Hockey: The '73-74 Season

[EDIT 6/22/2015: Apostrophe maintenance]

[EDIT 6/12/2018: Altering junior hockey entry to suit any encoding]

[EDIT 11/30/2023: Applying the label "hockey" at last and removing justification]

The notorious Philadelphia Flyers win the Stanley Cup in six games against the Boston Bruins. Coach Fred Shero wins the very first Jack Adams Award for his part in bringing the team to the top. Led by team captain Bobby Clarke, the Flyers are the first of the six expansion teams of '67 to win the Cup.

In the WHA, the Houston Aeros sweep the Chicago Cougars in the Avco Cup final. One of the men driving them to this victory is Gordie Howe, who joined the Aeros along with his sons Mark and Marty at the beginning of the season. Gordie, 46 years old by the end of the season, wins the MVP award, adding 31 goals and 69 assists to his huge career totals. Mark, by the way, is the Rookie of the Year.

The Flyers' Dave Schultz leads the NHL in penalty minutes with a record 348. He'll break that record by accumulating 472 minutes next season.

The Flyers' Bernie Parent wins the Conn Smythe Trophy as MVP of the playoffs and is one of two goalies to win the Vezina Trophy this year. His 47 wins are a record that may never be equaled, his twelve shutouts are a mark reached only six times before in a season of 70 games or longer, and his 1.89 goals-against average is a league best.

With 68 goals and 77 assists, the Bruins' Phil Esposito wins the Art Ross Trophy for the fifth time in a row and the sixth time overall. This is the fifth of six times in a row that he leads the league in goals. The 68-goal mark will remain the second-highest for an NHL season until Mike Bossy does one better in '78-79 and many others eclipse it thereafter.

Phil also wins the Hart Trophy (league MVP as voted by the writers) and the Lester B. Pearson Trophy (MVP as voted by the players). He now has 466 goals and 577 assists for his career.

Tony Esposito, goalie for the Chicago Black Hawks, gets 10 shutouts and a 2.03 GAA, both runners-up to Parent's marks but far better than the third-best. His performance earns him a share of the Vezina Trophy as the Black Hawks and Flyers each allow only 164 goals in 78 games. Incidentally, Chicago is the team Boston beats in the semifinals.

Bobby Orr of the Bruins wins the Norris Trophy (best defenseman) for the seventh of eight times. He leads the league in assists with 90.

The Calder Trophy for best rookie goes to Denis Potvin of the New York Islanders, who has 54 points and 175 penalty minutes.

Another great who makes his Islanders debut this year is Al Arbour, who would coach the team for a long time.

The first team All-Stars are Parent, Orr, Phil Esposito, New York Rangers defenseman Brad Park, Buffalo Sabres left wing Rick Martin, and Bruins right wing Ken Hodge.

The Lady Byng Trophy for gentlemanly play goes for a second time to the Bruins' captain Johnny Bucyk, who only gets eight penalty minutes in 76 games.

Gerry Cheevers of the Cleveland Crusaders has a WHA-leading four shutouts. He had a league-best five the previous season.

At the NHL All-Star Game in Chicago, the West Division wins 6-4. Garry Unger of the St. Louis Blues is the MVP. Frank Mahovlich plays in his fifteenth consecutive All-Star Game, and it will be his last before he joins the WHA.

The WHA All-Star Game is held in St. Paul, Minnesota. The East wins 8-4, and the MVP is Mike Walton of the local Minnesota Fighting Saints. Walton leads the league in scoring for the season with 57 goals and 60 assists.

Sabres defenseman Tim Horton, who had helped the Maple Leafs to four Stanley Cup championships in the '60s, dies in a single-car crash Feb. 21 at the age of 44. The car in question was his signing bonus for joining Buffalo prior to the season, and the drive there from Toronto after a game against the Leafs the night before – a 4-2 Sabres loss in which he was among the three stars – is cut short in St. Catharines, Ont. His funeral on the 25th attracts a huge crowd, aided by the fact that no NHL games are scheduled that day.

Sometime this season, Stan Mikita of the Black Hawks scores his 400th goal.

Montreal Canadiens captain Henri Richard reaches 1,000 points Dec. 10, 1973, in a game against the Sabres.

After an All-NHL First Team, GAA-leading, Vezina-winning, Stanley Cup-winning '72-73 season, Canadiens goalie Ken Dryden does not play this season. Because he feels his team is being too tight, he is working as a law clerk in Toronto for a weekly salary of $134 Canadian.

