American Hockey League (1971-1974)
Tombstone
Founded: 1971 – AHL expansion franchise
Ceased Operations: 1974
First Game: October 8, 1971 (T 3-3 vs. Cleveland Barons)
Last Game: March 31, 1974 (L 5-3 @ Nova Scotia Voyageurs)
Calder Cup Championships: None
Arenas
1971-1974: Boston Garden (14,995)
Opened: 1928
Demolished: 1998
1974: Ridge Arena (3,700)1NO BYLINE. “Six Braves’ games switched to Ridge Arena”. The Globe (Boston, MA). January 18, 1974
Opened: 1965
Demolished: 20042NO BYLINE. “Whatever Happened to: Ridge Arena in Braintree”. The Patriot-Ledger (Quincy, MA). November 7, 2018
Marketing
Team Colors: Cardinal Red, Black & White
Ownership
Owners:
- 1971-1973: Weston Adams
- 1973-1974: Storer Broadcasting Company
Attendance
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Source: 1994-95 American Hockey League Official Guide & Record Book
Our Favorite Stuff
Boston Braves 1971-1974
Logo T-Shirt
Not the baseball Boston Braves, but rather the briefly popular but ultimately doomed Braves hockey team of the early 1970’s. The Braves developed outstanding future NHL stars such as Terry O’Reilly and Dan Bouchard during their short three-season run in the AHL.
This Heather Red design is also available as a Hooded or Crewneck Sweatshirt and as a Women’s V-neck right now at Old School Shirts!
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Background
Our recent post on the Boston Bruins-New England Whalers hockey rivalry of the 1970’s inspired a couple of nostalgic comments about the third team in Boston’s hockey universe back in the early 1970’s: the Boston Braves.
Pro hockey grew so popular in Boston during the Big Bad Bruins era of the early 1970’s that the demand for tickets greatly exceeded what the Boston Garden could hold for NHL hockey. Meanwhile, the B’s top farm club was half a country away at Oklahoma City in the Central Hockey League. The Bruins’ ownership decided to kill two birds with one stone and applied for an expansion team in the East Coast-based American Hockey League. The Boston Braves debuted in the autumn of 1971.
Braves Shatter AHL Attendance Record
Massachusetts immediately went crazy for the Baby Bruins. The Braves sold 6,500 season tickets. The team broke the single game attendance record in the 35-year old AHL twice in their first eight home games.
“They’re a young crowd, the Braves’ fans,” Bruins and Braves publicity director Herb Ralby told The Nashua (NH) Telegraph in November 1971. “They’re people who couldn’t get Bruins tickets. They’re the Bruins fans of tomorrow…this is a hockey town.”
It helped that the Braves had a terrific team. Seasoned NHL veterans Garry Peters and Doug Roberts both scored over 30 goals, as did prospect Don Tannahill. Netminder Dan Bouchard was outstanding – the next fall he would join the expansion Atlanta Flames as their starting goaltender and go on to play 15 seasons in the NHL.
The Braves prospect who would go on to have the biggest impact in Boston was right winger Terry O’Reilly, the Bruins first round pick in the 1971 NHL amateur draft. (O’Reilly is pictured on the cover of the December 1971 Braves program above). O’Reilly played 60 games for the Braves in 1971-72 and then never played another game in the minor leagues. From 1972 to 1985 he was one of Boston’s most popular athletes in a career spent entirely with the Bruins. He later coach the Bruins from 1986 to 1989.
The Braves’ 41-21-14 record in 1971-72 was tied for best in the AHL, although they would fall in the 2nd round of the Calder Cup playoffs. At the box office, the Braves averaged a stunning 11,208 fans per game at the Boston Garden. The figure was nearly double the league’s second most popular team, the Hershey Bears, and established a new all-time AHL single season attendance record.
Pushed Aside by the WHA
And that, pretty much, was that. One wonderful winter of hockey in Boston when the Bruins won the Stanley Cup and the Braves were nearly as popular. We have a “One-Year Wonders” category here on FWiL. Technically, it’s only for teams that exist for just a single season, so the Braves don’t meet the criteria. But spiritually, this is where they belong.
