Washington Generals Unveil Logos, Uniforms

The Washington Generals unveiled their new look for the upcoming 1974-75 season on August 4, 1974. The primary mark is meant to resemble the logo appearing on US Army vehicles while the alternate logo features five stars to represent a five-star generals badge, and a pentagon shape in the center of the stars to represent the Pentagon, the US Military headquarters. Within the pentagon is a stylized "W" which pays homage to several Washington landmarks including the White House and the Washington Monument. The colors are Olive Green and Gold. "We really wanted to pay tribute to our brave soldiers who fought and continue to fight for our freedom." said owner John Byford, himself a Korean war veteran. The Generals relocated to Washington at the conclusion of the 1973-74 season after 35 years in Hamilton Ont.

1974 Off-Season

1974 Entry Draft

Perhaps the strongest draft in PHL history took place in June, 1974. It began when St. Louis set their future in place by selecting phenom David Appleby first overall. In two seasons in the Ontario junior league, Appleby shattered nearly every one of the league’s scoring records, leading the Waterloo Warriors to two consecutive league titles. Mentioned in the same breath as legends such as Skippy Cleveland and Tommy Cooper, as well as current stars like Stuart Holly and Gilbert Giroux, Appleby was projected by some- including Skippy himself- to someday become the greatest scorer of all time. Seattle and Dallas were both able to select top notch prospects as cornerstones for their franchises, with the Grey Wolves taking sniper Pete Holloway and the Metros selecting big power forward Mike Fleming. Washington took the top defenseman in the draft, Joe Kelly, who the Generals figured would fit nicely playing alongside star defenseman Craig Tucker, while Pittsburgh rounded out the top five selecting Dave Breedon, a sniper projected to be a top scorer but often passed over due to weak skating ability.

1.      St. Louis – David Appleby, F

2.      Seattle – Pete Holloway, F

3.      Dallas – Mike Fleming, F

4.      Washington – Joe Kelly, D

5.      Pittsburgh – Dave Breedon, F

6.      Vancouver – Marcus Renberg, D

7.      Quebec – Ron Plunkett, F

8.      Toronto – Joe Dowling, F

9.      Calgary – Brian Trask, D

10.   Denver – Willy Rowe, D

11.   Winnipeg – Donny McMillen, F

12.   California – Yvon Tremblay, G

13.   Nova Scotia – Ken Butler, F

14.   New York – Dennis Aguilar, F

15.   Boston – Colin Fleming, F

16.   Chicago – Emmett Blake, D

17.   Philadelphia – Pierre-Claude Boutin, F

18.   Ottawa – Randy McCracken, F

19.   Montreal – Benoit Gervais, F

20.   LA – Todd Clinton, D

21.   Minnesota – Kevin Jewett, F

22.   Detroit – Dan Overton, F

Rule Changes:

In July, 1974, Alan Garcia announced that the playoff format would be expanded to 16 teams beginning in the 1975-76 season.

Retirements:

Will Pratt, D, Hamilton, Calgary, 1961-1974

Will Pratt was one of the only bright spots during the Hamilton Kings last decade in Hamilton, anchoring the blue line there for seven years before jumping to the GHL with Calgary in time for the league’s final season in 1968. Pratt would help lead Calgary to a GHL title that year before returning to the PHL with the Wranglers the next season, where he would remain for the following five years.

Randy Kane, D, Nova Scotia, 1959-1974

One of the last original Claymores, Randy Kane provided a solid presence on the Nova Scotia blueline for all 15 seasons of the teams existence, winning a Lewis Cup with them in 1967. Later in his career, Kane became a valuable mentor to young players.

Transactions

Nova Scotia acquires G Tim Underwood from Calgary in exchange for F Bruce Ricketts.

The Claymores find a more than adequate replacement in net for expansion draft victim James Steger, while Calgary strengthens their crop of young forwards.

News

On August 1, 1974, Alan Garcia called a press conference to make a couple of big announcements. First, Garcia caught everyone off guard when he announced that Long Island, NY had been awarded an expansion franchise to begin play in 1976. This was a curious move, as the expansion committee had clearly been left out of the decision. “This is the best move for the league.” Said Garcia. “The expansion committee will reconvene in the next few weeks to determine the second franchise to begin play in 1976. We simply could not turn down the opportunity that Long Island gave us. A 21,000 seat arena is being built in the area that will be exclusively owned by the club, we could not very well say no to that.”

After addressing expansion, Garcia then made the exciting announcement that the PHL would participate in the first-ever World Hockey Challenge in the fall of 1976. The World Hockey Challenge will be a six-nation international tournament to be held every four years featuring the best players from around the world. Canada, USA, and the Soviet Union are expected to be the top contenders in the tournament.

