Falstaff Blues 1969-1970
- Thread starter 67Blues
- Start date
ChicagoBlues
Terraformers
- Oct 24, 2006
- 15,085
- 6,103
I remember Falstaff beer, but I especially remember the logos painted on sides of buildings that I guess were prolly bars when they painted the logo.
Reality Czech
Registered User
- Apr 17, 2017
- 5,551
- 9,024
execwrite1
Registered User
- Mar 30, 2018
- 1,501
- 1,450
- Feb 12, 2008
- 19,753
- 9,285
My family played bottle caps when I was a kid. A broom handle was the bat and the bottle caps were the ball. We used the falsestaff caps because they had a cork bottom. You pitch the caps sidearm. The good ole days. That’s my Falstaff memory lol.
Renard
Registered User
I remember the Falstaff TV commercials. They featured two cowboys named Gabe and Walker. Walker was played by Sam Elliott, who went on to have a fine movie career.
67Blues
Got it for Bobby
What is interesting is that is probably the entire Blues payroll at the time of those drawings. You used to call down to the rink and Gus Kyle would answer the phone to sell you tickets 
67Blues
Got it for Bobby
67Blues
Got it for Bobby
Corkball and bottle cap games going behind taverns back then. Used to hit the taverns in West Alton with my grandfather back in the day. Still have a cork ball from back then sitting in my office.
67Blues
Got it for Bobby
Robb_K
Registered User
GREAT DRAWINGS!!! The artist captured those peoples' essence, to a "T". Yes, I remember ALL those players and Blues' early staff.
Ab McDonald: I don't have interesting stories about them, other than the fact that my parents knew Ab McDonald's family, and so, in growing up, Ab was, of course, my favourite hockey player, even above NHL borderline superstar, Andy Bathgate (who also grew up in our little Winnipeg suburb and my parents knew his parents). We followed Ab's career all the way through, from youth hockey through his NHL retirement. His coming to The Blues was my main reason for being an almost lifelong Blues' fan. I was first a Blues' fan from almost their beginning, because they drafted my favourite goalie, Glenn Hall.
Glenn Hall: I remember Glen Hall as a phenomenal rookie, with Detroit, and Gordie Howe was my 3rd favourite NHL player, after Winnipeg's Ab and Andy). Winnipeggers generally found it hard to root for rival Eastern Canadian cities' sports teams, so, back during the 1940s and 1950s, back when The NHL had only 7, and mainly 6 teams, we rooted for NHL, AHL, IHL and WHL teams that had a player or more on their roster, or in their farm system, who were relatives or friends, or acquaintances from their local town or Winnipeg neighbourhood. Our family rooted for The Blackhawks first, especially because we had family in Chicago, who we visited on summer and Christmas/New Year vacations. But, starting in the early 1950s, we also rooted for The Canadiens, because Ab was in their system, and The Rangers, because Andy Bathgate, and another local Winnipegger, Andy Hebenton, played for The Winnipeg Rangers, and their parent (sponsoring) club, The New York Rangers, trained in Winnipeg. So, we were also fans of The St. Catherines Teepees(Juniors), when Ab played for them, and Rochester Americans(AHL) when he joined them, and The Canadiens for his 2 years there, and for his4 years with our Black Hawks, and time with Boston, Detroit and Pittsburgh, before coming to The Blues. Same for Bathgate's time with Guelph(Juniors) and with The Rangers.
