In 1974, the NHL ended its first significant expansion period, that had started in 1967, by adding teams in Kansas City, Missouri, and Washington, D.C.[1][2] Kansas City Hockey Associates, led by managing general partner Edwin G. Thompson, originally consisted of 22 investors. It was awarded a franchise on June 8, 1972. Kansas City Hockey Associates was one of four groups that applied for the franchise. Missouri Lt. Governor William Morris (former owner of the Central Hockey League's Kansas City Blues), Stan Glazer and Arthur Rhoades headed up the other three potential ownership groups.
Kemper Arena was constructed to host the team's home games. Kansas City had been the home of several minor league ice hockey teams through the years.[2] The Scouts shared Kemper Arena with the Kansas City Kings (the Kings were officially the Kansas City–Omaha Kings from 1972 to 1975) of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The arrival of the Scouts and Washington Capitals resulted in the NHL creating four divisions and renaming the conferences, and the Scouts were placed in the Smythe Division of the Campbell Conference with Missouri's other NHL franchise, the St. Louis Blues.[2]
The Kansas City Scout statue inspired the franchise's nameKemper Arena served as the Scouts' home arena
The owners of the new Kansas City franchise[3] originally wanted to call their team the "Kansas City Mohawks", since the Kansas City metropolitan area includes portions of Missouri and Kansas.[2] The name would have combined Missouri's postal abbreviation (MO) and the Kansas nickname of "Jayhawkers". However, the Chicago Black Hawks objected because of the similarity of "Mohawks" to their own name.[2][4]
The team then held a contest for people to name the new team. The name "Scouts" was chosen, named after The Scout which is located in Penn Valley Park and overlooks downtown. The iconic statue was featured on the team's logo.[2][5] The club's logo was designed by lettering artist Gary Sartain of Kansas City-based Hallmark Cards in 1973 on a free-lance basis. Sartain's daughter, Sheila Snyder, told author Troy Treasure in 2018 her mother indicated Sartain was paid $2,000.
On October 9, 1974, the Scouts took the ice for the first time, at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto, and lost 6–2 to the Maple Leafs.[2] Team captain Simon Nolet scored the first-ever goal in team history. To allow construction to be completed on Kemper Arena, the Scouts played their first eight games on the road, where they lost seven and tied one. The Scouts made their home debut on November 2, losing to the Black Hawks 4–3.[2] Chicago's Ivan Boldirev scored the first NHL goal at Kemper Arena three minutes into the game. Rookie first-round draft selection Wilf Paiement scored the first Scouts goal. The following day the team's first victory came against the Washington Capitals by a score of 5–4 at Capital Centre in Landover, Maryland.[2] Peter McDuffe was the winning goaltender for Kansas City. Like many other expansion teams, the Scouts performed poorly garnering only 41 points with a record of 15–54–11 in their inaugural season,[2] though this would be the better result of their two-season history.[2][4]
The 1975–76 season started out with some promise. Near the midway point of the season, the team was competing for a playoff spot, with a 3–1 win over the California Golden Seals on December 28, 1975 placing them just one point behind the St. Louis Blues and a playoff position in the weak Smythe Division.[2] However, the Scouts went into free fall for their remaining 44 games. After going winless from December 30 to February 4 (0–14–2), they finally won a game, against the Capitals on February 7, before going 0–21–6 for the rest of the season. The Scouts' second-half crash left them with a season result of 12–56–12 and 36 points, the worst record in the Scouts/Rockies/Devils franchise's history.[2]
The last four games the Scouts ever played took place in Japan. Following the conclusion of the 1975–76 regular season, Kansas City and Washington participated in an exhibition series with the first two games played in Sapporo (site of the 1972 Winter Olympics), the third and fourth in Tokyo at Yoyogi National Gymnasium, site of the swimming and diving competition at the 1964 Summer Olympics. The Capitals won the first three contests. On April 18, 1976, the Scouts defeated Washington 4–2. Thus, Kansas City won its final game but it did not count in the NHL standings.
In their two seasons, the Scouts went through three coaches – Bep Guidolin, Sid Abel (three-game interim stint), and Eddie Bush.[4] Guidolin resigned during the 1975–76 season following a dispute with management over player personnel.
