Sports were all the rage by the ‘90s – the 1890s.

Americans were spending some $150 million per year – the players’ salaries for three NHL teams today – on recreation, and by 1909, $1 billion on recreation and travel combined.

People had discovered this new-fangled thing called leisure, as their work weeks were shrinking – from 60 to 44 1/2 hours a week, during the first two decades of the Twentieth Century.

In 1910, Americans were dropping $73 million, just on sports, and businessmen were investing $105 million in sporting enterprises.

“…sports had been enjoyed mainly by the rich,” Walter Lord wrote in The Good Years, “Suddenly [the general public] were becoming part of the American scene … The World Series gate at one game was only six thousand … By 1910 (the next five-game series) attendance was double the 1908 figures, and the pattern of the future was set … the general public was eagerly moving into an area that had previously been monopolized by the rich. Big stadiums began blossoming over the land [Two large steel and concrete baseball stadiums were built in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia in 1909, and by 1916 there were seven more.] … poor boys started taking up tennis … the seeds were planted for [The Golden Age of Sports].”

“North Americans were on the move,” Ron Smith added, in The Sporting News: Chronicle of 20th Century Sport, “as the decade opened and the agrarianism of the early 1900s was giving way to a new urban industrial society – wealthier, more mobile and interested in expanding its sports and entertainment horizons.”

It’s estimated that during the late ’20s, Americans spent somewhere between $6 and $21 billion per year on their leisure activities.

The NHL saw a good thing, and expanded into the U.S. during the mid-1920s.

The league first established itself in Boston (Bruins) in 1924 (while creating a second Montreal team, the Maroons), and Pittsburgh (Pirates) and New York (Americans) the following season. The third year of NHL expansion was in 1926, when Detroit (Cougars, later the Falcons, and finally the Red Wings) and Chicago (Blackhawks) started teams, and a second club was permitted in New York (Rangers).

The 1920s were aptly called the “Roaring Twenties,” as society completely opened up, and people were rejecting traditional values. Many defied Prohibition, and indulged in dancing, dressing up and “making whoopee.”

“…the 1920s were a ‘party’ that resulted in a serious hangover,” Frederick J. Hoffman wrote in his book THE 20’S.

So, hockey was perfect for this generation.

Paul Gallico covered hockey’s arrival in the Big Apple for the  Daily News, and wrote in his memoirs, Farewell to Sport:

“…I have always suspected that the real appeal of hockey … [is] that it is a fast, body-contact game played by men with clubs in their hands and knives lashed to their feet, since the skates are razor sharp, and before the evening is over it is almost a certainty that someone will be hurt and will fleck the ice with a generous contribution of gore before he is led away to be hemstitched together again.”

BUILT IN 249 DAYS FOR $4.75 MILLION

The Americans took their first faceoff in 1925, the year before the Western Hockey League closed their arena doors, and many players migrated east to the new American franchises.

The Portland Rosebuds moved to Chicago, the Victoria Cougars to Detroit.

Amerks’ owner, “Big Bill” Dwyer, was initially lucky, as the Hamilton Tigers had been suspended – for going on strike – and he was able to purchase the players for $75,000 – on September 26, 1925. He had previously acquired Joe Simpson, John Morrison and Roy Rickey, from the cash-strapped Edmonton Eskimos, for $10,000 – on September 18th.

Both Detroit and Chicago would pay WHL teams $100,000 for their players.

The core of the Americans, had been the NHL’s regular season champs the 1924-25 season.

They went 12-22-4 the following season, however. And then they improved slightly to 17-25-2, and fell even further to 11-27-6 their third year (The year that the Rangers would win the Stanley Cup).

There were numerous reasons for the Americans’ failures.

Much has been written about the Culture of Winning – the Montreal Canadiens, the Los Angeles Lakers, the New York Yankees, etc.

Well, the Quebec City Bulldogs, who became the Hamilton Tigers, who became the New York Americans typify a Culture of Losing (As today are the Pittsburgh Pirates [baseball], the Arizona Cardinals [football], and the Memphis Grizzlies [basketball].).

The Tigers were terrible in Quebec and Hamilton (see spreadsheets), and only played well during the one 1924-25 season (They had more wins – 9 – by the mid-season mark, than they had ever had in a previous year.). And, they had started to slump during theit  second half in Hamilton, before being suspended from the playoffs.

If this culture of losing wasn’t bad enough, the former Tigers were transplanted into a terrible environment. Dwyer was pure and simply a gangster, and players would go into Dwyer’s office to get paid, and have to pass through a number of gunsels and hit men to get to his desk.

Also, they weren’t treated well in their own rink, Madison Square Gardens, which didn’t help their self esteem. Everything was, “The Rangers this … the Rangers that….”

And then, there were their bad habits.

To begin with, Dwyer spoiled his players by giving them too much money.

Dwyer at least doubled the salaries. At a time when NHLers were making $1,500 to $2,000 per season, he paid Shorty Green $5,000 – up from $3,000 – and Billy Burch $25,000 over three years. And he would continue to pay Lionel Conacher $7,500 per season, as per his Pittsburgh contract.

