Hi everyone! Well, the regular season has finally reached its conclusion, and the contenders and pretenders have been identified and separated. Now onto the good stuff: two months of heart-stopping games that will have us questioning whether or not we will actually survive sports’ most gruelling marathon. Even the games involving teams we care nothing about are still compelling because you know that its result may eventually impact your own team somewhere down the road. Sometimes, but not always, a team’s early playoff performance, or a key moment that causes a team to gel, hints at future greatness. The 1993 Montreal Canadiens, and their early overtime wins against Quebec and Buffalo provided us with a window to the future. Looking back now, you could see that this team was destined for greatness. You could see Patrick Roy’s confidence growing from one game to another.
This week, I’ve added two new articles that are very representative of the Seals’ birth: the enthusiasm everyone felt about the NHL’s arrival in the Bay Area, but also everyone’s inability to predict what was going to happen to the franchise in the long run. Plans were announced to move the WHL Seals from San Francisco to Oakland, and that the franchise would become known as the California Seals in their final minor-league season before graduating to the big league. Apparently, that little bit of news was a surprise to some, which was understandable considering the Seals’ success in San Fran. Interestingly, William F. Knowland, publisher and editor of the Oakland Tribune was quoted as saying that having the Seals play at the Oakland Coliseum would be “a forerunner of other things to come.” He didn’t specify, however, that those “other things” would turn out to be difficult for fans and players to digest. Moving the Seals to Oakland was mistake number one committed by Barry van Gerbig and company, and most definitely a forerunner. You can read about the Seals’ arrival into the NHL right here. Thanks to Bob Marceau for sending me these articles.
Hi everyone! Every year around this time, there are a number of teams that are just playing out the stretch. These teams are so far out of the playoffs that games are absolutely meaningless except that a few players are hoping to hit some personal objectives, and a few prospects are getting a late-season taste of the NHL. In 1970-71, the Seals were in that unenviable position for the first time since 1968. On March 24, the Leafs were in town, and with this being the Seals’ sixth straight home game, they may have been getting a bit dopey from all that home cooking. Sure, they scored a nice 5-2 over L.A. three nights earlier, but against Toronto, the Seals just didn’t show up. For some reason, coach Fred Glover seemed to think that Gary Smith’s mask was part of the reason for the Seals’ stinky showing, and he gave the Oakland Tribune‘s John Porter quite the analysis from behind the noggin guard. You can find this week’s article right here.
I hope everyone has themselves a relaxing Easter weekend, and if you’re like me, and you don’t really have any particular religious feelings towards this extra-long weekend, well, I hope you get to crack open a few (chocolate eggs, that is… you thought I was talking about beer? Ok, I was…) over some late-season hockey. Until next time, stay gold!
Hi everyone! It has been a while, hasn’t it? I should probably explain my prolonged absence. Thankfully, it’s nothing serious or life-threatening. Saw Journey in concert in Ottawa just before my 47th birthday, and on St. Patrick’s Day the wife, kids, and I caught Sean McCann, former member of legendary Canadian folk rock band Great Big Sea. Took the lad to an Ottawa 67’s game, his first time seeing live hockey. What has taken up most of my evenings and weekends, however, has been spent reviewing my upcoming book, Mucking in the Corners, which has entered the revision stage. I’ve been pretty busy going over the manuscript, getting permissions to use photos, and conversing with my editor about changes I want (or don’t want) to make. It’s been a lot of work, needless to say, but I honestly feel it’s my best work as well, and I look forward to the book launch at the end of November.
For those of you who don’t know, Mucking in the Corners is basically a series of short hockey stories from the 1970s, and the book’s overall themes include the unexpected, the surprising, the unlikely, and the unheralded. I will be posting updates from time to time regarding the book’s progress. There are a few stories that involve the Seals and Barons, but the real stars of the book are the often-forgotten players who accomplished something remarkable that will likely never be witnessed again. For instance, there is the amazing, but short career of Ross Brooks, a 35-year-old rookie goaltender who had a habit of going on prolonged winning streaks. And then there is the unbelievable night when the Cleveland Crusaders of the WHA came back from a six-goal deficit versus Toronto to win the game. The featured player here is Ron Ward, who happens to hail from my hometown of Cornwall, Ontario. There are also shorter stories featuring unsung heroes such as Jean Pronovost, Jeff Jacques, Don McLeod, Al Smith, Hardy Astrom, the Ottawa Civics, and the 1972-73 New York Islanders. In other words, the lesser-known players from the disco decade get the spotlight; their stories have been mostly neglected and forgotten, but not for much longer.