League Realignment

With the addition of Seattle and Dallas in 1974, as well as Hamilton's relocation to Washington, the conferences and divisions were realigned to accommodate the new clubs. Perhaps the biggest change was the defending champion Detroit Mustangs moving to the Eastern Conference in the Atlantic Division. The newly relocated Washington Generals also moved to the Atlantic with Nova Scotia moving to the Northeast. The idea was to minimize boarder crossings by placing all the Canadian teams in one division and all the American teams in the other. Out west, Seattle was placed in the Pacific Division while Dallas was placed in the Central.

1974 Expansion Draft Results

The PHL held it's second-ever expansion draft of June 10, 1974, to fill the rosters for the Seattle Grey Wolves and Dallas Metros. Each team selected one goalie, four defensemen, and eight forwards. The most notable selections for Seattle were Bruce Walker, a 15-year PHL and GHL veteran coming off his first Lewis Cup victory with Detroit, goaltender Bruce Wallace, who played 16 years between Chicago and St. Louis, and Allan Fox, a steady forward who had been very popular with the Nova Scotia Claymores. Among Dallas' most notable selections were James Steger, Nova Scotia's number one goalie throughout most of their existence, Jeff Nichols, a young, up-and-coming defenseman who had only four years under his belt with the Chicago Shamrocks, and former New York Civics legend David Riley, who had played alongside Skippy Cleveland and Bernie Bassen during the Civics' back-to-back title runs in the 1950s. The Metros took a major risk selecting Riley, who had hinted that he might retire before the 1974-75 season. Here are the rest of the selections;

POS - Name - Previous Team

Seattle:

G - Bruce Wallace - STL

D - Glen Welton - BOS

D - Pat Lawson - CGY

D - Kerry Floyd - QUE

D - Mike Peters - LA

F - Bruce Walker - DET

F- Jeff Morris - MIN

F - Brian Hardy - CAL

F - Allan Fox - NSC

F - David Strickland - VAN

F - Cliff Bates - PHI

F - Jeff Ryan - WPG

F - Chase Watts - OTT

Dallas:

G - James Steger - NSC

D - Jeff Nichols - CHI

D - Glen Park - STL

D - Gilbert Tucker - NYC

D - Bobby Fisher - DET

F - Jeff Perry - BOS

F - Jake Fowler - OTT

F - Ervin Cole - MTL

F - Dave Roberts - PHI

F - Freddy Brown - QUE

F - Dave Riley - NYC

F - Greg Tyler - MIN

F - Ross Becker - PIT

Seattle, Dallas Unveil Logos & Uniforms

On June 1, 1974, the PHL’s two newest franchises, the Seattle Grey Wolves and the Dallas Metros, finally unveiled their logos, colors, and uniforms.

The Grey Wolves logo features a Grey wolf howling at the moon over a forest green backdrop inside a circle. The home jersey is white with forest green and grey trim and the road jersey is grey with forest green and white trim.

 

The Metros logo is the word “Dallas” stylized to look like the Dallas skyline (1974, pre reunion tower) with a red, orange, and yellow sun setting behind it. The home jersey is white with black, red, orange, and yellow trim, while the road jersey features the same colors with black as the primary color.

 

In other news, the newly relocated Washington team will be called the Washington Generals and will feature a color scheme of olive green, gold, and white. The team will unveil its logo prior to the start of the 1974-75 season.

1974 Lewis Cup Finals

The 1974 Lewis Cup Finals would pit the Detroit Mustangs, winners of 3 of the last 5 Lewis Cups, against the Philadelphia Redshirts, the only charter member of the PHL that had yet to win a championship during the league's existence. Heavily favored to win it all once again, the Mustangs found themselves stunned in the first two games at home, losing both contests by 2 goals. treating game 3 in Philly like a must-win, Detroit kept things close throughout the game before finally pulling ahead to win the game in the third period on a goal from Bjorn Rasmussen. Despite still being down 2-1 in the series, it appeared that the Mustangs were now in control. Game 4 would go to overtime, where Detroit dominated, forcing Redshirts goaltender Micheal McArdle to make 13 saves in OT alone. Late in the extra period Philadelphia winger Bobby Ford blocked a Cliff Lyle shot, putting center David Johnson on a breakaway. Johnson beat Bobby Cole for the winner, giving Philly a commanding 3-1 series lead. The city of Detroit was in shock, while Philadelphia celebrated. It appeared that the Redshirts drought, as well as Detroit's reign were finally over. In game 5, with the Lewis Cup in the building, Bobby Cole made 46 saves for the shutout as Detroit won 2-0. Game six would go into double overtime. Both teams had several big scoring chances but both goaltenders refused to yield. Finally, early in the second overtime, Don Banks scored for Detroit to force game 7. The Redshirts, determined not to let their disappointment get the better of them in game 7, played their hearts out, keeping the game scoreless until almost the end of the second period despite a barrage of Detroit shots. Banks would finally find the back of the net, however, with just 1:36 to go in the second and Philadelphia found themselves desperately trying to tie it throughout the third. In the end, Bobby Cole, playing in his final game, proved to be too much for Philly in game 7. The heartbroken Redshirts skated off the ice as Detroit, now one of the PHL's all-time greatest dynasties, celebrated their 4th Lewis Cup in only 6 seasons.

