Cleveland In '37?

I was involved in a bit of a discussion yesterday about the relocation of hockey franchises. Obviously, the original Winnipeg Jets and the Hartford Whalers were brought up along with both Atlanta NHL franchises, but it was asked of me if I knew the history of the Montreal Maroons moving when it seems like Montreal would be one city who could have supported two franchises historically. The Maroons only lasted in the NHL from 1924 until 1938 in a hockey-mad city, so what prompted their move? And where did they go once the move was inevitable?

I went digging through old newspapers, and I discovered that the reason for the Maroons' move was waning attendance numbers across Montreal as a whole. Not only were the Maroons suffering from declining attendance figures. Part of the problem started in 1935 when one single entity took over the operations of both teams thanks partly due to the Great Depression causing financial problems for a number of people. One of those people was Leo Dandurand, owner of the Montreal Canadiens, who sold the team to the Canadian Arena Company in 1935, making the CAC owners of both teams in Montreal.

With the francophone population much larger than the anglophone community in Montreal, the Canadiens saw better support at the box office than the Maroons did despite the financial strains of the Great Depression. As a result, it became apparent that two teams existing in Montreal was unrealistic, and the Maroons were put on life support in 1936-37. It would be the summer of 1937 where things went from bleak to inevitable regarding the move of Maroons to another city.

We need to go back to 1937's Board of Governors meeting to discover the details of what was proposed. We'll check in with The Montreal Gazette on July 15, 1937 for what happened at said meeting.

It's interesting that Ernest Savard proposed that visiting teams get a cut of the gate receipts, essentially suggesting a profit-sharing plan as far back as 1937. The Canadian Arena Company, of which Savard was a part owner, did need some financial help in supporting two franchises, but it sounds like the other owners at that time were less than receptive to the idea.

In any case, the NHL decided to come up with a three-person committee to examine the fate of the Maroons in Montreal. That committee was made up of NHL President Frank Calder, Jim Norris Sr., and Colonel John Reed Kilpatrick. If the last two names seem familiar, Norris Sr. was the owner of the Detroit Red Wings and Kilpatrick was the President of Madison Square Garden and the New York Rangers. The committee, it would seem, would have their hands full in trying to figure out how to keep the Maroons in Montreal. The only other option would be to move the franchise, and The Montreal Gazette identified Cleveland, St. Louis, and Pittsburgh as possible destinations.

Still, this small article seemed to only reveal a fraction of what I needed to know. I pressed on through the newspaper archives, and I discovered a July 15, 1937 article in The Calgary Daily Herald taken from the wires of Canadian Press as written by George Maguire. He filed the following report:

There are certainly more details in Maguire's report. As he wrote, the entire Board of Governors meeting was occupied by the Canadiens-Maroons problem which led the group to ignore the financial problems of the New York Americans. The Americans, as it was, only lasted four years part the demise of the Maroons, ceasing operations in 1942. Perhaps they should have been discussed as well.

Maguire reports that the committee "was granted 'full powers to act on any plan they select to ameliorate the professional hockey situation in Montreal.'" It's important to note that this would include the relocation or suspension of a franchise in Montreal if they saw it as the best course of action. It's also noted that the merger of the two franchises was not an option on the table whatsoever. Clearly, the NHL Board of Governors at the time felt that this situation in 1937 was far more dire than the NHL had let on in previous seasons.

It's here where we get our first impression that Cleveland could have been the front-runner for the Maroons franchise. Alf Sutphin's name is mentioned, and he was an owner of the Braden-Sutphin Ink Company in Cleveland. He also owned the Cleveland Falcons in the International-American Hockey League which he purchased in 1934, paying his players better than what players in the NHL received, and built the Cleveland Arena seen in the lede photo.

At the end of the article, the New York Americans' situation is mentioned, but Maguire mentions that sources told him that the league felt it could "dispose of the New York team to persons financially responsible if it felt so inclined." That's an interesting take during the Great Depression, but it would be another major world event that would eventually force the Americans to cease operations.

