MAY 2, 1965
VALIANTS REPEAT AS CHALLENGE CUP CHAMPSThe Montreal Valiants finished fourth a year ago, but that was good enough to qualify for the playoffs under rookie coach Matt McGranahan who then led the club to playoff upset victories over regular season champion Boston and Detroit to capture the Challenge Cup. A year later, McGranahan's Vals put together one of the most dominant regular seasons the NAHC has ever seen and went on to win their second consecutive Challenge Cup and the seventh in franchise history.
Montreal finished with 104 points -the first team to top the century mark- and a record 44 victories, one more than the previous mark held by the 1958-59 Toronto Dukes who ended up with 97 points. The Valiants led the NAHC in goals with 218 and were led by Scott Ducek (34-46-80), a 27-year-old center who won his first league scoring title and was rewarded with the McDaniels Trophy as the NAHC's most valuable player, ending a two-year hold by Detroit's Hobie Barrell (30-38-68) on both of those. Montreal also benefited from strong seasons from 23-year-old Ed Haliday (17-43-60) and Tim Bernard (29-30-59), a 26-year-old rookie signed from the Great West League.
However, the Valiants biggest asset was its play in its own end. Montreal surrendered just 133 goal against all season- less than two per game and 47 less than the second best club in that category, the Chicago Packers. All four defense spots on the First and Second All-Star teams were claimed by Vals with 3-time Dewar Trophy winner Mark Moggy (11-27-38) joined by Jack Charest (7-13-20) on the first team and Gil Thibault (8-15-23) and Jeff Gaudreault (3-26-29) comprising the second squad blueline pairing. Ducek was also a first-team all-star as was goaltender Nathan Bannister, who put together a season for the ages at the age of 34. Bannister played in 60 games, going 38-8-14 with a sparkling 1.94 goals against average. The 38 victories was the most a netminder had ever accumulated in an NAHC season and his 9 shutouts were tied for the fourth highest number in league history. Bannister was rightly rewarded with the 4th Juneau Trophy of his career.
Montreal finished 22 points clear of the second place Chicago Packers in a season that did not have much drama regarding its outcome, as the positioning of the top four became quite evident very early. The Packers relied on a trio of veterans to lead them in forwards Ken York (29-29-58), Pete Bernier (18-40-58) and Pete's brother, defenseman Guy Bernier (11-24-35) but had little hope of keeping pace with the Vals.
Boston was third, eleven points back of Chicago but four points ahead of the fourth place Detroit Motors. The Bees said good-bye to goaltender Oscar James after 17 seasons in the Boston net, during which he posted a 388-317-48 record while winning a pair of Juneau Trophies and helping the Bees to two Challenge Cup wins. James' departure left a giant hole between the pipes for the Bees and 28-year-old Francois Campeau (20-22-10, 2.89) had difficulty stepping into the number one role in his second NAHC season. The Bees did still have some offensive stars, led by 31-year-old Neil Wilson (13-48-61) and a very impressive performance from 21-year-old Bruce Callahan (33-14-47) who played just 63 games but finished just 1 shy of Montreal's Ducek in goals while playing in his first full NAHC campaign.
Detroit also had a shift in net as veteran Charlie Dell gave way to rookie Ben Nachbauer (17-16-12, 2.60), who did a decent job as the 36-year-old Dell was relegated to backup duties. Hobie Barrell (30-38-68) still led Detroit in scoring and finished fourth in the league but the 24-year-old's numbers were clearly down from his previous three seasons. Hobie's big brother Benny (14-36-50) made up somewhat, enjoying the second most productive season of his seven years in the Motor City. The Motors secondary scoring seemed to dry up as the club only managed to outscore the last place Toronto Dukes this season.
It was just an awful year for the Dukes, who won just 16 games and finished in last place for the first time since the 1946-47 season. The only real thing to cheer about in Hogtown was Quinton Pollack (27-38-65), who bounced back and scored 27 goals after netting just 14 the year before. That allowed the 42-year-old, who entered the season already as the NAHC all-time point producer to surpass former Chicago great Tommy Burns for the goal scoring lead as well. Pollack now has 578 goals, 14 more than Burns finished with, and 1,366 points. Burns is second in that category as well with 1,220.
There were two other things to get excited about in Toronto. One would be Andrew Williams (20-52-72) as the 25-year-old set a career high in points while splitting time between defense and right wing. The other was 24-yer-old third year winger Hank Knackstedt (27-37-64) who took a step forward after experiencing a sophomore slump a year ago.
