California Golden Seals

California Golden Seals
Founded	1961 (WHL)
History	San Francisco Seals 1961–1966 (WHL) California Seals 1966–1967 (WHL) California Seals 1967 (NHL) Oakland Seals 1967–1970 (NHL) California Golden Seals 1970–1976 (NHL) Cleveland Barons 1976–1978 (NHL)
Home arena	Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Arena
City	Oakland, California
Colors	Royal blue, Kelly green, white (1967–1970)                Kelly green, California gold, snow white (1970–1974)                Pacific teal, gold, white (1974–1976)
Stanley Cups	0
Conference championships	0
Division championships	0

The California Golden Seals were a team in the National Hockey League (NHL) from 1967–76. Initially named California Seals, the team was renamed Oakland Seals partway through the 1967–68 season, and then to California Golden Seals in 1970. The Seals were one of six teams added to the league as part of the 1967 NHL expansion. Based in Oakland, California, they played their home games at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Arena. However, the Seals were never successful at the gate, and eventually moved to Cleveland to become the Cleveland Barons in 1976.

History

Founding

See also: San Francisco Seals (ice hockey)

In 1966, the NHL announced that six expansion teams would be added as a new division for the 1967–68 season, officially because of a general desire to expand the league to new markets, but just as importantly to squelch the Western Hockey League's threat to turn into a major league. The San Francisco Seals were one such team from the WHL. The NHL awarded an expansion team to Barry Van Gerbig for the San Francisco Bay area. Van Gerbig decided to purchase the WHL club with the intent of bringing them into the NHL as an expansion team the following season. Van Gerbig had planned to have the team play in a new arena in San Francisco, but the new arena was never built. He decided to move the team across the Bay from the Cow Palace to Oakland to play in the new Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum Arena (now known as Oracle Arena). He renamed the club the California Seals. This was done in an attempt to appeal to fans from San Francisco, and to address complaints from the other NHL teams that Oakland was not considered a major league city (notwithstanding the presence of the American Football League's Oakland Raiders and the pending relocation of Major League Baseball's Kansas City Athletics) and would not be a draw for fans. A year later Van Gerbig brought the Seals into the NHL as an expansion team and retained a portion of the club's WHL roster such as Charlie Burns, George Swarbrick, Gerry Odrowski, Tom Thurlby, and Ron Harris. While the Bay Area was not considered a particularly lucrative hockey market, the terms of a new television agreement with CBS called for two of the expansion teams to be located in California.

While the WHL Seals had drawn well while playing home games at the Cow Palace in Daly City, the team drew poorly in Oakland once they entered the NHL. The plan to bring fans in from San Francisco failed, and on November 6, 1967, Van Gerbig announced that the team's name would be changed to the Oakland Seals (although the league did not register the change until December) to focus solely on the Oakland market.

Struggles

File:Oakland Seals Logo 1967–1970.svg

Oakland Seals logo, 1967–1970.

The Seals were never successful at the gate, and because of this poor attendance Van Gerbig threatened on numerous occasions to move the team elsewhere. First-year coach and general manager Bert Olmstead publicly advocated a move to Vancouver, but an offer from Labatt's brewery to purchase and relocate the team was rejected by the league, as was a proposal to move the team to Buffalo from the Knox brothers, who had been shut out of the 1967 expansion. As it turned out, the league's 1970 expansion would include Vancouver and Buffalo. The Knoxes would buy a minority share of the Seals in 1969, only to sell it a year later to found the Sabres.

This, as well as the team's dismal on-ice performance, led to major changes to both the Seals' front office and the roster – only seven of the 20 Seals players remained after the first season. The new-look Seals were somewhat more successful, making the playoffs for two years, although with sub .500 records. Those would be the only two years that the franchise made the playoffs.

