Maybe I was hasty about the CHL?

The CHL has merged--well more like absorbed--the IHL, creating what they call a "super-league", but in reality is about the same size as the ECHL (now if the CHL and ECHL combine, THAT would be a super-league). Fort Wayne, Bloomington, and Quad City are in, Flint and Dayton are questionable, as is Port Huron--allegedly Port Huron may end up moving into Evansville's new arena, which would make things interesting as far as our fate, since previously the USHL was the top prospect for the new arena just a little ways down I-64.

All I know is that we will not be the Ice Bats

I'd been meaning to put something like this up for a while, but a commenter inspired me--off the top of my head there is no way a prospective Huntington team ends up in the following leagues:

• NHL (too big)
• both CHLs (Central and Canadian (and yes, the Canadian Major Junior system has several teams in America)), and the NAHL (all too distant)
• the AAHL (too distant, too small, and too unstable anyway)
  

So who does that leave? Well let's handicap the ones I've actually heard about:

UNITED STATES HOCKEY LEAGUE

Pros: One of the closest in proximity to Huntington, with a team in Youngstown and rumored expansion in the past to Louisville and Evansville. A big plus--as evidenced by the addition of the Muskegon Lumberjacks to the league's ranks next season--is a much better business model for smaller markets than the existing minor leagues, helped along by a shorter schedule and the fact that it's a strictly amateur league--there are no salaries in the USHL. Despite this, the quality of play in the USHL has grown significantly in the last decade, with the number of NHL draftees with experience in the league now rivaling the established Major Junior leagues.

Cons: Being a junior league may turn off some, particularly those who feel that amateur hockey would provide an inferior product. In addition, while there has been recent eastward expansion, the core of the league is still in the Central Time Zone--presently half the league resides in either Iowa or Nebraska!

SOUTHERN PROFESSIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE

Pros: Until recently, this had a similarly favorable geographic footprint, with teams in Richmond and Winston-Salem, and Roanoke has been on the shortlist of expansion candidates. While a minor-pro league, the costs have been kept down significantly compared to other leagues, and the SPHL is seen as a model for "A" level minor league hockey. An attempt had been made to enter a predecessor league in 2003-04, with former Blizzard captain Jim Bermingham--then head coach for their team in Knoxville--acting as an ambassador of sorts between investors and the league.

Cons: Again, this had a favorable footprint; however, the league simultaneously lost Richmond and Winston-Salem and gained teams in Louisiana and Mississippi, further solidifying the southernness of the league. As it stands the closest travel partner to Huntington would be Knoxville--though this may not be as major of a problem; when the aforementioned Richmond franchise started play, the league stretched all the way down to Jacksonville!

INTERNATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE

Pros: Geography helps somewhat in this league, in particular after they picked up Dayton this past offseason. Huntington had a team in the old IHL, of course, and while the current league is slightly farther westward than the 1950s-era IHL, the current footprint is still manageable. As I had mentioned not too long ago, at least one person had expressed interest in a Huntington franchise in the IHL, and thought I was apparently the most knowledgeable person about it--I'm flattered, really...

Cons: By all accounts the league is being propped up by the management of the Fort Wayne Komets; it has been plagued with instability going back to its days as the United Hockey League, and a rebranding and shedding of farther-flung teams (at one point the UHL had teams in suburban St. Louis, Binghamton, NY, and Asheville, NC!) has only served to put lipstick on the pig. The league has lost four markets to other leagues in the last three years (a fifth, the Quad Cities, left, then returned after a fiasco in the AHL), and their efforts in Dayton have been ridiculous at best.

EAST COAST HOCKEY LEAGUE ECHL

Pros: C'mon, you guys remember the ECHL! Much of the North Division remains the same or only moderately shifted, with Wheeling, Toledo, and (for another few weeks anyway) Johnstown bolstered by Cincinnati, Kalamazoo, Trenton, NJ, Reading, PA, and Elmira, NY. While the league has a western division stretching all the way up and down the Pacific Coast from Southern California to Alaska, there is no regular season cross-conference play, so it really doesn't factor in until the playoffs roll around.

Cons: Johnstown is leaving, and Wheeling has been rumored on the chopping block for a few years now. More significantly, though, is the fact that the ECHL has so far shown little, if any, interest in moving back to Huntington.

AMERICAN HOCKEY LEAGUE

Pros: I'm not stutter-typing, there has to my knowledge been at least one inquiry into putting an AHL franchise in little old Huntington! It would reunite the area with old ECHL rivals Hampton Roads Norfolk and Charlotte, coming into the league next season, as well as some decent road trips to Cleveland and Wilkes-Barre.

Cons: There is no way Huntington could sustain a team in the AHL. Period. If the BSSA sold out every night, the costs of maintaining this caliber of team would simply overwhelm the franchise in a 30-some-year-old 5000-seat arena with no boxes or any such revenue generating amenities.

FEDERAL HOCKEY LEAGUE

Pros: Closer than the AAHL, and they're looking at Johnstown, which suggests that they might be shooting a tick higher than mere "rec-rink A" minor league hockey.

Cons: I'm VERY wary--this is the fourth different league in pretty much the same footprint in four years, with few actual differences. They're courting Mr. Soskin as well (or is it the other way around), and they've run into trouble regarding a pilfered logo. Not a good start...

A note on Barry Soskin

My schadenfreude light kicked on when I read in the last couple weeks that Barry Soskin has been booted out of the North American Hockey League as owner of the Albert Lea (MN) Thunder over a pay-to-play scheme--the players' families secure roster spots and playing time for large sums of money, a gross violation of the standards set in place for top-level Jr. A hockey.

