Skip to main content

Memphis South Stars (CHL, 1968-69)

1968-69 Regular Season--Opponent Unknown



     The Memphis South Stars were part of the old Central Hockey League, a nine-team circuit based mostly in the American Southwest. The Stars were affiliated with the Minnesota North Stars and played their home games at the Mid-South Coliseum. They replaced the Memphis Wings, who moved to Fort Worth after the 1966-67 season.
     John Muckler was behind the bench for both seasons the South Stars existed. In their inaugural season, the South Stars went 24-34-12, good enough for third place in the Northern Division and a first round exit in the playoffs. Memphis drew the second-fewest fans that season, as 2,315 per game went to Mid-South for hockey.
     1968-69 was even worse for Muckler and the South Stars. Memphis plunged to the CHL basement, going a woeful 14-41-17. Their meager 45 points were 21 points behind the next-worst team, Fort Worth.
     The South Stars struggled on both offense and defense. They scored only 208 goals, worst in the league. Doug Senior topped the Stars on offense, with 22 goals and 60 points. Four other players scored 20 or more goals.
     On defense, the Stars allowed a league-worst 304 goals. Memphis used three different goaltenders that season. Carl Wetzel (39 games) and Fern Rivard (29) were the two main netminders that year, with Gary Bauman making it into six games.
     Despite the poor record, the South Stars did have some talent. Former Detroit Red Wing Parker MacDonald played in 28 games, with 6 goals and 17 points. Defenseman Lou Nanne went on to a 10-year career with Minnesota, later joining the North Stars front office. And then there was Bill Goldsworthy. Goldsworthy would play over 10 years in the big leagues as well, most of which in Minnesota.
     Decent-sized program for it's time. This one has 46 pages, mostly black and white, but there are a few color ads. There's even an article about "How to Enjoy Hockey" and women's interest in the sport. This is the only time I've seen a South Stars program, and I grabbed it. Don't think I paid too much for it either.


Aftermath:  The South Stars' poor performance didn't help matters at the box office. Attendance dipped to around 1800 per game in an arena that sat just over 10,000 per game. After two seasons of poor attendance and rising debt, the franchise relocated to Waterloo, Iowa, for the 1969-70 season. Hockey would not return to Memphis and the Mid-South Coliseum until 1992, when the Memphis River Kings of the new CHL arrived in town. The Coliseum, placed on the list of US National Register of Historic Places, closed in 2006.

Sources:
Central Hockey League Statistics: 1968-69 (from hockeydb.com)
Mid-South Coliseum (from wikipedia.org)   
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Port Huron Hockey: Flags/Wings (1962-81)

Now, on to Port Huron.      Port Huron has had a long, yet checkered, history of pro hockey. The most successful franchise, by far, was the Port Huron Flags (also called Wings for a few years) of the IHL. The Flags were, for the most part, a competitve team on the ice, making the Turner Cup Finals seven times and winning the Cup on three occasions. For three years, (1971-74), the franchise was a farm team of the Detroit Red Wings, and sent numerous players on to the NHL in it's existence. However, the team had problems drawing big enough crowds. While the Flags lasted for nearly 20 years, former GM Morris Snider later admitted that the franchise could have folded three years before it actually did, due to declining attendance. I've found some Flags/Wings programs online over the years, and here's what I have. 1963-64 Regular Season--Flags vs. Windsor       1963-64 was the second year of existence for the Flags. After missing the playoffs in their inaugural cam
Post a Comment
Read more

Fort Wayne Komets (1967-68, IHL)

1967-68 Regular Season--Komets vs. Des Moines Oak Leafs      1967-68 was the sixteenth season of Fort Wayne Komets hockey, all in the IHL. The team was coached by Ken Ullyot, who had been with the franchise since 1958. The Komets played      Having lost to Toledo in the 1967 Turner Cup Finals, the Komets slipped to fourth place in '67-68. While Muskegon ran away with first place, the battle for the second-fifth slots was hotly contested. Fort Wayne finished 30-29-13, their 73 points one ahead of Toledo and just five behind second place Dayton.      The Komets were also in fourth place in offense, scoring 282 times that year. Fort Wayne legend Len Thornson led the team with 38 goals and 97 points. Three others, Bob Baird, Randy Gates and Merv Dubchak, joined Thornson in the 30+ goal club. Three others scored at least 20 goals.      The Komets had the second-best defense in the IHL that season, allowing just 272 goals. Fort Wayne used three different goaltenders that year. Rob
Post a Comment
Read more

Flint Generals yearbook (IHL, 1973-74)

     I recently bought two yearbooks from the Flint Generals of the IHL. This one is from the 1973-74 season. It's a 40-page book, all in black-and-white, and on glossy paper. Each player for that season has a full page photo and a short bio. The statistics and a team photo for each Generals season are included. Stats for every player that wore the "blue and gold" are listed in the back of the yearbook. Flint Journal sportswriter Len Hoyes added an article previewing the remainder of the 1973-74 campaign.       One thing that Hoyes noted in his article was about attendance: "With all of their problems, the Generals were still attracting fans at a rate of 3,950 per game. Attendance was down slightly, but Flint's percentage rate of almost 100 percent remained the envy of minor league hockey." (Hoyes, 1974)      The original Generals were a popular team for most of their existence, and attendance only bottomed out when the region's economy tanked
Post a Comment
Read more