Toledo Blades (1969-70, IHL)

1969-70 Regular Season--Blades vs. Fort Wayne Komets

     In 1969-70, the IHL split into two, four-team divisions with the arrival of the expansion Flint Generals. Toledo joined the Southern Division with Dayton, Des Moines and Columbus. Bill Mitchell was the coach of the Blades for this season, the seventh in franchise history.
     The Blades finished second place in the South. Their mediocre 32-33-7 record earned them 71 points, nine behind first place Dayton and 29 behind league-leading Muskegon.
     Toledo tied for the second-fewest goals in the league that year, scoring only 241. Mitchell's club was led by Ray Germain, who had 22 goals to go along with 70 points. Wayne Zuk led the team in goals with 41. Five other players on the roster had over 20 goals.
     On the other hand, the Blades defense was stellar. Toledo allowed 265 goals, second-fewest in the IHL that year. Glenn Ramsay had a solid season for the Blades, playing in 61 games, before being loaned to Port Huron. Toledo used two other netminders, Jerry Fleury and Al Cecile.
     The Blades qualified for the Turner Cup Playoffs that season and faced the Des Moines Oak Leafs in Round One. In a low-scoring best of 5 series, the Leafs eliminated the Blades in 3 straight, outscoring Toledo 11-6 in the process. Dayton would go on to capture the Turner Cup in seven games over Port Huron.
     This program has 47 pages, mostly all black-and-white. There are short bios about Blades players and letters from the ownership group. Ads include A&P (which had 22 area stores then), Blatz Beer and Patchey's House of Auto Parts. McDonald's has a color picture of one of their drive-thru restaurants below the roster sheets. That night's opponent was the Fort Wayne Komets.

Aftermath: 1969-70 was the final season of the Toledo Blades. In an attempt to boost attendance, ownership changed the team name to Toledo Hornets. They would remain in town for four more seasons.

Sources:

International Hockey League Statistics: 1969-70 (from hockeydb.com)

Comments

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

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

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

Hockey Programs

Search This Blog