The IHL’s posthumous 75th anniversary: Fine tubing

The IHL’s unique ’90s boom fed itself on a national TV deal that showcased world-class prospects and household NHL veterans in ways other leagues could not.

The IHL’s ambitious big-city, big-venue campaign of the ’90s coincided with mass marketing initiatives across Triple-A hockey. On that level, if nowhere else, the largely rogue, not-quite-major league shared a common goal with the decidedly JV, NHL-dependent AHL.

The Professional Hockey Players Association, which encompassed both leagues, struck a deal with Classic Sports, Inc. to produce trading cards. Replica jerseys and hats appeared in stores and catalogs that also named every mascot. You can still find old IHL team merchandise on the River City Sports website.

“All of a sudden, minor-league hockey was being looked at the same way as Triple-A baseball and first-round picks in the NBA draft,” said former IHL marketing director Mike McCall.

In the ’70s and ’80s, Toledo baseball garnered household fame through Jamie Farr and his M*A*S*H* alter ego Max Klinger. Now the cards were boosting IHL player profiles while the outerwear made the Solar Bears and Ice Dogs the new Mud Hens.

Of his many Classic team sets, Kansas City fan turned AHL broadcaster Zack Fisch said, “Not growing up in an NHL market, the Blades players were basically superstars to us, so it was always fun to get cards of the guys you idolized.”

Lively logos and color combinations amplified the apparel’s appeal. Whereas most AHL teams copied their parent club’s name and uniform, IHL franchises dictated their own identity. They could sell themselves by standing out.

At the IHL’s peak of 19 clubs, 12 brandished zoological or mythological emblems, even if they did not derive their nicknames from animals. In addition, the Houston Aeros and Cincinnati Cyclones had a snarling fighter jet and tooth-missing, stick-wielding tornado, respectively.

Late in the decade, these practices caught on in major sports leagues. Consider the brief makeovers of the New York Islanders and Washington Capitals. Or the first fashion impressions of the NHL’s four-member expansion class of 1998-2000. Or the Detroit Vipers’ Palace roommates abandoning their lifelong look for new colors and a flaming-horse logo.

Come what may, with its independence, the ‘I’ took bolder risks and acknowledged the flashy ’90s culture. Teal was an era-defining fad at all levels in all sports, but many IHL tenants saturated their jerseys with four or five outlandish hues.

The Orlando Solar Bears typified that overload with solar purple, seafoam green, growling grey, sunset orange, ice blue, and solar eclipse black. Of those six, Crayola only recognizes sunset orange.

Elder franchises joined the radicalization as well. From 1977 to 1998, the Milwaukee Admirals wore a Team USA-like scheme. Then they darkened their existing shades, added copper and silver trim, and scribbled wave-like patterns along their jersey’s lower tier.

“We didn’t stifle them,” said McCall. “It allowed those teams who wanted to be creative and innovative to do that.”

Those decisions might have prickled the purists, but one could not argue with the profits. By then-commissioner Bob Ufer’s recollection, the league surpassed $25 million in licensed merchandise sales in 1995-96.

The trading cards and TV were the keys to flaunting those fashion statements. To that point, the IHL repurposed another big-league discard in 1992.

The NHL had severed broadcasting ties with SportsChannel America in favor of ESPN. With the eventual formation of Prime SportsChannel, the IHL found a cable abode for sporadic national telecasts and regular team-specific coverage on local branches. The likes of Chicago and Houston regularly had their regional networks follow the team to distant road games.

The small screen’s celebritizing effect is strong enough on regional networks. But as one of McCall’s experiences confirms, the national syndication could draw attention to the Atlanta Knights and San Diego Gulls in New York City.

Back in their respective markets, IHL teams had no pretense when bridging their fans and players or other personnel. Representatives made the usual minor-league rounds: guest-waiting or bartending, reading to schoolchildren, hosting postgame skates or autograph sessions.

The names on the backs of the jerseys and the faces above the front were as familiar as the emblem. As such, when young rooters saw their team on SportsChannel’s Game of the Week, it was like a friend from school talking to The Today Show’s hosts on Rockefeller Plaza.

“It was amazing to see how much, at times, the IHL really even rivaled the NHL with coverage,” Fisch said.

While minding its own business as an old-fashioned development league, the AHL did not match that media presence. The exception was a profusion of ESPN2 telecasts during the four-month 1994-95 NHL lockout. When the AHL held its first modern All-Star Game that January, ESPN and its Canadian counterpart, TSN, were there. They covered that occasion for years afterward.

Then again, the IHL also scored a few visits from Gary Thorne and Bill Clement that fall. And its annual All-Star Game and playoffs reached, by Ufer’s estimate, 35 million prospective SportsChannel viewers.

For fans too young to watch the entire live Sunday night broadcast, there was always Tuesday’s midafternoon rebroadcast. Kids could catch the third period on replay after school.

