Soviet Tour of the Eastern Hockey League December 1963.

In December 2020, I posted to our EHL Facebook group day-by-day newspaper articles from the home cities of a 6-city Soviet Tour of the Eastern Hockey League (EHL) which occurred 57 years earlier in December 1963. The dates listed are the newspaper dates, so the games were the prior day. There is a lot of prelim, so if you want to read just about the games, then start at "Day 21".

Nashville Dixie Flyers Norm Ryder Checks Russian Veniamin Alexandrov, Dec 25, 1963
from The Tennessean Dec 26, 1963

The results of the series were:
Dec 17, 1963 Soviets 12 at Greensboro Generals 3
Dec 18, 1963 Soviets 6 at Charlotte Checkers 3
Dec 20, 1963 Soviets 12 at Philadelphia Ramblers 2
Dec 21, 1963 Soviets 9 at Johnstown Jets 6
Dec 22, 1963 Soviets 4 at Knoxville Knights 4
Dec 25, 1963 Soviets 4 at Nashville Dixie Flyers 1

The following month, January 1964 a team of EHL All-Stars made a tour of Russia. The next blog will cover those articles.

Day 1: Jan-Oct 1963 Articles

https://www.facebook.com/groups/129103506589/posts/10158524553381590/

Day 2: Nov 1963 Articles

https://www.facebook.com/groups/129103506589/posts/10158526217861590/

Day 3: Nov 30, 1963

https://www.facebook.com/groups/129103506589/posts/10158528977301590/

Day 4: Dec 1, 1963

https://www.facebook.com/groups/129103506589/posts/10158530879856590/

Day 5: Dec 2, 1963

https://www.facebook.com/groups/129103506589/posts/10158533177591590/

Day 6: Dec 3, 1963

https://www.facebook.com/groups/129103506589/posts/10158535228551590/

Day 7: Dec 4, 1963

https://www.facebook.com/groups/129103506589/posts/10158537423096590/

Day 8: Dec 5, 1963

https://www.facebook.com/groups/129103506589/posts/10158539289671590/

Day 9: Dec 6, 1963

https://www.facebook.com/groups/129103506589/posts/10158541334596590/

Day 10: Dec 7, 1963

https://www.facebook.com/groups/129103506589/posts/10158544634771590/

Day 11: Dec 8, 1963

https://www.facebook.com/groups/129103506589/posts/10158546540086590/

Day 12: Dec 9, 1963

https://www.facebook.com/groups/129103506589/posts/10158548825161590/

Day 13: Dec 10, 1963

https://www.facebook.com/groups/129103506589/posts/10158551280051590/

Day 14: Dec 11, 1963

https://www.facebook.com/groups/129103506589/posts/10158553663111590/

Day 15: Dec 12, 1963

https://www.facebook.com/groups/129103506589/posts/10158554959536590/

Day 16: Dec 13, 1963

https://www.facebook.com/groups/129103506589/posts/10158556980381590/

Day 17: Dec 14, 1963

https://www.facebook.com/groups/129103506589/posts/10158560286961590/

Day 18: Dec 15, 1963

https://www.facebook.com/groups/129103506589/posts/10158562409151590/

Day 19: Dec 16, 1963

https://www.facebook.com/groups/129103506589/posts/10158564438231590/

Day 20: Dec 17, 1963

https://www.facebook.com/groups/129103506589/posts/10158566805091590/

Day 21: Dec 18, 1963 Soviets 12 at Greensboro Generals 3

https://www.facebook.com/groups/129103506589/posts/10158568959571590/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/129103506589/posts/10158569034546590/

Day 22: Dec 19, 1963 Soviets 6 at Charlotte Checkers 3

https://www.facebook.com/groups/129103506589/posts/10158569910361590/

Day 23: Dec 20, 1963

https://www.facebook.com/groups/129103506589/posts/10158572334226590/

Day 24: Dec 21, 1963 Soviets 12 at Philadelphia Ramblers 2

https://www.facebook.com/groups/129103506589/posts/10158575875081590/

Day 25: Dec 22, 1963 Soviets 9 at Johnstown Jets 6

https://www.facebook.com/groups/129103506589/posts/10158577647436590/

Day 26: Dec 23, 1963 Soviets 4 at Knoxville Knights 4

https://www.facebook.com/groups/129103506589/posts/10158579720671590/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/129103506589/posts/10158587704496590/

Day 27: Dec 24, 1963

https://www.facebook.com/groups/129103506589/posts/10158581601911590/

Day 28: Dec 25, 1963

https://www.facebook.com/groups/129103506589/posts/10158584401831590/

Day 29: Dec 26, 1963 Soviets 4 at Nashville Dixie Flyers 1

https://www.facebook.com/groups/129103506589/posts/10158586640681590/

Day 30: Dec 27-31, 1963 Soviets 5 U of Denver 0, Soviets 6 U of Denver 3

https://www.facebook.com/groups/129103506589/posts/10158587701176590/


As I've stated elsewhere, once the EHL Facebook group got going (Currently 3300+ members and growing), there's not a whole lot of need to "blog", since I usually do continuous posting there. But sometimes like this the blog format is a lot cleaner than trying to search Facebook.

Enjoy!
Tom Telaar
TheEHL.com

Eastern Hockey League News - December 2011

Here's your Eastern Hockey League News for December 2011...