With the big bucks, the bad hockey environment, plus living in the Big Apple,  his players started gambling.

“…you could get betting actions in that club dressing-room,” Andy Lytle of the Toronto Star wrote, “from one and all on almost any subject under the sun involving debate and hence betting, from what the weather would be, to which way their press agent would be leaning when he stumbled in for a spot of scuttle-butting, and he a most noted lush.”

And if this wasn’t bad enough, some became heavy drinkers. Lionel Conacher’s brother, Charlie, once quipped that Dwyer’s star defenseman, seemed “bent on a literal interpretation of the soft drink slogan, ‘Drink Canada Dry’.“

The drinking was so bad, that Dwyer threw up his hands and dispatched Lionel to the Maroons, who also set him adrift (And yes, there is a certain irony here. Dwyer was – in a way – paying his alcoholic star from money acquired from bootlegging.).

The greatest reason for the Americans’ failure, however, was Dwyer himself. He couldn’t stick with one coach, and the team lacked continuity.

Dwyer went through coaches – one per season – faster than Harold Ballard would five decades later.

Dwyer’s first coach was Tommy Gorman, followed by Edward “Newsy” Lalonde, and then Wilfred “Shorty” Green. The Americans’ fourth season, Dwyer went back to Gorman for the 1928-29 campaign, and Lionel Conacher the next year.

I think that Dwyer’s total confusion may be seen in the fact that he would expand the duties – from player to player/coach – of a faltering alcoholic.

Dwyer’s team might be losers, but his bottom line was great.  On opening night alone, December  24, 1925, 17,422 arrived at the new arena, located on 50th Street at Eight Avenue.

This wasn’t a record for an opening night, however.

At the Indy 500’s inaugural race in 1911, 80,000 spectators had filled the stands. And, an amateur baseball championship in Cleveland, in 1914, had drawn more than 100,000 fans.

Ray Harroun had won the big Indy race, with a time of 74.6 mph. It was a controversial affair, as he had used some newfangled invention called a rearview mirror.

This 1926 pic doesn’t include Amerks’ owner, “Big Bill” Dwyer.

Shown in his place, were: Tom Gorman, Manager (on crutches), Honorary President Tex Rickard (with a cane), President Col. John Hammond, Chairman/Director Tom Duggan (in black suit, bow tie and hat).

THE NEW YORK AMERICANS - THEIR INAUGURAL SEASON - 1925-26 - THEIR RECORD WAS 12-22-4 - YOU CAN SEE IT IN THEIR FACES

Ray Harroun, and his yellow Model 32 Marmon “Wasp” retired from racing, but people were speeding all over the place during the 1920s. Canadians and Americans had become “nations of spectators,” with lots of money and a bad attitude. They wanted to go places and do things.

And they disliked rules, particularly Prohibition.

“It infringed too directly upon the personal liberty,” wrote Foster Rhea Dulles in America Learns to Play: A History of Popular Recreation, “and the right to enjoy oneself, upon which the post-war generation was so stridently insisting.”

Bill Dwyer had never been too concerned about personal liberty, and he believed that people should enjoy themselves.

Time: The Weekly News Magazine described Dwyer’s career in his December 23, 1946 obit:

“William V. (”Big Bill”) Dwyer … onetime ‘king of the bootleggers,’ who in Prohibition days commanded a fleet of 20 rum-runners, controlled the entry of liquor into New York Harbor … After spending “a little vacation” in Atlanta’s Federal Penitentiary (he was convicted of bootlegging in 1926), he tried to rebuild his crumbled fortune through sports promoting, bought the N.Y. Americans hockey team, introduced professional hockey to Manhattan, headed Miami’s famed Gables Racing Association.”

Yes, there’s a further parallel with Harold Ballard here. Both spent time in stir, while owning NHL hockey teams.

“Big Bill” Dwyer wasn’t in his team’s photo because he was in prison. He had been arrested eleven days before the Americans’ inaugural game, and missed more than the photo – his team’s pathetic first season.

The NHL’s Club Directory for 1930-31 listed Dwyer as the Americans’ Treasurer.

The Directory didn’t include Dwyer’s name, however,  with the Philadelphia Quaker Hockey Club.

The franchise had been the Pittsburgh Pirates the year before, and had been owned by Dwyer for nearly three seasons.

__________________________________________________________________

Arthur Reeve, “What America Spends for Sport,” Outing 57, December 1910, p.303.

Walter Hiatt, “Billions Just for Fun,” Collier’s, 74, October 25 1924, p 50.

Jesse Steiner, Americans at Play. NY, McGraw-Hill, 1933, p 183.

Stuart Chase, “Play,” in Charles Beard, ed., Whither Mankind. NY, Longman, Greene & Co., 1928, pp.336-7.

Vancouver wasn’t always a hockey hotbed.

A quarter of a century after hockey was highly popular in eastern Canada, many Vancouver fans still hadn’t see a game.

“Most of [opening night fans] had never seen a hockey game before, but they became ardent enthusiasts long before the finish,”The Province wrote in 1912.