Glenn Hall was one of my 2 favourite goalies. I was ecstatic when he came to The Hawks, -especially after I moved to Chicago, with my parents, in 1963. He was at his height, probably his middle and last years with them, but I can't remember better goaltending play than Glenn showed, in the 4-game Stanley Cup Finals series that The Blues played against Montréal. He was possessed! He was making athletic moves, flinging his body all around to make one amazing save after another. He, almost singlehandedly, kept The Blues in that series, the whole way, losing each of the 4 games, by only one goal, with The Blues having a chance to win each game. That series, and Jacques Plante's whole 1968-69 season, were the 2 best demonstrations of goaltending I've ever seen. The tandem of Hall and Jacques Plante played the best goaltending I'd ever seen, and those are the reasons why I became such an ardent Blues' fan, staying for them even after Ab McDonald was traded. In 1969-70, Scotty Bowman, seeing that both Hall and Plante were aging quickly, and needed more rest, acquired Ernie Wakely from The Habs at a bargain price, as another favour. He had been languishing in The Canadiens' system (Quebéc Aces and Cleveland Barons (AHL) for 8 years, despite being better than several NHL goalies. Wakely had slightly above average reflexes, but was excellent at the learned fundamentals (positioning, rebound control, and passing). The Blues had an excellent triomverate in goal that season, and Wakely stayed on in Tandem with Hall for 2 more years after Plante left for Toronto, and for another few years as The Blues' Number One.
Jean-Guy Talbot and Scotty Bowman: This is a very interesting and VERY ironic part of Blues' history. Early in The Blues 1st season, when The Blues had key injuries to their defencemen, Scotty Bowman was desperate to get some help. Remembering that Talbot was a steady, and tough D-man for The Canadiens, when they unexpectedly put him on waivers, Scotty snatched him up. Talbot played steadily good defence for The Blues for 4 years. The ironic thing about that was that Scotty's promising hockey playing career was cruelly nipped in the bud while he was in Junior A's, on The prestigious Montréal Canadiens, Jrs., by Jean-Guy, playing for another Canadiens-sponsored QJHL team (Trois Riviéres), when Talbot clubbed him with his stick to the head. Scotty, being a practical young man, held no grudge, and saw a player that could help his team. They were very friendly while Talbot was with The Blues, as I recall. If they didn't know about that Juniors incident, no one would have ever had an inkling that such an event could have happened.
Ron Anderson: I thought that the touting of Ron Anderson, who never did much of anything for The Blues, was one of the most overblown bits of fluff, I can remember. But, then The Blues had a ridiculous amount of build-up about Canadian College hockey star, Mike Lowe, and he never could make it at the lowest level of the minor leagues. There was also a big fuss over "stealing" Terry Gray from The Leafs, and for getting "future NHL star" Steve Atkinson from Boston for a 1st Rounder (GAHHH!).
Camille Henry: Camille"The Eel" Henry was an excellent little centre and LW for The Blues, who used to slither in between the big bodies to cause havoc on drives to the net, drawing defencemen to him, and then leaving a quick, unexpected pass to a trailing linemate to blast by the goalie for a score. Like Talbot and Picard, he had a funny manner, and great sense of humour. Back then, because of Bowman's long career in The Habs' organisation, The Blues had beaucoup des Frenchies! In addition to Talbot, Picard and Plante, they also had Phil Goyette, Andre Boudrias, Ray Fortin, Ted Ouimet, Jacques Caron, Chris Bordeleau, Claude Cardin, Andre Dupont, Roger Picard, and Frank St. Marseille.
Phil Goyette: was a smooth skating, slick passing centre, who had been a star for The Rangers for many years. And when he started to slow down with age, The Rangers offered him to their old Ranger buddy, Lynn Patrick's team (Patrick was the Blues first coach and GM and then executive advisor). Bowman wanted to add scoring power to the team, and with Goyette and Berenson centering the top 2 lines, he thought they'd be set. So, they traded a future number 1 draft choice for him. Both he and Berenson ended up among the top ten NHL scorers (the only Western Division players to do so), but it was a very costly trade for The Blues, as they lost Goyette to Buffalo in the next season's expansion draft.
Frank St. Marseille's emergence as a competent passer and set-up man helped ease the pain of that loss. The Blues signed him in 1967, from the then lower minor leagues IHL, to help fill out their roster and minor league system, as they didn't purchase an existing top minor league team. St. Marseille was the best success story in that regard, playing 6 solid seasons for The Blues as a good 2-way RW/centre, who contributed 15-20 goals and 20-30 assists, played good defence, and was good on the PK. His brother, Fred D'Marseille, was the national anthem singer for The L.A. Kings for many years, so The Blues granted his wish after 6 years to trade him to The Kings.