The team had two captains, Simon Nolet and Guy Charron. Steve Durbano led the league in penalty minutes during the 1975–76 season. The franchise failed to make the playoffs in either season in Kansas City and won only 27 of 160 games, including a 7–66–7 mark away from home.[2]
With the 1972 startup of the rival World Hockey Association (WHA) resulting in a combined 32 teams between the NHL and the WHA, the talent available to stock the new teams in Kansas City and Washington was stretched thin. In their first season, the Capitals set an NHL record for futility, losing 67 of 80 games, and winning only one on the road. The Scouts fared only marginally better (losing 56 games), and the 1974 NHL expansion was widely seen as having been a mistake.[4] Attendance tailed off so much that the National Hockey League Players' Association (NHLPA) wondered if the Scouts would make payroll.[3]
Relocation to Denver
The Scouts suffered from inflated player costs, undercapitalized ownership, an economic downturn in the Midwest, poor performances on the ice and weak attendance. The Scouts averaged just 8,218 per game during their two years in the 17,000-seat Kemper Arena (at a time when the league average was approximately 13,000). The team's group of 37 owners, buried in debt, mounted a season-ticket drive to raise more revenue. When only 2,000 more season tickets sold, they concluded that the Scouts were not a viable venture and opted to sell.[2] While the Capitals were far worse on the ice, their owner, Abe Pollin, had the financing and the patience to absorb the typical struggles of a 1970s expansion team.
The Scouts were put up for sale with a Denver-based group led by oilman Jack A. Vickers looking to buy the club. A local group, according to author Troy Treasure, led by Scouts' limited partners Gene Novorr and George Shore, was also interested but when the NHL informed the Scouts' owners that they would be on the hook of over a million dollars in expansion and territorial fees (owed the St. Louis Blues) if they did not sell to Vickers, they reluctantly did so on July 26, 1976.
The last Scouts player on the Rockies' active roster was goaltender Bill McKenzie, who last played for the franchise on April 4, 1980. The last active Scouts player in the NHL was the Scouts' first-ever drafted player, Wilf Paiement, who retired in 1988.
To this day, the Devils make almost no mention of their past as the Scouts or Rockies; the Devils' media guide and the history sections of the Devils' website do not acknowledge any captains, coaches or general managers prior to the move to New Jersey. However, inside of the Prudential Center, the Devils home rink, there is a mural on the second floor that shows the former arenas of the Rockies and Scouts, along with Devils' original (1982–2007) New Jersey home, the Brendan Byrne Arena.[citation needed]
For the 2022–23 season, the New Jersey Devils unveiled a new Scouts-themed "Reverse Retro" jersey. The white sweater had red, yellow and blue piping, similar to the uniforms worn in Kansas City, albeit the Scouts logo was replaced with the Devils logo.[6] Additionally, that same season, the Devils celebrated their 40th anniversary. Unlike with prior anniversaries (10th, 20th, 30th), the Devils treated it as "40 years in Jersey", acknowledging the franchise existed prior to 1982.[7][8]
Dick Carlson[9][10] was the radio play-by-play announcer in 1974–75 on WDAF (AM) with simulcasts on KBMA-TV (now KSHB-TV) beginning in 1975–76. Following the Scouts departure, Carlson called Major League Baseball games for the Kansas City Royals and Cincinnati Reds. He died in 2004, age 60.
In 1974–75, Gene Osborn[11][12] was the sole television play-by-play announcer, also on KBMA, with analysis provided by Bill Grigsby. KBMA was an independent station distributed in the Midwest via cable television, including the cities of Des Moines, Iowa and Wichita, Kansas.
The New Jersey Devils are a professional ice hockey team based in Newark, New Jersey. The Devils compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference. The club was founded as the Kansas City Scouts in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1974. The Scouts moved to Denver in 1976 and became the Colorado Rockies. In 1982, they moved to East Rutherford, New Jersey, and took their current name, which is derived from the legendary Jersey Devil creature. For their first 25 seasons in New Jersey, the Devils were based at the Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford and played their home games at Brendan Byrne Arena. Before the 2007–08 season, the team moved to Prudential Center in Newark. The Devils are owned and managed by Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment (HBSE), with founders Josh Harris and David Blitzer acquiring the team in 2013.
The Denver Spurs were a professional ice hockey team based in Denver. The Spurs began play in the Western Hockey League in 1968, and played at the Denver Coliseum. The Spurs became the first professional sports team in Colorado to win a championship in 1971–72. After the WHL folded in 1974, the team transferred to the Central Hockey League for the 1974–75 season.