Vancouver supporters remained enthusiastic as the Millionaires (later called the Maroons) became a winning team. They took the PCHA titles in 1915, 1919, 1921 and 1923, and played for the Stanley Cup in 1915, 1918, 1921, 1922, 1923 and 1924.

They won Lord Stanley their first try, in 1915, but never again.

Vancouver fans were deprived of great hockey when the coast league folded in 1926, but the semi-pro PCHL circuit (which was renamed the North West Hockey League in 1933, and re-renamed the Pacific Coast Hockey League in 1936) premiered two years later. The new Vancouver Lions won five titles in thirteen years, before folding in 1941 (The Vancouver Forum was built prior to the 1934-35 season, but had only 3500 seats. When the Denman Arena burnt down in 1936, it became Vancouver’s premier rink.).

A new team, the Canucks started playing after the War. Continuing the tradition of the Millionaires and Lions, the Canucks won the PCHL Championship their second season in the league. In 1953, the PCHL and the Western Canada Senior Hockey Leagues merged and formed the Western Hockey League. The Canucks won the championship Lester Patrick Cup in 1958, 1960, 1969 and 1970.

Vancouver fans supported their minor league Canucks, but still wanted a Big Tent team of their own. They were disappointed when the NHL doubled in 1967, without including a Vancouver franchise.

But, they optimistically built the 16,000-seat Pacific Coliseum, which housed the WHL’s Canucks for two and one-half years.

Finally, Vancouver along with Buffalo, were admitted to the NHL in 1970 for a $6 million fee. Norman “Bud” Poile was named the Canucks’ first GM, and Hal Laycoe their inaugural coach.

Vancouver’s first NHL game was held on October 9, 1970 against the L.A. Kings. The game was broadcast on the CBC and Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, Premier W.A.C. Bennett, and NHL President Clarence Campbell attended. The NHL Canucks lost their first contest 3-1, but beat Toronto 5-3 two nights later.

Vancouver finished their first season with 24 wins and 56 points, placing them ahead of California and Detroit in the standings. As would be the case for most of the franchise’s history, Vancouver finished near the bottom of the league, but never low enough to take that year’s best draft picks. Montreal had traded for California’s pick, and took Guy Lafleur, while Detroit selected Marcel Dionne. Vancouver would take Jocelyn Guevremont.

Their second season, the Canucks finished with only 20 wins and 48 points, a franchise low. The team continued to falter, and by 1981 the Canucks had yet to win more than one playoff game in a series, let alone a series.

But then things changed in 1982. With players like goalie Richard Brodeur, Tiger Williams, Thomas Gradin, Stan Smyl and Ivan Boldirev the Canucks went to the Stanley Cup finals, before being swept by the New York Islanders.

Vancouver had beaten Calgary, Los Angeles and Chicago to get a sniff of the Cup.

During the Blackhawks’ series, Vancouver coach Roger Neilson waved a white towel at referee Bob Myers, after a bad call. Tiger Williams and other Canucks then hoisted towels on their sticks, and further taunted the ref. Thus, towel power was created, and Vancouver fans have since waved white flags in support of their team.

Following the series, 100,000 fans lined Vancouver’s streets to salute their parading Canucks. It was twelve years before another parade, however.

Then, led by the offense of Russian-born Pavel Bure, Trevor Linden, Geoff Courtnall, Cliff Ronning and Gus Adams, and the goaltending of Kirk McLean, the Canucks came back from a three to one deficit, to win three overtime games against the Calgary Flames. Next they beat Minnesota and Toronto, to represent the west in the finals.

The Canucks pushed the highly favoured Rangers to seven games, before New York ended their fifty-four year drought to win the Cup. The final 1994 game came down to a faceoff to the right of Mike Richter, with 1.6 seconds left to play.

The Canucks returned to Vancouver at 5:40 the following morning, to tens of thousands of fans.

They were every bit as ardent as the Millionaires’ supporters had been eight decades before.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________

The above was written for the B.C. Hockey Hall of Fame

“A fanatic is someone who can’t change his mind,” Winston Churchill wrote, “and won’t change the subject.”

Sounds like the guys I watch nucks games with.

The name fan – as in a sports fan – came from one of two sources – depending on your bias.

One was the U.K., the other the U.S.A.

A guy named Francis Grose wrote in his  ”Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue“:

“The Fancy: one of the fancy is a sporting character that is either attached to pigeons, dog-fighting, boxing, etc. Also, any particular article universally admired for its beauty; or which the owners set particular store by, is termed a fancy article, as a fancy clout, a favorite handkerchief, etc; also, a woman, who is the particular favourite of any man, is termed his fancy woman and vice versa.”

The dictionary was published in 1785, and Pierce Egan, “the [so called] father of newspaper sports slang” wrote in 1818: “The various gradations of the fancy hither resort to discuss matters incidental to pugilism.”

This was from his publication Boxiana – and thus, in some three plus decades, boxing seems to have taken over the term.

“The fraternity of pugilists: prize-fighting being once recarded as THE FANCY par excellence. Hence by implication people who cultivate a special hobby or taste.”

