MAY 2, 1967
NAHC TO DOUBLE IN SIZE
Six New Clubs Set for '67=68 Season The most seismic hockey news of the winter didn’t come from the rink, but from the boardroom. After years of speculation and back-room chatter, the North American Hockey Confederation has pulled the trigger: the loop will jump from six to twelve clubs next season.
It marks the end of an era. The NAHC has skated along with six outfits since 1943, when the Brooklyn Eagles folded mid-war. Now, nearly a quarter-century later, the league is finally ready to step out of its old winter coat and into something a little bolder.
The new faces? Barring last-minute wrinkles in arena deals, the roster of expansion cities will be Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, San Francisco, St. Louis, and Vancouver. The names already have a touch of swagger: Stingrays, Voyageurs, Rogues, Mariners, Archers, and Totems.
Three of those markets—Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Vancouver—were longtime homes of the Great West Hockey League. The GWHL responded by kicking out those three clubs- the Hollywood Stars, San Francisco Gulls and Vancouver Bears- leaving each city with no hockey until joining the NAHC next year. One of the three surviving teams protested the move so vehemently that they left the GWHL. That would be the Seattle Emeralds, who bolted for the new Prairie Hockey Association, a mixture of teams from the Canadian prairie provinces and the Western United States
The GWHL did manage to stay afloat although now with a much lower caliber of play that what was displayed in the Prairie loop. The two remaining holdovers Portland and Tacoma were joined by new clubs in Kelowna, Victoria, Spokane and Salt Lake City allowing the league to continue as a six-team outfit.
Expansion will send ripples through the minors elsewhere, too. Philadelphia’s selection means the HAA’s Rascals are on the move. They finished out the 66-67 schedule in the City of Brotherly Love and evened reached the league finals before being knocked off by the Cleveland Eries. Do not expect the Rascals back come autumn when the NAHC comes to Philly. Baltimore is already whispered as the next stop for the replacement HAA organization.
So, the NAHC, once a six-team winter lodge, is now preparing for the wide-open frontier. Come next fall, hockey’s old guard will share the stage with a half-dozen upstarts. The stakes just got bigger, and the ice a whole lot more crowded.
*** Valiants Rule NAHC Regular Season Again ***
For the third consecutive season the Montreal Valiants finished with the best regular season record in the NAHC. Montreal's 90 points was seven better than the defending Challenge Cup champion Chicago Packers collected. As has been the case throughout the Vals strong run, which included two Cups in the past three years, team defense was key. Montreal surrendered just 154 goals against over the 70 games season - no one else allowed fewer than 211 against. Nathan Bannister (32-15-7, 2.17) was terrific in net and won his 5th Juneau Trophy. Age has not caught up to the goaltender, he is 36 but still played in 56 of the 70 games. Having a defense led by Dewar Trophy winner Mark Moggy (11-33-44) -he has four of them already at age 25- along with fellow first team all-star Gil Thibualt (13-21-34) certainly helps keep a goaltender feeling young. 29-year-old center Scott Ducek (42-39-81) led the NAHC in goals and set a career high in points as did 28-year-old Tim Bernard (23-46-69). Injuries limited last year's rookie of the year Pete Fortin (16-31-47) to 49 games but another Val forward won the McLeod Trophy this season. That would be Ray Dupuis (12-23-35) giving Montreal each of the last three rookie award winners.
Chicago won the Challenge Cup for just the second time in team history last spring and the Packers looked strong once more this season. Ken York (35-45-80) was named a second team all-star for the fifth consecutive season and teams well with Pete Bernier (20-44-64) and Matt McGrath (25-26-51) on the Packers top line. Chicago had its challenges at times keeping the puck out of its own net and goalie Andrew Bomberry (31-21-8, 3.05) had his ups and downs but no team scored more goals than the Packers this season.
After a pair of down years - by his standards only- Detroit's Hobie Barrell (39-55-94) was back at the top of his game and won his third McDaniels Trophy as league MVP while leading the NAHC in points to claim the Denny Trophy also for the third time. Barrell's 94 points was the third highest single season total ever recorded, and he teamed nicely with center Charles Bozek (18-52-70) who finished fifth in league scoring and enjoyed the best season of his career to date. Detroit missed the playoffs a year ago costing coach Harry Remington his job and the club seemed to respond well to what newcomer Albert Leung was preaching. Detroit finished third but just 2 points in arrears of Chicago and the Motors 81 total points was just 5 shy of the franchise record.