During my time away, I’ve received lots of emails containing some great new material which I will be posting here in the coming weeks. This week, I’ve posted scans of the Seals’ 1976 end-of-season awards banquet, which I’m sure you will all appreciate. Pretty neat stuff! A huge thanks to Chuck Nan for providing me with beautiful scans of this very rare piece of Seals memorabilia!
In closing, I’d like to invite you to check out my Instagram page where I will be posting new updates from time to time. Mostly personal updates rather than Seals updates, so if your curious about what goes on in my life when I’m not sitting by my computer writing stuff about the Seals, or watching hockey on TV, you’re welcome aboard. The link to the page is right there on the right side of this page, so check it out and sign up if you’re into the whole social media thing.
Hi everyone! I’ve been feeling a bit under the weather today, and I’ve been running on fumes after my son woke me up at 6:45AM so I could adjust his sling. I should probably explain that he unfortunately fractured his humerus this past Monday during gym class, so he is understandably having some mobility issues. So, since it’s running late, and I’m looking forward to hitting the hay, I’ll spare you the long-winded intro this week, and we’ll get right into this week’s update.
This week, we’re going back to the early days of 1975. The Seals are in the midst of a bit of a turnaround season thanks to the emergence of the Wrecking Crew Line as well as a slew of talented rookies such as Al MacAdam, Larry Patey, Charlie Simmer, and Rick Hampton. Sure, the Seals are in their all-too-familiar last-place position, but they are starting to win a few games here and there, against some skilled opponents, and even the odd one on the road. On December 27, the Seals beat the Bruins 5-2, followed by a 3-2 win over L.A. at the Great Western Forum the next night. Then on January 5, the Seals downed the fearsome Flyers, 5-1. Two days later, the 10-23-8 Seals travelled to St. Louis to take on the Blues. Normally, just the fact the Seals were on the road meant a near 100% chance they were not going to get the win, but this season the Seals had a different attitude, and there was always a possibility of squeaking out of town with a “W”. So, this week’s article is about the Seals’ 3-2 win over the Blues, and the emergence of Fred Ahern, who, in his second NHL game, scored the game-winner. You can read this week’s article, suggested to me by Bob Marceau (Thanks again, Bob!), right here.
Enjoy Super Bowl Sunday, folks! Eat lots, drink lots, and if you have time between swigs and bites, be sure to catch a couple of snaps and tackles. Keep coming back to say hi, and as always, stay gold!
Hi everyone! It’s good to be back after spending a week in balmy Playa del Carmen, Mexico. If you’ve never stayed at an all-inclusive hotel before, I can’t recommend it more highly. It was amazing just walking around and having access to snacks, drinks, and other goodies at every turn. I ate so many mini muffins and brownies, I seriously put on five pounds over the week. There may be no greater feeling in the world than having a Mexican coati (sort of like a cross between a cat and a raccoon) steal the hamburger right off your poolside plate and not caring a lick about it because someone will just bring you a new burger no questions asked. Yes, those little creatures, not to mention all sorts of cats, geckos, and something called a Jesus Christ lizard just blend in to the scenery at the resort, coexisting with its human customers. It was awesome just watching them do their thing. Alas, all good things must come to an end, and we had to get back reality, but we look forward to going back next year.
I can’t say I missed Ottawa’s frigid winter weather much. In the span of six hours or so we went from 28-degree Celcius weather in Mexico to about -20 upon landing in Canada. Word to the wise, when you go from very, very cold to very, very hot weather and back again, make sure you have some sort of access to warm coats. We didn’t. For some reason, we had the brilliant idea of leaving home in nothing more than hoodies and sneakers, since we were driving to Toronto to catch our plane to Mexico. We didn’t really think that once we got back to Canada we could be faced with a winter storm or something. Sure enough, when we left our hotel in Toronto on Sunday morning, the city was hit with a storm complete with 40cm of bitter, blowing snow. Stopping at service stations for pees and gas was interesting to say the least. Now that we’re back though, it’s nice to get familiar with our “old” life again, and that means getting back to work.