Dryden also provides color commentary for local coverage of the WHA's Toronto Toros, who have just moved from Ottawa. They draw a measly 4,291 fans a game to Varsity Arena.

Among the 1974 Hall of Fame inductees is Dickie Moore, one of the stars of the '50s Canadiens. Also among them is Soviet coach Anatoli Tarasov, the first Soviet in the Hall of Fame.

This is Borje Salming's first season in the NHL. Salming, a Swedish defenseman making his debut with the Maple Leafs, is one of many European players who have an impact on hockey in the '70s, and he will establish that a European can indeed make it in this league.

Charles Finley, owner of baseball's Oakland A's, sells the NHL's California Golden Seals after the season.

Alex Delvecchio (24 years in the NHL), Dean Prentice (22), and Gump Worsley (21) all retire. Gordie Howe's record of 25 seasons in the NHL is safe, and his 26th will be '79-80.

Christer Abrahamsson, goalie for the Swedish team Leksand, is the Golden Puck winner (Swedish league MVP) for this season, his brother Thommy having won it the year before. Both players will join the New England Whalers in the '74-75 season.

Herb Brooks wins his first NCAA title as Minnesota coach. Brad Shelstad, the Gophers' goalie, is Most Outstanding Player of the tournament.

The Soviet Union wins its thirteenth IIHF championship. This is their second of three in a row immediately following Czechoslovakia snapping their long streak in '72. Vladislav Tretyak is named best goaltender of the tournament for the first of four times, and this season he also wins his first of five MVP awards for the top Soviet league.

The Regina Pats of the Western League win the Memorial Cup by defeating les Remparts de Quebec (QMJHL champions) 7-4. The other participants are the OHA's St. Catharines Black Hawks.

At the first unofficial world junior championship in Leningrad, the Soviet Union wins. The IIHF will institute an under-20 championship in 1977.

Thirteen-year-old Wayne Gretzky is already recognized as the next big thing in hockey, and is getting heavy media coverage as a result, including an appearance on CBC radio's "This Country in the Morning" March 25. He says he doesn't see himself making a million dollars someday.

LINKS
Overview of the NHL season
Overview of the WHA season
More on Ken Dryden
Penalty minutes leaders
Funeral for Tim Horton
Interview with 13-year-old Gretzky
Memorial Cup

NEXT MONTH: The NBA and ABA in '73-74

1974 Timeline (WIP)

[EDIT 6/12/2018: Expressing fraction somewhat differently]
This timeline should be a preview of what's coming up in future updates and a summary to be looked at year-round. It's a work in progress, so more dates and events will be added.

