World Hockey Association (1973)
Tombstone
Born: May 30, 1973- Re-branded from New York Raiders
Moved: November 20, 1973 (Jersey Knights)
First Game: October 6, 1973 (T 2-2 @ Cleveland Crusaders)
Last Game: November 18, 1973 (W 5-3 vs. Chicago Cougars)
AVCO Cup Championships: None
Arena
Marketing
Team Colors:
Ownership
Owner: Ralf Brent, Lee Matison & Lawrence Stern
Background
The New York Golden Blades lasted for just 24 games and marked the grim conclusion to the World Hockey Association’s hopes to plant its flag in New York. The WHA, a 1970’s rival to the NHL, originally hoped to place its New York Raiders franchise in the brand new Nassau Coliseum on Long Island in 1972. But the senior circuit blocked the WHA from Nassau by hastily awarding the New York Islanders expansion club to Long Island. The Raiders wound up in Manhattan, getting pushed around by the New York Rangers at the Madison Square Garden. The team’s original investors bailed and the league had to take over the Raiders two months into the WHA’s 1972-73 maiden season.
The league found a new buyer in the spring of 1973 with a consortium led by Ralf Brent. Brent’s group took over the club and immediately changed the name from Raiders to “Golden Blades”. The team, in fact, would wear white skates with gold colored blades. The Golden Blades scored an early coup in the summer of 1973, signing the league’s reigning scoring champion Andre Lacroix away from the similarly troubled Philadelphia Blazers club. Then things went south in a hurry.
Exiled to Jersey
The new owners were still saddled with the Raiders’ old lousy dates and expensive lease at the Garden. And they turned out not to have any real money. Brent & Co. missed their very first payroll in October 1973. (At least the Raiders’ owners made two payrolls before evaporating the previous winter). The WHA took over player payroll, but Brent and his partners were still responsible for funding the remaining operations of the Blades. By November 1973 they were on the verge of eviction from Madison Square Garden. The league stepped in on November 20th and seized the franchise. The Golden Blades were swiftly shipped off to tiny 5,000 Cherry Hill Arena on the outskirts of Philadelphia and finished out the 1973-74 season as the “Jersey Knights”.
The WHA never returned to New York. The league folded in 1979 following a merger that saw four of its teams join the NHL.
New York Golden Blades Shop
Contains Affiliate Links
New York Golden Blades Logo T from Old School Shirts
The Rebel League: The Short & Unruly Life of the World Hockey Association
by Ed Willes
Links
World Hockey Association Programs
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2 Responses
After that 1973-74 season, the Jersey Knights moved to San Diego and became the Mariners. They lasted three years in SoCal before they folded.
In the spring of 1975, Ben Leuzzi – owner of Verona Sports Center in Verona, NJ acquired all the NY Golden Blades equipment. Jerseys, pants, gloves, jock straps… everything. I went with him to a Manhattan office building to retrieve the stash and bring it back to Verona. Soon afterward, Ben decided to start a new Midget hockey team, and we’d call it the NJ Golden Blades. I was the team’s Vice-President and trainer. We cleaned up the equipment, removed the player names from the jerseys and played our first game in early October 1975. The teenagers were proud to wear the jerseys worn by Andre Lacroix, Harry Howell and many others. The organization continued operations thru 1983, using the original jerseys, and later – replica jerseys with the same pattern and colors. No, we did not paint our skates white, though I did award Ben a 14k gold plated blade at the end of that first season. People often asked Ben – one of my mentors, why he didn’t hold on to the jerseys and sell them later for thousands of dollars. For Ben, it was never about the money. it was about doing the right thing. If I could, I’d post photos to prove all of the above.