This week, I decided to do something a bit different. I received an email two weeks ago from a guy named JD Vercett asking about a photo that inspired me to eventually write my book on the Seals. The photo in question is this one:
Yup, if you’ve ever wondered why anyone born three years after the Seals’ demise would ever start writing the history of our favorite defunct franchise (and at the tender age of 12, no less), well, look no further. This photo of George Swarbrick comes from page 39 of the May 1988 issue of Hockey Illustrated, and stumbling upon it was a life-changing event, believe it or not. I was at the Pop Shoppe with my dad one day and I saw the magazine featuring then Edmonton Oilers star Wayne Gretzky on the cover. I had just started getting into hockey that season, and I knew that Gretzky was the biggest star in the league, so I asked my dad to buy the magazine for me, not at all knowing that the real treasure in that issue was the Swarbrick picture featured in an article about the 1967 expansion. I was so captivated by the unusual logo on Swarbrick’s chest. Soon after, I began seeing little hints here and there that the Seals had once existed. In my 1987 Panini sticker album, there were three players, Gilles Meloche, Dennis Maruk, and Charlie Simmer, who had mysterious the “CAL” and “CLE” written into their career statistics. In a later Esso sticker book, there was a brief mention of the Seals stating that they eventually “disappeared entirely,” making the team even more intriguing.
As I started collecting vintage hockey cards in the early 1990s, I picked up other clues here and there as to who the Seals and Barons were, and being a curious young lad, I wrote to the NHL asking for any information they had on defunct teams like the Seals, Atlanta Flames, Colorado Rockies, et al. Someone at the league either wanted to get rid of a pesky kid asking for what would have amounted to a crap load of research effort, or that same person was incredibly thoughtful, but whatever the case, this league employee photocopied the entire 1975-76 Seals media guide and sent that back to me. To this day, I still have that media guide. I absolutely devoured it memorizing every statistic and every name, and even though I was only 12 years old at the time, I started writing what would eventually become my first book.. So there you have it, my background story, and the picture that inspired it.
In closing this week, I’d like to thank everyone who logged on for my Seals presentation Thursday night. I had a great time connecting with Seals fans and answering questions. I only wish I had had more time, but an hour really flies by when I get to talk about hockey. I look forward to more opportunities like this one, and if ever they present themselves, I will be sure to let you know.
On that note, I hope everyone has a pleasant weekend, and I will see you again next week. Stay gold!
I hope you all had yourselves a very Merry Christmas, and I wish you all a fantastic 2026! I’m personally very excited about what the next couple of months have waiting for me, and it has given me a renewed purpose and a rush of energy at a time of year when it’s hard to overcome the end-of-holiday blahs.
I’d like to announce that finally, after 46 years on this Earth, I have officially joined the 21st century and created a social media account. No, I’m not on Facebook (or Meta, or whatever they hell it’s called these days) like the rest of the world is, but you can find me on Instagram, a sort-of compromise. I’m not a social media guy per se, so I’m never going to be one to spend every waking minute checking my social media account (hence, the reason why no Facebook for me), but I do realize that if I want to sign up for writers’ festivals and get people interested in my work, I will have to do the unthinkable and post stuff to something other than this website. So, feel free to drop in on my Instagram page and become a follower so you can be kept abreast of any news items related to my upcoming book, events I’m involved in, and other things that strike my fancy from time to time. There is a link on the right side of the page which will take you to my Instagram account.
I’ve also posted a new article from January 1, 1969 about the Seals hot start to that season, and particularly the play of the Bill Hicke-Gary Jarrett-Mike Laughton line. They didn’t play together for very long, but they were definitely hot at this point, and a big reason why the Seals finally stopped playing like an expansion team, and more like a playoff contender. Thanks to Bob Marceau for sending me the article, which you can read right here.
Don’t forget to register for my Sunnyvale (CA) Library virtual Seals presentation at 9pm EST (6pm Pacific) on January 29. Spots are limited, and are being reserved a brisk pace now that the holidays are over, so don’t wait until the last minute. You can register right here for the free event.
One more thing before I go… I will be off to Mexico for a family vacation, so there won’t be a new update to the site until the end of the month, so I hope to see you all at the presentation, which will be taking place shortly after my return to Ottawa.