That leaves the often forgotten New York Shamrocks. The good news is the Greenshirts did not finish last, nosing out Toronto by two points for fifth place and ending a string of four straight seasons in the cellar. The bad news is New York once again missed the playoffs and it is now 10 out of the past 11 years New York has failed to crack the top four. The Shamrocks have not won a playoff series in 16 years. And more bad news as Johnny Hawker (9-20-24), age 24, who had a pretty solid season a year ago, suffered a major shoulder injury and missed the first half of the 1964-65 campaign. The good news is 25-year-old winger Alex Kalmakoff (18-52-70) took another step forward by finishing third in league scoring and being the first Shamrock to be named to the NAHC's first all-star team in a decade.
NAHC PLAYOFFS
A year ago the Montreal Valiants took everyone by surprise in the playoffs but that was certainly not the case this time around. As it turned out it did not matter as no one could stop the Vals with Montreal needing only one more than the minimum eight games needed to claim the Challenge Cup.
First up for the Valiants was the Detroit Motors, the club Montreal swept in the NAHC finals last April. The opener was all Montreal as the hosts outshot Detroit 36-15 and outscored them 5-0. There was not a lot for Nathan Bannister to do in the Vals net but he did pick up another shutout after earning nine of them during the regular season. Alex Bates, a third line center who scored just 3 times in 38 regular season games, scored twice in the postseason opener and for good measure also added an assist.
Game two saw the Vals outshoot Detroit in a similar manner as the series opener and claim a 4-2 victory. Mark Moggy paced the victors, who led 4-0 after forty minutes before Detroit finally beat Bannister with two in the third, as Moggy set up three of the Montreal goals.
A change of venue for the third game did little to change the series as Bannister notched his second shutout in three games with another 5-0 Montreal win. This one was closer than the score indicated as the Vals added 3 goals in the closing minutes of the third period with Detroit desperately trying to generate some offense. Detroit finally got a win in game four as the Motors, despite surrendering a 2-0 lead after forty minutes, won 3-2 thanks to a Jimmy Nonis overtime goal just over six minutes into the extra frame.
Two nights later back in Montreal the Valiants ended the series with an 8-3 rout of the Motors. Ed Haliday and Alex Bates -the game one scoring star- each had two goals and an assist in the victory while regular season scoring champ Scott Ducek also enjoyed a 3-point evening.
*** Packers and Bees Go the Distance ***
The other semi-final was a drawn out affair that went the full seven games with every contest being won by the home team. Chicago took a 2-0 series lead with a 7-4 win in the opener followed by a 5-2 victory but Boston bounced back with a pair of one goal victories, both in regulation time, on the Denny Arena ice to even things up. Games five and six each required overtime. In Chicago Ken York was the hero with a marker in the opening minute of the overtime period to give the Packers a 4-3 win in the fifth game but two nights later in Boston the Bees once more evened things up. That one also ended in 4-3 score with Mitchell Cook, a veteran defenseman who rarely finds the back of the net, scoring the winner in overtime for the Bees.
Game seven at Lakeside Auditorium was tied at one after twenty minutes but the Packers blew it open with three second period goals. Chicago added two more in the final twenty minutes, both by Ken York who scored 8 times in the series, and the Packers advanced to the Challenge Cup finals for the third time in six years with a 6-2 game seven victory over Boston.
*** Montreal Too Strong For Packers in Final ***
After setting a regular season record for wins and points in a season it seemed there would be no stopping the Montreal Valiants from winning a second straight Challenge Cup. The Chicago Packers did their best but were clearly overmatched, marking the fifth straight time the Packers lost a series with the Cup on the line. Chicago's only Challenge Cup title came in 1952. Since then they have made five other appearances but until this year had never met Montreal in a Cup final.
Game one was a thriller at the Montreal Arena, with the hosts scoring the opening goal just over three minutes into the contest but Chicago equalized before the period came to an end. The two teams traded goals in the middle frame as well but despite combining for 25 shots in the third period, neither team could get the winner. It finally came just under 4 minutes into the overtime period as Matt Mercier scored for the Vals with an assist from Mark Moggy, who setup all three Montreal goals on the evening.
Game two was also decided by a single goal but it came in regulation as Scott Ducek set up Vals rookie Tim Bernard with the game winner on the powerplay with just over three minutes remaining in the third period to make the final 4-3 Montreal. Chicago's Ken York, who had 8 goals in the series against Boston, scored his 9th of the playoffs in the loss.
The series shifted to Chicago and the Packers led 1-0 after twenty minutes thanks to a Tommy Gordon goal but Jeff Gaudreault and Clyde Raines scored in the second period to give the Valiants a 2-1 lead. Rookie Bernard iced the win with an insurance marker late in the third to make the final 3-1 and put Montreal up three games to none in the series.