Red Berenson: was one of my favourite players. He was a very smooth skater, great shooter, and good passer. He was really the first superstar of The NHL's new West Division. It's too bad his early NHL career was stifled, sitting on The Habs' stacked deep bench. His trade, along with Barc Plager, to The Blues early in their first season, gave The Blues the lift they needed to rise from near the bottom, to only a couple of games short of the Western Division's leading Philadelphia Flyers, and to go on and get to The Cup Finals. It's ironic, that injuries on The Rangers initiated the trade of long-time veteran, Ron Stewart, who was almost washed up, for those 2 players, who greatly helped make The Blues a successful franchise during their early years. Berenson was made fun of by lots of other players, for having gone to college, and for wearing a helmet, when mainly, only severely head-injured players wore them. I'll bet he's happy he wore that helmet his whole career, and still has all his wits and faculties at an old age, when lots of his colleagues who didn't wear one, died young, and started losing their mental capabilities at far younger ages.
What can I say about The Plager Brothers? Their values as players to their team have always been greatly underrated by non-Blues fans. Barc was also an excellent offensive D-man, in addition to being tough and great on defence. Bob's help to the offence was also overlooked. They were no-nonsense players, who would go through a wall for any teammate. I was glad when they got Billy to play with The Blues for a few years. One time they were all on the ice together, when Billy played the wing for a shift or 2. I LOVE the old saying about after pummeling each other for an hour, they'd cross the street and beat up on their cousin! There wasn't much else to do in Kirkland Lake. That's also why Al Arbour became so strong and tough, and wanted to get out of Sudbury, so he wouldn't have to work in the mines. And Gus Kyle was a big, burley defenceman for The Rangers and Bruins, who had been a Saskatchewan farm boy.
When I was a kid, we didn't have those modern-type weight training machines. We city-slickers had free weights, if we were lucky. I had to borrow my older cousins' set. It was basically a family set. We had a complex of extended family - 4 houses full. We had 5 boys who played organised hockey (including myself). Most of the big and super-strong youth players were farm boys, who worked in the wheat fields of Saskatchewan and Manitoba, or in the potato fields in southern Manitoba. That's how Gordie Howe got so strong - lifting and tossing hay bales. I got strong lifting 100 lb potato sacks in my father's grocery store. I have to laugh about the blurb above about Terry Gray, saying that he was "BIG" for a forward, at 6 foot 175 lb. I have a slight frame, and worked like a dog with free weights and eating like a pig (we didn't have protein shakes and bars, and special training diets back in those days!). And, after all that, at 6ft 1 and a half inches, I barely crept up into the 180-185 range during my peak years. There were plenty of 5 foot 7 to 5 foot 10 players who got into the 180+ range. But 175 being "big" for a forward was laughable, even back in the '60s. Although there weren't many over 200 that could skate worth a darn. "Moose" Vasko" of The Blackhawks, was a VERY small moose, at 195-200 lb. Of course, he was a defenceman. There were almost no 200+ lb forwards that I can recall before the 70s (maybe less than a handful).
Jimmy Roberts, a full blooded Native Canadian (Cree - I can't remember which specific tribe), and first member of The St. Louis Blues' original expansion draft, was a great defensive defenceman for The Montréal Canadiens for many years, Blues' captain in The early 1970s, , and Blues' Assistant Coach for 6 years, played for The Blues for 6 years, as both a defenceman, and a defensive forward. A Three-Time NHL All-Star, he'd have won The Selke Award several times, had it been around during the late 1960s and early '70s. Like Picard, The Plagers, Al Arbour, and Doug Harvey, he added toughness to The Blues' lineup. He was so good ad shadowing the opponents' best scoring wingers, that The Habs traded back for him even when he was in his early thirties, and yet, Roberts was so loyal to both teams and so valuable as a "shadow", even as an elderly player, that he came back to The Blues for his last season, in his late thirties, and played as a regular.
