Salt Lake Golden Eagles

Western Hockey League (1969-1974)
Central Hockey League (1974-1984)
International Hockey League (1984-1994)

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Salt Palace Arena
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Best known outside Utah as the first home of the NBA’s Jazz from 1979 to 1991, the Salt Palace also hosted plenty of Fun While It Lasted teams include the Utah Stars of the ABA, minor league hockey’s Golden Eagles and the Stingers co-ed volleyball team. The Palace was demolished in 1994. 

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Background

The Salt Lake Golden Eagles hockey team was a popular mainstay on the Utah pro sports scene for a quarter century. That Eagles endured despite the shocking and untimely deaths of two team owners, the collapse of two hockey leagues of which they were members, and several 11th hour rescues from financial calamity.

The Eagles originated as an expansion franchise in the Western Hockey League in June 1968. The club finished in last place in the WHL in each of its first two seasons. Salt Lake enjoyed its first winning season in 1972-73 and advanced to the Lester Patrick Cup Finals that spring, losing to the Phoenix Roadrunners.

Mysterious Death of Daniel Meyer

Team founder Daniel Meyer never got to see his club win. WHL owners assembled for meetings at the National Hockey League All-Star Game, hosted by the Minnesota North Stars, in late January 1972. On the evening of the game, Meyer returned to his room on the 19th floor of the Bloomington Radisson Hotel. A short time later he crashed through window and fell to his death on the hotel’s pool patio. The cirumstances of his death remain murky. A Minnesota grand jury ruled Meyer’s death a suicide. The county medical examiner ruled the cause “undetermined”, noting that blood was found inside the hotel room, along with Meyer’s empty wallet, a broken lamp and his eyeglasses with one lens popped out.

Charlie O. Finley, the colorful owner of baseball Oakland A’s and the NHL’s California Golden Seals, purchased the Golden Eagles from Meyer’s estate in May 1972. He immediately changed the team colors to the green-and-gold combo worn by both the A’s and the Seals. But Finley quickly ran into money problems. The NHL foreclosed on his hockey properties in 1973, taking control of both the Seals and the Golden Eagles. The Finley debacle brought about the Golden Eagles first brush with death. NHL owners were not interested in propping up a Western League franchise. A press conference was called in August 1974 to announce the shut down of the team. But at the last moment, local businessmen Art Teece and O. Thayne Acord stepped forward to rescue the team.

New Owners, New League

The same reprieve was not offered to the Western Hockey League. The circuit shut down in the summer of 1974, looted of both West Coast markets and talent by the NHL-World Hockey Association expansion wars. Under the new ownership of Teece and Acord, the Golden Eagles joined the Central Hockey League in the fall of 1974.

The Golden Eagles won the CHL’s Adams Cup championship in the spring of 1975 at the end of their first year with new owners, a new league and a new head coach. The thrilling 1975 championship series against the Dallas Black Hawks went the full seven games with Game 7 going to sudden death overtime. Gary Holt scored the series clincher 18 minutes into overtime, sending a Salt Palace crowd of 11,018 into delirium. Holt’s brother Randy Holt was on the ice for Dallas at the moment he scored the winning goal.

Jack Evans was the new coach of the team during the charmed winter of 1974-75. The title would help Evans earn a promotion to the head job with Salt Lake’s NHL parent club, the Golden Seals. After three NHL seasons with the Seals/Cleveland Barons, Evans would return to the bench in Salt Lake in 1978 and win back-to-back Adams Cups in 1980 and 1981.

Murder of Thayne & Lorraine Acord

Tragedy struck again in February 1980. A pair of teenage burglars ambushed co-owner O. Thayne Acord and his wife in their Utah home. After forcing Acord out of the house to withdraw $800 from a local bank, 18-year old John Calhoun brought him back to the home where he executed Acord and his wife by gunshot in their basement. Calhoun and his 15-year old accomplice were arrested the following day. Calhoun was tried on capital murder charges and spared the death penalty by a single holdout juror who was reportedly unwilling to impose the sentence on a teenager. He was sentenced to consecutive life imprisonment terms.

The Acords’ sons, Bill and Dean, continued to help operated the team for the next four seasons after the murder of their parents.

1984: Into the International Hockey League

The Central Hockey League folded in the spring of 1984. It was the second time in 10 years that the Golden Eagles lost their league. On July 10, 1984, the Eagles were granted admission to the International Hockey League, but under onerous terms. The IHL, formed in 1945, was historically a bus league based in the upper midwest. Expanding to Utah required air travel and the Golden Eagles were compelled to pay the travel costs of their opponents for the 1984-85 season.

The Golden Eagles enjoyed three more terrific years at the end of the 1980’s. The club won back-to-back Turner Cup trophies as champions of the IHL in 1987 and 1988. They returned to the finals for a third straight season in 1989, but lost.  Long-time owner Art Teece sold out to Utah Jazz NBA owner Larry Miller on the eve of the 1989-90 IHL season.

Move To Detroit

Miller kept the team in Salt Lake for another five seasons. He sold the team to fellow NBA owner William Davidson in April 1994. Davidson moved the team to Detroit where it became known as the Detroit Vipers. The Vipers folded along with the rest of the IHL in the spring of 2001.

Trivia

The Golden Eagles retired the numbers of two players during their 24 seasons of play: #11 Lyle Bradley (1969-1978) and #24 Doug Palazzari (1977-1982).

NHL 50-goal scorers Charlie Simmer, Joey Mullen and Theo Fleury all began their pro careers with the Golden Eagles. Simmer played parts of three seasons in Salt Lake from 1974 to 1977. Mullen skated parts of three campaigns from 1979 to 1982. Fleury appeared in parts of two seasons in 1988 and 1989.

The 1981-82 Golden Eagles reeled off an 18-game unbeaten streak, establishing an all-time record for the Central Hockey League.

Salt Lake Golden Eagles Shop

Contains Affiliate Links

Ice Warriors: The Pacific/West Coast Hockey League 1948-1974
by Jon C. Stott

Salt Lake Golden Eagles Video

Local news coverage of the Golden Eagles’ 1988 Turner Cup championship.

In Memoriam

Golden Eagles founder/owner Daniel Meyer fell to his death from the window of his hotel room at the 1972 NHL All-Star Game weekend in Bloomington, Minnesota. He was 45 years old. The circumstances of his death remain in dispute.

Co-Owner O. Thayne Acord (Golden Eagles ’74-’80) was murdered in a home invasion along with his wife Lorraine Acord by two teenage assailants on February 27, 1980.

Head Coach Jack Evans (Golden Eagles ’74-’75 and ’78-’83) guided the team to three Adams Cup championships. He died of prostate cancer on November 10, 1996 at age 68. New York Times obituary.

Team owner Larry H. Miller (Golden Eagles ’89-’94) died at age 64 on February 20, 2009 from complications on Type II diabetes. Deseret News obituary.

Owner Art Teece (Golden Eagles ’74-’89) passed away on April 25, 2011 at age 98. Salt Lake Tribune obituary.

Downloads

11-6-1969 Golden Eagles Fan Letter From Broadcaster Jim Fisher

10-5-1973 Golden Eagles vs. Albuquerque Six Guns Exhibition Program

Links

Western Hockey League Media Guides

Western Hockey League Programs

Central Hockey League Media Guides

Central Hockey League Programs

International Hockey League Media Guides

International Hockey League Programs

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