Boston was comfortably settled in fourth place , 16 points behind Detroit but 9 ahead of fifth place Toronto. The Bees reached the finals a year ago and pushed Chicago to a game seven before falling agonizingly short when Chicago's J.P. Morissette scored the Cup winner in overtime. Neil Wilson (22-45-67) remains the Bees leader and is now just two points shy of 500 for his career but the biggest season for a Boston player came from 25-year-old Nick Quinn (32-35-65) as the fifth year Bees forward was named to the NAHC's first all-star team.
It was an awful year for Toronto as the Dukes missed the playoffs for the third time in the past four years. A 7-16-2 start put Toronto behind the eight ball early and they never could recover. Goalie Mike Connelly (24-36-5, 3.13) has a big drop off from his Juneau Trophy winning form of a year ago and there are rumblings that the 35-year-old may no longer have the reflexes needed to play the position. One player not showing the effects of age is Quinton Pollack (22-51-73) who continues to be one of the best players in the game even at the age of 44. Many assume Pollack wants to stick around to play with or against his son Jack. The 17-year-old made his debut with the Kingston Cadets of the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association, notching 27 points in 54 games. Jack Pollack, a center, was selected first overall by the Cadets in the junior draft. He still has a couple of seasons to go before he becomes eligible for the NAHC draft.
That leaves, who else but the New York Shamrocks in the cellar once more. When you score the fewest goals in the league this season and surrender the most the outcome is usually not good and it wasn't as New York won just 17 games and has not made the playoffs since the spring of 1960. And remember this is a league where four of the six teams qualify for post-season play every year.
NAHC PLAYOFFS
For the second year in a row the first vs fourth matchup featured the Montreal Valiants against the Boston Bees. A year ago the Bees pulled off the upset in seven games and this one also went the distance. There was no indication that would happen after Montreal won the series opener in an 8-2 rout behind a 4-point night from Scott Ducek but five of the final six games were decided by a single goal and two needed overtime. Boston took a 3 games to two lead in the series with a marathon 3-2 victory in game five. David Bertrand of the Bees got the game winner midway through the third overtime period. Montreal would not suffer the same fate as last year as the Vals bounced back with a 5-2 victory in game six and then won the seventh game 2-1 with Ducek again the offensive star, scoring the game winner and setting up Pete Fortin's first period marker.
The other series saw Chicago face Detroit and it would also go the full seven games. The Packers led the series 3-1 before Detroit held off elimination in game five when Colin MacMillan's second goal of the game, 13 minutes into the second overtime, gave the Motors life with a 4-3 victory. Hobie Barrell would score a hat trick as Detroit evened the series with a 4-1 victory on home ice setting up a seventh game in the Windy City. Chicago would score first but the Motors scored the next four goals including one from Hobie Barrell and a pair from his brother Benny Barrell and Detroit held on for a 4-2 victory. The Motors have now won each of their last four playoff series with the Packers.
*** Detroit and Montreal Renew Acquaintances ***
The final would mark the fourth time in the past ten years that the Montreal Valiants and Detroit Motors met with the Challenge Cup up for grabs. Detroit beat Montreal in the spring of 1958 and 1962 while the Vals knocked off the Motors in the 1964 Cup final. Montreal finished nine points ahead of third place Detroit in the regular season and the Valiants won the regular season series between the pair, going 8-5-1 against Detroit.
The series opener at the Montreal Arena began with a scoreless first period before Colin MacMillan, with his third of the playoffs, got Detroit on the scoreboard early in the second stanza. Roger MacKinnon tied the game for Montreal 8 minutes later and in a game that saw the Vals outshoot Detroit 34-16 the only other goal came on a powerplay point shot from the Vals Jean Tremblay early in the third to make the final 2-1 Montreal.
A four-goal third period outburst, including two from Colin MacMillan, allowed Detroit to even the series with a 5-3 road win in the second game. Detroit then took full control of the series at Thompson Palladium with a pair of identical 4-1 victories. Game three saw Hobie Barrell led the way with 2 goals and an assist and Barrell had a goal and an assist in game four as well, but the story in that one was Detroit netminder Justin MacPhee, who faced 44 Montreal shots.