Larry Keenan was a very ordinary 3rd and 4th liner. I wonder why he was picked over Billy McCreary(who was also very ordinary, but, at least he was a very good defensive forward). All the Blues' publicist could say about Keenan was that he had been very unlucky with the injury bug over his NHL career trying to imply that his scoring stats should be much higher), and that he scored 2 late goals in The Blues' final home game of their inaugural season, clinching their first playoff spot, a few games behind division-winning Philadelphia (who, incidentally, had "cheated" in the Expansion sweepstakes, by purchasing one of The 2 of Montreal's AHL franchises(Quebéc Aces), which was laden with NHL-ready players - a luxury no other expansion team got. That was to imply that Bowman had done a super job of moulding The Blues into a better team than Philly, with far less resources.) Those 2 footnotes were barely enough text to avoid having Keenan's picture look "lonely" on the page. As this was the start of The 1070-71 season, I'm sure there were other players not in this publicity campaign, that might have been more interesting.
Tim Ecclestone: came to The Blues in a big trade for Rod Seiling, who The Blues had agreed to draft and return To The Rangers. They got him, along with future perennial 20-goal scorer, Gary Sabourin, Bobby Plager, and D-man Gordon Kannegiesser. Plager, alone, was worth Seiling. Sabourin played well for several years with The Blues as a good secondary goal scorer, and Ecclestone was a solid, young prospect, for whom The Blues had high hopes. Unfortunately, he never developed into a solid scorer, and only played a few years as a fade-into-the-wall 3rd Liner for them. I'm surprised the publicist chose to feature Ecclestone over 2-Times 28-goal scoring Sabourin.
Not much I can say about Tommy Woodcock. The players liked him a lot. He was a truly dedicated trainer, and a very hard worker, and very loyal to the organisation. I think he was, by far, the longest with the club. All the players thought he was a really nice guy. I saw him when he came to the old Chicago Stadium. And I spoke with Blues' players, coaches and scouts before games, but I never spoke to Tommy. Norm Kramer I've only seen on TV, banging away on the organ keys. I have to admit that The Old Barn was jumping up and down like a Southern Baptist Church 's roof trying to dislodge from its walls, from the crowd's noise and the organ when Norm got them excited.
Got to go now. Maybe I'll come back to this thread and comment more.
Ab McDonald: I don't have interesting stories about them, other than the fact that my parents knew Ab McDonald's family, and so, in growing up, Ab was, of course, my favourite hockey player, even above NHL borderline superstar, Andy Bathgate (who also grew up in our little Winnipeg suburb and my parents knew his parents). We followed Ab's career all the way through, from youth hockey through his NHL retirement. His coming to The Blues was my main reason for being an almost lifelong Blues' fan. I was first a Blues' fan from almost their beginning, because they drafted my favourite goalie, Glenn Hall.
Glenn Hall: I remember Glen Hall as a phenomenal rookie, with Detroit, and Gordie Howe was my 3rd favourite NHL player, after Winnipeg's Ab and Andy). Winnipeggers generally found it hard to root for rival Eastern Canadian cities' sports teams, so, back during the 1940s and 1950s, back when The NHL had only 7, and mainly 6 teams, we rooted for NHL, AHL, IHL and WHL teams that had a player or more on their roster, or in their farm system, who were relatives or friends, or acquaintances from their local town or Winnipeg neighbourhood. Our family rooted for The Blackhawks first, especially because we had family in Chicago, who we visited on summer and Christmas/New Year vacations. But, starting in the early 1950s, we also rooted for The Canadiens, because Ab was in their system, and The Rangers, because Andy Bathgate, and another local Winnipegger, Andy Hebenton, played for The Winnipeg Rangers, and their parent (sponsoring) club, The New York Rangers, trained in Winnipeg. So, we were also fans of The St. Catherines Teepees(Juniors), when Ab played for them, and Rochester Americans(AHL) when he joined them, and The Canadiens for his 2 years there, and for his4 years with our Black Hawks, and time with Boston, Detroit and Pittsburgh, before coming to The Blues. Same for Bathgate's time with Guelph(Juniors) and with The Rangers.
