Adirondack Red Wings

American Hockey League (1979-1999)

Tombstone

Born: January 25, 1979 – AHL expansion franchise
Folded: May 17, 1999

First Game: October 11, 1979 (W 8-3 vs. Hershey Bears)
Last Game: April 24, 1999 (L 2-1 vs. Rochester Americans)

Calder Cup Champions: 1981, 1986, 1989 & 1992

Arena

Glens Falls Civic Center (4,806)¹
Opened: 1979

Marketing

Team Colors: Red & White²

Radio:

1980-81: WROW (590 AM)

Radio Broadcaster:

1980-81: Dave Strader

Ownership & Affiliation

Owners:

1979-1982: Detroit Red Wings (Bruce Norris)
1982-1999: Detroit Red Wings (Mike Ilitch & Marian Ilitch)

NHL Affiliation: Detroit Red Wings

Background

Throughout the 1980’s and 1990’s, tiny Glens Falls, New York was one of the smallest cities in North America to boast of its own pro hockey team. The city of just 16,000 had not just any rinky dink club, but the top farm club of the Detroit Red Wings for 20 seasons. The Adirondack Red Wings of the American Hockey League were a great success story during the 1980’s, routinely packing Glens Falls’ 4,800-seat Civic Center.

The Red Wings set up shop in Glens Falls during an especially grim period in Detroit hockey history. Hockeytown was in the grip of the “Dead Wings” era in 1979, a period of futility that extended from 1967 into the early 1980’s. In the fall of 1979, Detroit had employed ten different men as head coach over the past 10 seasons.

Ned Harkness was one of those men. Detroit’s former head coach (1970-1971) and general manager (1971-1974) was held in particularly low regard by Wings fans, who referred to his early ’70’s reign as “Darkness with Harkness“. Harkness was out of the NHL by 1979 and settled into Glens Falls as General Manager of Detroit’s new farm club and manager of the brand new Glens Falls Civic Center.

Death of Larry Wilson

The club got off to a tragic start. Detroit previously had its top farm club at Kansas City’s Kemper Arena from 1977 to 1979. Larry Wilson was the head coach of the Kansas City Red Wings and Detroit sent the 48-year old to Glens Falls to helm the Adirondack club for its debut season in the AHL in 1979-80. In August 1979, as Wilson worked to set up training camp and settle his family in Glens Falls, he suffered a fatal heart attack while jogging.

Calder Cup Triumphs

From 1980 until the team’s demise in 1999, the Red Wings made the Calder Cup playoffs every spring except 1985. Adirondack also made it to four Calder Cup finals between 1981 and 1992, winning the championship every time.

The club’s first Calder Cup victory came in the spring of 1981. The Wings clinched the title on home ice, defeating the Maine Mariners in Game 6 on May 20th, 1981 before a then-record 6,162 fans at the Civic Center.

1986 saw another series-clinching Game 6 win at the Civic Center as the Wings iced the Hershey Bears before 6,401 fans (another new record) on May 21st.

The 1988-89 Adirondack squad set a franchise record for wins (47-27-6) and easily won the AHL’s South Division. The playoffs took a dire turn when the #2 seed Hershey Bears took a 3-0 lead in the Calder Cup semi-finals. Incredibly, the Wings reeled off four straight wins to win the best-of-7 series. Adirondack easily disposed of the New Haven Nighthawks in five games in the Finals to claim their third Calder Cup of the 80’s.

The Wings claimed their final Calder Cup in May 1992. They beat the St. John’s Maple Leafs in an odd seven-game series where both teams lost all of their home games.

Decline & Demise

Attendance began to dip in the early 1990’s. The 1991-92 season was the year Adirondack won its last Calder Cup. It was also the first time average crowds at the Civic Center fellow below the 4,000 mark for the season. Larger economic forces arrayed against the Glens Falls as well. The city’s population was in decline and the AHL was moving into big arenas and larger markets and out of from the small eastern Canadian and Rust Belt civic centers of the 1970’s and 1980’s.

Detroit sought to move their top farm team to a new $48 million arena is Rossford, Ohio for the 2000-01 AHL season. In March 1999, Detroit announced that the Wings would leave Glens Falls after the 1999-000 season. But two months later, Detroit shocked Glens Falls officials and hockey fans by announcing the Adirondack club would close immediately. Detroit would go without an AHL affiliate in 1999-00 rather than stay another year in Glens Falls.

The Rossford, Ohio arena deal later collapsed. The former Adirondack franchise sat in mothballs for the next three years.

In the spring of 2002, the NHL’s Florida Panthers and NBA’s San Antonio Spurs partnered to purchase the dormant Adirondack AHL membership from the Red Wings. The San Antonio Rampage, who can loosely trace their lineage back to the Adirondack Red Wings, began play in 2002 and remain active today.

Meanwhile, a parade of successor clubs took up residence at the Civic Center. But the Icehawks, Frostbite, Phantoms, Flames and Thunder have all failed to re-capture the magic or staying power of the Red Wings.

Trivia

Glenn Merkosky was Adirondack’s all-time leader in games (430), goals (204), assists (212) and points (416). Merkosky skated for the Wings from 1985 to 1991. He later returned to coach the club for its final three seasons from 1997 to 1999.