The above was from J.S. Farmer’s and W.E. Henley’s compilation: Slang and its Analogues published in the 1890s.

Thus, the term had become general once again.

“The ‘fancy’ was long a class name in England and America for followers of boxing,” wrote  William Henry Nugent in 1929. “Baseball borrowed and shortened it to “the fance” “fans” and “fan.”

So, the British origin came from dogfighting, boxing, etc. and included other sports later on.

THE BOXING BARENESS – 1859

The American “fan” was specific to baseball.

As noted in a previous blog, baseball fans were originally called “kranks.” They had also been called “fiends” in the mid-1860s.

The St. Louis publication The Sporting News, used the term “fan” in 1887 and it spread to Philadelphia – where it was quoted in The Sporting Life. The St. Louis Browns travelled east to play the Detroit Wolverines in a 15 game “series of contests for supremacy” of the baseball world.

The series was played in: Pittsburgh, Brooklyn, New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Washington, Baltimore and Chicago, Detroit and St. Louis – so there was ample opportunity to spread the word.

By 1889, a “fan” was ”any spectator at a baseball game.”

One claim is that the word was the contraction of the word “fanatic.

In 1525, a fanatic was an “insane person“ from the Modern Latin “fanaticus,” meaning “insanely but divinely inspired.”

The fanatic went from divinely inspired to “extremely zealous” by 1647. He was coming up in the world.

*****

Ted Sullivan took credit for coining the word fan, but had two different versions of his story.

In 1883, the former manager and scout claimed that it was Charles Comiskey who called an enthusiast a “fanatic,” and shortened the word to “fan.”

But in his book – Humourous Stories  of the Ball Field - published in 1903, he claimed that Chris Von Der Ahe had trouble with the word “fanatic” and pronounced it “fan….”

“The first season I was with [Chris] Von der Ahe [the team owner], Chris had a board of directors made up of cranks who had baseball on the brain, and they were always interfering with me and telling Chris how the team ought to be run. I told Chris that I didn’t propose to be advised by a lot of fanatics. ‘Vat dat you call it? Fans, eh?’ said Chris. ‘Yes, fans for short. They’re a lot of fans, Chris,’ I said. The expression was a hit with me. Comiskey and the players took it up, and then the newspapers.”

Connie Mack’s explanation was simpler: he claimed that the word  was used to describe players who fanned themselves in the dugout during games.

Peter Morris also found a note from 1879 that showed scorecards with handles used to make them into fans.

Then there was a reference in 1893 in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

“Webster’s describes “fan” as a wind-producing instrument, a quality which makes it figuratively descriptive of a baseball crank….”

This describes my buddies when the nucks score.

It’s just that they haven’t had much cause to generate wind this season….

]]> http://crashingthegoalie.com/2009/11/17/fans/feed/ 0 http://crashingthegoalie.com/2009/11/08/mlb-top-25-salaries/ http://crashingthegoalie.com/2009/11/08/mlb-top-25-salaries/#comments Sun, 08 Nov 2009 10:17:12 +0000 Ron Spence http://crashingthegoalie.wordpress.com/?p=1700 by Ron Spence

Women’s hockey wasn’t officially recognized until 1982. It was the year of towel power and the B.C.A.H.A. finally threw in the towel and welcomed the “B.C. Girls” into their ranks. It had only taken six decades.

A woman’s game was first played in Ottawa in 1891. Its popularity quickly spread across Canada and by the turn of the century Vancouver sported a few teams. Nelson also had a “Ladies Hockey Club” a decade later. The Sterlings and Wanderers featured two of the Patrick sisters, Dora and Cynda and played against neighbouring towns.

courtesy of cariboocountry.ca

One difficulty that rural teams faced was the travel between towns and villages during the winter months. Thus women’s hockey consisted mostly of inter-town rivalries rather than organized leagues. In these rural areas women sometimes played hockey with and against men who were occasionally short a player for a game.

B.C. women’s hockey peaked during the 1920s. The Fernie Swastikas (before the name became ominous) won the Alpine Cup at the Banff Winter Carnival in 1923. They defeated the Calgary Regents and the Vancouver Amazons who had won the Rocky Mountain Park Trophy the year before.

Women’s hockey continued to flourish during the 1930s when women’s athletic associations were being formed. It fell off during the 1940s, however, when women were needed for the war effort. Also during the following decade women as well as men were working rather than playing sports.

Women’s hockey regained momentum during the 1960s. In 1967 the first Dominion Ladies Hockey Tournament was held in Brampton, Ontario featuring twenty-two Ontario teams. That same year the Wallaceburg Lipstick Tournament hosted sixteen teams from Ontario and the U.S. (Port Huron). It was billed as the North American Girls Hockey Championship Tournament.

Yet, while women’s hockey had flourished east of the Rockies, it had regressed in B.C. Women in Victoria didn’t have teams let alone a league and played friday night scrub games with their husbands and boyfriends. Similarly women’s hockey in Vancouver wasn’t really organized. Women athletes who wanted to stay in shape during the winter had to organize their own rec league. In both cases shin pads and figure skates were the standard equipment used.

