Still Whaling After All These Years
By Harrison Golden
WTNH SportzEdge
April 14, 2014
Roughly 15,000 people draped themselves in green, chanting “Please don’t go! Please don’t go!” against an amplified rendition of “Brass Bonanza.” Their eyes shuddered at the jumbotron clock. It was April 13, 1997 at the Hartford Civic Center, and the Hartford Whalers faithful were counting down their team’s final minutes in the city.
The Whalers’ departure seemed so abrupt. Compuware CEO Peter Karmanos, who bought the team in 1995, announced the move that March, just a month before the season ended. The owner cited poor revenue and plummeting attendance as reason for his urgency.
His other reasons for relocating included the small, 15,000-seat arena the team called home and the proximity of four NHL clubs: the New York Rangers, New York Islanders, New Jersey Devils and Boston Bruins. Hartford, he believed, simply could not compete. Gov. John Rowland, unsuccessfully proposing the New England Patriots move to Connecticut, did not stop Karmanos. With that, the NHL’s presence in the city of 120,000 would dissolve.
Time ran down, and the arena silenced. The Whalers, thanks to captain Kevin Dineen’s goal, beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 2-1. Hartford’s team left its post as winners, and slews of attendees flocked home to pin their ticket stubs to their living room walls. The Hartford Civic Center, now called the XL Center, became a shrine for the departed club, featuring plaques, banners and photographs.
“The Whalers are still ours, our city, our identity,” said filmmaker Kevin Massicotte, an East Hartford native who watched the final game from his University of Connecticut dormitory. His 20-minute documentary made in 2008, “Bleeding Green,” documents fans still passionate for their team. “Since that final game, everybody enjoys talking about not just about the Whalers, but the people they were when the Whalers were here.”
Support for the Whalers remains vibrant in and around New England. Last November, the Connecticut State Lottery issued a Whalers-themed $3 scratch-off game, featuring prizes up to $30,000. Apparel bearing the team logo sells higher than gear representing most active NHL teams. A Facebook page commemorating the Whalers has over 50,000 likes. Notable people who have sported team merchandise include Adam Sandler, 50 Cent and Megan Fox.
Today’s Whalers appeal lies largely in its symbolism, that of a small-market team which, smack between noisy New York and Boston, found community. The fact that the 14 of the team’s 17 NHL seasons ended with losing records matters little to admirers.
Sunday marked 17 years since the Whalers joined The Hartford Times, G. Fox & Co. department stores and Hartford National Bank as part of city past. The team, which joined the NHL in 1979, has now spent as much time in Raleigh, N.C. — as the Carolina Hurricanes — as it did under the Hartford moniker.
By Harrison Golden
WTNH SportzEdge
April 14, 2014
Roughly 15,000 people draped themselves in green, chanting “Please don’t go! Please don’t go!” against an amplified rendition of “Brass Bonanza.” Their eyes shuddered at the jumbotron clock. It was April 13, 1997 at the Hartford Civic Center, and the Hartford Whalers faithful were counting down their team’s final minutes in the city.
The Whalers’ departure seemed so abrupt. Compuware CEO Peter Karmanos, who bought the team in 1995, announced the move that March, just a month before the season ended. The owner cited poor revenue and plummeting attendance as reason for his urgency.
His other reasons for relocating included the small, 15,000-seat arena the team called home and the proximity of four NHL clubs: the New York Rangers, New York Islanders, New Jersey Devils and Boston Bruins. Hartford, he believed, simply could not compete. Gov. John Rowland, unsuccessfully proposing the New England Patriots move to Connecticut, did not stop Karmanos. With that, the NHL’s presence in the city of 120,000 would dissolve.
Time ran down, and the arena silenced. The Whalers, thanks to captain Kevin Dineen’s goal, beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 2-1. Hartford’s team left its post as winners, and slews of attendees flocked home to pin their ticket stubs to their living room walls. The Hartford Civic Center, now called the XL Center, became a shrine for the departed club, featuring plaques, banners and photographs.
“The Whalers are still ours, our city, our identity,” said filmmaker Kevin Massicotte, an East Hartford native who watched the final game from his University of Connecticut dormitory. His 20-minute documentary made in 2008, “Bleeding Green,” documents fans still passionate for their team. “Since that final game, everybody enjoys talking about not just about the Whalers, but the people they were when the Whalers were here.”
