History Of Ice Hockey in Philadelphia - Part 5

Philadelphia Rockets (1942)

1942. After the Rangers ended their affiliation with the Ramblers in 1941, team management decided to give them a new name. The team was renamed the Philadelphia Rockets for the 1941-1942 season.

Unfortunately things didn't go much better, than the year before, as the Rockets went 11-41-4 that season, generating only 26 points. After finishing dead last, once again, in their division the team folded and Philadelphia was left without a Pro Hockey team until the Rockets reemerged in the AHL in 1946.

1946-1949. The Rockets came back to the AHL for their second stint in 1946, unfortunately that season didn't go no better than before. Once again, Philadelphia set a loosing record in pro hockey that still stands today. The Rockets went 5-52-7 with a .133 winning percentage, that was actually lower than the 1930-1931 Quakers winning percentage of .136. Amazingly this record still stands today.

Ironically Philadelphia's first AHL scoring champion came in that year. After playing 125 games with the Black Hawks and scoring only 21 goals prior to the war years, Phil Hergesheimer, who doubled as a player and coach, scored 48 goals, and 44 assists that year in 64 games. This nearly accounted for half of the goals the Rockets scored that year, becoming the AHL's leading scorer. Hergehgeimer's success paid off as he was the AHL's starting Right Wing All-Star. But the Rockets gave up a remarkable 400 goals that season, which averages out to around 6.25 goals per game!The next season proved the Rockets where much better, proving their worthiness in the AHL. With former Hershey Bears head coach, and former Philadelphia Quaker, Wally Kilrea behind the bench the team improved to a 22-41-5 record.

Hergehgeimer remained on the team, as a player, and earned another All-Star team berth, but this time he wasn't on the starting line. He would repeat this in the following season, 1948-1949, also. Also earning a spot in the AHL's All-Star Game for Philadelphia was defensemen Eddie Bush. Another spot light that season was Wally Stefaniew, who lead the league in assists with 72.

But the Rockets slipped back to a 15-48-5 in the 1948-1949 season. Philadelphia's second AHL franchise never got a chance to prove their worthiness again as they relocated to Cincinnati, Ohio after the 1948-1949 season, becoming the Cincinnati Mohawks. All in all the Rockets won a mere 42 games out of 200 they played in their second stint in the AHL, that's not even a fourth of the total games played. Their three year totals where 42-141-17.


Philadelphia Falcons (1942-1946; 1951)

The Falcons remained Philadelphia's only hockey team for the next four seasons after the Rockets folded. The Falcons played in the Eastern Amateur Hockey League. After folding in 1946, they reemerged in 1951, but lasted only one season. They had a horrible record of 8-17-0 and didn't even last til the end of the season, as the team was disbanded in mid-December because of poor attendance. The last game was played on December 15 in front of 1,500 fans. The Falcons lost to the Johnstown Jets 9-3. After the news that the team would be disband, they would still play their final two games, but that was later canceled so that the players could return to their hometown teams.

This was allowed so that the players wouldn't violating the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association ruling on eligibility (if a member played in the United States after December 15 and his team disbanded, he was not eligible to return to his hometown team).

The city of Philadelphia would have no pro hockey team until a second Ramblers team was established in 1955.

Philadelphia Ramblers (1955-1964)

The Philadelphia Ramblers where back in Philadelphia, this time under the Eastern Hockey League, during the mid 50s and early 60s, the Ramblers where Philly's only pro hockey team.

The Ramblers offered Philly a taste of ice hockey for 9 seasons, 1955-1964. After the 1963-1964 season, the team moved across the Delaware, to Cherry Hill, New Jersey. They were renamed the Jersey Devils (not to be confused with the NHL's New Jersey Devils, who came along in 1982). Some notable players who played for the red sweater Ramblers include Ted Harris. Harris would win multiple Calder Cups with Springfield and Cleveland and multiple Stanley Cup titles with Montreal and Philadelphia in his playing career. Ironically, he ended up coming back to Philadelphia almost twenty years later where he won his 10th championship, playing for the Flyers in 1975.

Other notables include Boston netminder, Ross Brooks; EHL badboy, John Brophy, who went on to coach the Maple Leafs for 3 seasons, 1986-1989; Al Fontana; "Obie" O'Brien, who went on to be a longtime AHL defensemen with the Hershey Bears. The Ramblers longest serving player was Reggie Meserve, who first came over from the Washington Lions mid-season in 1955, playing through all 9 seasons in Philadelphia, and 5 more seasons when the team moved to New Jersey. Meserve hung up his skates in 1969.

There where a few future Flyers who came out of the Ramblers system after the team moved to New Jersey. Those players include: Bobby Taylor, future back-up of Bernie Parent; Dick Sarrazin, who played for the Flyers in the late 60s and early 70s; Rosaire Paiement, who played for the Flyers and the Vancouver Canucks in the 70s, and Vic Stasiuk, who coached Jersey from 1966-1968, became the Flyers 2nd Head Coach.

---

***Credits for the information gathered on this blog goes to hockeydb.com, flyershistory.com, hockeyscoop.net. Logos and Photos are copyrighted to their respected owenrs. All information was collected for recreational use only. This is NOT an attempt to claim this information gathered as my own. All information belongs to the respected owners.***

---