Women’s hockey continued to gain in popularity during the 1970s but didn’t receive any formal recognition until a decade later. The first encouragement came from the politcally correct federal government which was promoting opportunities for women in sports. This in turn prompted the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association to establish a female hockey council in May of 1982. This token support rippled further to the BCAHA which five months later accepted the B.C. Girl’s Ice Hockey Association into their membership (In their defence, the BCAHA did go a step further and promote women’s hockey at the B.C. Winter Games.).

The second encouragement came from the corporate sector again in 1982. Shoppers Drug Mart sponsored the first Women’s National Hockey Championship in Brantford, Ontario which made it a sport rather than a novelty.

Next, women’s hockey jumped onto the international stage. Five years after the first Women’s National, the inaugural Women’s World Hockey Tournament was held in Ontario. This prompted the International Ice Hockey Federation to support women’s hockey which indirectly resulted in it being included in Nagano in 1998.

The impact of these developments is reflected directly in the numbers. The Brampton tournament has expanded from 22 teams in 1967 to 400 teams today. Similary B.C. women’s teams have expanded from three in the 1993-94 season to thirty-seven in 1998-99.

Yet while the numbers are growing, B.C. hasn’t achieved the team success of the provinces like Alberta, Ontario and Quebec. B.C. has never won the Abby Hoffman Cup which is awarded at the Shoppers tournament. Also British Columbia hasn’t faired well at the coveted Esso Canadian National Championships. In competitions from 1995 until 2000, B.C. has only averaged from fifth to seventh place. And during a time when Alberta has won seventeen and Ontario sixteen women’s hockey trophies B.C. hasn’t won one.

It will take a while for B.C. to establish the traditions of these other provinces where girls are indoctrinated into hockey from a young age. Most B.C. girls play the sports their mothers played like basketball, soccer and field hockey.

And B.C. women’s hockey is improving. Vancouver’s Danielle Dube has played on the Canadian Women’s National Team and was ranked the top goalie in Canada. Also the B.C. Griffins competed for the Bronze Medal against Ontario in the Esso tournament last season.

There is also a healthy Triple AAA league on the lower mainland and teams throughout the province from the Kootenays and Kamloops to Sooke have won Double AA championships.

But most important, that women’s hockey hotbed of Fernie has once again reared its head. Fernie has won three straight titles in the newly created Girl’s Midget AA league. It’s hoped they will lead British Columbia to the same success that they did seventy years ago.

***************************************************************************

Senior and minor league hockey have experienced a reversal of fortune over the past eighty years. The B.C. Amateur Hockey Association was formed in 1919 and minor hockey was given a back seat. There were a limited number of covered arenas and it was reasoned that transportation was too slow and expensive for the kids to travel to playoffs. So minor hockey wasn’t encouraged.

Even Junior hockey was supported largley because of the efforts of the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association. They were farsighted enough to realize that adult amateur and professional hockey needed a foundation of junior prospects. So during the 1925-26 season the CAHA gave the B.C.A.H.A. $200 to promote Junior Hockey.

B.C. had thirteen junior teams five years later, but the CAHA wasn’t happy with B.C.’s minor hockey progress and threatened to cut the Junior grant. So the BCAHA started registering Midget and Juvenile teams that 1932-33 season. There were four Juvenile sides by the 1934-35 season, and the CAHA alotted another $500.

Then minor hockey received a grass roots boost. New Westminster built the Queen’s Park Arena prior to the 1937-38 season and formed a Pee Wee Hockey Association. Two years later the Vancouver Minor Hockey Association was also formed. It became known as the PNE Minor Hockey and Hastings Minor Hockey Association and is today called the Vancouver Hastings Minor Hockey Association.

B.C.’s minor programs were further promoted when trophies were donated. The Cromie Cup was first given to the Midget champions the 1937-38 season. By then there were four Midget teams and nine Juniors but the Juveniles had fallen off to just one team.

Minor hockey grew and the next year there were two additional Junior sides, a second Juvenile squad and seven more Midget teams. The Monarch Life Cup was awarded that season to the Juveniles’ champion.

Following the war the BCAHA started registering Bantam teams but discouraged travel to tournaments (There would be no Bantam playoffs until 1960-61.). The association also discouraged inter-provincial playdowns, reasoning that that playoffs would interfere with the players’ schooling.

Minor hockey received a further boost in February, 1954 when the BCAHA promoted “Minor Hockey Week” (Two years later they presented a resolution to the CAHA to have Minor Hockey Week recognized across Canada and later convinced Imperial Oil to promote Minor Hockey Week on Hockey Night in Canada.). The BCAHA kept the ball rolling when they started handing out Minor Hockey awards in 1958-59.

Pee Wee hockey was finally recognized by the BCAHA in 1955-56 and considered a division two years later. The Pee Wees were allowed district playdowns, but had to wait until 1969-70 for semi-finals, or finals, because the Pee Wees were again considered too young (The older Bantams were allowed to compete for a B.C. championship the 1960-61 season.).

