New Haven Nighthawks

American Hockey League (1972-1992)

Tombstone

Born: 1972
Re-Branded: 1992 (New Haven Senators)

First Game: October 4, 1972 (L 7-4 vs. Springfield Kings)
Last Game: April 18, 1992 (L 4-1 @ Adirondack Red Wings)

Calder Cup Championships: None

Arena

New Haven Coliseum (8,765)¹
Opened: 1972
Demolished: 2007

Marketing

Team Colors:

1972-1973: Yellow, Blue & White
1979-1980: Red, White & Blue²
1988-1992: Silver, Black & White³

Radio:

1973-1975: WELI (960 AM)
1978-1979: WNHC (1340 AM)
1980-1981: WAVZ (1300 AM)

Radio Broadcasters:

1973-1974: Ron Rohmer & Bill Beamish
1974-1975: Ron Rohmer & Larry Hirsch
1977-1981: Nick Nickson

Ownership & Affiliation

Owners:

1972-1979: Jack McColl, et al.
1979-1983: Joel Schiavone
1983-1991: Los Angeles Kings (Dr. Jerry Buss)
1991-1992: Peter Shipman

Sale (1991): $386,000⁴

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Background

The New Haven Nighthawks were the first (and by the far the finest) of four minor hockey franchises to make their home in the New Haven Veterans Memorial Coliseum. The Coliseum, opened in 1972, was a capstone of the massive urban renewal investments in New Haven during the long Mayoral regime of Richard C. Lee (1954-1970). The 11,000-seat building was a ghastly concrete and steel edifice with a novel design element: a four-story steel parking garage balanced atop the arena’s roof.

The Nighthawks joined the American Hockey League as an expansion club in 1972 and would be the anchor tenant of the building for the next twenty years. The Nighthawks first appearance in New Haven was an exhibition contest against their NHL parent club, the Minnesota North Stars, on September 27th, 1972. The crowd of 8,114 was the largest that would ever watch a Nighthawks game at the Coliseum.

The Nighthawks’ finest years came during the 1970’s. The Coliseum was still new and the team served as a farm club for NHL teams with local Connecticut fan appeal, including the New York Islanders (1972-73) and New York Rangers (1977-1981). In a five-season stretch between 1975 and 1979, the Nighthawks made three Calder Cup finals appearances, losing all three times.

Decay of the Coliseum

The Nighthawks’ fortunes declined in the 1980’s. The Rangers affiliation ended in 1981, replaced by the Los Angeles Kings who bought the team outright from local ownership in 1983. The steel parking garage on the Coliseum roof began to rust and corrode. In 1980 a piece concrete fell from the garage and struck Coliseum Executive Director Anthony Tavares as he walked on the sidewalk below. By the middle of the decade, more than half of the 2,400 parking spots on the roof were cordoned off as unsafe. Inside the arena, enormous curtains draped off the thousands of Coliseum seats that went unsold for Nighthawks games.

In the spring of 1987, the Los Angeles Kings issued an ultimatum to the Nighthawks’ local advisory board: sell 1,300 season tickets for the 1987-88 season or lose the team. Joel Schiavone, the team’s former owner and still chairman of the advisory board, ascended to the Coliseum roof and camped out for a week in a plywood shack with a telephone and a portable toilet. Schiavone’s Save the Team stunt worked and bought the Nighthawks another five seasons in New Haven, even as public officials openly discussed plans for tearing down and re-developing the Coliseum.

In the spring of 1989, despite a 4th place regular season finish, the Nighthawks caught fire in the playoffs and made it to the Calder Cup finals. The Adirondack Red Wings defeated the Nighthawks in five games. It was the Nighthawks’ fourth and final championship series appearance. The club never managed to hoist the Calder Cup.

Demise & Aftermath

In 1992, the NHL’s newest expansion franchise, the Ottawa Senators, became the new parent club of the Nighthawks. The Senators compelled New Haven’s new owner, Peter Shipman, to re-brand the team as the New Haven Senators for the 1992-93 season. With the demise of the beloved Nighthawks, fan interest crashed through the floor the next winter. The former Nighthawks franchise left town for Prince Edward Island, Canada in the summer of 1993.

The AHL returned to New Haven and the Coliseum with the Beast of New Haven franchise. That club lasted just two seasons and was quickly replaced by the New Haven Knights of the lower-level United Hockey League. The Knights folded up shop in 2002 and the Coliseum closed down later that year. The hulking carcass of the Coliseum remained downtown for five more years as parts of the building were plucked away and city fathers debated who would pay for the final demolition. After years of inertia, the remaining structure of the Coliseum was imploded in January 2007.