This meant seeing Bud Ice, Days Inn, and Nutrilite ads with an IHL twist plus reminders, where applicable, of SportsChannel’s local NHL coverage. The IHL thus had some semblance of Northeastern presence, sharing channels with the NYC-area teams and the Hartford Whalers.

But in the summer of 1997, while the Rangers moved their affiliate to Hartford, SportsChannel rebranded. By autumn, the AHL’s Wolf Pack inhabited Connecticut’s capital and Fox Sports Net New England.

The latter development effectively sounded the IHL Game of the Week’s death knell. The national syndication did continue under the new banner for at least 1997-98, but fewer telecasts aired in real time. In fact, viewers outside of the participating markets saw the entire Chicago-Detroit Turner Cup epic on delay.

Still, with local commentators and crews, a few clubs appeared on their regional Fox Sports channel or the equivalent. Satellite subscribers with a full menu of networks could catch as many as seven teams a smattering of times per year.

One did not need an NHL Center Ice subscription for that, although following the NHL could help one appreciate the names mentioned during minor-league telecasts.

Producing, preserving and possessing IHL hockey stars

With looser eligibility standards, the IHL did more than divert would-be Canadian major junior players en route to NHL stardom. It offered a convenient alternative for seasoned, would-be American Leaguers who would need to clear NHL waivers for reassignment.

With its straightforward status as a prospect’s last development stage, the AHL had a concrete cap on seasoning. A team could dress up to six veterans of a combined 260 games in the NHL, Triple-A, and overseas equivalents.

Conversely, the IHL’s bounty of independent teams helped some of the more grizzled NHLers stay on the continent and on top of their game during the 1994-95 lockout. Some came afterward under other circumstances.

While holding out on the Edmonton Oilers, goaltender Curtis Joseph played for the Las Vegas Thunder. His stint in the fall of 1995 yielded a 12-2-1 record, .929 save percentage and 1.99 goals-against average. In March 2017, he reflected to Dan Marrazza of the Vegas Golden Knights website on living at The Luxor along the Strip, among other perks.

Those with existing contracts could enjoy similar amenities while awaiting new NHL employment. The late Pavol Demitra started his career with three years on the Ottawa Senators NHL-AHL shuttle, then rebooted his development in Vegas and Grand Rapids for most of 1996-97. He was a St. Louis Blues staple by season’s end, and enjoyed 12 solid years in The Show.

Another Eastern European, five-year Winnipeg Jets/Phoenix Coyotes veteran Nikolai Khabibulin, passed his 1999-00 holdout with the Long Beach Ice Dogs. Six years after getting his introduction to North America on the Russian Penguins’ 1993-94 IHL tour, he would win the league’s sportsmanship award before returning to the NHL for 13 more seasons.

Khabibulin’s top highlight was backstopping the Lightning to the 2004 Stanley Cup. Tampa’s regular-season MVP and top scorer that year, Martin St. Louis, himself made the IHL a convenient launching pad.

Former commissioner Doug Moss fondly recalls watching St. Louis score a hat trick at the 1998 All-Star Game in Orlando. Undrafted and unsigned out of college, the undersized winger had joined the Cleveland Lumberjacks the preceding fall.

Nine days after his All-Star exploit, he signed with the Calgary Flames and joined their AHL partner in Saint John, New Brunswick. By the time he transferred to Tampa in 2000, St. Louis was a permanent NHLer, and a Hall-of-Fame career ensued.

One of his Cleveland teammates epitomized the equal allure of IHL players sticking around and catalyzing a franchise. Jock Callander never played more than half of an NHL schedule, making his final appearance with the Lightning in 1992-93. Over the next seven seasons with the Lumberjacks, he rose to the IHL’s all-time scoring lead with 1,242 points.

Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse (nee Gund Arena), which has a No. 15 Lumberjacks banner in his name, remains Callander’s workplace. He has offered color commentary on the Cleveland Monsters telecasts, and this past July became their vice president of hockey affairs and team services.

Chicago’s Wendell Young is another sterling example of an IHL veteran staying beyond the conventional minor-league window, then transitioning to the front office. When he played, the goalie relished the company of others who became Wolves at the franchise’s inception or soon after.

Forward Steve Maltais joined Young on Chicago’s roster for seven years. Three others stayed for the first five seasons. With some slightly later-arriving mainstays, the Wolves had a genuine core group that formed a stronger relationship with the community and one another.

“We had a group that was very family-oriented because almost everyone had kids,” said Young.

Indeed, by 2000-01, Young was Chicago’s elder statesman at 37. Among his teammates who played the bulk of the season, 10 were in their thirties. Three other Wolves regulars were 29. The youngest constant on their playoff roster was a 28-year-old Ted Drury.

Like Callander in Cleveland, Maltais and Young would have their jerseys retired. Travis Richards got the same treatment in Grand Rapids after playing in the Griffins’ first 10 seasons.

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