During the 1950s the BCAHA introduced unique legislation. The Trail Minor Hockey Association sponsored a resolution – the 1954-55 season – banning body checking in Minor Hockey. The logic was that players would become better playmakers and stickhandlers if they weren’t concerned with bodychecking. This rule lasted until 1966.

From the late 1950s, until the early 1970s, minor hockey grew in leaps and bounds. By 1960-61 there were 108 Minor hockey teams in the BCAHA and there were 8,000 B.C. minor leaguers playing the next year.

During the 1960s the reversal of fortune was apparent. The BCAHA had an enrollment of 4809 Pee Wees, 2169 Bantams, 1444 Midgets, 621 Juveniles, 294 Juniors, and 224 Intermediates. But there were only 67 Seniors.

Minor hockey was declining by 1980, however. There had been 52,000 players in 1974 but only 36,000 in 1980. Reasons given were: Equipment was getting too expensive; The kids had other interests; Televised games had given hockey a negative image; And there was too much of a focus on the allstars, rather than the rest of the players.

By the late 1980s, however, minor hockey was growing once again. The Pacific Coast Amateur Hockey Association doubled their enrollment from 1989 to 1998. There was even a shortage of ice time for many minor league players.

But this time it wasn’t because the Senior leagues were excluding the minor hockey players. The reversal of fortune had taken place.

Take soccer’s better behaved hooligans – not the burn them down and bag their ashes ones – and you’ll have baseball’s kranks from 125 years ago.

They got drunk during games, threw their containers at – and ran onto the fields and assaulted – rivals, plus the umps.

And, of course they always had a lot to say.

The press wrote that: ”kranks in the bleaching boards think they know more about the sport than do its participants.”

Bleaching boards was the precursor of today’s bleachers, and referred  to people bleaching in the sun.

The first baseball book was called The Kranks: His Language and What It Means and was written by Thomas Lawson.

In 1562, a krank was an ”inaccessible hole or crevice.”

By 1594 the word had been elevated to ”a twist or fanciful turn of speech.”

Then, two centuries plus later – in 1821 – a krank was ”cross-tempered, irritable.”

And a decade after that – 1833 – a crank was an irrationally fixated person, who like a barrel organ, kept playing the same tune over and over again.

Kranking it out so to speak….

Then the November 8, 1906 edition of Nature magazine wrote that: “A crank is defined as a man who cannot be turned.”

By this time, kranks were being called fans, and the phrase ”turning a crank” was being applied to turning a motor over until it started (1908).

Kranks had been called “fans” since the mid-1880s and continued to think that they knew more about the sport than its participants.

*****

*****

Summation of The Kranks: His Language and What It Means, courtesy of  American Baseball: From Gentleman’s Sport to the Commissioner System, by David Quentin Voigt.

“Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm,” Winston Churchill wrote.

Seven of the thirty coaches – who started the 2008-09 season – were ousted from their NHL teams – and are enthusiastically looking for another failure to start.

They were:

courtesy of sports.espn.go.com

Two others were dismissed at the end of the season:

This might seem to be a record number of flashing axes, but during the 1981-82 campaign ten coaches were fired by – or retired from – just 21 teams  (The NBA fired 9 coaches over the past season, which equalled their 2004-05 record.).

*****

The Colorado Rockies fired Bert Marshall (3-17-4), and replaced him with his assistant, Marshall Johnston (15-32-9). The following – 1982-83 – season, Johnston was replaced by Billy MacMillan (17-49-14) when the Rockies became the New Jersey Devils.

Detroit’s Wayne Maxner (18-39-12), was replaced by Billy Dea (3-8-0). Dea, in turn was replaced by Nick Polano (21-44-15) at the following summer.

Hartford’s Larry Kish (12-32-5) was replaced by Larry Pleau (21-41-18).

L.A.’s Parker MacDonald  (13-24-5) retired, and was replaced by Don Perry (11-17-10), who coached the Kings again following campaign (27-41-12).

The Washington Capitals replaced Gary Green  (1-12-0), with Roger Crozier (0-1-0) for one game, and then with Bryan Murray who went (25-28-13). Murray turned the Caps around during the 1982-83 season (39-25-16).

The Blackhawks fired Keith Magnuson (18-24-10), and G.M. Bob Pulford (12-14-2) replaced him. The following season Orval Tessier became the Chicago coach (47-23-10).

St. Louis fired Red Berenson (28-34-6), and hired Emile Francis (4-6-2).  The Cat went  (10-19-3), and was replaced by Barclay Plager (15-21-12) in 1982-83.

Harry Neale (26-33-16), was suspended and replaced by Roger Neilson (4-0-1). Neale continued as Vancouver’s GM in 82-83 and Neilson stayed on as the nucks’ coach (30-35-15).

The teams noted above were playing below .500 when their coaches were terminated.

Two teams were playing above .500 when they fired their coaches – because of their higher expectations.

Philadelphia dumped Pat Quinn (34-29-9), and Bob McCammon took over (4-2-2). McCammon remained during 1982-83 (49-23-8), and turned the Flyers around.