In July Mr. Soskin sent me a message, on Facebook of all places:

I am looking into Hunn hockey and would like to talk to you about the possibility of bringing back minor pro hockey. Please email me your phone number so we can chat......
Barry

I did in fact have a couple phone conversations with Barry Soskin, who was interested in putting an IHL team in Huntington... THIS year. I told him the logistics would be VERY difficult for such a short timeframe, but I thought if done properly it would be a good move, and as far as official dealings directed him to contact AJ Boleski at the BSSA.

The schadenfreude: when I mentioned the Rutherford story--the USHL rumor--he went on a long rant basically saying that the USHL wasn't worth his time because, in a nutshell, the other junior leagues--namedropping the NAHL in particular--utilized older players that could/would beat the crap out of the primarily U17 stock in the USHL.

Of course now that this has come to light it seems having a team full of bruisers may have been secondary to having a team full of money...

Picking up from yesterday

If the library had stayed open a few minutes longer I'da found my answer to the saga--Luigi Narcise, quoted in the 22 December 1959 Huntington Advertiser:

Andy (Mulligan, Toledo Mercurys GM) just waited too long and I'm going to tell him so."

Narcise and Arnold were open to hosting the March 1960 games, but as far as I can tell the Mercurys did not pick up the option. Huntington would next host a hockey game in 1966, as the NHL's impending expansion seemed certain to create an opening for Huntington. However, the games were not terribly well-attended, owing in large part to minimal promotion and one of the least inspiring lineups in the city's hockey history: back-to-back games with the top two teams in the OHA Major Intermediate A Hockey League, the Simcoe Gunners and the Port Colborne Sailors. The O is for Ontario, not Ohio--this would be the first and, as far as I can tell, only hockey game played in Huntington with no local interest whatsoever. Every other game before and since either featured a team from Huntington or someplace relatively close by.

BTW, in case anyone's wondering, Simcoe won both games, 5-4 on 23 April 1966 and 9-6 on the 24th.

Digging one tunnel, finding a new one (in more ways than one!)

The first three hockey games played at the Veterans Memorial Fieldhouse were all played with the Miami Valley Bruins in 1951. Based in Troy, OH, at that time they were an independent team; they would be rechristened the Troy Bruins for the 1951-52 season and were admitted into the IHL that season.

13 March 1951: Miami Valley Bruins 6, New York Rovers 4 (exhibition)
27 March 1951: Miami Valley Bruins 4, Hibbings Flyers 3 (OT) (semifinal of the National Independent Open Tournament; this would actually set up a rematch with the Rovers in the final of that tournament)
4 April 1951: Cleveland Barons 7, Miami Valley Bruins 3

Attendance was about 1500 for these games, and there were supposed to be more exhibition games played the next season, but so far no luck looking. (While looking this up, I noticed that there is a new incarnation of the Troy Bruins, in the UJHL independent junior league, which will be playing at Hobart Arena next season.)

Fast-forward to 1959, when the Toledo Mercurys found themselves booked out of half a season. Testing the waters in various temporary locales, they played an exhibition match against Huntington's old team, the Louisville Rebels, on 25 October (a 2-2 tie). Organized by Walter Arnold and Luigi Narcise--the same Narcise who tried to buy the Hornets a couple years earlier--they drew 2000 for the game, enough to warrant further consideration by the Mercurys.

While they unexpectedly elected to play some games in St. Louis (and this season they are referred to in the record books as the Toledo-St. Louis Mercurys), as of late December 1959 (when I stopped microfilming this afternoon), the Mercurys made an overture to Arnold and Narcise to play their February-March schedule in Huntington. As the Huntington Advertiser pointed out, however, this would have been problematic due to the coinciding Golden Gloves boxing tournament and West Virginia Catholic High School Basketball Tournament--half the dates would have to have been rescheduled.

Of most interest on my end of things, however, is--and this is not at all unexpected--Arnold and Narcise were using the Toledo match(es?) as a means to test the waters for an IHL expansion franchise in 1960-61. They had even considered buying the star-crossed Denver Mavericks team, but the combination of schedule mismatches and severe financial difficulties ultimately discouraged them (the team ultimately ended up in Minneapolis).

Help me gang--were there any other games, either with Troy or Toledo (or any other teams for that matter)? And whatever became of Arnold and Narcise's expansion efforts?

A lot going on here

I got sucked into Newspaper Archive for a while, then Christmas, marriage, and expectancy kicked in (August baby, for those keeping track). So forgive me if it's been a while since I've updated this. To make up, I'll put the exhibition games I've seen (so far) played at the Veterans Memorial Field House (no scores yet, long-overdue for a microfilm appointment):

March 11, 1951: Miami Valley Bruins vs New York Rovers (these two would become the IHL's Troy Bruins and the EHL's Long Island Ducks)

March 25, 1951: MVB vs Hibbings Flyers

April 4, 1951: MVB vs Cleveland Barons

October 25, 1959: Toledo Mercurys vs Louisville Rebels

As late as 1966 there was talk of Huntington angling for another professional hockey franchise; I'm still not sure when the ice was disabled at the Field House.

While I have the Field House on my mind, congrats to them for being the home of Huntington's latest professional sports franchise, the West Virginia Wild in the Continental Indoor Football League. They're in a division with the Wheeling Wildcats, which I imagine will confuse the hell out of the out of town writers.

Lastly, while I don't need any help getting distracted, I'm contemplating another project not too far away from the scope of this work, but at the same time significantly larger--I've opened up a Newspaper Archive folder on Huntington's urban renewal projects--the Superblock, the Civic Arena, and everything else that sprouted, that should have sprouted, and all the dram-a surrounding it. I think it might make for a good grad school project whenever I cross that bridge...