The Ottawa Civics were a professional ice hockey team based out of Ottawa that played in the World Hockey Association. The team, which hastily adopted its identity in midseason when the Denver Spurs announced plans to sell the team and relocate to Ottawa, existed for approximately two weeks, folding after only seven games.
Wilfrid Paiement, Jr. is a Canadian former professional ice hockey right wing who played in the National Hockey League (NHL) from 1974 through 1988, for seven different NHL teams. He is the younger brother of former NHL hockey player Rosaire Paiement.
The 1974–75 NHL season was the 58th season of the National Hockey League. Two new teams, the Washington Capitals and Kansas City Scouts, were added, increasing the number of teams to 18. To accommodate the new teams, the NHL re-organized its divisional structure and playoff format. The regular season was expanded to 80 games per team. The Philadelphia Flyers won the Stanley Cup for the second consecutive year.
The 1976–77 NHL season was the 60th season of the National Hockey League. The Kansas City Scouts moved to Denver, Colorado, and became the Colorado Rockies and the California Golden Seals moved to Cleveland, Ohio, and became the Cleveland Barons. The Montreal Canadiens once again dominated the playoffs as, for the second straight year, they swept their opponent four games to none in the final series for the Stanley Cup.
Simon Laurent Nolet is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player. He played ten seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL), most notably for the Philadelphia Flyers, with whom he won the Stanley Cup in 1973-74.
Ernest Charles Arnason is a Canadian former professional ice hockey right wing who played 401 games over eight seasons in the National Hockey League for the Montreal Canadiens, Atlanta Flames, Pittsburgh Penguins, Kansas City Scouts, Cleveland Barons, Colorado Rockies, Minnesota North Stars and Washington Capitals. He was the first player in NHL history to play for five defunct teams.
The Colorado Rockies were a professional ice hockey team in the National Hockey League (NHL) that played in Denver from 1976 to 1982. They were founded as the Kansas City Scouts, an expansion team that began play in the NHL in the 1974–75 season. The Scouts moved from Kansas City, Missouri, to Denver for the 1976–77 season. After six seasons in Denver, the franchise moved to East Rutherford, New Jersey, for the 1982–83 season and was renamed the New Jersey Devils. Denver went without an NHL team until the Quebec Nordiques relocated to become the Colorado Avalanche following the 1994–95 season. The Rockies name itself would be applied to Denver's Major League Baseball (MLB) expansion team that began play in 1993.
The 1974–75 Kansas City Scouts season was the first season for the franchise. The NHL completed its first 8-year expansion cycle by adding franchises in Washington and Kansas City. Kansas City was awarded an NHL franchise on June 8, 1972. The city had a hockey history but had been a home to minor league hockey teams only. Initially, the franchise chose MO-hawks as their nickname to reflect a Missouri-Kansas union, an attempt to appeal to both Kansas and Missouri residents and incorporating Missouri's postal abbreviation with the Kansas Jayhawker nickname, but the name was vetoed by the Chicago Black Hawks. Therefore, the franchise selected its 2nd choice, Scouts. This was named after the famous statue overlooking the city.
The 1975–76 Kansas City Scouts season was the second and final season for the NHL franchise in Kansas City, Missouri. They played their home games at Kemper Arena. The Scouts started the season by going 11–21–4 in their first 36 games, but after their December 28 win against the California Golden Seals, the Scouts would win only once in their final 44 games going 1–35–8, to finish with a record of 12 wins, 56 losses, and 12 ties.
The history of the New Jersey Devils National Hockey League team dates back to 1982, when the Colorado Rockies moved to New Jersey and became the Devils. Since 1995, the franchise has played in the Stanley Cup Finals five times, winning the Cup in 1995, 2000 and 2003.
The 1976 NHL amateur draft was the 14th NHL entry draft. It was held at the NHL office in Montreal, Quebec, on June 1, 1976. It's notable as featuring one of the weakest first rounds in draft history, as only two players played more than 450 career NHL games. In 2002, Federko was elected into the Hockey Hall of Fame after playing fourteen seasons (1976–1990), with 13 of those with the St. Louis Blues. The Cleveland Barons drafted as the California Golden Seals and the Colorado Rockies took part as the Kansas City Scouts. The two franchises would relocate to their new cities on July 15 of that year.
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