Jimmy Roberts (21-16-8), was given the Sabre by Scotty Bowman (18-10-7), who continued to coach Buffalo the following season (38-29-13). Bowman relinquished his coaching position on four occasions and later took it back. Then, during the 1986-87 season, he was relieved of all responsibilities by the Buffalo owners.

One coach was released at the end of the season. Calgary’s Al MacNeil (29-34-17) was replaced by “Badger Bob” Johnson (32-34-14).

Toronto’s Mike Nykoluk had a brutal season (20-44-16) in 1981-82, but wasn’t fired – by Harold Ballard – and continued to coach in 1982-83 (28-40-12).

Pittsburgh’s Eddie Johnston (31-36-13) stayed on and the Pens went  (18-53-9) in 1982-83. He was replaced by Lou Angotti whose Pens fell further (16-58-6).

THEIR DRAFT PICK THAT YEAR – 1984? MARIO LEMIEUX.

The Islanders’ Al Arbour, of course, kept his job and went (42-26-12) in 82-83. Glen Sather was just starting to build the Oilers and went (47-21-12) and Montreal’s Bob Berry went (42-24-14) in 1982-83.

Gerry Cheevers kept his job in Boston, Glen Sonmor his position in Minnesota, and Herb Brooks his job in New York. Michel Bergeron stayed in Quebec and Tom Watt in Winnipeg.

Watt was axed part way through the 1983-84 season (6-13-2) and came to the Canucks a year and a half later. He would last two seasons and be instrumental in the trading away of Cam Neely.

You want to be an NHL head coach.

And you’d really like to have that Stanley Cup resting in your living room – at least for a while.

Even though there’s a stranger sitting – in your favourite reclining chair – guarding it, while you’re entertaining that brother-in-law – and his friends – you can’t stand.

So, what’s the secret?

Is there a template for success?

Well, if you’ve been an NHL player, and management believes that you have promise, you might be named an Assistant Coach. That could be step number one.

Of those who have won the Cup since 1997, two have followed that route.

Larry Robinson was hired as an assistant by the New Jersey Devils in 1993. And Randy Carlyle advanced in the Winnipeg Jets’ organization, becoming an assistant coach before the 1995–96 season.

Larry stayed with the Devils, was named head coach and won the Cup in 2000, and Carlyle raised the Trophy seven years later, with the Anaheim Mighty Ducks.

Some career minor leaguers have started their coaching careers in the bottom professional leagues – mostly where they have played, because that’s where they’re known.

And two of them went on to win Stanley Cups.

Peter Laviolette was first a head coach of the Wheeling Nailers, in the East Coast Hockey League. He had played ten years in the minors, including a 12 game cup of coffee with the Rangers during the 1988–89 campaign.

John Tortorella played for Salem State College, the University of Maine, and in Sweden, before finishing in the lowly Atlantic Coast Hockey League.

With his third ACHL team, the Virginia Lancers, Torts was promoted to both the GM and head coach from 1986 until 1988.

Tortorella had his name engraved on Lord Stanley in 2004, with the rest of his Tampa Bay Lightning, and Laviolette with his Carolina Hurricanes two years later.

Dan Blysma was a variation on Robinson/Carlyle and Laviolette/Tortorella.

courtesy of sportsillustrated.cnn.com

He played nine NHL seasons, and began his coaching career as an assistant with the Cincinnati Mighty Ducks of the AHL. After one season, he became an NHL assistant with the New York Islanders. He joined the Penguins organization as an assistant to Todd Richards in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton and when Richards became an assistant with the San Jose Sharks, Blysma became Pittsburgh’s AHL head coach. He was Wilkes-Barre Scranton’s head coach for less than one season when he was promoted to the Penguins, and won the Stanley Cup.

Five of the last eleven Cup winners (There was no Cup awarded in 2005 because the season was canceled.), started their significant part of their coaching careers in Canadian junior hockey.

Scotty Bowman, who won two (1998 and 2002) of his nine Cups over the past decade, started coaching with the Ottawa Junior Canadians in the Quebec Junior Hockey League, and later the Peterborough Petes of the Ontario Hockey Association (This of course was during the days when most junior clubs were NHL farm teams – the Petes belonged to Montreal.).

And, Bowman might have joined Robinson and Carlyle at the top of this list, but his playing career ended after a head injury.

Pat Burns coached the Hull Olympiques of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League and Bob Hartley the Junior ‘A’ Hawkesbury Hawks, before the Laval Titans of the QMJHL. Neither had much playing experience, Burns appearing in three games with the OHL’s London Knights.

Hartley won the Cup in 2001, and Burns followed in Robinson’s footsteps with the Devils, two years later.

Out in western Canada, Ken Hitchcock started coaching Midget Triple ‘A’ in Edmonton, before moving to the Kamloops Blazers of the Western Hockey League.

And, Mike Babcock coached the WHL’s Moose Jaw Warriors, after three seasons of leading Red Deer College in Alberta.

Hitchcock had never played to any degree, but Babcock starred for Saskatoon and Kelowna in the WHL, and later the universities of Saskatoon and McGill (1983-87).

Hitchcock led the Dallas Stars to the Cup in 1999, and Babcock the Red Wings in 2008.

So, there is a path to follow.