Support for the Whalers remains vibrant in and around New England. Last November, the Connecticut State Lottery issued a Whalers-themed $3 scratch-off game, featuring prizes up to $30,000. Apparel bearing the team logo sells higher than gear representing most active NHL teams. A Facebook page commemorating the Whalers has over 50,000 likes. Notable people who have sported team merchandise include Adam Sandler, 50 Cent and Megan Fox.
Today’s Whalers appeal lies largely in its symbolism, that of a small-market team which, smack between noisy New York and Boston, found community. The fact that the 14 of the team’s 17 NHL seasons ended with losing records matters little to admirers.
Sunday marked 17 years since the Whalers joined The Hartford Times, G. Fox & Co. department stores and Hartford National Bank as part of city past. The team, which joined the NHL in 1979, has now spent as much time in Raleigh, N.C. — as the Carolina Hurricanes — as it did under the Hartford moniker.
To observe what the Hartford Whalers Booster Club calls a “Fanniversary,” two dozen fans convened Sunday afternoon at the Black Bear Saloon in downtown Hartford. Across a pair of dining tables, they pored over Whalers relics, including programs, ticket stubs and autographs. They re-watched that final game, recalling local memories the team left them.
“I’m happy with the turnout,” said Al Victor, former president and current treasurer of the Booster Club. His prized possessions include a wooden Whalers plaque from the since-demolished Montreal Forum and a carpet the team used during a promotional puck-shooting contest. “It was nice to see members still enthusiastic about our team.”
The Booster Club formed in 1974, when the then-New England Whalers of the World Hockey Association moved to Hartford. Victor and company worked closely with the team office, mailing tickets and distributing promotional flyers to stir support.
After the Whalers left, the organization continued the team’s philanthropic efforts. The group, in the team’s vain, often donates to Connecticut Children’s Medical Center and Prevent Blindness Connecticut. Thanks to a $30,000 endowment, the group maintains an annual scholarship for college-bound Connecticut hockey players. The fans also march each year in Hartford’s St. Patrick’s Day parade, often to loud cheers.
“We vowed to support the causes the Whalers were devoted to,” Victor said. “That means putting ourselves out there.”
Last month’s parade went no less unconventionally. Roughly 20 club members — one of them college student Seth Dussault, dressed as mascot Pucky the Whale — marched downtown alongside not a float, but a blue Subaru Forester with green and white streamers. The vehicle belonged to club president Joanne Cortesa.
“It looked great,” Cortesa told the Boston Globe. “When the kids saw Pucky, they went ballistic!’’
Though much support comes from organized groups like the Booster Club, other Whalers devotees have emerged more sporadically. This past Jan. 4, Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, N.Y., located 120 miles from Hartford, was the site of one such gathering. Fans in green sweaters traveled some two hours to watch the Carolina Hurricanes face the New York Islanders.
They chanted about Hartford and waved green and blue flags. Some shared rare bonding moments with stray fans of the Whalers’ old rivals, the Quebec Nordiques, which relocated to become the Colorado Avalanche in 1995. The Hurricanes ultimately took the game 3-2, but Hartford supporters cared little for who won. They simply came to cheer for Hurricanes defenseman Ron Hainsey, raised a Whalers fan in Bolton, and goaltender Jean-Sebastien Giguere, the last active former Whaler.
Last March, a couple wed in a sea of Whalers colors. At the Gardner Veterans Arena in Worcester County, Mass., team fans Katie Murphy and Sean Dwyer took their vows on an ice rink, with a referee officiating and a beer man offering refreshments. Dwyer dressed in a green and white tuxedo; Murphy wore a white dress donning the Whalers logo. The groomsmen wore team jerseys, while the bridesmaids sported blue. Foam fingers substituted for flowers, and “Brass Bonanza” welcomed the newlyweds. This was the couple’s dream wedding.
“It was her idea,” Dwyer told Yahoo Sports. “I joke with everyone that this was her way to get me to commit.”