1974 Playoffs

Round 1

Round 2

Round 3

Heading into their first playoff series in 9 seasons, the Denver Bulls had fairly modest expectations. Ultimately they were just happy to finally be there. Most did not expect them to get very far especially facing the powerhouse Minnesota Lumberjacks, who had finished 28 points ahead of Denver in the standings. To everyone's shock, however, it was the Lumberjacks who found themselves down 2-0 in the series, blanked in each of the first 2 games, and trying to find a way to solve Bulls goaltender Jeff Muskew heading to Denver for game 3. The Bulls had managed to stun Minnesota on strong team play and good puck movement from all four lines while Muskew managed to outplay Minnesota's superstar goaltender Bobby Sorel on both nights, earning shutouts on both outings. You could cut the tension with a knife in game 3 as the two teams skated to double overtime at 1-1 before Minnesota's Roland Webb finally won the game with just two minutes left in the second OT. By game 4, Minnesota had found their game again, routing the Bulls 6-2 as captain Guy Dupont scored a hat-trick. After Sorel earned a shutout in game 5, it appeared the Lumberjacks had the series. However, Denver managed to stave off elimination in game 6 with a 3-2 overtime win, then jumped to an early 2-0 lead in game 7. The Lumberjacks roared back in the second period, scoring three quick goals to re-take the lead, only to have Brian Hunt tie it for Denver with just 23 seconds left. Halfway through overtime, however, former Buffalo Bull Doug Williams finally scored to give Minnesota a hard-fought victory. Although Denver came up short in their bid for an upset, the California Nuggets had a little more success against the Chicago Shamrocks. After erasing a 3-2 series deficit, the Nuggets turned in a gutsy performance in game 6 to force a deciding game in Chicago. In game 7, Dennis Yates scored the winner in the third period while Bruce Dickenson sealed it with an empty netter as California completed the upset. In the east, Boston and New York went back and forth for 6 hard-fought games before the Bulldogs finally salvaged the series win in game 7, while in the only series not to go the full 7, Ottawa took out Nova Scotia in 5. In round two, Minnesota found themselves in another tough battle with the LA Wizards. After earning a 1-1 split in LA, the Lumberjacks pulled ahead in the series 2-1 in game three. But the Wizards bounced in game 4, tying the series thanks to a hat-trick from Stuart Holly and an overtime goal from Gilbert Giroux. Once again, Minnesota pulled ahead in game 5 before finally sealing it in game 6. This would prove to be the closest series in the second round, as Detroit, Philadelphia, and Montreal soundly defeated California, Ottawa, and Boston in 4-0 sweeps.

 The Western Conference Final would pit the two top teams in the PHL against eachother in Detroit and Minnesota while the East Final would feature the veteran Montreal Royale against the young, up-and-coming Philadelphia Redshirts. Montreal looked tired from the very beginning, as Philly managed to gain a commanding 3-0 series lead. Facing a sweep in game 4, Montreal exploded for 6 goals to force a game 5, which the Royale would win in overtime. Realizing that Montreal would almost certainly win game 7 at home, the Redshirts took care of business in game 6, with Bobby Ford netting the winner in the second period in an eventual 3-1 win to send Philadelphia to the Lewis Cup Finals. In the clash of the titans out west, Minnesota and Detroit engaged in one of the closest series in recent memory. The Mustangs took an early 2-0 series lead at home winning both game in overtime. In Minneapolis for game 3, Roland Webb scored his second overtime goal in the playoffs to give the 'Jacks the win. Minnesota would win game 4 4-1 to te the series before heading back to Detroit. Game 5 would reach overtime once again this time with Detroit's Cliff Lyle scoring on a point shot through traffic to put Detroit up 3-2. In game 6 the teams would exchange leads all game long before Minnesota's Jimmy Andrews tied the game with less than 2 minutes left. The series had seemed destined for 7 games right from the start and Minnesota's resilience seemed to guarantee it as the teams headed to OT for the 5th time in the series. Early in the second overtime, however, Detroit's Bobby Kitchen abruptly put an end to Minnesota's emotional run when he flipped the puck just over Bobby Sorel's glove to win the series for the Mustangs, sending them to the Lewis Cup Finals for the 4th time in 6 years to meet the championship-starved Philadelphia Redshirts.