You can start coaching midget, like Ken Hitchcock, or Junior A like Bob Hartley, and work your way up to Major Junior.

From there, maybe the East Coast Hockey League, or the American Hockey League, and then the Big Tent.

Of course, you have to be the very best there is, at every level that you coach.

Those guys, who have briefly rested the Stanley Cup on their mantles, have had to create room.

They have other trophies there as well.

In Cranbrook on Wednesday morning the Vancouver Canucks announced that the 6′3″, 220lb forward had made the club and would play alongside Trevor Linden and Jan Hlavac to start the season.

“That’s the best start I can get in the NHL,” said Fedorov. “Playing with veterans is so much easier. Even if I screw-up a little bit those guys will help me out and we’ll go from there.”

“…We certainly congratulate all the guys that did make the team,” said coach Marc Crawford, “especially the newer players, in particular Fedorov and Bryan Allen….

Fedorov, who was originally drafted in 1999 by the Tampa Bay Lightning but re-entered the draft and was selected by the Canucks in the 3rd round (66th overall) in 2001 after failing to sign with the Lightning, was deemed a work in progress when he arrived on the Canucks’ scene last year. Demoted to the AHL’s Moose and the ECHL with what was regarded as an attitude and work ethic problem, Fedorov was essentially forgotten.

In the ECHL the situation didn’t get any better.

“I had to re-adjust completely to my left eye,” said Fedorov after suffering a detached retina while playing with Columbia (S.C.) Inferno of the ECHL and missed most of last season. “The first doctor told me I would never play again. When I got some news that I had 30% recovery, I had some hope. But I was just sitting on my butt for eight months.”

The injury and the time off gave Fedorov a new perspective on life and a new attitude toward realizing his dream of playing in the NHL.

“I think I grew up a little bit over the year and since my injury last year, I’ve tried to be the best I can,” said Fedorov. “Going to the rink every day, working hard and doing my best.”

Marc Crawford is encouraged by Fedorov’s potential but also cautiously optimistic. It is still only days into a very young NHL season.

“Fedorov’s been a nice surprise for us this year,” said Crawford of his newest forward. “The reason that he’s staying is that his contribution offensively has outweighed any risk that we think may be involved with him.”

“You’re always teased by talent at this time of the year and we’re not unlike any team. We look and we say, ok how good of a talent improvement can a player like Fedor, give us? We’re going to be evaluating him on a daily basis but we evaluate the team on a daily basis as it is but we’ll play particularly close attention to Fedor and to his progress and his ability at making strides and moving forward and just improving. He seems like a great kid (and) he’s a nice mix with our group.”

“His personality is a little different from other first-year players we’ve had in the past,” said Crawford, perhaps alluding to the outgoing personality…not usually seem in players one season removed from junior.

“Let’s face it. He’s had an extremely good preseason. He’s had a lot of chances and he’s playing with some confidence right now. We think he’s a nice move for us initially….’”

*****

Note: The key word is “initially.” A good training camp doesn’t necessarily mean a good regular season.

courtesy of hockeydb.com

Although Pre-season continues on for the Canucks, it is now safe to bring out the top 5 selections of rookies from camp:

1) Steve Kariya
Definitely any coaches first choice for top players in camp. Kariya impressed with his speed and showed an ability of overcoming size by taking hits and bounces back and rushes off with the puck. Kariya even looked exceptionally good with Chubarov and Mogilny on a line. Even Mogilny and Kariya being centered by Cassels wouldn’t be a bad combo this season. 
2) Artem Chubarov
3) Jarkko Ruutu
4) Lubomir Vaic
Vaic (pronounced Vice) has skill. Vaic has been nailing the puck with crisp passes and setting up chances down low in front of the net. Keenan didn’t give him the opportunity last year and now Vaic is using every effort he has to impress Crawford, and so far he has done that quite well. 
5) Alfie Michaud
He outworked Kevin Weekes and Garth Snow all during camp but seemed a little puck shy when it came to the real thing in exhibition games. Michaud showed a good presence at camp and should be complimented on his effort, however he will be looking forward to a year in the AHL with Syracuse. However, if Weekes doesn’t cut it this year then [goalie coach] Andy Moog and Marc Crawford may be pulling to make Michaud their “goalie of the future” instead of Kevin Weekes.

There were many disappointments at camp with Bryan Allen, Josh Holden and Peter Schaefer. They were all pretty high on the charts for the Canucks however Allen, being injury prone as he is will need to work on his speed a bit more and will be luck to crack the lineup this year. Josh Holden just isn’t showing his potential, he was drafted in 1996 and still hasn’t pulled through and Canucks management is hoping he will break out as Aucoin did this past season, however things are looking down with Chubarov, Harold Druken, H. Sedin and even Matt Cooke look all prepared to take his place. Definitely Henrik Sedin, and the way Chubarov has been playing in camp, Holden better smarten up. As for Peter Schaefer, he should build on his season last year, because if he doesn’t, Steve Kariya, as short as he is, will make Schaefer look like a sack of potatoes and make himself look like a giant.

courtesy of hockeydb.com