It was May 1, the latest an NAHC season had ever gone, when the puck dropped for game four. It was desperation time for the hometown Packers but the wind went out of their sails early when Montreal scored twice - goals from Colton Keil and Roy Forgeron- in a two minute span midway through the opening period. The Packers did fight back with two of their own in the second period to tie the game and Ken York sent the Chicago crowd into a frenzy when he gave the Packers a 3-2 lead early in the third with his 10th goal of the playoffs. That would be the high point for the hometown crowd as Montreal responded with three quick goals, two of them from the rookie Bernard both set up by Ducek, and the Valiants would complete the sweep with a 5-3 victory.
That marks the seventh time the Montreal Valiants have won the Challenge Cup and the fourth since 1950. Only Toronto with 12 and Boston with 9 Cups have won more than the Vals. As for Chicago they are now 1-7 all-time in Challenge Cup final series.
AN ALL-OUT OFFENSIVE IS LAUNCHED IN FBL
Record Setting Season From Robinson as Scoring SoarsThe focus of the 1964-65 Federal Basketball League season could be summed up in one word- offense - as the game opened up and fans were treated to a scoring display never seen in the sport. The tempo of play had been increasing ever year for the past decade, but it reached a fever pitch in the most recent season. Add in stricter enforcement of rules to inhibit defenders from gaining an unfair advantage and a widening of the lane from 12 to 16 feet and the result was FBL teams ended up scoring a little more than 30 points more a game this time around than they averaged the previous season.
The 1964-65 season was also witness to one of the best divisional races the loop has ever seen along with a record-setting scoring performance from New York forward Ken Robinson. In the end the same two clubs that played for the league title a year ago - the Toronto Falcons and Philadelphia Phantoms- once more met for the championship but this time the outcome was reversed as the Phantoms were crowned kings of the FBL for the third time in franchise history.
Much of the attention all season was focused on Robinson as the 27-year-old native of Indianapolis by way of Bluegrass State rewrote the league record book by averaging 33.9 points per game. Robinson suited up for all 80 contests for the New York Knights and scored 50 or more points in 10 games during the regular season including a league-record 65 points in a 136-111 win over Boston in November.
Certainly scoring was up around the league as the style of play changed but that did not make Robinson's accomplishments any less amazing. Entering the season only three times had an FBL player scored at least fifty points in a single game. They would be Detroit's Ward Messer with 55 in 1948, Millard Caldwell equaled Messer's output in a game three years later and the third was Luther Gordon, when the former Chicago great popped in 50 points in a 1957 contest. As mentioned Robinson reached the half century mark or better ten times in 1964-65 but it was hardly a common occurrence around the league as the only other player to scored 50 in a game this season was Dan Holland of Philadelphia, who landed right on that magic 50 mark a week before Robinson's 65 point outing. The result is there have now been 14 incidents of a player scoring 50 or more points in a single game and ten of them belonged to Ken Robinson.
Robinson's 33.9 ppg average smashed the old record set by Richard Campbell in 1946-47 when the Chicago Panthers big man averaged 28.3 ppg. Bert LaBrecque of Boston was second in scoring this year, but ended just shy of Campbell's old record at 28.2 ppg.
*** Playoff Race in East Goes Down to Wire ***
Despite the heroics of Robinson, who is in his 5th year with the Knights after being selected fifth overall in the 1959 college draft, New York failed to make the playoffs. The Knights, who finished second in the East Division a year ago, found themselves trailing the Washington Statesmen by a single game for the third and final playoff spot with two games remaining in the season. The two clubs would play each other in a season-ending home and home series to determine who would qualify for the postseason.
The Knights hosted the Statesmen at Bigsby Garden on the Saturday and Robinson put on a clinic, scoring 50 points for the 10th and final time this season, as New York won a shootout 143-124. The two clubs were tied and the winner of the Sunday game in the nation's capital would move on to the playoffs. Robinson was "held" to 39 points and it was not enough as Washington, which got 46 out of Sam Pisani and 30 from Ralph Peck, would claim its first postseason berth in four years with a 122-107 victory, ending the Knights season.
There was also excitement at the top of the East Division standings as well as Philadelphia and Boston fought it out all year for top spot. The Centurions beat Philadelphia in Boston's Denny Arena on the final day of the regular season to leave both clubs deadlocked at 47-33 but the Phantoms earned top spot and the first-round bye that comes with it by virtue of a better head-to-head record against Boston during the regular season.