The league's rejection of a proposed move to Vancouver prompted a lawsuit that was not settled until 1974 (San Francisco Seals Ltd. v. National Hockey League). The Seals organization filed suit against the NHL claiming that the prohibition violated the Sherman Act. The Seals asserted that the league's constitution was in violation by prohibiting clubs from relocating their operations, and that the relocation request was denied in an attempt to keep the San Francisco market in the NHL and thereby discourage the formation of a rival team or league in that location. The court ruled that the NHL was a single entity, and that the teams were not competitors in an economic sense, so the league restrictions on relocation were not a restraint of trade.

For the 1969–70 season the team was sold to Trans National Communications, whose investors included Pat Summerall and Whitey Ford. However, the group filed for bankruptcy and ownership reverted to Van Gerbig, who put the team up for sale again.

Charles O. Finley purchases the franchise

Yellow home jersey (replica) and colored skates of the Golden Seals, on display at the International Hockey Hall of Fame

Prior to the 1970-71 season, Charles O. Finley, the flamboyant owner of baseball's Oakland Athletics, purchased the Seals. Finley and Roller Derby boss Jerry Seltzer had both put in a bid on the team. Although Seltzer's offer was slightly better and included a more detailed plan for revival, a majority of NHL owners from the "old establishment" voted in favor of Finley. General manager Bill Torrey left by mid-season due to clashes with Finley.

On October 15, 1970, with the new season already two games old, Finley announced that the team's name was being changed to California Golden Seals ("Bay Area Seals" had been reported the previous week, and appears on some of that year's promotional material), following a number of other marketing gimmicks intended to sell the team to the fans, among them changing the Seals' colors to green and gold to match those of the popular A's. The team's uniform crest was now the word "Seals" in a unique typeface, but an alternate logo using a sketch based on a photo of star player Carol Vadnais was used on marketing materials such as pennants, stickers and team programs. The original 1967 California Seals logo recolored in green and gold was often seen on trading cards and other unofficial material, but was never adopted by the team. The Seals are remembered for wearing white skates, but initially Torrey convinced Finley to use green and gold painted skates instead, as team colored skates were a trend of the period. However, this was all for naught, as the Seals finished with the worst record in the NHL that year. On May 22, 1970, the Seals traded their pick in the first round of the 1971 NHL Amateur Draft to the Montreal Canadiens along with Francois Lacombe in return for Montreal's first round pick in the 1970 Draft (Seals selected Chris Oddleifson), Ernie Hicke, and cash. As a result of the Seals' dreadful season, the Canadiens had the top pick in the 1971 Draft, and used it to select future Hall of Famer Guy Lafleur. This transaction now ranks as one of the most one-sided deals in NHL history.

Under the ownership of the NHL and Mel Swig

The team rebounded in 1971–72, but the arrival of the World Hockey Association (WHA) wiped out most of those gains. Finley refused to match the WHA's contract offers, causing five of the team's top ten scorers from the previous season to bolt to the new league. Devoid of any defensive talent save for goaltender Gilles Meloche, the Seals sank into last place again in 1973, where they would remain for the rest of their history. Although divisional restructuring in 1974 included a revamped format in which three teams in each division made the playoffs, the team's efforts were frustrated by their placement in the Adams Division, with the strong Buffalo, Boston, and Toronto teams of the day.

Tired of the struggling hockey team, especially in comparison to his World Series champion Athletics, Finley tried to sell the Seals, but there were no takers. The NHL eventually took control of the team in February 1974, purchasing it from Finley for $6.585 million. A 1973 attempt by Finley to sell the team to Indianapolis interests who planned to relocate the team to that city was rejected by the NHL's Board of Governors.

In early 1975, newspapers reported that the Seals and Pittsburgh Penguins were to be relocated to Denver and Seattle, respectively, in an arrangement that would have seen the two teams sold to groups in those cities that had already been awarded "conditional" franchises for the 1976-77 season. At the same time, the league announced that if the Seals' sale to the Denver group was not completed or new ownership found locally, the franchise would be liquidated at the end of the season.

