Skip to main content

Broome Dusters (1979-80, AHL)

These programs are from the final season of the Broome Dusters. They are also the thickest programs I have of that franchise.


1979-80 Regular Season--Dusters vs. Hershey Bears
    Another season, another new coach and GM. This time, Pat Kelly was behind the bench to start the year, but after an 8-19-3 record, was canned in favor of Dave Forbes. Jacques Caron was the new GM. The team had two new NHL affiliates, as Boston and Los Angeles aligned with Binghamton.
     This season's Dusters fell right back to the Southern Division cellar. Their woeful 24-49-7 was the worst in the AHL, 11 points behind Rochester. Naturally, this team had problems putting the puck in and keeping it out. On offense, the Dusters scored an anemic 268 goals, second worst in the league. Tom Songin led the team in points with only 63. Gary Burns was the only player to score 30, but four others scored over 20. 
     On defense, Binghamton allowed 334 goals, second-worst in the league. Once again, the team used six different goaltenders. Lorne Molleken played the lions-share of games that season. In 31 appearances, Molleken had a 9-18-2 record with a reasonable 3.85 GAA. Yves Belanger got into 25 games, sporting a 7-13-1 mark with a 4.27 GAA.
     Finishing in the league cellar after an exciting playoff run did not help with attendance. The numbers continued to decline after Year One, as the Dusters drew 3,329 per game, seventh in the AHL. 

     Of the three seasons, this is the largest Dusters program I have. It has 48 pages, mostly black-and-white pictures but a few color ads. There are a couple articles, but no player insert like Year One. I recognized a few players on the Dusters roster. Craig MacTavish went on to win five Stanley Cups with the Edmonton Oilers. Lorne Molleken would eventually play for the IHL's Toledo Goaldiggers, then later coach in the NHL with Chicago. Hershey's roster features goaltenders Rollie Boutin (formerly of the IHL Port Huron Flags) and Dave Parro (later with the IHL's Flint Spirits). Coach Gary Green would eventually be called up to the Washington Capitals. In the program below, Syracuse featured Ron Low in goal, who played in the NHL for several teams, including Detroit. Gordie Brooks played for the Saginaw Gears.
     
   
1979-80 Regular Season--Dusters vs. Syracuse Firebirds
Aftermath:
While the Broome Dusters were generally a bottom-feeder in their 3-year AHL existence, hockey wasn't dead in Binghamton. The franchise became the primary affiliate of the Hartford Whalers and changed names to "Binghamton Whalers". The Whalers would make the Calder Cup Finals in 1981-82, but lost to New Brunswick in five games. 
     In 1990-91, the Whalers switched parent clubs again. This time they were aligned with the New York Rangers, and thus became the Binghamton Rangers. The Rangers stuck around through the 1996-97 season. Despite averaging over 4,000 per game the past three seasons, New York relocated the franchise to Hartford, Connecticut. The franchise still exists as the Hartford Wolfpack.
     Binghamton would join the United Hockey League. The BC Icemen would exist for five seasons, but the crowds did not respond as strongly to them as they did to the Dusters/Whalers/Rangers franchise. In 2002, the AHL returned in the form of the Binghamton Senators, which exist to this day.


Sources:
Broome Dusters programs
Broome Dusters Statistics, at HockeyDB.com

Comments

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

Fort Wayne Komets (1967-68, IHL)

1967-68 Regular Season--Komets vs. Des Moines Oak Leafs      1967-68 was the sixteenth season of Fort Wayne Komets hockey, all in the IHL. The team was coached by Ken Ullyot, who had been with the franchise since 1958. The Komets played      Having lost to Toledo in the 1967 Turner Cup Finals, the Komets slipped to fourth place in '67-68. While Muskegon ran away with first place, the battle for the second-fifth slots was hotly contested. Fort Wayne finished 30-29-13, their 73 points one ahead of Toledo and just five behind second place Dayton.      The Komets were also in fourth place in offense, scoring 282 times that year. Fort Wayne legend Len Thornson led the team with 38 goals and 97 points. Three others, Bob Baird, Randy Gates and Merv Dubchak, joined Thornson in the 30+ goal club. Three others scored at least 20 goals.      The Komets had the second-best defense in the IHL that season, allowing just 272 goals. Fort Wayne used three different goaltenders that year. Rob

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