Cleveland Crusaders

The Cleveland Crusaders were an ice hockey team from Cleveland, Ohio, the 1972-1976 was active in the North American World Hockey Association (WHA ). The team moved to Minnesota in 1976 and revived the Minnesota Fighting Saints there again.

History

In November 1971, the WHA secured the Canadian city of Calgary to a franchise. They wanted hereby establish a rival to the Alberta Oilers. The Calgary Broncos, so the proposed name were among the first ten teams that had been provided for the new league. But the financing stood on wobbly legs and so the decision was made in April 1972 Calgary out of the race to take.

At that time, Nick Mileti, owner of the Cleveland Arena and co-owner of the basketball team the Cleveland Cavaliers, the baseball team the Cleveland Indians and the Cleveland Barons, who played in the American Hockey League, in search of an ice hockey team in a top league. He applied for a team for the expansion, which was planned for the season 1974/75. After the contract award to Kansas City and Washington went, sought the disappointed Mileti a team in the WHA, who stood before her first season. Quick agreement was reached and Mileti was the legacy of the Broncos for the twelfth team of the WHA. The start of the season was about to begin and the Broncos had not yet committed players.

The new team is the Cleveland Crusaders had designed the Angel after three players of the New York Rangers. It submitted Vic Hadfield, Rod Gilbert and Brad Park tempting offers, but the Rangers countered the offer and kept their players. Mileti at least had deposited its willingness to invest. The first success was the commitment of Boston's Gerry Cheevers Star Goalkeeper who signed a five- year contract. The rest of the squad was filled with mostly unknown players. The Crusaders went very defensive oriented in their first season. They tried to build on the strength of Cheevers and to support its good performance with an established cover to defender Paul Shmyr. Offensively developed especially Ron Buchanan, who led the standings of the teams scorer with 81 points. In the second place they reached a very respectable placement and with just 239 goals against was one runner in the league. After a clear advancement in the first playoff round they lost in the semifinals to the eventual champions, the New England Whalers in five games, where you could make all of the games very close. With good performance, holes were punched nearly 5,300 spectators in the Cleveland Arena and the playoffs were over 6,000 spectators on average.

Despite weaker performance in the 1973/74 season, which was also due to a prolonged injury of Buchanan, increased to the number of spectators to over 6,200 and about 8,000 in the playoffs, but they were stopped after the first round.

After two years, the Crusaders were among the most successful and well-run franchises of the WHA. Mileti had built with the Richfield Coliseum to a new stadium with a capacity of 19 861 spectators. The jewelry box should accelerate the rise of the Crusaders, however, proved to be an unfortunate decision. Simultaneously, the first two home games in the new stadium had to be canceled due to bad ice. Mileti had hoped by the relocation of the arena from Cleveland out to attract additional viewers, but despite respectable 7,000 spectators, the mood always suffered under the 12,000 empty seats. The newly acquired Rich Leduc was the best scorer with 66 points, but the team continued its defensive alignment fixed and so did not play attractive hockey.

1975 Mileti had submitted the team to Jay Moore and endeared himself neither with the fans even with the players. To kick off the 1975/76 season he made no secret of his intention to buy an NHL team and to bring to Cleveland. The number of audience tended towards 6000. In the course of the season left the head of the team, Gerry Cheevers, the Crusaders, and returned to the Boston Bruins. Thanks to a good performance by Ron Ward, who had 82 points best scorer, they reached the playoffs. In the playoffs, only came close to 4,000 spectators and after the quick departure of the Crusaders were a team without a home. The NHL had chosen with the Cleveland Barons to establish an NHL team in the city. Moore was not involved in this case.

Initially considered it a move to Florida. Long the move seemed certain to Mileti, who had now taken over the team again reached a better deal from Minnesota. After the Fighting Saints had set the game mode there during the last season, they now hoped with a new team to win the hockey avid audience for himself and started the experiment with the new Minnesota Fighting Saints.

Game times: 1972/73 | 1973/74 | 1974/75 | 1975/76 | 1976/77 | 1977/78 | 1978/79

Franchises: Alberta Oilers (1972-1973), Edmonton Oilers (1973-1979) | Chicago Cougars (1972-1975) | Cincinnati Stingers (1975-1979) | Cleveland Crusaders (1972-1976) | Denver Spurs (1975 ), Ottawa Civics (1976 ) | Houston Aeros (1972-1978) | Indianapolis Racers (1974-1979) | Los Angeles Sharks (1972-1974), Michigan Stags (1974-1975), Baltimore Blades ( 1975) | Minnesota Fighting Saints ( 1972-1977 ) | New England Whalers (1972-1979) | New York Raiders (1972-1973), New York Golden Blades ( 1973), Jersey Knights ( 1973-1974 ), San Diego Mariners ( 1974-1977 ) | Ottawa Nationals ( 1972-1973 ), Toronto Toros (1973-1976), Birmingham Bulls (1976-1979) | Philadelphia Blazers (1972-1973), Vancouver Blazers (1973-1975), Calgary Cowboys (1975-1977) | Phoenix Roadrunners (1974-1977) | Quebec Nordiques (1972-1979) | Winnipeg Jets (1972-1979)

• Hockey Association (World Hockey Association )
• Sport ( Cleveland)