***
“I’m happy with the turnout,” said Al Victor, former president and current treasurer of the Booster Club. His prized possessions include a wooden Whalers plaque from the since-demolished Montreal Forum and a carpet the team used during a promotional puck-shooting contest. “It was nice to see members still enthusiastic about our team.”
The Booster Club formed in 1974, when the then-New England Whalers of the World Hockey Association moved to Hartford. Victor and company worked closely with the team office, mailing tickets and distributing promotional flyers to stir support.
After the Whalers left, the organization continued the team’s philanthropic efforts. The group, in the team’s vain, often donates to Connecticut Children’s Medical Center and Prevent Blindness Connecticut. Thanks to a $30,000 endowment, the group maintains an annual scholarship for college-bound Connecticut hockey players. The fans also march each year in Hartford’s St. Patrick’s Day parade, often to loud cheers.
“We vowed to support the causes the Whalers were devoted to,” Victor said. “That means putting ourselves out there.”
Last month’s parade went no less unconventionally. Roughly 20 club members — one of them college student Seth Dussault, dressed as mascot Pucky the Whale — marched downtown alongside not a float, but a blue Subaru Forester with green and white streamers. The vehicle belonged to club president Joanne Cortesa.
“It looked great,” Cortesa told the Boston Globe. “When the kids saw Pucky, they went ballistic!’’
Though much support comes from organized groups like the Booster Club, other Whalers devotees have emerged more sporadically. This past Jan. 4, Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, N.Y., located 120 miles from Hartford, was the site of one such gathering. Fans in green sweaters traveled some two hours to watch the Carolina Hurricanes face the New York Islanders.
They chanted about Hartford and waved green and blue flags. Some shared rare bonding moments with stray fans of the Whalers’ old rivals, the Quebec Nordiques, which relocated to become the Colorado Avalanche in 1995. The Hurricanes ultimately took the game 3-2, but Hartford supporters cared little for who won. They simply came to cheer for Hurricanes defenseman Ron Hainsey, raised a Whalers fan in Bolton, and goaltender Jean-Sebastien Giguere, the last active former Whaler.
Last March, a couple wed in a sea of Whalers colors. At the Gardner Veterans Arena in Worcester County, Mass., team fans Katie Murphy and Sean Dwyer took their vows on an ice rink, with a referee officiating and a beer man offering refreshments. Dwyer dressed in a green and white tuxedo; Murphy wore a white dress donning the Whalers logo. The groomsmen wore team jerseys, while the bridesmaids sported blue. Foam fingers substituted for flowers, and “Brass Bonanza” welcomed the newlyweds. This was the couple’s dream wedding.
“It was her idea,” Dwyer told Yahoo Sports. “I joke with everyone that this was her way to get me to commit.”
***
Ever since the Whalers left Hartford, minor professional hockey clubs across Connecticut have tried supplementing the team’s absence. The American Hockey League’s Hartford Wolf Pack was the first such effort, moving into the XL Center six months after its prior tenants left.
That team, an owned-and-operated affiliate of the New York Rangers, has garnered its share of attention, even victory. The Wolf Pack won its first — and so far, only — league championship in 2000. The closest the Hartford Whalers came to anything similar was in 1992, when they got to Game 7 of the second playoff round and lost in double overtime.
But Hartford’s AHL club has not won much praise from Whalers loyalists. The Wolf Pack tried appeasing fans in 2010, when its front office hired former Whalers owner Howard Baldwin to rebuild the team. Baldwin’s first move was to rename the organization the Connecticut Whale and return green and blue to the XL Center. The change helped season ticket sales jump 36 percent, but crowds could not keep up. With a low average of 5,000 attendees per game, the Whale reverted to the Wolf Pack in 2013.
Danbury is housing the state’s most recent hockey revival. In 2010, the Danbury Whalers joined the minor-league Federal Hockey League with help from two former Hartford Whalers employees: Herm Sorcher, who used to work the Hartford Civic Center ticket booth, and Mike Barnes, son of Whalers founder William E. Barnes.
“We try to pay tribute to the [Hartford] Whalers with each game,” Sorcher said. “It’s a history we are very proud of.”
