersey Devil" a mostly South Jersey phenomenon, and not Satan.

Eastern Hockey League News - October 2011

EHL articles are now being posted on the Eastern Hockey League Facebook group. There are lots of EHL players, families, officials, management, historians and diehard fans in the group, with lots of jerseys (sorry, sweaters), programs, photos, trivia and memories there. Why don't you join in the fun?
https://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_129103506589

For those of you who aren't on Facebook, I plan to post the articles here monthly. Hopefully, this will free me up to get back to actually writing blogs here. I've got at least 10-15 blogs in my head, but never seem to have time to get them typed in, scanned and formatted.

Here's the Eastern Hockey League News for October 2011...

Charlotte Checkers, New Haven Blades, Fred Creighton
http://www.ranchomurieta.com/stories/fred-creighton-former-nhl-coach-dies-78

Cherry Hill Arena
http://hockey-blog-in-canada.blogspot.com/2011/10/it-sounds-like-nice-place.html

Hamilton College to play SUNY-Cortland at Clinton Arena Tuesday November 22
http://www.hamilton.edu/news/story/mens-ice-hockey-1-1-1-1-1-1-1

EHL Official Jim Galuzzi, and Salem Rebels' Dave Schultz
http://www.floridatoday.com/article/20111020/COLUMNISTS0317/310200034/John-Torres-75-NHL-official-s-love-hockey-has-yet-cool

The Art Dorrington Ice Hockey Foundation "On the Ice - Off the Streets"
http://www.atlanticcityweekly.com/news-and-views/the-other-atlantic-city/The-Art-Dorrington-Ice-Hockey-Foundation-On-the-Ice--Off-the-Streets-132194248.html

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

The Original Devils Were From South Jersey…

We may be on a little bit of a Jersey Devils blog roll here...

The Original Devils Were From South Jersey by Eric Model

Before there were the Devils … there were the Devils.

The contemporary version of the hockey Devils are to be found playing their National Hockey League schedule at Newark’s Prudential Center. Their minor league counterparts – also called the Devils – call Trenton their home and play at the Sun National Bank Center, formerly the Sovereign Bank Arena.

But once Devils Hockey was based in South Jersey at the Cherry Hill Arena. Those Devils were the Jersey Devils of the old Eastern Hockey League from 1964-71.

The original Devils were formed when the Philadelphia Ramblers, a member of the Eastern Hockey League, relocated to Cherry Hill at the end of the 1963-64 season, and there they remained until 1973.

Their home was built in 1959. Originally known as the Ice House, its seating capacity was 4,416.

The Arena is probably best known as a now legendary stop in the World Hockey Association, when the new Jersey Knights of the WHA very briefly called it home for the 1973-74 season – after leaving new York as the Raiders & the Golden Blades and before heading to San Diego where the franchise finally expired as the Mariners.

In its early days, the arena was home to the Jersey Larks, who left town for Knoxville, Tennessee when they could not meet their payroll in new Jersey. the Arena also hosted occasional home games of the basketball Philadelphia Warriors in the early 1960’s (before the Warriors left Philadelphia for San Francisco and were later replaced by the 76ers who went on to play at the Spectrum – itself just recently demolished).

Those that had occasion to stop there said that the old arena was a strange place. for example, there were no showers in the visitors’ locker room. Players had to change at their hotel (often the Holiday Inn). What facilities there were did not work well. the toilets backed up and the ice was not the smoothest and included what has been described as a “hill” at center ice.

“There was a crown in the middle,” related John Garrett a former WHA player in Ed Willes’ book the Rebel League. “A pass that was going along the ice would jump five feet in the air all of a sudden.”

The late Gene Hart was best known as the original Voice of the Philadelphia Flyers. less known is that before that time, Hart was the Voice of the Jersey Devils. in his autobiography “Score,” Hart describes the origins and the reasons for the Devils.

A surprise to many, he recalls, Philadelphia was awarded a National Hockey League franchise when the league expanded from six to twelve teams. Play was not to start until the 1967-68, and according to Hart, until that time one of the first things the new Flyers did was to sponsor a new team at the Cherry Hill Arena, the Jersey Devils, in order to get hockey interest started in the greater Delaware Valley.