Montreal answered in game five as Gil Thibault scored three times and added an assist while Mark Moggy had 3 helpers in a resounding 6-1 Vals victory. Back to Detroit for game six and another must win for Montreal. The Vals scored three in the first period, including two from Colton Keil and went on to win by a 5-3 score.
For the second year in a row the Cup final would not only need a seventh game to determine a winner but would also require overtime. Jim Drury game the hometown Vals a 1-0 lead with the only goal of the first period and Montreal still led by a single goal after 40 minutes as Hobie Barrell, with his 11th of the playoffs, and the Vals Gil Thibault, with his 6th, traded second period goals.
Detroit dominated the third period, outshooting Montreal 18-5 in the frame and the Motors were rewarded with the tying goal. It came off the stick of captain Jack Doctorow in a rare showing of offense from the blueline stalwart. It took 7:13 seconds of overtime to declare a champion and it was Detroit after Carl Simon, who scored just 8 times in the regular season, scored his fourth of the playoffs to give Detroit its seventh Cup win, tying the Motors with Montreal for third most Cups in NAHC history.
The game promises to be much different a year from now when the league doubles in size and you can't ask for a much more exciting Cup final, especially game seven needing overtime, to bring an end to the six-team era in the NAHC.
PRO CAGE LOOP ADDS ANOTHER COAST CLUB
San Francisco Swells FBL To Ten Teams Expansion is all the rage as the popularity of pro sports, and television networks eager to spend big bucks for the rights to televise games, has seen a rapid growth in all pro leagues over the past few years. since the start of the decade Football has grown from a 12-team loop to now two separate leagues and twice as many teams. Baseball added four clubs five years ago to boost its ranks to 20 with every indication that up to four more may be admitted to FABL over the next couple of years. Hockey had stayed consistent with its six clubs ever since the Brooklyn Eagles folded during World War II but that will change next season with news the NAHC plans to double in size to 12 teams. Basketball got in on the act a year ago when the Los Angeles Condors joined the Federal Basketball League and they were at it again as another new west coast club - called the San Francisco Miners- began play last fall, as the cage loop grew to ten teams with expectations that more, perhaps many more, would be soon to follow.
Expansion clubs have generally struggled mightily with the lone exception being football's Houston Drillers but the debut for the Los Angeles Condors a year ago was not all bad. The club managed to win 30 games and avoid last place in the West Division while also featuring an All-League second team selection in forward Bill Knick. It would be a tough act for the Miners to follow and they would prove to certainly have their struggles.
The Miners .215 winning percentage was the worst the FBL had seen since the Chicago Panthers awful 15-65 showing in the 1961-62 season but there were some positives. 30-year-old forward Chet Bancroft, a backup the past two years in Toronto, looked like a player they could build around after leading the team in scoring with a 26.4 points per game average and former Boston Centurions center Earl Arsenault, 27, also impressed.
The addition of the Miners to the West Division meant things got much easier for the four returning clubs as the Toronto Falcons, who had finished first in the West in the regular season four out of the last five years and represented the west in the league finals four times in that span, were shifted to the East Division to make room for San Francisco.
Chicago and Detroit fought for top spot all year but in the end it was the Panthers, thanks to a victory over the Mustangs in the final game of the season to conclude a 10-game winning streak for the Windy City quintet, who finished first, nosing out the Mustangs by a single game and earning the first round playoff bye. The Panthers had an offense that could almost compare to Detroit's, which had long been the premier scoring outfit in the league, but Chicago also had something Detroit did not, a defense that was the stingiest in the West Division. Playmaking guard Mark Robinson, who led the FBL in assists for the third consecutive season and forward Bob Christensen, a Western Iowa alum who is consistently among the loop's top rebounders, led the way for Chicago while Detroit relied on veterans Jack Sayler, Bill Vaughn and defensive specialist Frank Black.
There was also a battle for the final playoff spot as the second year Los Angeles Condors continued to impress although they did slump late in the season with losses in seven of their last ten outings. The St Louis Rockets were unable to seize the opportunity as they lost 12 of their final 16 games and missed the playoffs for the third year in a row. The Condors added to a growing core with the selection of former Bayou State star guard Phil Brouwer with their first round draft pick. The New Orleans native started 72 games as a rookie and joined a core group that featured rebound leader Bill Knick and a breakout star in 27-year-old forward Pepper Whitney. St Louis did have the rookie of the year in John Branther, a forward selected first overall out of Maryland State who averaged 17.8 ppg in his FBL debut campaign but the club lacked consistency.
