Skip to main content

Syracuse Blazers (1973-74, NAHL)

1973-74 Regular Season
Blazers vs. Broome Dusters
     Syracuse, New York, has been part of numerous minor-pro hockey leagues. The Blazers arrived on the scene in 1967, joining the Eastern Hockey League as an expansion franchise. When the EHL split up, the Blazers switched to the North American Hockey League (no relation to the junior league). Ron Ingram was General Manager and Head Coach that season. The Blazers were an affiliate of the WHA's New York Golden Blades and played their home  games at the Onondaga County War Memorial, which sat 6,000.
     Syracuse had an excellent season in Year One of the NAHL, running away with the league crown with a 54-16-4 record. Their 112 points were 19 more than second place Maine.
     Ingram's Blazers had no problem scoring goals, as they notched 359 goals, second-most in the league. The team had a trio of 40-goal scorers, led by Mike Morton, who had 44 goals and 95 points. Four other players had at least 20 goals on the year.
     Syracuse was easily tops in the NAHL on defense, allowing only 219 goals. They went with four different goaltenders that year, led by former Port Huron Flag Ted Ouimet. Ouimet was in 35 games with a 3.03 GAA. His main backup was Gary Kurt, who played in 24 games. Russ Gillow and Guy DeNoncourt also saw action that year. Ouimet and Gillow played in the playoffs.
     The Blazers opened the playoffs in a bizarre 5-team round robin setup. After going 6-1 in that tournament, Syracuse then quickly dispatched Johnstown in five games. In the finals, the Blazers crushed the Long Island Cougars in four straight, outscoring them 27-5.
     This is one of my most beat-up programs. There are quite a few stains and dirt marks on it, but none of the 42 pages are torn. The usual ads and articles are there too. Articles include a season preview of the New York Golden Blades, a preview of that night's opponent (the Broome Dusters) and the success of the Blazers on and off the ice. There's a picture of "Syracuse's New Matinee Idol", Bill Goldthorpe. Goldthorpe, as of this program, had already spent 43 minutes in the "sin bin" in only 7 games. He would go on to hit 285 PIM in just 55 games that year. "Big afro, 22, 23, look out for him...". Local ads include The Board Room, North Syracuse Music, The Copper Kettle and Mattydale VFW Post 3146.

Aftermath: The Blazers would exist until 1976-77 season, winning one more NAHL Championship. The team would  fold after that year. Syracuse would later be home to the AHL's Syracuse Firebirds and are currently home to the AHL's Syracuse Crunch.


Sources:
Syracuse Blazers Program, 1973-74 season
NAHL Statistics: 1973-74 (from hockeydb.com)

Comments

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

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

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