Therefore, it is understandable that when one looks at a roster of the most notable Jersey Devil players and coaches, many also had ties to the Philadelphia Flyers. the list included:

• Bobby Taylor, who was later a backup goalie for the Flyers behind Bernie Parent.
• Dick Sarrazin, who later played for the Flyers in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
• Marcel Pelletier, who ended his twenty year career as a player/coach with the Devils in 1969.
• Rosaire Paiement played the 1966-1967 season, scoring 125 points. He later played for the Flyers and Vancouver Canucks in the NHL.
• Vic Stasiuk, the Flyers second head coach, was head coach of the Devils for two seasons, 1966-68.

The Cherry Hill Arena, known in its later years as the Centrum, was demolished in the late 1970s and replaced by a shopping center, now anchored by a Shop Rite.

There now is a shopping center across Brace Road called the Centrum Shops. This is not where the arena was, it was in fact across the street.

As for the hockey Devils who once played there, few folks mention them anymore. they died when the Eastern League did in 1973. These days when you say “The Devils,” most folks think of the team up the Turnpike. From a South Jersey perspective, the new Jersey Devils are not their team. Though the name says Jersey, to them the Devs are part of the new York market. Their team is the Flyers.

What the Devils do offer, however, is a home away from home for these Flyer fans (many from South Jersey), who can more easily secure seats for their team in North Jersey than across the river in Philly.

But to those few who still remember, memories of the original Devils endure.

Eric Model explores the “offbeat, off the beaten path overlooked and forgotten” on SIRIUS-XM Radio and at journeysinto.com.

Mount St. Charles Arena - The Other Remaining EHL Arena

Back in February, I got to visit my second Eastern Hockey League arena ever. (The first was Cherry Hill Arena where I watched the Jersey Devils from 1969-73.) Can you guess where I was?

Here are some clues...
* It was completed in 1963.
* It's up on a hill.
* It was originally named after a brother of the Sacred Heart.
* It still has chain link fencing instead of glass.
* A national hockey dynasty still plays there.
* It is probably the least remembered of the remaining active Eastern Hockey League arenas.
* The game below played was played there. The home team in white shows Bob Buchy #16, Nick Haramis (facing) and Dave Patterson #10 on the attack against Jersey Devils goalie Jim Park.
* It's in the city of Woonsocket.
* ...(that's in Rhode Island).

Give up? The 1972-73 EHL Rhode Island Eagles played at the Mount St. Charles Arena, also known as Brother Adelard Arena. Brother Adelard was coach of the now famous Mount Saint Charles Academy in the 1930s and 1940s, creating a Rhode Island state champion team by bringing in ringers from Canada. Here's an article on Brother Adelard from Sports Illustrated from 1985, when Adelard was 100. (He lived to be 106).

Interestingly, the EHL directory in a Syracuse Blazers program I have says that the Eagles home arena was the Rhode Island Auditorium, which was the home of the AHL Providence Reds for years, until they moved to the new Providence Civic Center in 1972-73. I'm interested to find out if this was ever the plan, and if so, what changed.

I wish I had some more shots, like the cinder block corridor painted red underneath the stands, where the bathrooms were. Unfortunately, as I was taking some of the rink shots, the guy who was running practice on the ice suddenly shouted "Hey!" and came racing over to me, face aglare. As he approached, his face lightened up and almost winking he said confidentially something like "I don't really care, but the coach would have your head." It was then that I realized that this must be the famed Mount St. Charles Academy team practicing on the ice, and that "coach" was Mount St. Charles coach Bill Belisle. The assistant must have been able to tell from the expression of terror and bewilderment on my face that I wasn't actually spying on the team. I quickly put my camera away and moved out to the lobby. It turns out that "The Mount" had a playoff game that night. At 9 PM. Who plays hockey at 9 PM? Well, actually, in the early years of the Eastern Hockey League, 8:30 and 9 PM were standard times for games. In the late 1950s, teams did experiments with 7PM games to see if people would show up.

You don't know about the famed Mount St. Charles Academy hockey team? Do Garth Snow, Brian Berard, Keith Carney, Mathieu Schneider and Brian Lawton ring a bell?


