EHL Jersey Devils' Jamie Kennedy to P.E.I. Sports Hall of Fame

Jamie Kennedy, leading goalscorer in EHL Jersey Devils' history and fan favorite will be inducted this year into the Prince Edward Island Sports Hall of Fame. Kennedy had 185 goals and 260 assists for 345 points in 282 games with the Devils over 4 seasons. Jamie was a first team Northern Division All-Star in 1970-71, amassing a career high 101 points. The following season he scored 50 goals, before signing with the WHA New York Raiders. Unable to be sent back to Jersey, since the parent Philadelphia Flyers did not allow WHA players on the Devils, Kennedy was traded along with Ted Scharf, Claude Chartre and Pete Donnelly to the Long Island Ducks for Mel Gushattey and Bill Morris. Kennedy played 15 games for the Ducks that final EHL season, scoring 12 goals to go with 11 assists.

P.E.I. Sports Hall of Fame announces inductees for 2011
Full Article: http://www.journalpioneer.com/Sports/2011-06-27/article-2616103/PEI-Sports-Hall-of-Fame-announces-inductees-for-2011/1
Published on June 27, 2011 by Staff - The PEI Journal Pioneer

CHARLOTTETOWN - The P.E.I. Sports Hall of Fame will grow by five new members later this year.

Jamie Kennedy (athlete, hockey), Cathy Dillon (athlete, curling), Sandy Frizzell (builder, hockey), George Morrison (builder, basketball) and Myron Weeks (builder, volleyball) will be the latest inductees to join the 156 individuals and teams who currently comprise the membership of the P.E.I. Sports Hall of Fame.

Jamie Kennedy

Jamie Kennedy of Charlottetown is one of the most familiar faces in Island hockey. He enjoyed a professional career that included 588 professional games, scoring 321 goals and 630 points.

The feisty Kennedy landed his first professional hockey contract in 1968 with the Jersey Devils of the Eastern Hockey League, netting 40 goals in his first season. His incredible 50-goal tally in 1970-71 made him the first Maritime-born professional to reach that milestone.

His illustrious career included him lacing up the skates for the New York Raiders of the newly-formed World Hockey Association, the Syracuse Blazers of the North American Hockey League and the Winston-Salem Polar Twins of the Southern Hockey League, before returning to P.E.I. to play senior hockey for the Charlottetown Islanders and helping them win a Hardy Cup in 1981.

He has successfully passed on his vast experience and knowledge to many Island teams as a coach while also forging a reputation as an outstanding official, considered by many to be the finest referee ever produced in this province.

Kennedy will join his brother, Forbie (that's Forbes Kennedy to us non-PEI natives) , in the Hall of Fame.

******************* From The PEI Sports Hall of Fame website: ************************** http://www.peisportshalloffame.ca
The full article: http://www.peisportshalloffame.ca/news/article.cfm?ID=55

PEI SPORTS HALL OF FAME ANNOUNCES INDUCTEES FOR 2011 The PEI Sports Hall of Fame has announced its inductees for 2011, and familiar faces from the sports of hockey, curling, basketball and volleyball will be honoured when the ceremonies, sponsored by the PEI Mutual Insurance Company, are held later this year.

Jamie Kennedy (athlete, hockey), Cathy Dillon (athlete, curling) Sandy Frizzell (builder, hockey), George Morrison (builder, basketball) and Myron Weeks (builder, volleyball) will be the latest inductees and will join the 156 individuals and teams who currently make up the membership of the PEI Sports Hall of Fame. Kennedy will join his brother Forbie in the Hall.

Jamie Kennedy of Charlottetown is one of the most familiar faces in Island hockey, having enjoyed a professional career that included 588 professional games with a yield of 321 goals and 630 points.

The feisty Kennedy landed his first professional hockey contract in 1968 with the Jersey Devils of the Eastern Hockey League, where he netted 40 goals in his first season. His incredible 50-goal tally in 1970-71 made him the first Maritime born professional to reach that milestone.

His illustrious career saw him lace up the skates for the New York Raiders of the newly-formed World Hockey Association, the Syracuse Blazers of the North American Hockey League, and the Winston-Salem Polar Twins of the Southern Hockey League, before returning to PEI to play senior hockey for the Charlottetown Islanders, helping them win a Hardy Cup in 1981.

As a coach he has successfully passed on his vast experience and knowledge to many Island teams, and he also forged a reputation as an outstanding official, considered by many to be the finest referee ever produced in this province.

Long Island Ducks' Buzz Deschamps a Multiple Hall-of-Famer

February continues to be Long Island Ducks month, as Buzz Deschamps was inducted into the Suffolk Sports Hall of Fame. http://www.pshof.ca/pdf/buzzy2010.pdf
You can visit the Suffolk Sports Hall of Fame here: http://www.suffolksportshof.com/ . However, it looks as if the Suffolk Sports HOF site hasn't been updated since 2007.