Glenn Hall was one of my 2 favourite goalies. I was ecstatic when he came to The Hawks, -especially after I moved to Chicago, with my parents, in 1963. He was at his height, probably his middle and last years with them, but I can't remember better goaltending play than Glenn showed, in the 4-game Stanley Cup Finals series that The Blues played against Montréal. He was possessed! He was making athletic moves, flinging his body all around to make one amazing save after another. He, almost singlehandedly, kept The Blues in that series, the whole way, losing each of the 4 games, by only one goal, with The Blues having a chance to win each game. That series, and Jacques Plante's whole 1968-69 season, were the 2 best demonstrations of goaltending I've ever seen. The tandem of Hall and Jacques Plante played the best goaltending I'd ever seen, and those are the reasons why I became such an ardent Blues' fan, staying for them even after Ab McDonald was traded. In 1969-70, Scotty Bowman, seeing that both Hall and Plante were aging quickly, and needed more rest, acquired Ernie Wakely from The Habs at a bargain price, as another favour. He had been languishing in The Canadiens' system (Quebéc Aces and Cleveland Barons (AHL) for 8 years, despite being better than several NHL goalies. Wakely had slightly above average reflexes, but was excellent at the learned fundamentals (positioning, rebound control, and passing). The Blues had an excellent triomverate in goal that season, and Wakely stayed on in Tandem with Hall for 2 more years after Plante left for Toronto, and for another few years as The Blues' Number One.
Jean-Guy Talbot and Scotty Bowman: This is a very interesting and VERY ironic part of Blues' history. Early in The Blues 1st season, when The Blues had key injuries to their defencemen, Scotty Bowman was desperate to get some help. Remembering that Talbot was a steady, and tough D-man for The Canadiens, when they unexpectedly put him on waivers, Scotty snatched him up. Talbot played steadily good defence for The Blues for 4 years. The ironic thing about that was that Scotty's promising hockey playing career was cruelly nipped in the bud while he was in Junior A's, on The prestigious Montréal Canadiens, Jrs., by Jean-Guy, playing for another Canadiens-sponsored QJHL team (Trois Riviéres), when Talbot clubbed him with his stick to the head. Scotty, being a practical young man, held no grudge, and saw a player that could help his team. They were very friendly while Talbot was with The Blues, as I recall. If they didn't know about that Juniors incident, no one would have ever had an inkling that such an event could have happened.
Ron Anderson: I thought that the touting of Ron Anderson, who never did much of anything for The Blues, was one of the most overblown bits of fluff, I can remember. But, then The Blues had a ridiculous amount of build-up about Canadian College hockey star, Mike Lowe, and he never could make it at the lowest level of the minor leagues. There was also a big fuss over "stealing" Terry Gray from The Leafs, and for getting "future NHL star" Steve Atkinson from Boston for a 1st Rounder (GAHHH!).
Camille Henry: Camille"The Eel" Henry was an excellent little centre and LW for The Blues, who used to slither in between the big bodies to cause havoc on drives to the net, drawing defencemen to him, and then leaving a quick, unexpected pass to a trailing linemate to blast by the goalie for a score. Like Talbot and Picard, he had a funny manner, and great sense of humour. Back then, because of Bowman's long career in The Habs' organisation, The Blues had beaucoup des Frenchies! In addition to Talbot, Picard and Plante, they also had Phil Goyette, Andre Boudrias, Ray Fortin, Ted Ouimet, Jacques Caron, Chris Bordeleau, Claude Cardin, Andre Dupont, Roger Picard, and Frank St. Marseille.
Phil Goyette: was a smooth skating, slick passing centre, who had been a star for The Rangers for many years. And when he started to slow down with age, The Rangers offered him to their old Ranger buddy, Lynn Patrick's team (Patrick was the Blues first coach and GM and then executive advisor). Bowman wanted to add scoring power to the team, and with Goyette and Berenson centering the top 2 lines, he thought they'd be set. So, they traded a future number 1 draft choice for him. Both he and Berenson ended up among the top ten NHL scorers (the only Western Division players to do so), but it was a very costly trade for The Blues, as they lost Goyette to Buffalo in the next season's expansion draft.
