Skip to main content

Kalamazoo Wings (IHL, 1977-78)

1977-78 Regular Season:
K-Wings vs. Port Huron Flags
     1977-78 was the fourth season of hockey for the Kalamazoo Wings in the International Hockey League. The franchise was still a secondary affiliate of the Detroit Red Wings and owned by Ted and Martha Parfet. After a rough inaugural season, the K-Wings quickly built into a contender, making the postseason the next two years. The fans flocked to Wings Stadium, as attendance figures ranked in the top three each season in the IHL. 
     Kalamazoo had it's best season yet in 1976-77, finishing 38-27-13, just two points behind league-best Saginaw. Head Coach Bob Lemieux was back behind the bench, the only coach the K-Wings had known. However, a slow start in 1977-78 led to Lemieux being replaced by Peter Slater as coach. The Wings still finished in second place in the North Division, but their 35-31-14 record was 12 points back of first place Saginaw.

     On offense, the K-Wings had the fifth-most goals in the IHL, lighting the lamp 315 times in 1977-78. Leading the way was right winger Mike Wanchuk. The 1974 Winnipeg Jets draft pick scored 45 goals and 92 points in 80 games that season. Fellow right winger Tom Milani was the other 40-goal scorer on the team, with 44 on the year. Tom Ross (33), Alvin White (27) and Ron Kennedy (24) each had at least 20 on the season.
     On defense, Kalamazoo surrendered just 288 goals, third-fewest in the IHL and just ten behind league-best Saginaw. The main netminders for the season were Richard Sevigny and Yves Guillemette. Sevigny was a 7th round pick of the Montreal Canadiens in the 1977 Draft and would go on to play eight years in the NHL with Montreal and Quebec. In 1977-78, he was a rookie, and played in 35 games for the K-Wings. Guillemette was a 4th round selection by the Philadelphia Flyers in the same  draft, and played in 36 games in Kalamazoo. Another noteworthy K-Wing netminder that year is Greg Millen, who went on to a 
1977-78 Kalamazoo Wings
13-year NHL career. 
     Kalamazoo qualified for the postseason and faced the Flint Generals in Round One. Flint was a high-scoring team with a weak defense, and the Wings zipped by the Generals in a competitive five-game series (best of seven). However, they ran into the Port Huron Flags in the semifinals. Despite finishing in fourth place with an ordinary 33-32-15 record, the Flags were on a roll in the playoffs. Port Huron iced an extremely tough, bruising lineup in 1978, led by tough guys like Gary Rissling and Archie Henderson. The Flags demolished the defending Turner Cup Champion Saginaw Gears in Round One in five games. While the K-Wings kept it competitive, Port Huron advanced in five games again to reach the Turner Cup Finals. Toledo would recapture the Turner Cup in an exciting seven game series.
     This is a 66-page program, mostly in black and white. It's from a February 13th game against the Port Huron Flags. No idea who won this game, as the original owner didn't keep score and I can't find a record for it. The usual things are included in this program, such as stats from the previous season, in-game pictures, pictures of off-ice officials and the media. The ISB "Wing of the Week" is Dean Willers, who was a Red Wings prospect at the time. He was off to a good start in Kalamazoo, scoring 12 goals and 26 points in just 31 games. 

     Something very unusual for an IHL program at this time is found on page 63. The attendance figures for the 1976-77 season are located between two ads, which is the first time I have seen attendance stats in any IHL program from this time period. 
     Local advertisements include Michigan National Bank, WUHQ ABC TV 41, Bacchus Tastevin, Country Kitchen and Woodward's Garage. On page 39, there's an advertisement for a JVC Vidstar VHS from Video World. The price for this "non-stop entertainment": $995. 



Reference:
International Hockey League Regular Season Statistics, 1977-78, 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