Victor, the Booster Club’s treasurer, remembers when Sorcher first considered bringing a hockey team to Danbury in 2010. The team owner called the organization, asking permission to revive the Whalers name and colors, along with the “Brass Bonanza.” Victor honored Sorcher’s proposal, and the Booster Club has frequented Danbury Whalers games ever since.
That team, an owned-and-operated affiliate of the New York Rangers, has garnered its share of attention, even victory. The Wolf Pack won its first — and so far, only — league championship in 2000. The closest the Hartford Whalers came to anything similar was in 1992, when they got to Game 7 of the second playoff round and lost in double overtime.
But Hartford’s AHL club has not won much praise from Whalers loyalists. The Wolf Pack tried appeasing fans in 2010, when its front office hired former Whalers owner Howard Baldwin to rebuild the team. Baldwin’s first move was to rename the organization the Connecticut Whale and return green and blue to the XL Center. The change helped season ticket sales jump 36 percent, but crowds could not keep up. With a low average of 5,000 attendees per game, the Whale reverted to the Wolf Pack in 2013.
Danbury is housing the state’s most recent hockey revival. In 2010, the Danbury Whalers joined the minor-league Federal Hockey League with help from two former Hartford Whalers employees: Herm Sorcher, who used to work the Hartford Civic Center ticket booth, and Mike Barnes, son of Whalers founder William E. Barnes.
“We try to pay tribute to the [Hartford] Whalers with each game,” Sorcher said. “It’s a history we are very proud of.”
Victor, the Booster Club’s treasurer, remembers when Sorcher first considered bringing a hockey team to Danbury in 2010. The team owner called the organization, asking permission to revive the Whalers name and colors, along with the “Brass Bonanza.” Victor honored Sorcher’s proposal, and the Booster Club has frequented Danbury Whalers games ever since.
The Danbury Whalers and the Booster Club — and for a brief time, the Connecticut Whale — share a universal hope: returning the NHL to Hartford. That dream faces multiple obstacles, including an aging XL Center. Gov. Dannel Malloy has backed $35 million renovations to the arena, aiming to meet the University of Connecticut’s growing athletic audience and simultaneously lure a major franchise to the state.
“I have encouraged at least two groups who have expressed interest in acquiring a team to do so.” Malloy said at a December press conference. “We would be active participants should they acquire a team and win the rights to move the team.”
Victor believes Hartford, while not a larger market like Seattle, Quebec City or Kansas City, is a practical choice for a team looking for a new lease. The New York Islanders, whose current lease expires in 2015, comes to mind, particularly since Connecticut would not be a faraway move. Though relocating to Hartford would require the Islanders to back out of the 25-year lease signed in Oct. 2012 with Brooklyn, N.Y.’s Barclays Center.
“I’m not convinced Brooklyn would be the Islanders’ best fit,” said Victor. “It makes total sense to bring them to Hartford.”
He noted that NHL salary caps, established in 2005, has made smaller-market teams more competitive in a way the Hartford Whalers, under the old rules, were not. The ability of a team to occupy Hartford and thrive in it, Victor believes, has never been better.
“So many factors point to moving a team here,” he added. “Being closer than ever, we’re not giving up now.”
(This article first appeared on WTNH SportzEdge. Click here to read the original post.)
“I have encouraged at least two groups who have expressed interest in acquiring a team to do so.” Malloy said at a December press conference. “We would be active participants should they acquire a team and win the rights to move the team.”
Victor believes Hartford, while not a larger market like Seattle, Quebec City or Kansas City, is a practical choice for a team looking for a new lease. The New York Islanders, whose current lease expires in 2015, comes to mind, particularly since Connecticut would not be a faraway move. Though relocating to Hartford would require the Islanders to back out of the 25-year lease signed in Oct. 2012 with Brooklyn, N.Y.’s Barclays Center.
“I’m not convinced Brooklyn would be the Islanders’ best fit,” said Victor. “It makes total sense to bring them to Hartford.”
He noted that NHL salary caps, established in 2005, has made smaller-market teams more competitive in a way the Hartford Whalers, under the old rules, were not. The ability of a team to occupy Hartford and thrive in it, Victor believes, has never been better.
“So many factors point to moving a team here,” he added. “Being closer than ever, we’re not giving up now.”
(This article first appeared on WTNH SportzEdge. Click here to read the original post.)