The next fall, the big budget World Hockey Association began play, raiding the NHL (and the AHL, for that matter) for talent. The New England Whalers set up shop at the Garden in October 1972 and now the city had three pro hockey teams. During the 1972-73 season, Braves attendance crashed to 4,392 per game. In 1973-74, the Braves’ final season, attendance fell all the way to 1,328 per game. During the final months of the season, the Bruins moved several Braves home dates out of the Garden to the suburban Ridge Arena in Braintree to cut costs. In just 24 months, the Braves went from selling the most tickets in the history of the AHL to having the worst attendance in the 12-team league.
The Braves went dormant in 1974, although the Bruins reportedly kept paying the AHL a small annual fee to keep their rights to revive the franchise well into the 1980’s. They never did.
Boston Braves Shop
In Memoriam
Head coach Armand “Bep” Guidolin (Braves ’71-’72) passed away on November 24th, 2008 at the age of 82. Guidolin holds the distinction of being the youngest player ever to play an NHL game when he made his debut for the Boston Bruins in November 1942 at the age of 16 years, 11 months old.
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7 Responses
The franchise that was originally the Boston Braves, and was dormant for many years, was revived in 1989-90 when the Capital District (Troy, N.Y.) Islanders purchased the dormant franchise rights and set up shop at the RPI Fieldhouse in Troy. At that time, there were three minor league hockey franchises within an hour’s drive from each other – the AHL already had the Adirondack (Glens Falls, N.Y.) Red Wings, and the IHL had just moved a franchise to Albany (the Choppers).
As for teams that share their NHL and AHL affiliates in the same city, I believe that the Toronto Marlies are the farm team for the Maple Leafs; and the Charlotte Checkers aren’t very far from the Carolina Hurricanes.
Actually, Chuck’s wrong. It wasn’t CDI which purchased the old Braves’ franchise; it was the Winnipeg Jets, when they set up the Moncton Hawks in 1987.
That being said, there’s an offbeat postscript to the story. In the mid-70s, I was in a senior league based out of Westwood, MA, playing for the “Frogs” – we named the team because we had generic green North Stars-style jerseys. One of the teams actually managed to obtain the road uniforms of the Braves, and put on quite the airs in consequence. They were one of our two chief rivals, and occasionally had the services of Jim Troy, a minor league goon who’d had a cup of coffee with the Whalers and the Oilers.
That first year of the Braves was a blast. The Bruins were dominating and all the la-de-da’s were buying up the tickets for big bucks. The Braves had a hot team too and were a lot of fun to watch. I think they would have whupped the NHL Buffalo Sabres in a series. The Reds were still in the Auditorium then and Springfield at the Big E. Both places were electric for watching hockey and sadly it was the last year for both. ’71-’72 – what a great season for southern New England hockey. My ’63 Fairlane got a real workout that winter. Then the WHA came along and screwed up everything. Sucked. Oh well. These days I go to games in Tampa and cold winters and the old Gahden are just a memory.
If I’m not mistaken, the Whalers played at old Boston Arena not the Boston Garden. Why would Bruins brass allow their competition to play at their venue?????. They were only in Boston for a year and then moved to Springfield for a year and finally to Hartford.
Hi Jim,
The Whalers split the 1972-73 season between the Garden (19 games) and the Boston Arena (20 home dates). WHA teams had some weird and complicated relationships with their NHL rivals. Most notably in Toronto, where Maple Leafs owner Harold Ballard controlled Maple Leaf Gardens and was virulently anti-WHA. Nevertheless, he rented Maple Leaf Gardens to the WHA’s Toronto Toros – yet played all sorts of operational and financial dirty tricks on the Toros to make their lives miserable there.
Drew
I was 12 or 13 when the Whalers beat Winnipeg for the first Avco Cup at Boston Garden. The Whalers had to lose the previous game to make our tickets good. Side note, The Whalers equipment was stolen from the Boston Arena one night and most of the team played the next game with new equipment.
Who wore #25 in the mid 70’s with the Boston Braves hockey team?