*** Centurions End Phantoms Three Year Run Atop East ***
The Boston Centurions won the FBL title for the first time in franchise history in the spring of 1963 but since then had to take a backseat to the Philadelphia Phantoms as Ghosts galloped to three straight appearances in the finals and a pair of titles. That changed this season as the Centurions, who boasted by a wide margin the best defense in the league, held of the Phantoms for top spot. Philadelphia had the star power in league MVP Dan Holland and fellow first-team All-League selection George Price but the Centurions led by the familiar core of Steve Barrell, Art Owens, Charlie Brock and Ken Theobald would not be denied. The result was a 23 game improvement over the previous season for Boston and a franchise record 59-21 finish, good for a five game bulge on Philadelphia.
While Toronto had dominated the West Division, the Falcons had a much harder time flying straight in the East. Toronto dipped to just 37 victories, 21 off the pace set last year and their lowest total in six years. Much of the blame for the Falcons drop off can be attributed to the fact that veteran forward Bill Hash missed over half the season with a broken leg. Toronto did do enough to nose out Washington for the final playoff berth as the Statesmen continue a so far futile search to rediscover the magic that made them a league power in the initial decade of the FBL.
The league desperately wants a contender in the Big Apple to increase interest in the sport but the New York Knights have failed to provide one as they missed the playoffs for the third consecutive season and have won just a single playoff series since 1957. New York does have one of the games most dynamic players in 29-year-old forward Ken Robinson, who has led the FBL in scoring each of the past three seasons but receives little in the way of secondary support.
*** PLAYOFF RECAP ***
The first round in the West Division marked the Los Angeles Condors first exposure to playoff basketball. It did not go well for the second year franchise as the Detroit Mustangs swept the series with three easy victories. The East series was highly anticipated as it marked the fourth year in a row the Philadelphia Phantoms and Toronto Wolves would meet in the post-season. Each of the previous three were in the league finals and Philadelphia won the last two.
League MVP Dan Holland had 30 points in the opener as the Phantoms won easily by a 130-112 count but Toronto rebounded with a pair of game winning shots at the buzzer, from Jim Bromberg in a 105-103 victory in the second game and Bill Spengler to claim a 115-113 win two nights later. The Falcons had a little more breathing room to wrap up the series in game four as Bromberg poured in 32 points in a 120-112 win.
It would be Toronto's last win of the postseason as the semi-final series with Boston was a rout for the Centurions, who won four straight games and all by at least nine points. In the West Chicago was well rested and ready for Detroit. Each team won twice at home to start the best-of-seven and that trend continued with Chicago's 119-110 victory at Lakeside Auditorium in game five. The Panthers than broke Detroit's serve with a series clinching 113-101 win on the road keyed by a 36-point effort from Chicago forward Dick Brown.
*** Finals Goes the Distance ***
Chicago continued its winning ways with a road victory to open the finals. The Panthers won 118-111 despite a 37-point effort from Boston forward Charlie Brock. Mark Robinson had 29 points and 11 assists to lead the visitors. Boston evened the series two nights later with a 106-98 win in which Art Owens scored 29 points and Steve Barrell came one rebound shy of a triple double - he had 13 points and 10 assists.
The teams also split the next two games in Chicago with Boston taking the third game 121-98 before the hosts bounced back with a 109-90 win in game four. Chicago moved to with a single victory of claiming their first title since 1956-57 after pulling out a 94-91 victory in the final game of the series to played at Lakeside Auditorium.
Boston returned home with no margin for error, trailing 3 games to two. Outscoring Chicago by 23 points in the second quarter turned game six into a rout although Chicago did make it respectable with a late charge when most of the Centurions starters were on the bench. The final score was 126-116 with Boston center Art Owens scoring 45 points and adding 12 rebounds setting up the first game seven in the finals since 1961-62 when Boston came up short against Toronto.
The Centurions came out on fire, playing a stifling defense that allowed them to open up an 11 point lead in the first quarter and they never slowed, downing the Panthers 119-94 behind 22 points from Charlie Brock and 21 from Steve Barrell, who would be named playoff MVP for the second time in his career.