The Denver arrangement fell through, and the league ran the Seals for more than a year until San Francisco hotel magnate Melvin Swig bought the team in 1975 with the intent of moving the team to a proposed new arena in San Francisco. The team fell just short of the playoffs, and after a mayoral election, plans for the new arena were cancelled. With a new arena out of the picture, the league dropped their objection to the relocation of the franchise.

The end of the Seals

Oakland Seals jersey on display at the International Hockey Hall of Fame

Although attendance was finally showing some improvement and the team playing better, minority owners George and Gordon Gund persuaded Swig to seek approval to move the team to their hometown of Cleveland. League approval for the move was granted on July 14, 1976, and the team was renamed the Cleveland Barons after the city's old AHL squad. After two more years of losses and with attendance worse than it had been in Oakland, the Gunds (by this time majority owners) were permitted to merge the Barons with another failing team, the Minnesota North Stars on June 15, 1978. The merged team continued as the Minnesota North Stars under the Gunds' ownership, but assumed the Barons' place in the Adams Division. The North Stars ultimately relocated to Texas following the 1992–93 season to become the Dallas Stars.

The Cleveland Barons remain the most recent team in an established North American major professional league to fold, as well as the only team in the NHL to do so since 1942. As a result, the NHL consisted of 17 teams for the 1978–79 season.

Legacy

The current NHL team in the Bay Area, the San Jose Sharks, has a historical connection to the Seals. Years after the Barons-North Stars merger, the Gunds wanted to bring hockey back to the Bay Area. They asked the NHL for permission to move the North Stars there in the late 1980s, but the league was unwilling to abandon a traditional hockey market like the Twin Cities. Meanwhile, a group led by former Hartford Whalers owner Howard Baldwin was pushing the NHL to bring a team to San Jose, where an arena was being built. Eventually, a compromise was struck whereby the Gunds would sell their share of the North Stars to Baldwin's group, with the Gunds receiving an expansion team in the Bay Area to begin play in the 1991–92 season. In return, the Sharks would have the rights to players from the North Stars and then participate with the North Stars as an equal partner in an expansion draft with the new franchise. On May 5, 1990, the Gunds officially sold their share of the North Stars to Baldwin and were awarded a new team in the Bay Area that eventually became the Sharks. Ironically, in their first two seasons in the league, the Sharks played their home games at the Cow Palace in Daly City (the same facility the NHL rejected as a home for the Seals in 1967) while their new permanent home arena in San Jose was being completed.

Dennis Maruk was the last Seals player active in the NHL, retiring as a member of the North Stars in 1989. The last former Seals player in any league was Charlie Simmer, who was active with the IHL's San Diego Gulls until 1992.

Season-by-season record

Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against, PIM = Penalties in minutes

NHL Season	Team season	Team name	GP	W	L	T	Pts	GF	GA	PIM	Finish	Playoffs
1967–68	1967–68	California/Oakland Seals²	74	15	42	17	47	153	219	787	sixth in West	Out of playoffs
1968–69	1968–69	Oakland Seals	76	29	36	11	69	219	251	811	second in West	Lost quarterfinal (Kings), 3-4
1969–70	1969–70	Oakland Seals	76	22	40	14	58	169	243	845	fourth in West	Lost quarterfinal (Penguins), 0-4
1970–71	1970–71	California Golden Seals	78	20	53	5	45	199	320	937	seventh in West	Out of playoffs
1971–72	1971–72	California Golden Seals	78	21	39	18	60	216	288	1007	sixth in West	Out of playoffs
1972–73	1972–73	California Golden Seals	78	16	46	16	48	213	323	840	eighth in West	Out of playoffs
1973–74	1973–74	California Golden Seals	78	13	55	10	36	195	342	651	eighth in West	Out of playoffs
1974–75	1974–75	California Golden Seals	80	19	48	13	51	212	316	1101	fourth in Adams	Out of playoffs
1975–76	1975–76	California Golden Seals	80	27	42	11	65	250	278	1058	fourth in Adams	Out of playoffs
Totals		Nine seasons	698	182	401	115	479	1826	2580	8037

² named California Seals from October 11 to November 6, 1967.