Hi everyone! Yes, it’s that time of year once again, and I’m here bearing gifts and good news! First off, I’m pleased to announce that I have been invited by the Sunnyvale, California Public Library to give a virtual talk on the history of the Seals. As you may know, the San Jose Sharks are celebrating their 35th anniversary this season (seriously, 35 years already!), and since the Seals helped lay the groundwork for the Sharks’ incredible success, hockey fans may like to hear more about the Golden Ones’ quirky past. If you would like to attend the event, you must register first as spots are limited, so don’t wait, go sign up here right now!
And the good news doesn’t end there, folks! Pete Manzolillo contacted me this week to let me know that a complete radio broadcast from the Seals-Canucks game from December 12, 1970 has been posted to YouTube. I strongly urge you to take a listen to the crystal-clear broadcast, complete with vintage 1970 commercials, and both intermissions; a wonderful trip back in time. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to the whole game, and I know you will too. Unfortunately, there is a bug in WordPress right now and for some reason I’m not able to add the link to the Video and Audio section of the site, so I’ve embedded the YouTube video to this here post. Thanks again, Pete, for the heads-up!
This will be my last post of 2025, since I will be on holidays the next two weeks, and I will also be busy preparing for the virtual talk, as well as making final edits to my manuscript, and securing photos for the new book. I would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! I wish you all good health and happy times with family and friends. I’ll see you all right back here in a few weeks! Until next time, stay gold!
Hi everyone! I hope you are all enjoying the weekend. I know I sure am. I may have mentioned recently that our house is undergoing some massive renovations, and it has been a rather rough go. The work got started later than expected, which means that right now we are using our garage as a makeshift kitchen. It is a lot like camping, minus things like warm weather, and any sort of pleasure taking in our surroundings. It really sucks having to put on your winter jacket just to make toast. The weather is getting so cold now that the vegetables inside our garage fridge are starting to freeze over. My Pepsis started freezing over too and now some of the cans are oblong-shaped, which I don’t think is a good thing. I may want to drink those sooner rather than later. I’m happy to say that our new appliances finally came in this morning, the flooring is essentially done, and we can now sort-of use our kitchen space, so no more coat toast for Steve, yay!
Yesterday, I had the pleasure of speaking with former NHL goaltender Ross Brooks, who did a phone interview with me from his home in Rhode Island. I have written a chapter in my next book about his brief, but memorable NHL career. His story is truly remarkable, and after speaking with him for about 40 minutes, my appreciation for his tale only grew. Brooks was a career minor-leaguer who graduated to the NHL thanks in part to an expansion draft and the World Hockey Association, both of which took a couple of Bruin goaltenders. So, the 35-year-old Brooks became an NHL rookie. In 1973-74, his second season, Brooks reeled off 14 consecutive wins tying the record set by Tiny Thompson way back in the early days of the NHL. Surprisingly enough, on March 10, 1974, as destiny awaited Brooks, the Seals scored a shocking victory over the eventual Stanley Cup finalists, and just like that the streak was over. You may be surprised that even though newspapers of the era reported that he had matched Thompson’s 14-game winning streak Brooks’ name appears nowhere in the NHL record books. After Brooks had won two in a row coach Tom Johnson asked him to replace Gilles Gilbert in the middle of a game the Bruins were losing. Brooks was not tagged for the loss that night, but for some reason the NHL said that since that mop-up job was not a win either, the streak was actually broken at that point. Brooks then recorded 12 more wins in a row, but I’ve always believed he should have a share of the league record. He did in fact win 14 consecutive starts.
So, this week, I thought it would be appropriate to go back to that Seals-Bruins game and let you all read about it. You can read all about it right here, but since this is an article I’ve already posted, and it is frankly a little fuzzy and hard to read, I’ve added another, clearer write-up of the game, this time from the Oakland Tribune, which you may enjoy a little more.
Hi everyone! Happy Thanksgiving weekend to all of you American visitors to the site. I hope you had plenty of opportunities to gather with family and friends to celebrate this very important holiday. Here in Canada, we celebrate Thanksgiving in October, but we’re definitely aware of the American version of the holiday since Amazon can’t stop reminding us of their Black Friday sales, and there are hockey games in the middle of the work day (so annoying when you’re at the TV-less office and not at home).