Frank St. Marseille's emergence as a competent passer and set-up man helped ease the pain of that loss. The Blues signed him in 1967, from the then lower minor leagues IHL, to help fill out their roster and minor league system, as they didn't purchase an existing top minor league team. St. Marseille was the best success story in that regard, playing 6 solid seasons for The Blues as a good 2-way RW/centre, who contributed 15-20 goals and 20-30 assists, played good defence, and was good on the PK. His brother, Fred D'Marseille, was the national anthem singer for The L.A. Kings for many years, so The Blues granted his wish after 6 years to trade him to The Kings.
Red Berenson: was one of my favourite players. He was a very smooth skater, great shooter, and good passer. He was really the first superstar of The NHL's new West Division. It's too bad his early NHL career was stifled, sitting on The Habs' stacked deep bench. His trade, along with Barc Plager, to The Blues early in their first season, gave The Blues the lift they needed to rise from near the bottom, to only a couple of games short of the Western Division's leading Philadelphia Flyers, and to go on and get to The Cup Finals. It's ironic, that injuries on The Rangers initiated the trade of long-time veteran, Ron Stewart, who was almost washed up, for those 2 players, who greatly helped make The Blues a successful franchise during their early years. Berenson was made fun of by lots of other players, for having gone to college, and for wearing a helmet, when mainly, only severely head-injured players wore them. I'll bet he's happy he wore that helmet his whole career, and still has all his wits and faculties at an old age, when lots of his colleagues who didn't wear one, died young, and started losing their mental capabilities at far younger ages.
What can I say about The Plager Brothers? Their values as players to their team have always been greatly underrated by non-Blues fans. Barc was also an excellent offensive D-man, in addition to being tough and great on defence. Bob's help to the offence was also overlooked. They were no-nonsense players, who would go through a wall for any teammate. I was glad when they got Billy to play with The Blues for a few years. One time they were all on the ice together, when Billy played the wing for a shift or 2. I LOVE the old saying about after pummeling each other for an hour, they'd cross the street and beat up on their cousin! There wasn't much else to do in Kirkland Lake. That's also why Al Arbour became so strong and tough, and wanted to get out of Sudbury, so he wouldn't have to work in the mines. And Gus Kyle was a big, burley defenceman for The Rangers and Bruins, who had been a Saskatchewan farm boy.
When I was a kid, we didn't have those modern-type weight training machines. We city-slickers had free weights, if we were lucky. I had to borrow my older cousins' set. It was basically a family set. We had a complex of extended family - 4 houses full. We had 5 boys who played organised hockey (including myself). Most of the big and super-strong youth players were farm boys, who worked in the wheat fields of Saskatchewan and Manitoba, or in the potato fields in southern Manitoba. That's how Gordie Howe got so strong - lifting and tossing hay bales. I got strong lifting 100 lb potato sacks in my father's grocery store. I have to laugh about the blurb above about Terry Gray, saying that he was "BIG" for a forward, at 6 foot 175 lb. I have a slight frame, and worked like a dog with free weights and eating like a pig (we didn't have protein shakes and bars, and special training diets back in those days!). And, after all that, at 6ft 1 and a half inches, I barely crept up into the 180-185 range during my peak years. There were plenty of 5 foot 7 to 5 foot 10 players who got into the 180+ range. But 175 being "big" for a forward was laughable, even back in the '60s. Although there weren't many over 200 that could skate worth a darn. "Moose" Vasko" of The Blackhawks, was a VERY small moose, at 195-200 lb. Of course, he was a defenceman. There were almost no 200+ lb forwards that I can recall before the 70s (maybe less than a handful).
Jimmy Roberts, a full blooded Native Canadian (Cree - I can't remember which specific tribe), and first member of The St. Louis Blues' original expansion draft, was a great defensive defenceman for The Montréal Canadiens for many years, Blues' captain in The early 1970s, , and Blues' Assistant Coach for 6 years, played for The Blues for 6 years, as both a defenceman, and a defensive forward. A Three-Time NHL All-Star, he'd have won The Selke Award several times, had it been around during the late 1960s and early '70s. Like Picard, The Plagers, Al Arbour, and Doug Harvey, he added toughness to The Blues' lineup. He was so good ad shadowing the opponents' best scoring wingers, that The Habs traded back for him even when he was in his early thirties, and yet, Roberts was so loyal to both teams and so valuable as a "shadow", even as an elderly player, that he came back to The Blues for his last season, in his late thirties, and played as a regular.
