Charlie Burns

WHL Seals career regular-season stats: 230 GP, 92 G, 145 A, 237 PTS, 101 PIM

WHL Seals career playoff stats: 24 GP, 2 G, 8 A, 10 PTS, 17 PIM

NHL Seals career stats: 73 GP, 9 G, 26 A, 35 PTS, 20 PIM

The helmeted Charlie Burns was a standout performer for the San Francisco Seals for four years, including the club’s 1963-64 championship season, and one more year with the Oakland Seals of the NHL. He had been an outstanding penalty-killer with Boston and Detroit before landing in San Francisco, but with the Seals he was given free rein to rush up the ice and score goals. He was a highly respected, hard-working player with the Seals, becoming the team’s alternate captain in 1963-64, and co-captain in 1965-66.  Burns also became the Seals’ second-ever player-coach, replacing Bud Poile behind the bench. In 1966-67, Burns not only became the Seals sole captain, but also spent two more stints behind the Seals’ bench, accumulating a 22-13-3 record.

Burns holds the WHL Seals’ all-time record for goals by a center (92).  He also holds the single-season records for assists-per-game average (.875 in 1965-66) and goals by a center (33 in 1963-64).

He won the Coleman E. Hall Trophy as the Seals’ leading scorer (69 points) in 1963-64, and he won the Booster Club Trophy in 1964 and 1965 as the team’s most popular player. Despite pulling off double duty as coach and player, Burns led the Seals in assists (38) in 1966-67.

In the NHL, Burns assisted on the Seals’ first-ever regular-season goal (scored by Kent Douglas, Oct. 11, 1967 vs Philadelphia). By season’s end, he was the team leader in assists (26). He was claimed by Pittsburgh in the Intra-league draft during the off-season, and he would continue playing in the NHL until 1973.

Fred Glover

NHL Seals career coaching record: 356 games, 96 W, 207 L, 53 T

Fred Glover was there behind the Seals bench during the best of times and the worst of times. The worst of times would be, of course, the Charlie Finley years from 1970 to 1974. The best of times would be the 1968-69 and 1969-70 seasons when the Seals qualified for the playoffs. The 1968-69 Seals were, of course, the best team in franchise history setting a team-record 69 points, but also finishing in second place in the West Division. Before that season started, Glover was instrumental in helping Frank Selke and Bill Torrey rejuvenate a team that had finished dead last the year before. Glover put in a good word for Norm Ferguson, who was coming off a 42-goal scorer with the Cleveland Barons, the team for whom Glover had been a player-coach.

Glover had some interesting coaching tactics, notably his penchant for joining in team scrimmages, possibly in the hope of resurrecting his playing career. Whether this practice actually managed to inspire his players or not is anybody’s guess, but Glover was successful in getting his players to believe in themselves his first year behind the bench. The Jack Adams award did not exist at the time, but Glover did win 1969 Coach-of-the-Year honours from The Hockey News. The following year was not as successful, but the Seals still qualified for the playoffs as the West Division’s last entrant.

Just three games into the 1971-72 season general manager Garry Young replaced Glover with Vic Stasiuk, but Glover was brought back into the fold the following year by Charlie Finley, who then named Glover general manager after Young was dismissed. Glover held the two positions until his resignation in February 1974.

Glover holds just about every coaching record in franchise history, including most games behind the bench (356), most career wins (96), most playoff appearances (2), most wins in one season (29), and most points in one season (69).

Krazy George Henderson

Of everyone who has been associated with the California Golden Seals, none have had a greater influence on sports than Krazy George Henderson. You need a cheerleader to get your home team pumped, call Krazy George! His list of past employers is as long as a telephone book, and he has dabbled in just about every professional and amateur sport in North America, including hockey, baseball, football, and soccer. He is also an accomplished martial artist.

He is of course best known as the Seals’ one-man cheer-leading squad, a job he secured by accident, but one that would lead to widespread fame. The Seals enjoyed his antics in the stands, so they hired him to rouse the Oakland Coliseum crowd, a job he held until the Seals moved to Cleveland in 1976. George used to love calling opposing players “turkeys” and other such family-friendly slurs, but he was most known for banging his drum while running up and down the stairs at the arena. More than a few opposing players may have relished the thought of wrapping their hands around George’s neck, but almost all of them would have welcomed him with open arms had he chosen to cheer for their team!

Among his greatest accomplishments is the invention of the wave, which occurred October 15, 1981 at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum. In 2017, Krazy George published his memoir, Still Krazy After All These Cheers, adding “author” to his long list of personal accomplishments. While he only spent a brief period of his career cheering on the Seals, Krazy George is still most associated with the NHL’s most maligned franchise.