While our American friends were digging in to their turkey suppers and cracking open a few Thanksgiving beers, my wife and I had a nice opportunity Thursday night to attend a talk by Canadian radio legend Terry O’Reilly. The Ottawa Writers’ Festival does this kind of thing every year and many big-name Canadian authors like Rick Westhead of TSN and Alan Doyle of Newfoundland folk-rock band Great Big Sea come through for the event. For those of you who don’t know Terry O’Reilly, no, I’m not talking about the legendary Tasmanian Devil of Boston Bruins fame, but rather a marketing and advertising veteran who has hosted his own CBC shows/podcasts, The Age of Persuasion and Under the Influence, for about two decades now. They are both incredibly fascinating shows about marketing, but they go far beyond that. He tells stories about all sorts of people and companies who took risks, suffered setbacks, but ended up altering the way we look at things or stumbling upon golden inventions that made them very rich and famous. If you have any interest in marketing, history, or pop culture, I strongly recommend that you check them out. O’Reilly was in Ottawa to give a talk about his latest book, Against the Grain, which is a series of stories about people who resisted outside pressure to eventually change the world.
He loves hockey as well, and has told many stories on his podcasts about Gordie Howe, Gerry Cheevers, Maurice Richard, and Roger Neilson, among others. After his talk, he stuck around to sign copies of his latest book, and my wife snapped a shot of Terry and I. In case you’re wondering, yes, we are in a church. No reason in particular why the event was held here, except that the church is obviously very supportive of the Ottawa Writers’ Festival, but it was a pretty, comfortable setting, very literary-ey, and I can only hope to do some sort of similar event one day when one of my books comes out.
Anyway, enough about me, and on to this week’s Seals article. This week, I’d like to take everyone back to January 1969 to a game in which the Seals, who were in the middle of a fairly successful season, took on the mighty Bobby Hull and the Chicago Black Hawks, and came out on top. The Seals had been particularly successful that year against the East Division, and the Hawks were Oakland’s most regular victim (5 wins in 6 games!). On this night Gerry Ehman, 36, had the game of his life shadowing Hull into submission, while Carol Vadnais brought the offense playing one of the best games of his young burgeoning career. You can read all about the Seals’ big night right here.
Enjoy the long weekend, folks, and take some time to relax. Until next time, stay gold!
Hi everyone! I hope you have all had a great week. I, for one, had the opportunity to indulge in one of my passions: learning about the history of this great sport. Reading and writing are of course favorite activities of mine, but I also thoroughly enjoy shooting the breeze with retired players, and asking all those questions that I have burning in my brain for some time.
I had a nice conversation yesterday with WHA great Ron Ward, who just happens to hail from my hometown of Cornwall, Ontario. I sent him an interview request a few weeks ago, so I could ask him a few questions about a legendary game in which Ward’s Cleveland Crusaders came back from a six-goal deficit to defeat the Toronto Toros, 10-9. I’ve written a chapter about this game in my new book, Mucking in the Corners, which is due for release next October. We had a very pleasant conversation, as is always the case when you get to talk old-time hockey with someone who has retired from the game. I absolutely love doing these interviews. I wasn’t planning on doing any for this book, but the more I reflected on it, I just couldn’t resist reaching out to a couple of players who feature prominently in the book. Ward’s insight into the forgotten, but immensely interesting game was truly appreciated. He revealed details to me that I never could have found in newspapers and magazines, like what the players were thinking as they were down 8-2 in the second period, and how a couple of guys (one of which was former Seal Paul Shmyr) rallied everyone in the dressing room and sparked the huge comeback. I can’t wait for all of you to read the book, and I will continue to keep you updated on its progress, so stay tuned!
While I had a pleasant chat with a local hockey legend, the Seals also hoped, way back in their early NHL years, to have a local step up to keep the floundering team in Oakland. This was no easy feat as Barry van Gerbig could not seem to attract any Bay Area money, so people came out of the woodwork to rescue the ailing franchise. This week, I’ve added a new article detailing the 1969 sale of the Oakland Seals to a group of New Yorkers that included Trans-National Communications, Seymour and Northrup Knox, Whitey Ford, Pat Summerall, Dick Lynch, and probably a few other lesser-known people. As is usually the case when a convoluted ownership group purchases a sports franchise, things didn’t go so well, and in a little over a year, the group was looking to sell the Seals. This time, they managed to find (sort of) local ownership, but when you think about how Charlie Finley nearly destroyed the team, things actually got worse. You can read this week’s article, courtesy of Bob Marceau, right here.