The seats are lovely, eh? It's hard to tell what the max capacity of the arena was. Currently it is 800. Part of that is that one side apppears to be completely roped off and unused. There are only 4 or 5 rows of seats, depending on where you are, on each side. There is standing room at the back with tables you can stand and eat at. On my visit, I also stopped at the Woonsocket Public Library to get about the first six weeks of the 1972-73 season in the Woonsocket newspapers. I think that 1200 was about the largest crowd listed, and they seemed disappointed in the attendance. A Johnstown Jets program from that year shows Mount St. Charles Arena as holding 2000. Attendance must have improved as the season went on, as they were initially in the discussion for continuing on in the NAHL, when the EHL split at the end of that season.

On the way out, I felt a need to get an EHL arena cheeseburger. The girl behind the counter pulled a burger out of the freezer, and put it in an electric frying pan. (There was no game. I was between a mite practice and the high school team practice, so I was glad there was any food at all.) I had about ten minutes to wander the lobby while I waited. The burger was just about what you'd expect. Probably about the same as Cherry Hill Arena. My food memory of Cherry Hill Arena is of the pizza, which was the way I still like pizza: thin crust with oregano. That memory also includes finding my program after the game on the floor with a pizza stain on it.

The lobby is filled with Mt. Saint Charles awards and memorabilia. I could find no indication that the Rhode Island Eagles or the Eastern Hockey League had ever been there. Except for the pictured plaque over the arena entrance, there was no indication that Brother Adelard was there either.

The one thing I came away with was the feel of the arena, the sense that even with the whole run down nature of it, that this would be a great place to see a game. It gave me inspiration to make sure and make the trips to go see games in the other EHL arenas. I realized that even if an EHL level team isn't playing in the old arenas, a high school game or a junior game would be great to watch there.

As I drove down the hill from the arena, I came to a T where my car was so sharply downhill, that I was surprised my bumper wasn't touching the road in front of me. And you thought there were no hills in Rhode Island. They don't call it "The Mount" for nothing.

Click on any of the photos for a more detailed view.

More about Mount Saint Charles Academy and Mount Saint Charles Arena
Ice Kings, the Movie: http://icekingsthemovie.com/
Pride on The Mount by John Gillooly: http://www.amazon.com/Pride-Mount-More-Than-Game/dp/1592288340

Wally Sprange - Nashville Dixie Flyers

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.

The most memorable part of that game was Nashville scoring a goal in the second period against Jersey goalie Gilles Banville. The goal was insignificant in the big scheme of things, until they announced the shots for the period: Jersey 10, Nashville 1. I hope to track down the boxscore on that next time I'm back in Jersey.

I did see Nashville's purple pants one more time, on October 7, 1972, when the Suncoast Suns played their first game ever, a 7-1 exhibition victory over the Jersey Devils at Cherry Hill Arena. The game was a fundraser for the South Jersey Minor Hockey Association, which I played in that year - possibly the worst player in the league. Apparently, the Suns pants hadn't arrived, yet. So, they used the old purple Nashville pants. Imagine the green Suncoast jerseys with orange and yellow trim with green, orange and yellow stockings (see http://SuncoastSuns.com) and purple pants. It was one of my favorite hockey uniforms of all time.

Sprange won the John Carlin Trophy as EHL leading scorer in 1970-71 with 45 goals and 89 assists for 134 points. Nashville folded at the end of that season, and the players were bought by Greensboro. The Generals kept the players they wanted, including Sprange, from their team and the ex-Dixie Flyers and sold the rest to the new Suncoast franchise. Sprange was a second team All-Star with Greensboro in the EHL's last season of 1972-73 season, with 40 goals and 92 assists for 132 points.

Wally Sprange Links:
http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php?pid=10326

Jersey Larks' Gerry Devaney and Bob Bingley in Cornwall Sports Hall of Fame

Here' a nice little excuse to post about the Jersey Larks. Gerry Devaney bio page from the Cornwall Sports Hall of Fame...

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)
bio page from the Cornwall Sports Hall of Fame...

He then joined the Washington Presidents in 1959-1960 in the Eastern Hockey League, and the Jersey Larks in 1960-61.

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. 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)

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.