Saginaw Spirit (OHL, 2016-17)

2016-17 Regular Season
Spirit vs. Kitchener Rangers

Hard to believe, this is the fifteenth season of Saginaw Spirit hockey. The Spirit are the longest-lasting team to ever play in Saginaw, with the next-oldest team being the IHL's Gears (1972-83). The Spirit's principal owner is still Dick Garber, but he has been joined by investors Brandon Bordeaux, Detroit Red Wings and Tigers executive Jimmy Devellano and former Wings goalie Chris Osgood. The Spirt have yet another new coach behind the bench: former ECHL coach Spencer Carbery.
The Spirit got off to a horrendous start to the year, winning just 3 games out of 15, but have rebounded to get back into the playoff chase. This program was from the Saturday, November 26th game against the Kitchener Rangers. The Rangers won, 4-1, in front of 2,812 at Dow Event Center.
This is a compact program, similar in dimensions to the Prowlers program. However, it's 87 pages thick, all on glossy paper and all in color. Most of the Spirit players and their billet families were photographed and included on several pages. Each team in the West Division is given their own full-page bio, and there's a Q&A section with Coach Carbery. Red Wings prospect Filip Hronek has a feature article as well. Local advertisements include Saginaw Valley State University, the Great Lakes Loons, the Temple Theater and United Way of Saginaw County.

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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

Hockey Programs

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