CrashingTheGoalie

by Ron Spence
NHL hockey during the early 1970s was pretty staid.
So, the new rival WHA thought they would bring some flash to hockey. The Philadelphia Blazers – later the Vancouver Blazers – went to some “daring colours.”
When Jason was still a glint in his mother’s eye.
The Blazers lasted one year in Philadelphia, before relocating to [...]

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by Ron Spence
I wrote the Shibe Stadium article, as a background for what happened to hockey stadiums later on.
People had leisure time, and money, and suddenly had a place to spend it. Things were getting bigger and better. It was a sign of the times.
While these stadiums were being built, cars were also increasing in [...]

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by Ron Spence
The Vancouver Blazers were only a two year blink in B.C.’s hockey history. And, their successor didn’t last much longer in Calgary.
It was fitting that Vancouver should have an outlaw WHA team, as hockey’s previous outlaw circuit had been centered in British Columbia.
The WHA’s franchise was initially allocated to Miami, and was to be [...]

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by Ron Spence
U.S. hockey was in a bad way.
It was 1919, and all hockey south of the 49th was being played under the umbrella of the International Skating Union.
The good news was that the skaters had working agreements with both the Amateur Athletic Union, and the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association.
In late October, 1920, the United [...]

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by Ron Spence
As noted in the previous article, the Kootenays have had a rich hockey tradition going back some 115 years.
The first NHL player of significance to hail from the Kootenays, was Cecil “Tiny” Thompson, who would win four Vezina Trophies.
Since that time, many players have followed, some of the better known being the Niedermayer [...]

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by Ron Spence
The Stanley Cup was first awarded in 1893 to a Montreal team. That same year an arena was built in the Kootenays. It was in the town of Sandon, and a year later the Crystal Ice Palace was constructed in Nelson. The Palace held 2,300 spectators and was the largest rink west of [...]

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by Ron Spence
Background
British Columbia hockey was alive and well by the time that the West Coast Hockey League folded in 1926. B.C.’s first junior hockey championships were scheduled the following season, when the Vancouver Terminals beat Salmon Arm. The next year, when the Mowat Cup was introduced, there were nine eligible teams from the Kootenays, [...]

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by Ron Spence
Some things just come together.
I have an interest in old brick buildings, from the beginning of the Twentieth Century.
I have also been doing research in/ and writing articles about the new monoliths which redefined sports in the 1910s – the baseball stadiums.
And then, I discovered this picture of a turnstile from the Shibe [...]

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by Ron Spence
Eveleth, Minnesota and Duncan, British Columbia have been involved in a teacup battle straight out of The Mouse That Roared.
Eveleth, about three hours north of Minneapolis-St. Paul, on US Highway 53, has a population of 3593 – and falling. Duncan, west of Vancouver on Vancouver Island, has approximately 4700 people.,

They are both [...]

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by Ron Spence
As noted in the Dwyer article, sports were becoming mainstream by the 1910s, as large stadiums were being built, and working class people had both the time and money to attend games.
As this was happening, newspaper coverage of sporting events was expanding. In 1880, only .04% of a newspaper’s editorial was dedicated sports. [...]

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