Jan.  1 - Ohio State defeats USC 42-21 at Rose Bowl
        - Penn State defeats LSU 16-9 at Orange Bowl
        - Nebraska defeats Texas 19-3 at Cotton Bowl
Jan.  3 - East defeats West 8-4 at WHA All-Star Game in St. Paul, Minn.
Jan. 13 - Dolphins defeat Vikings 24-7 at Super Bowl VIII in Houston
Jan. 15 - West defeats East 134-123 at NBA All-Star Game in Seattle
Jan. 20 - AFC defeats NFC 15-13 at Pro Bowl in Kansas City
Jan. 28 - UCLA's winning streak ends in a 71-70 loss to Notre Dame
        - Muhammad Ali defeats Joe Frazier with a unanimous decision
          at New York
        - Magglio Ordonez born in Caracas, Venezuela
Jan. 29 - West defeats East 6-4 at NHL All-Star Game in Chicago
Jan. 30 - East defeats West 128-112 at ABA All-Star Game in
          Norfolk, Va.
Feb.  7 - Steve Nash born in Johannesburg
Feb. 15 - Seattle Slew foaled in Ravenna, Texas
Feb. 17 - Richard Petty wins Daytona 500
Feb. 21 - Tim Horton (Sabres) dies in St. Catharines, Ont.
Mar. 11 - Bobby Abreu born in Aragua, Venezuela
Mar. 25 - NC State defeats Marquette at NCAA championship
          in Greensboro, N.C.
Mar. 26 - George Foreman defeats Ken Norton to defend
          world heavyweight title with 2nd-round TKO
          at Caracas, Venezuela
Apr.  4 - Dave Mirra born in Chittenango, N.Y.
Apr.  8 - Hank Aaron (Braves) breaks all-time home run record
Apr. 14 - Gary Player wins Masters
Apr. 15 - Danny Way born in Portland
Apr. 24 - Tampa awarded NFL expansion franchise
May   4 - Cannonade wins Kentucky Derby with Miguel Rivera aboard
May  10 - Nets win Game 5 to defeat Stars in ABA championship series
May  12 - Celtics win Game 7 to defeat Bucks in NBA Finals
May  19 - Flyers win Game 6 to defeat Bruins in Stanley Cup final
        - Aeros win Game 4 to defeat Cougars in Avco Cup Final
May  26 - Johnny Rutherford wins Indianapolis 500
May  27 - Muirfield Village Golf Club dedicated
June  4 - 10-Cent Beer Night results in Indians forfeit to Rangers
June  5 - Seattle awarded NFL expansion franchise
June 12 - Hideki Matsui born in Ishikawa Prefecture, Japan
        - Court rules in favor of NOW in suit over girls
          being excluded from Little League Baseball
June 16 - Hale Irwin wins US Open at Winged Foot
June 19 - Steve Busby (Royals) pitches no-hitter against Brewers
June 26 - Derek Jeter born in Pequannock, N.J.
July  4 - Reinhard Theimer (GDR) sets hammer throw world record
          of 251'3"
July  7 - West Germany defeats Netherlands 2-1 at World Cup final
July 17 - Dizzy Dean dies in Reno, Nevada
July 19 - Dick Bosman (Indians) pitches no-hitter against A's
July 23 - NL defeats AL 7-2 at MLB All-Star Game in Pittsburgh
        - Maurice Greene born in Kansas City, Kansas
July 28 - All ten Delaware Park winners are the ones predicted
          by Charles Lamb of the Baltimore News-American
Aug. 16 - Kristine Egerszegi born in Budapest, Hungary
Sept 11 - Alexei Spiridonov (URS) sets hammer throw world record
          of 251'5 1/4"
Sept 14 - Hicham El Guerrouj born in Berkane, Morocco
Sept 23 - First half of Summit Series ends with Canada and
          Soviet Union tied at 1 W, 1 L, 2 T
Sept 25 - Mike Austin drives golf ball a record 515 yards
          in Las Vegas
Sept 28 - Nolan Ryan (Angels) pitches no-hitter against Twins
Oct.  6 - Soviet Union, with record of 4W-1L-3T, finishes
          Summit Series as winners
Oct. 10 - Dale Earnhardt Jr. born in Concord, N.C.
Oct. 13 - Dennis Morgan (Cowboys) returns punt 98 yards for TD
Oct. 16 - Paul Kariya born in Vancouver
Oct. 17 - A's win Game 5 to defeat Dodgers in World Series
Oct. 30 - Muhammad Ali defeats George Foreman for world heavyweight
          title with 8th-round KO at Kinshasa, Zaire
Dec.  2 - AP final regular-season rankings released with Oklahoma
          at #1
Dec.  5 - Americans defeat Blazers 22-21 at World Bowl I
Dec. 21 - Raiders defeat Dolphins 28-26 in AFC divisional playoff
          game ("Sea of Hands" game)
        - Karrie Webb born in Ayr, Australia
Dec. 29 - Steelers defeat Raiders 24-13 in AFC championship
Dec. 31 - Nebraska defeats Florida 13-10 at Sugar Bowl

NFL: The 1973 Season

[EDIT 6/22/2015: Apostrophe groundskeeping]

[EDIT 11/30/2023: Removing justification and introducing "football" label]

A little late? Maybe not. After all, the 2013 NFL regular season ends tomorrow.

 

The Miami Dolphins defend their title by defeating the Minnesota Vikings 24-7 at Super Bowl VIII. Larry Csonka runs for 145 yards on 33 carries and scores both of the Dolphins' touchdowns. Just like last time, Miami never loses the lead, and the other team's only score is in the fourth quarter.

 

With a record-setting 2,003 rushing yards, O.J. Simpson of the Buffalo Bills is the consensus MVP of the NFL. In the first game of the season Sept. 16, he runs for 250 yards. Simpson's mark is 140 yards better than Jim Brown's 1963 record, and each man was playing in a 14-game season. The record will last until 1984, by which time there will be 16 games in a season.

 

The AP Offensive Rookie of the Year and the league's Rookie of the Year as selected by Pro Football Weekly is the Vikings' Chuck Foreman, who goes 801 yards on 182 carries and gets 362 yards on 37 receptions.

 

The UPI Coach of the Year for the NFC is Chuck Knox, who brings the Los Angeles Rams from 6-7-1 to 12-2 in his first year with the team. For the AFC, it's John Ralston of the Denver Broncos, a second-year coach who brings his team from 5-9 to 7-5-2.