With the lingering financial difficulties hovering over the team and no decision issued by the committee, Maroons President Donat Raymond declared that the Maroons would remain in Montreal in September 1937, prompting the league to press forward with a schedule for the season. Star player delivered another blow that the team didn't need when he retired prior to the start of the season to enter politics where he won a seat as a Liberal in the Ontario general election.

King Clancy was hired as the coach, but his efforts were rather futile and he was fired on December 29, replaced by the man who hired him in General Manager Tommy Gorman. With the team bleeding money and having zero star power, the Maroons finished the season at 12–30–6, last in the Canadian Division and last overall in the league.

Over in Cleveland, Sutphin had renamed the Falcons to become the Cleveland Barons, playing three seasons in the International-American Hockey League as the Barons before the league shifted to simply the American Hockey League in 1940. Sutphin would eventually sell the franchise in 1949, but the Barons would remain a fixture in the AHL and in Cleveland through to 1972 when the NHL finally came to town.

With the Maroons in serious financial trouble, the team requested that its operations be suspended at the Board of Governors meeting on June 22, 1938. The Board of Governors voted this idea down at the time, hoping to keep its eight-team league intact. By August 1, the NHL needed confirmation that the Maroons were participating in the 1938-39 season, and the Board of Governors finally gave into the Maroons' request to suspend operations.

Where things went a little crazy was that the majority of the players on the Maroons team that sat in limbo were moved to the Canadiens despite there never being a formal merger between the two teams. If you recall, the Canadian Arena Company owned both teams, so they essentially just moved its players from the failing franchise to the operational one. The Canadiens, it should be noted, finished in sixth-place in the seven-team NHL, barely benefitting from the addition of the Maroons players.

The CAC owners attempted to sell the rights to the Maroons franchise to a group from St. Louis, but the NHL Board of Governors expressed concern with the financial stability of a team in St. Louis and denied the sale. The team sat in limbo for the next six seasons until a group came forward from Philadelphia fronted by Canadiens board member Len Peto in 1945. After clarifying the Philadelphia group's situation with regards to financial stability, the NHL agreed to sell the Maroons to this group who would begin play in the NHL in Philadelphia in 1946. The NHL also added that if nothing happened with the franchise by 1947, the team's membership in the NHL would be dissolved.

The Philadelphia group closed the deal for purchase of the Maroons franchise rights, but discovered a bigger problem once they secured the rights to the Maroons - there was no rink in Philadelphia that could accommodate an NHL team! The group had originally wanted to move into the Palestra at the University of Pennsylvania, but the Palestra had no ice plant to install ice. The Philadelphia Arena, which did have an ice plant, only could seat 5500 for hockey and had poor sight lines for hockey games, making it unsuitable by NHL standards in 1946. That left Peto with one option: build his own rink. He proposed a 20,000-seat arena to be built for the 1947-48 season, but was unable to secure the $2.5 million in funding for the new rink. With no suitable rink in Philadelphia, the NHL made good on its promise and dissolved the membership of the Maroons franchise at the conclusion of the 1946-47 season.

The Maroons lasted 14 years in the NHL, and spent another nine years as a suspended franchise in the NHL. It wasn't a heartfelt goodbye nor did they pack their bags and leave in the cover of night, but the Maroons did eventually leave Montreal. While the Great Depression was a major factor in the demise of the Maroons, a lack of funding for an arena really did cost the NHL a franchise in Philadelphia.

You wonder what would have happened if the Maroons had moved to Cleveland under Alf Sutphin. Might we have had an Original Eight assuming that the NHL could have solved the financial issues of the New York Americans? Would that have led to the New York Islanders never being created? Where would the California Seals have moved to Cleveland if the Cleveland NHL franchise survived that long?

These are all questions that have no answer, but it's interesting to think of how history would have changed, in some cases dramatically, had the NHL opted to move the Montreal Maroons to Cleveland in 1937.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!