Skip to main content

Buffalo Bisons (AHL, 1969-70)

1969-70 Regular Season--Bisons vs. Baltimore Clippers
     Before the Sabres, Buffalo was home to the American Hockey League's Buffalo Bisons. The Bisons existed from 1940-70, and played their home games at Memorial Auditorium. The franchise was sponsored by Pepsi-Cola, and their logo was a Pepsi bottle cap with a stylized "Buffalo" script written across the center.
     Fred Shero, future "Broad Street Bullies" Flyers coach, was back behind the bench for the final season of Bisons hockey. Buffalo repeated as Western Division champions that year, going 40-17-15. The Bisons ran away with the division that season, as they were the lone Western team to finish above .500. Second place Hershey trailed Buffalo by 23 points, and Buffalo was just five behind league-best Montreal. Buffalo fans responded to the the Bisons' great season, as a league-best 6,745-per game average walked through "The Aud's" turnstiles.
     Buffalo scored the third-most goals that year, with 280 pucks crossing the goal line. Guy Trottier led the charge on offense, potting 55 goals and 88 points. Five other players scored at least 25 goals that season.
     The Bisons sported the best defense in the AHL in 1969-70, allowing a measly 193 goals. The team used two netminders that year: Gilles Villemure and Al Johnstone. Villemure, who would join the New York Rangers the following season, played in 65 games, with a 2.52 GAA and eight shutouts. Johnstone played in 13, with a 3.49 GAA and no shutouts. Villemure got the nod for the postseason.
     The Bisons gave their fans something to cheer about in their final season. Buffalo drew the Quebec Aces in Round One of the Calder Cup Playoffs. Quebec finished with a mediocre 27-39-6 record, barely making the playoffs. However, the Aces took a 2-1 series lead on the strength of two overtime wins. Buffalo recovered to rattle off three straight wins and eliminate the pesky Aces to advance to Round Two. In the round-robin format, the Bisons emerged with a 3-1 record and drew the Springfield Kings in the Calder Cup Finals. The Bisons then went out with a bang, crushing the Kings in four straight games to win the Calder Cup for the fifth, and final, time.
     This is a 50-page program, loaded with black-and-white (but a few color) advertisements and articles. First off, you can't beat the original price for the program: $0.50! There's a team photo of the 1969-70 Bisons as well as an article about Fred Shero. Ticket prices for that year were between $2-4.00. There's also an article about the format change for the playoffs, with a remark about how the Sabres will debut the following year. Local ads include Rich's Ice Cream, Marlette Plating, Bonanza Steak House, Dave & Len's Deli and Simon Pure Beer. Schmidt's Beer sponsors the roster pages. According to that page, the Bisons defeated Baltimore, 4-3.

Aftermath: The Bisons would fold following their Calder Cup championship and were replaced by the NHL's expansion Buffalo Sabres for the 1970-71 season.

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

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

Muskegon Mohawks (IHL, 1965-84)

I know, I said earlier I was going to look at Detroit's minor league teams. That would mean the Vipers would be next, but I decided to cover them later when I had time (I have a TON of programs from that team). Instead, I'm going to look briefly at Muskegon.  Muskegon has had a long, colorful past in professional hockey. It all started in 1960 with the expansion Muskegon Zephyrs of the IHL. Five seasons later, 1965-66, the Zephyrs became the Mohawks, and remain so until 1984-85, when they became the Lumberjacks. The Lumberjacks would remain in town through the 1992-93 season. After that season, the franchise would relocate to Cleveland, Ohio. Here are the Mohawks programs I have, along with a couple bonus scans.        The Mohawks existed from 1965-84, about 20 seasons, and had two vastly different eras of success. From 1965-76, the Mohawks finished above .500 10 times, winning the Huber Trophy (Regular Season Championship) six times and the Turner Cup (Playoff C
Post a Comment
Read more