Skip to main content

Saginaw Gears (IHL, 1972-73)

1972-73 Regular Season
Opening Night
Gears vs. Des Moines Capitols
     Professional hockey came to Mid-Michigan in 1972 with the arrival of the Saginaw Gears of the International Hockey League. The Gears were an expansion franchise awarded to North Stars executive Wren Blair, and played their home games at the new Wendler Arena, part of the Saginaw Civic Center complex. The team was named after the Saginaw Steering Gear plant, located in Buena Vista on M46, and was a nod to the city's auto industry ties. Blair's choice as head coach was Don Perry, formerly of the Eastern Hockey League. Thanks to Blair's ties to the Minnesota North Stars, the Gears would be a secondary affiliate of that NHL team.
     The Gears would take the ice in turqoise and tangerine jerseys featuring the "toothed G" logo you see on the program. Their first regular season game was in Port Huron. Despite a hat trick by forward Juri Kudrasovs, Saginaw fell, 5-4, to the defending champion Port Huron Wings.
     The Gears went through the usual struggles for an expansion team, and brought up the rear in the North Division, with a 30-41-3. Their modest 63 points would have tied the Des Moines Capitols for the final playoff spot in the South Division, but were 14 behind third place Toledo and 29 behind the first place Flint Generals.
     Saginaw didn't seem to have a problem putting the puck in the net that season. The Gears popped in 305 goals, fourth-most in the IHL. Leading the way was right winger Dennis Desrosiers, the team's first-ever signing. All "Rosie" did in Year One was set the city record for most goals in a season, with an even 60. His record would last until 1996-97, when Mark Green of the UHL Lumber Kings shattered it. Desrosiers' 97 points also led the way. He also had a certified mean streak, racking up 186 penalty minutes, and quickly became a fan favorite in the Tri-Cities. Kudrasovs, Dennis Romanesky and 1972 US Olympian Stu Irving were the other Gears with 30+ goals. Three others had at least 20 goals, including North Stars prospect Marcel Comeau, who would remain in Saginaw for the entire existence of the Gears franchise.
     Defense was a bit of an issue in 1973, as Saginaw allowed 304 goals, third-most in
1972-73 Regular Season
Gears vs. Columbus Golden Seals
the IHL. The Gears used four different netminders that year. Cal Hammond was in net for 40 games, with a 4.03 GAA. Ray Belanger, Ray Gibbs and Brad Hollister were used as backups. Belanger played the second-most games, with 19 in the Gears' net.
     No playoffs for the Gears in their inaugural season. In fact, the only time the team missed the postseason would be the first and final years of the franchise. However, Blair was able to build the core of the franchise's future success, with players such as Desrosiers, Irving and Comeau. Coach Perry would remain behind the bench through 1981, a level of stability not often seen in the minor-pro circuit. Plus, the community slowly warmed up to the team, as attendance steadily increased throughout the year. The Gears would eventually become arguably the most beloved pro sports team the region has ever had.
     Of these two programs, the first one I found online was the Gears-Capitols program. This was from opening night in 1972, the first regular season home game in franchise history. Since there wasn't any home games to take pictures of, most of the action photos are from training camp at Wendler Arena. Page 10 has the seating layout for the arena, with ticket prices listed from $2.25 to $4.25. Owner Wren Blair has his own bio on page 4, and an article declaring Saginaw "the winner" for getting into pro hockey is on page 32. Several articles throughout the program are used to educate the crowd, including what offside is, the types of penalties, even where hockey players come from. In the Seals program, Gordie Mefford, the head of minor officials for the Gears, has an article by Len Boers. Mefford would stick around not only through the Gears' entire 11-year run, but also the Generals/Hawks franchise in the mid-late 1980s. Featured on the Seals program is Mike Hornby, who scored the first goal in franchise history.
     As with all programs, these two are loaded with advertisements. The local ads include Garber Pontiac Cadillac, Larry's Lounge, First State Bank of Saginaw, WEYI TV 25 (then a CBS affiliate), the Frankenmuth Bavarian Inn and Pioneer Sugar. Since Since Saginaw was still a major part of the auto industry, car ads were featured here too. Those include the 1973 Chevrolet Chevelle Laguna, a full-page ad featuring General Motors' adjustable wheel, and the 1973 VW Beetle.

Note: For a great, in-depth history of the Saginaw Gears, check out SaginawGears.com, created by Wes Oleszewski, the son of the Gears' Zamboni driver. 
References:
IHL Statistics: 1972-73 (from hockeydb.com)
1972-73 Saginaw Gears Souvenir Programs
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

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
Post a Comment
Read more

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
Post a Comment
Read more

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
Post a Comment
Read more