22 September 2008

Scoreboard, 22 September 2008

Time spent: 1h45
Time dug through: November-December 1938
Scores found: 1
Potential interviews: maybe if I had a time machine
Thoughts: the two best sportswriters of the 20th century, Duke Ridgeley and Ernie Salvatore, both had an affinity for hockey, and as such they have become indispensable resources in print and (Ernie anyway--Duke's been dead quite some time) in person. I'd like to not have to rely so much on one newspaper in an era when there were two newspapers to work with, but the old Herald-Dispatch seems to be the paper of record for the old Stars.

21 September 2008

Apologies for a LONG layoff

For those who may have been tracking this with any kind of regularity, or those stumbling upon here for the first time wondering "well why hasn't this bugger updated?"--as tends to happen, the rest of my life decided to come beckoning. Only recently, with a promotion (and thus a more regular schedule), have I been able to even start thinking about getting back on this train, and it will probably involve me more or less starting over, from the beginning, from semi-scratch. I'll take what I have so far, but I need a clean slate (looking back I'm realizing I said the exact same thing about 9 months ago).

This means I will definitely be starting at 1938 in Huntington. I've got my basic timeline, with numerous gaps to fill:

1938: Iceland Arena opens, Stars begin playing
1941: Dick Deutsch takes over Iceland, replaces the ice surface with a year-round wood floor, renames it Arena Gardens. Marshall makes it their home, but the lack of ice knocks out ice hockey in the city
1945: Arena Gardens burns down
1947: Marshall wins NAIB championship, inspiring construction of...
1950: Veterans Memorial Field House, with an ice plant
1955: Grand Rapids Rockets, due to either poor attendance or arena issues, set up shop in Huntington as the Hornets; caretaker ownership wastes no time in trying to move the team to Evansville
1956: after two failed takeover attempts the team moves to Louisville
somewhere between 1956 and 1990: the ice plant at the Field House is removed
1977: Huntington Civic Center built
1992: discussions begin about installing ice plant at Civic Center for an ECHL expansion franchise
1993: Huntington Blizzard begin play
1994: Tri-State Ice Arena closes
1995: Blizzard ownership swap #1
1999: Blizzard ownership swap #2
2000: Blizzard close shop
2005: Tri-State Ice Arena closes