In 2002, Buzz was inducted into the Midland Sports Hall of Fame as an athlete. Last year he was made the first honorary member of the MSHF committee.

"Deschamps was the mover and shaker in getting the sports hall of fame and served as the chairman for many years. He spearheaded the creation of Bunn's Kids in the 1990s, which has enabled children to participate in sports and recreation activities in Midland. Most recently, Deschamps was instrumental in starting the annual Trottier 19 Hockey School at the North Simcoe Sports and Recreation Centre, which features Hockey Hall of Fame inductee Bryan Trottier."

The Penetanguishene (ONT) Sports Hall of Fame inducted Buzz as a member in 1989. http://www.pshof.ca/inductees/1989.html This past year he was Master of Ceremonies at the inductions. Here are some shots of Buzz along with Johnny Bower and Pierre Pilote: http://www.pshof.ca/images/InductionDinner09/index.htm

On October 2, 2009, the street in front of the North Simcoe (ONT) Sports and Recreation Centre be renamed "Buzz and Bunn Deschamps Way"
http://www.midland.ca/ws_par/groups/public/@pub/@midland/documents/web_content/wspar_019770.pdf

Article on Buzz taking over as hockey coach at Stony Brook in 2008: http://www.achahockey.org/news2.php?news_id=102439〈=

Buzz's Stony Brook bio:

"Canadian born Buzz Deschamps was drafted by the New York Rangers in 1955 and spent a decade playing professional hockey across the United States and Canada. Buzz presence was well known on the ice with teams like the Sudbury Wolves, Indianapolis Chiefs, Long Island Ducks, Baltimore Clippers, St. Paul Rangers and the Providence Reds. Buzz holds the season team goal scoring record of 59 goals with the Long Island Ducks in the American Hockey League (AHL). He finished his strong professional hockey career with the Los Angeles Blades. Following this, Buzz chose retirement after he was drafted by the Los Angels Kings in 1968. Buzz was a scout for the Calgary Flames and the NY Rangers, and he coached the NCAA DIII St. John's University Ice Hockey team for 10 years. Buzz quickly gave back to the hockey community, coaching youth competitive hockey for over 20 years. Buzz currently works with Suffolk PAL Hockey, connecting professional experience with talented athletes. Buzz and his wife Trudy reside in Bay Shore."

Gene Achtymichuk Played on Some Famous NHL lines

Keeping on a New York Rovers/Long Island Ducks/Commack Arena theme today, not to mention the "inventing the slapshot" theme, here is a new blog by Joe Pelletier on his GreatestHockeyLegends.com blog about Eastern Hockey League great Gene Achtymichuk. Apparently in his NHL trials, Achtymichuk replaced injured Jean Beliveau in Montreal (on a line with slapshot inventor "Boom Boom" Geoffrion), and played on a line with Gordie Howe and Alex Delvecchio in Detroit. Achtymichuk had at least 30 goals and 80 assists in each of his first four years with the Knoxville Knights and Long Island Ducks.

I had a good laugh at myself the day last year when I realized that Achtymichuk and Don Atamanchuk were actually two different Ducks players.

Gene Achtymichuk stats at hockeydb.com: http://hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php?pid=11142
Don Atamanchuk's stats at hockeydb.com: http://hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php?pid=11549

Gene Actymichuk at LegendsOfHockey.net: http://www.legendsofhockey.net/LegendsOfHockey/jsp/SearchPlayer.jsp?player=11807

When the Long Island Ducks became the Massachusetts Ducks

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 14
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.

Unstated 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.)

The Massachusetts Ducks entire game history:
MAR 9, 1973 - Friday - Massachusetts Ducks 2 at Cape Cod 6 (Cape Cod leads series 1-0)
MAR 10, 1973 - Saturday - Massachusetts Ducks 1 at Cape Cod 3 (Cape Cod leads series 2-0)
MAR 13, 1973 - Tuesday - Cape Cod 2 at Massachusetts Ducks 1 (0:43 of OT) (Cape Cod leads series 3-0)
MAR 16, 1973 - Friday - Cape Cod 8 at Massachusetts Ducks 5 (Cape Cod wins series 4-0)

Russ McClenaghan, EHL Vet Also Played Professional Baseball

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...

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Times and Transcript article

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.

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Russ McClenaghan Links:
* Baseball Stats at Baseball-Reference.com
* Hockey stats at Hockeydb.com
* New Haven Blades Team Photo from "Hockey in New Haven"

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Russ McClenaghan Ramblers Photo Courtesy: Mike Hersh's "UniWatch" Flickr Photostream

Kent Douglas 73, Former Leafs and LI Ducks Defenseman

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.