There was a little less drama in the West Division as Toronto, winners of the league title in two of the past three seasons, clinched top spot in the regular season for the third time in four years. Detroit was second, just two games ahead of third place Chicago but the Mustangs had clinched homecourt advantage for the opening round with 8 games remaining in the regular season. A five-game Mustangs losing streak to end the campaign certainly tightened up the final standings. The St Louis Rockets finished a distant fourth with the worst record in the league.
*** PLAYOFF RECAP ***
The opening round of the playoffs proved a bit of a surprise as each of the third-place teams were victorious. Maybe it wasn't really a surprise that Chicago swept its three-game series with Detroit after the Mustangs limped down the stretch with five consecutive losses and 9 defeats in their final 11 regular season games. The Mustangs collapse can be directly linked to the season-ending injury suffered by veteran Detroit forward Frank Black in late March.
The East also saw the road team advance, but that series went the distance. The Washington Statesmen surprised Boston, a team that finished 10 games ahead of them during the regular season, with a 102-91 win in the opener. The Centurions rebounded to win game two and even the series and then split the two games in the nation's capital to set up a decisive fifth game in Boston's Denny Arena. It was knotted a 55 at the half but the visitors pulled away in the second half and won by 9 points, giving Washington its first playoff series victory since the spring of 1959.
Washington's luck would run out against Philadelphia in the semi-finals, but the Statesmen certainly made the division champs sweat. Philadelphia won each of the first three games in the best-of-seven series, but Washington battled back with three wins of its own to force a seventh game. Dan Holland scored 28 points and Billy Stephenson added 20 as the Phantoms overcame an 8-point deficit at the half to take the series with a 124-116 victory.
The west semi-final had far less drama as the Toronto Falcons, led by the All-League guard tandem of Bill Spangler and Jim Bromberg, easily disposed of the Chicago Panthers in five games to set up a rematch of last year's finals, one in which Toronto had prevailed over Philadelphia in six games.
The series opened in Dominion Gardens and the host Falcons won easily, outscoring the Phantoms 122-100 keyed by a 28-point effort by Spangler. That would turn out to be the only win that Toronto would get in the series as the Phantoms won the next four games to win their third-ever FBL championship. Phantoms center Dan Holland, who won an AIAA championship and a Barrette Award as college MVP while at Carolina Poly, was named the playoff MVP after averaging nearly 28 points per game in the title series.
COLLEGE BASKETBALL RECAP
A MAMMOTH SEASON FOR REDWOOD
While the bulk of the attention in the West Coast Athletic Association over recent years has focused on Rainier College and CC Los Angeles, which have combined for nine titles in the annual AIAA collegiate basketball tournament, or perhaps Coastal California and Lane State -who regularly contend as well- a fifth school from the WCAA should not be overlooked.
That would be the Redwood University Mammoths, who won their second AIAA tournament title this year. For the first thirty-five years of college cage history the Mammoths barely made an impression on the sport. From 1910 until 1945 Redwood qualified for the season ending AIAA tournament just three times and never did win a tournament game. Things changed quickly and it started in the spring of 1946 when the Mammoths were added to the tournament for the fourth time and since then have only missed joining the field of 32 twice. They won their first National Title in the spring of 1948 and reached Bigsby Garden, the annual site of the semi-finals and finals, three times in a four-year span beginning in 1957, setting and tying a school record with 31 victories in each of those campaigns. They shattered the school mark this time around with a 33-4 season that also saw the Mammoths go 13-1 in WCAA play to win their fifth conference title since the end of WWII.
Paced by All-American junior forward Ron Bohall, the Mammoths lumbered through the Midwest Region as the number one seed, dominating Lawrence State, nipping North Carolina Tech by two points before defeating the region's second seed Detroit City College 67-57 to qualify for the final weekend in New York. Three of the four regions followed script with the top seed and number two reaching the regional finals. Joining the Mammoths as number one seeds in the final four were the Noble Jones College Colonels, who advanced from the South. Second seed Western Iowa won the West Region, downing Lane State 63-46. The fourth member of the semi-final group was a complete surprise as Academia Alliance champ Dickson, an 8th seed that entered the tournament with a 17-15 record, got hot at the right time and knocked off number one Maryland State in the opening round. Wins over Hamman and region #2 seed Mississippi A&M followed, and the Maroons were in the national semi-finals for the second time in school history.
Redwood put an end to the Dickson Cinderella-run by trouncing the Maroons 69-47 in the semi-finals. All-American Bohall and senior center Carey Seward each had 15 points to key the Mammoths victory. Noble Jones College downed Western Iowa 63-44 to send the Colonels to the national title game for the first time since the Charlie Barrell-led undefeated 1949-50 Noble Jones squad won the national crown. There would be no title for the Colonels this time around as Redwood prevailed by a 67-61 margin.