Whither Hampton Roads?

[dixiehack]

(Plus, they had a great phone number for marketing. XXX-PUCK!)

The Predators had this the first several years in town and I don't know why they let it go. I'll be drooling in a nursing home someday, unable to remember my children's names, but somewhere in the back of my brain I'll still hear Pete Weber sounding out "or call SixOneFive, Seh-ven Seh-ven Ohh, Puck."

 

[Cosmo]

The corporate sponsor thing can't be understated. The LPGA stop at Kingsmill in Williamsburg was hugely popular among the players. But once Anheuser Busch/Mich Ultra dropped out of sponsoring the event, it was dead. Couldn't offer a competitive purse.

 

[Brooklyn Bridge]

Don't forget the giant park built over a landfill!

But seriously, coming from a guy with in-laws in Chesapeake, Hampton Roads sucks. Norfolk is moderately interesting, and I'm higher on the Virginia Beach oceanfront than most (and Sandbridge is wonderful) but otherwise, it's just suburban sprawl.

Mount Trashmore. I did a Turkey Trot there in November.

My wife has family in Chesapeake as well and it all looks the same. Strip malls, gas stations and box stores. I like Norfolk of the towns in the area, but don't think it's enough to support a major league team.

 

[Huggy]

The Admirals! With brilliant maniac John Brophy on the bench, they had a huge rivalry with the Raleigh IceCaps when the ECHL was still a small, regional league. Brophy, with his shocking white hair and hair-trigger temperament, was guaranteed to do something crazy every time the Admirals came to town. (Plus, the original Admirals' ticket office phone ended in PUCK!)

I don't know much more to add to what's already been said. Population but no anchor (heh) corporate industries. The NHL could do worse than moving the Coyotes there, although the AHL failed.

I know two guys with connections to Brophy, one played with him in the minors with the Long Island Ducks and another played for him in the AHL. Both loved him (the guy who played for him, who was a scorer not a fighter, said Brophy was happy if he had one fight a year as long as he was scoring) and their stories were endless. one of the great characters, and all-time hard men, in hockey history.

 

[Driftwood]

The Admirals! With brilliant maniac John Brophy on the bench, they had a huge rivalry with the Raleigh IceCaps when the ECHL was still a small, regional league. Brophy, with his shocking white hair and hair-trigger temperament, was guaranteed to do something crazy every time the Admirals came to town. (Plus, the original Admirals' ticket office phone ended in PUCK!)

I don't know much more to add to what's already been said. Population but no anchor (heh) corporate industries. The NHL could do worse than moving the Coyotes there, although the AHL failed.

I was at one game where Brophy and the opposing coach had a literal punch up across the glass.

 

[Woody Long]

I was at one game where Brophy and the opposing coach had a literal punch up across the glass.

If the other coach was Frank Anzalone of the Roanoke Express, it was probably richly deserved.

 

[maumann]

Charlotte, Greensboro, Winston-Salem, Raleigh, Roanoke, Richmond and Hampton Roads all in the ECHL at the same time was a tremendously fun and fight-filled time.

 

[Driftwood]

If the other coach was Frank Anzalone of the Roanoke Express, it was probably richly deserved.

No idea who it was. Too long ago. I can still vividly see Brophy and his white hair slinging punches over the glass, though.

 

[Driftwood]

Charlotte, Greensboro, Winston-Salem, Raleigh, Roanoke, Richmond and Hampton Roads all in the ECHL at the same time was a tremendously fun and fight-filled time.

Don't forget the Knoxville Cherokees and Birmingham Bulls. I saw them fight once during warmups, and both teams started the match with five players in the sin bin.

 

[Huggy]

Guy I know from my junior hockey days played for Chris Nilan with the Chesapeake Icebreakers in the ECHL. He said Nilan would shirt talk any coach he could think he could get an edge on but drew the line at antagonizing Brophy.

 

[Bud_Bundy]

It's safe to say that during his coaching career, Brophy used fork as a noun, pronoun, verb, adjective, adverb, preposition, interjection, dangling participle and other parts of the English language, sometimes mostly all in the same sentence.

 

[garrow]

Hey, guess where the next ECHL franchise will be located? Tahoe, baby!