Here's a proposed "AA" hockey league with Johnstown, Greensboro & Roanoke on its "wish-list". Chuck Harrison from Johnstown, educated in hockey by EHL GM Ray Myron, is the commissioner.
http://www.nphlhockey.com/home/2011/11/24/nphl-releases-team-wish-list.html

Toot Cahoun of the 1972-73 New England Blades is coach at UMass. Check out item 4 in the Bakers Dozen below...
http://blog.masslive.com/umass-hockey/2011/12/umass_hockey_a_bakers_dozen_of_thoughts_for_the_week_1.html

Scott Osbourne created "Gold Record" a DVD on the history of hockey in Nashville, with a great section on the EHL Nashville Dixie Flyers. The second half of this interview is Scott discussion how the project came together...
http://www.section303.com/the-30330-on-location-in-st-louis-the-gold-record-doc-a-visit-with-chet-pickard-14190

Salem Rebels mention by Dave Schultz...
http://www.trentonian.com/articles/2011/12/28/sports/doc4efbcf1b36d31919284492.txt?viewmode=fullstory

Wally Sprange - Nashville Dixie Flyers

I was looking for a shot of the Nashville Dixie Flyers "pegasus" uniforms and came across this blog from Lowetide (an Edmonton Oilers based blog) on Wally Sprange. Jackpot on the photo, eh? As I recall, the one time I saw Sprange and the Dixie Flyers in the 1969-71 timeframe, they had "NASHVILLE" written across the front of their purple jerseys. I still haven't found a photo confirming that jersey.

The most memorable part of that game was Nashville scoring a goal in the second period against Jersey goalie Gilles Banville. The goal was insignificant in the big scheme of things, until they announced the shots for the period: Jersey 10, Nashville 1. I hope to track down the boxscore on that next time I'm back in Jersey.

I did see Nashville's purple pants one more time, on October 7, 1972, when the Suncoast Suns played their first game ever, a 7-1 exhibition victory over the Jersey Devils at Cherry Hill Arena. The game was a fundraser for the South Jersey Minor Hockey Association, which I played in that year - possibly the worst player in the league. Apparently, the Suns pants hadn't arrived, yet. So, they used the old purple Nashville pants. Imagine the green Suncoast jerseys with orange and yellow trim with green, orange and yellow stockings (see http://SuncoastSuns.com) and purple pants. It was one of my favorite hockey uniforms of all time.

Sprange won the John Carlin Trophy as EHL leading scorer in 1970-71 with 45 goals and 89 assists for 134 points. Nashville folded at the end of that season, and the players were bought by Greensboro. The Generals kept the players they wanted, including Sprange, from their team and the ex-Dixie Flyers and sold the rest to the new Suncoast franchise. Sprange was a second team All-Star with Greensboro in the EHL's last season of 1972-73 season, with 40 goals and 92 assists for 132 points.

Wally Sprange Links:
http://www.hockeydb.com/ihdb/stats/pdisplay.php?pid=10326

What is a Dixie Flyer?

I used to roll my eyes at the name Nashville Dixie Flyers. Like "Solar Bears", "Sound Tigers", "Ice Bats" (or Ice Anything), or River Blades (or Anything Blades), Dixie Flyers always sounded like a forced pairing of two words that don't go together. I had assumed it was just a southernization of the name "Flyers". The fact that the Dixie Flyers were named in 1962, five years before the Philadelphia Flyers came into existence never quite dawned on me.

Even the Hockey News was confused on this point. If one looks back they'll find in some papers "-10" after the Nashville in the EHL standings, meaning that the Hockey News thought they were affiliated with the Philadelphia Flyers. To my knowledge the two teams never had a working agreement.

 As it turns out, the Dixie Flyer was a passenger train that originally went from Nashville to Jacksonville (very EHL) in 1890. It's route was later extended from Chicago to Miami. Its last run was in September of 1965, in the middle of the Nashville Dixie Flyers' existence.

The only place I know of that Nashville used the Dixie Flyer train as part of the logo was on the original 1962-63 program covers.

Suncoast Suns/ Jacksonvile Rockets articles online

I was just thinking last week that I needed a southern division newspaper source to help balance my perspective as I unearth the Eastern Hockey League. In my hobby as a hockey paleontologist I have a few sources for EHL articles to sift through...
* The NY Times, I can search online through my library. You can get the headlines and possibly first paragraph at...http://query.nytimes.com/search/query?srchst=p
* The Worcester Public Library has the Worcester Telegram for the 1954-55 season on microfilm. I spent a day getting all of the Worcester Warriors articles for that year. As I was leaving I realized they also have the evening paper, so a return visit is in order.
* The Washington Times, I can see online at http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost_historical/advancedsearch.html the headlines and maybe a brief blurb of the article. Then I can go up to Dartmouth library and find the articles on microfilm. This is good source for the 1950s when the Lions and Presidents played there.
* For a very reasonable fee http://NewspaperArchive.com has lots of papers from around the country, including the Syracuse papers, which are my best source at home. The Oneonta Star, Chester Times and Bridgeport CT papers have somewhat regular articles on the Comets, Ramblers and Blades respectively. There's also AP and UPI stories and scores in other papers.
* On my visits to Jersey, I check out the Camden Courier Post and Woodbury Times on microfilm for Devils articles.

The problem with most of these sources, along with mostly being northern papers, is that there is no way for you to see the articles.

So it was with great joy this morning that I discovered that the St. Petersburg Times and Evening Independent from the EHL era are searchable and viewable free of charge on-line via:

http://news.google.com/archivesearch
(The advanced search, and using timeline will help.)

Those papers covered the Suncoast Suns and prior to that the Jacksonville Rockets / Florida Rockets who also played some games at the Bayfront Center in St. Pete. They actually had some pretty good coverage. They usually have a picture with most articles, though some are blurred beyond recognition.

...and the best part is that for once, everyone can see the articles. So, especially if you are a fan of the Charlotte Checkers, Greensboro Generals, Nashville Dixie Flyers, Salem Rebels / Roanoke Valley Rebels, Knoxville Knights or particularly the Jacksonville Rockets or Suncoast Suns, enjoy!