 

Roger Staubach of the Dallas Cowboys is the leader in quarterback rating for the year of its introduction with 94.6. The Vikings' Fran Tarkenton is second with 93.2. Roman Gabriel of the Philadelphia Eagles – who leads the NFL with 3219 passing yards and ties with Staubach for the passing touch­downs lead – is fifth with 86.3.

 

Oakland Raiders quarterback Ken Stabler has an 86.2 completion percentage in a game against the Baltimore Colts, breaking the single-game record 85.7% Sammy Baugh set in '45.

 

Staubach's 62.6 completion percentage for the season is, and will be, his personal best.

 

The receptions leader is Harold Carmichael of the Eagles with 67 for 1,116 yards.

 

Offensive guards launching Hall of Fame careers this year: John Hannah of the New England Patriots and Joe DeLamielleure of the Bills.

 

Johnny Unitas, quarterback for the San Diego Chargers this season only, wraps up his career and is bound for Canton. His 471 passing yards give him a total of 40,239. His final completion is a seven-yard pass, his only one of a game against the Kansas City Chiefs.

 

Meanwhile on the Chargers, new quarter­back and future Hall of Famer Dan Fouts makes his debut.

 

New York Jets quarterback Joe Namath misses eight games, seven in a row due to a separated shoulder.

 

Ray Guy of the Oakland Raiders punts 3,127 yards in 69 attempts to begin his career as the best punter ever.

 

Don Maynard, a former Jets receiver now with the St. Louis Cardinals and playing his final season, makes an 18-yard reception at Veterans Stadium September 16. This is catch number 663 for him, and his total is brought to 11,834 yards. Both are records at this point. He makes no receptions in his only other game.

 

Paul Warfield of the Dolphins scores four touchdowns in the final game of the regular season Dec. 15. He gets six passes for 103 yards at home against the Detroit Lions. His eleven TDs this season are among 29 receptions.

 

John Brodie finishes his career with 31,548 passing yards and 214 passing touchdowns. For now, he is the best quarterback the San Francisco 49ers have ever had.

 

Fred Dryer forces two safeties for the Rams in a game against the Packers Oct. 21.

 

Besides Unitas and Maynard, other retiring players who will make it to the Hall of Fame one day are Bob Brown, Dick Butkus, Gene Hicker­son, and Leroy Kelly. This is also Weeb Ewbank's last year coaching.

 

Extensive renovations of Yankee Stadium begin, and progress on the new stadium in New Jersey hasn't gotten far past the groundbreaking, so the New York Giants play part of this season and all of the next at the Yale Bowl. Their final game in the Bronx is a 23-23 tie with the Eagles Sept. 23, and their first New Haven home game of the regular season is a 16-14 loss to the Green Bay Packers Oct. 7.

 

Rich Stadium, home of the Bills, opens August 17 to a crowd of 80,020. The Bills lose the preseason game to the Washington Redskins 37-21 at this new stadium just outside of Buffalo.

 

At the Pro Bowl in Kansas City, Garo Yepremian of the Dolphins kicks five field goals for all of the AFC's 15 points. The NFC scores the game's only touchdown, but they come up two points short.

 

This is the first season in which first-down markers have rubber caps at the bottom instead of metal points. Some call this the Bubba Smith Rule after the Colts defensive end who was injured by getting caught in the chains at a 1972 preseason game in Tampa and missed the subsequent season because of it.

 

Pete Gent's North Dallas Forty is published. The novel is a fictionalized, autobio­graph­ical account of being an NFL player.

 

Starting this season, there will be no blackouts for games that sell out 72 hours before kickoff. Though there are 63% more no-shows in '73 than in '72, it isn't as bad for the NFL as Commissioner Pete Rozelle will continue to say it is.

 

Two days after a post-season owners' meeting in Florida February 25 in which Rozelle announces a four-year deal worth $60 million a year with the networks, the commissioner gets a ten-year extension on his contract and is given power to arbitrate.

 

For Super Bowl VIII, the least expensive ticket at Rice Stadium is $15. It will cost at least $20 to be at Tulane Stadium for Super Bowl IX.

 

LINKS

1973 season overview at Pro Football Reference

Stats leaders

The story of Giants Stadium

Fred Dryer's two-safety game

Pete Rozelle's objection to the blackout rule

Super Bowl VIII, according to NFL.com

Happy New Year. Next month, 1973-74 in the NHL and the WHA.