Larry Keenan was a very ordinary 3rd and 4th liner. I wonder why he was picked over Billy McCreary(who was also very ordinary, but, at least he was a very good defensive forward). All the Blues' publicist could say about Keenan was that he had been very unlucky with the injury bug over his NHL career trying to imply that his scoring stats should be much higher), and that he scored 2 late goals in The Blues' final home game of their inaugural season, clinching their first playoff spot, a few games behind division-winning Philadelphia (who, incidentally, had "cheated" in the Expansion sweepstakes, by purchasing one of The 2 of Montreal's AHL franchises(Quebéc Aces), which was laden with NHL-ready players - a luxury no other expansion team got. That was to imply that Bowman had done a super job of moulding The Blues into a better team than Philly, with far less resources.) Those 2 footnotes were barely enough text to avoid having Keenan's picture look "lonely" on the page. As this was the start of The 1070-71 season, I'm sure there were other players not in this publicity campaign, that might have been more interesting.
Tim Ecclestone: came to The Blues in a big trade for Rod Seiling, who The Blues had agreed to draft and return To The Rangers. They got him, along with future perennial 20-goal scorer, Gary Sabourin, Bobby Plager, and D-man Gordon Kannegiesser. Plager, alone, was worth Seiling. Sabourin played well for several years with The Blues as a good secondary goal scorer, and Ecclestone was a solid, young prospect, for whom The Blues had high hopes. Unfortunately, he never developed into a solid scorer, and only played a few years as a fade-into-the-wall 3rd Liner for them. I'm surprised the publicist chose to feature Ecclestone over 2-Times 28-goal scoring Sabourin.
Not much I can say about Tommy Woodcock. The players liked him a lot. He was a truly dedicated trainer, and a very hard worker, and very loyal to the organisation. I think he was, by far, the longest with the club. All the players thought he was a really nice guy. I saw him when he came to the old Chicago Stadium. And I spoke with Blues' players, coaches and scouts before games, but I never spoke to Tommy. Norm Kramer I've only seen on TV, banging away on the organ keys. I have to admit that The Old Barn was jumping up and down like a Southern Baptist Church 's roof trying to dislodge from its walls, from the crowd's noise and the organ when Norm got them excited.
Got to go now. Maybe I'll come back to this thread and comment more.
Last edited:
ChicagoBlues
Terraformers
- Oct 24, 2006
- 15,085
- 6,103
Yep! We did too!
As a kid, I remember running through the middle of their field and my Dad whacked the bottle cap really good and smacked me in the head.
EDIT: Or maybe I got whacked with the broom stick. I forget
Last edited:
Bernie Federko
Registered User
- Jun 29, 2018
- 164
- 219
fcpremix88
Registered User
67Blues
Got it for Bobby
67Blues
Got it for Bobby
67Blues
Got it for Bobby
67Blues
Got it for Bobby
- Feb 12, 2008
- 19,753
- 9,285
I remember when Noel Picard announced Blues games. One time he said we have some out of town scores…. 3-2, 4-3, 4-2 lol.
67Blues
Got it for Bobby
Do you remember in the old barn when his wife Viviane would sing the National Anthems?
- Feb 12, 2008
- 19,753
- 9,285
67Blues
Got it for Bobby
She would split time with a little girl who's name I think was Natalie Delusha or something like that. She would do the Canadian Anthem and the little girl would do the American Anthem. Probably mid 80s to late 80s.
- Feb 12, 2008
- 19,753
- 9,285
Celtic Note
Living the dream
- Dec 22, 2006
- 17,248
- 6,198
Thanks for sharing these! They are pretty cool and some are funny.
Why does everyone of them make the guys look old? Maybe it’s the wrinkles
Why does everyone of them make the guys look old? Maybe it’s the wrinkles