Franchise records

Includes Cleveland Barons (1976-78)

Career:

• Most games played, Bob Stewart (414)
• Most goals, Dennis Maruk (94)
• Most assists, Al MacAdam (129)
• Most points, Al MacAdam (217)
• Most penalty minutes, Bob Stewart (691)
• Most wins by a goaltender, Gilles Meloche (93)
• Most losses by a goaltender, Gilles Meloche (191)
• Lowest goals-against average by a goaltender, Charlie Hodge (3.09)
• Most shutouts by a goaltender, Gilles Meloche (11)
• Most minutes, Gilles Meloche (20,666)
• Most wins by a coach, Fred Glover (96)
• Most losses by a coach, Fred Glover (206)

Single season:

• Most goals, Dennis Maruk (36 in 1977-78)
• Most assists, Dennis Maruk (50 in 1976-77)
• Most points, Dennis Maruk (78 in 1976-77)
• Most wins by a goaltender, Gary Smith (21 in 1968-69)
• Most losses by a goaltender, Gary Smith (48 in 1970-71)
• Best goals-against average by a goaltender, Charlie Hodge (2.86 in 1967-68)
• Most shutouts by a goaltender, Gary Smith (4 in 1968-69) and Gilles Meloche (4 in 1971-72)

Scoring leaders

These are the top ten scorers for the franchise, including its time in Cleveland.

Note: GP = Games played, G = Goals, A = Assists, Pts = Points, PIM = Penalties in minutes

Player	POS	GP	G	A	Pts	PIM
Al MacAdam	RW	320	88	129	217	214
Dennis Maruk	C	236	94	117	211	162
Joey Johnston	LW	288	84	101	185	308
Ted Hampson	C	246	61	123	184	37
Bill Hicke	RW	262	79	101	180	155
Walt McKechnie	C	250	62	109	171	124
Dave Gardner	C	289	67	99	166	33
Gerry Ehman	RW	297	69	86	155	56
Rick Hampton	LW	285	56	96	152	125
Carol Vadnais	D	246	63	83	146	560

Notable players

Hall of Famers

• Harry Howell
• Bert Olmstead
• Craig Patrick (inducted as builder)
• Rudy Pilous (inducted as builder)
• Bill Torrey (inducted as builder)

Team captains

• Bobby Baun, 1967–68
• Ted Hampson, 1968–71
• Carol Vadnais, 1971–72
• Bert Marshall, 1972–73
• Joey Johnston, 1974–75
• Jim Neilson and Bob Stewart, 1975–76 (co-captains)

General managers

• Rudy Pilous, 1967 (fired before start of season)
• Bert Olmstead, 1967–68 (resigned in March 1968)
• Frank Selke Jr., 1968–70 (resigned in November 1970)
• Bill Torrey, 1970 (resigned in December 1970)
• Fred Glover, 1970–71 (fired in October 1971)
• Garry Young, 1971–72 (fired in November 1972)
• Fred Glover, 1972–74 (resigned in February 1974)
• Garry Young, 1974—given title of Director of Hockey Operations due to NHL ownership of club (resigned before start of 1974–75 season)
• Bill McCreary, 1974–76—given title of Director of Hockey Operations from 1974-75 while club under ownership of NHL. He became general manager in the summer of 1975 after Melvin Swig bought the club from the league

First round draft picks

• 1967: Ken Hicks (third overall)
• 1968: none
• 1969: Tony Featherstone (seventh overall)
• 1970: Chris Oddleifson (10th overall)
• 1971: none
• 1972: none
• 1973: none
• 1974: Rick Hampton (third overall)
• 1975: Ralph Klassen (third overall)

See also

• List of California Golden Seals players
• List of California Golden Seals head coaches
• List of NHL players
• List of NHL seasons
• 1967 NHL Expansion

External links

Media related to at Wikimedia Commons