College Football: The 1973 Season

[EDIT 6/22/2015: Assuring apostrophe uniformity]

[EDIT 11/30/2023: Removing justification and introducing "football" label]

I've laid out a monthly schedule for this blog, but I haven't edited the list of bullet points so it isn't boring. Here's the first installment.

Notre Dame defeats Alabama 24-23 in the Sugar Bowl. The AP declares the 11-0 Fighting Irish champions, but the coaches' poll sticks with the 11-1 Crimson Tide.

Penn State defeats LSU 16-9 in the Orange Bowl. Ohio State wins the Rose Bowl 42-21 against USC.

 

Penn State halfback John Cappelletti wins the Heisman Trophy as well as its less prestigious parallel, the Maxwell Award. The consensus All-American running back has 1,522 yards on 286 rushes and 17 rushing touchdowns.

 

Ohio State offensive tackle John Hicks wins the Outland Trophy and the Lom­bardi Award, both of which are awards for line­men, the former for interior line­men. Hicks is also the runner-up for the Heisman.

 

Alabama's Bear Bryant is named Coach of the Year by the American Football Coaches Association. The FWAA gives Johnny Majors of Pittsburgh that honor, as the Panthers improved from 1-10 in '72 to 6-5-1, including a Fiesta Bowl loss to Arizona State, in '73.

 

Tom Osborne coaches Nebraska for the first of what would prove to be 25 years. The Cornhuskers go 9-2-1, as they had the year before; they went 11-0-1 in 1970 and 13-0-0 in 1971.

 

Barry Switzer begins his 17 years as Oklahoma head coach. Steve Davis begins a three-season, 32-1-1 run as Sooners QB.

 

The consensus All-American quarterback is Dave Jaynes of Kansas with 196 completions for 2,349 yards and 14 touchdowns.

 

Mark Kellar of Northern Illinois is the leading rusher with 1,719 yards in 11 games.

 

The passing leader and total offense leader is Jesse Freitas of San Diego State with 227 completions in 11 games. He throws for 2,293 yards and 21 touchdowns, and his total offense is 2,901 yards.

 

Jay Miller of Brigham Young University gets 22 catches in a game Nov. 3 against New Mexico. This is a record that will stand until 1994. Miller is the receptions leader for the season with 100 in 11 games. He has 1,181 yards and 8 touchdowns.

 

This is the University of Kentucky's first year at Commonwealth Stadium.

 

The first-ever Division II champions are Louisiana Tech. The first-ever Division III champions are Wittenberg University.

 

In the Senior Bowl, a postseason all-star game, Lynn Swann of USC catches the winning touchdown pass. The Pittsburgh Steelers will pick the consensus All-American in the first round of the '74 draft.

LINKS

More on the '73 season from Sports-Reference.com

Week-by-week AP polls

Bowl game results

 

 

NEXT MONTH: The '73 NFL season

Introduction

This project started as a gathering of information about a certain year in sports with a book of essays about that year in mind as one of my many pipe dreams. I ended up printing it out into a mini-book for Christmas 2011. Now that the 40th anniversary of these events (and the last one that's really all that worthy of celebration until the 50th) is coming up, I thought I'd make it a blog. What follows is copied and pasted from the book with a few modifications, which should explain how formal it might be.

So, why 1974? It was a year in which the NFL, NBA, and NHL all had competitors at the same time, all with varying degrees of success. It was a year in which the Yankees played at Shea Sta­dium and the Giants played at the Yale Bowl. The Superdome and the Silverdome were among the facilities under construction. Seattle had an NBA team, but no MLB or NFL teams. You could watch a Capital Bullets/Kansas City-Omaha Kings game in the winter of '74 and the debut season for a Washington or Kansas City NHL team in the fall. The Sears Tower was in its infancy, we were left to hope the situation in South Vietnam would turn out for the best, and there were more game shows on the daytime schedule than ever before or since.

 

Most impor­tantly, it was the year of Muhammad Ali and Hank Aaron in terms of sports, and their moments may have been talked about as much as the developments revolving around Richard Nixon. Sure, the years just before and after had important elements that '74 didn't, but this one's interesting to think about. It must have been a rough one to live through, though. With so many crises and so much stress, the world of sport could make us forget for a while or it could be an unwanted reminder.

What's to come? College football, the NFL, and the WFL. College basketball, the NBA, and the ABA. The NHL and the WHA. Baseball and boxing. The World Cup and Wimbledon. Jack Nicklaus and jockeys.

 

Stay tuned.