COLLEGE BASKETBALL RECAP
A REPEAT FOR DETROIT CITY COLLEGE
When Detroit City College upset #1 seed and Great Lakes Alliance rival Indiana A&M 71-57 in the championship game of the 1966-67 AIAA basketball tournament it put the Knights in some pretty exclusive company. The title was the Knights third and made DCC one of just nine schools to win the AIAA cage crown at least three teams. It was also the Knights second consecutive win as they upended Noble Jones College in the title tilt a year ago. That puts DCC in an even more select group as only five other schools had won back-to-back titles. The leader in that group is the 1921-23 North Carolina Tech Techsters, who won three straight championship games. The others are Rainier College, which is the only school to go back-to-back twice, Liberty College, Carolina Poly and Brunswick, which did it back in 1910-11 when the number of top division teams was far smaller than it is today.
While a year ago Detroit City College was one of the top teams in the country and won the highly competitive Great Lakes Alliance for the first time in 24 years, this years edition of the Knights was on the bubble to gain entry into the tournament after going 19-11 during the regular season. The Knights were without their top player from a year ago, second team All-American center Les Hoeft, had graduated and was a first round Federal Basketball League draft pick of the Chicago Wildcats.
In Hoeft's place senior Herman Bergmann stepped up and was named a first team All-American while fellow senior Andy Zoubek, who started just 3 games in his first three years at DCC, had a breakout season as a senior and earned a spot on the All-American second team. Led by those two the Knights got hot at the right time and ran the table in the tournament despite having a horrendous path that saw them face five teams all ranked higher than them during the regular season including the #1, #3 and #4 teams in the nation.
Tabbed as a five seed they faced North Carolina Tech in their opener and knocked off the Techsters 73-61 behind a 17 point showing from senior guard Kettle Schmucker who, like Zoubek, was a backup his first three seasons. Next up was the West Regions top seed in Coastal California and the Knights won 47-45 on a game-winning shot from the right corner from Gary Holderbaum backup guard who would score just 4 points in the win.
The West Region final had a decidedly Midwest flavor as it pitted DCC against its bitter Great Lakes Alliance rival Central Ohio. The Aviators had prevailed in the two regular season meetings between the two foes but the outcome was much different this time as Zoubek scored a game high 16 points and Bergmann added 13 along with 9 boards as the Knights prevailed 64-56.
That brought DCC to New York's Bigsby Garden for the second year in a row and a national semi-final meeting with Carolina Poly, which was considered the top team in the nation. Bergmann had another big game with 14 points while guard Rusty Booker added 15 as DCC dominated the Cardinals to the tune of 60-43.
The National Championship game saw Detroit City College facing another team they knew well in Great Lakes Alliance champion Indiana A&M. The Knights actually upset the Reapers in their only regular season meeting this year but that one occurred in front of friendly fans at Detroit's Thompson Palladium. This time it was on neutral ground in New York but the result was the same as DCC led pretty much all the way and pulled out a 71-57 victory to claim back to back titles.
size="6"]COLLEGE BASKETBALL NOTES[/size]
- You have to go back to the 1910-11 season to find a team seeded lower than fifth to win the AIAA tournament. Since then, just four number five seeds have claimed the title: the current edition of Detroit City College, 1961-62 Lubbock State, 1939-40 Rainier College and 1915-16 CC Los Angeles.
- Herman Bergmann, who had a strong tournament for DCC, is expected to follow in the footsteps of former teammate Les Hoeft as the first-team All-American is tabbed as a first-round pick in the upcoming FBL draft.
- It is a family affair at Mississippi A&M as the Generals landed top five recruit Jim Mitchell. The forward out of Houston, TX is the younger brother of current Generals sophomore forward Chuck Mitchell. Like his brother, Chuck was a top five recruit a couple of years ago. He has been a two year starter at Mississippi A&M and is considered to be a highly touted FBL prospect.
- Another sophomore said to have pro potential is Tom Bowens Jr. of CC Los Angeles. The question is will that pro potential be realized on the court or the football field? The son of CCLA football coach and former AFA star Tom Bowens made the WCAA all-rookie team in basketball last season but with the added responsibility of being a starting wide receiver on his dad's team this year, the young Bowens found himself as a reserve guard on the Coyotes cage club this time around. He still got plenty of playing time off the bench, slightly exceeding last year's minutes by averaging more than 24 per game and scored at a 9.7 ppg clip but junior college transfer Ken Nagle took over as the starting shooting guard.
Next up will be the review of the 1967 baseball season.