Beer League - Part III - Final Years

After the loss of a few regulars and no one else wanting to keep the team going the Bandits folded.  For the next season, 2004/05, I played for Peter Plummer's B-division team: Buzzy's (after Buzzy's Jerzee City) Wild.  We had jerseys in the Mighty Ducks style but with a screened crest, that was sewn on, of the Minnesota Wild's logo but in the Ducks colour scheme.

The team he was also running on the A-Side was the Wolves.  They had acquired a team set that the Fort William Wolves had used when they were in the SIJHL (the team had changed names to the North Stars).  The jerseys for that team were in the Islanders 'fish stick' style with the odd shaped numbers but with a front crest of a Wolf's head.

The following season, 2005/06, I spared for the 'Make Be Leafs'.  I used a blue and a white Nordiques jersey when playing for that team.  I later acquired a team jersey at a local thrift store.

After the Leafs, I ended up the next two seasons on the Polar Mechanical (previously Galaxy) Flyers.  Many of the team had the Galaxy orange jerseys.  Others had different orange jerseys.  I made up a few jerseys for myself and sold a couple to some newer players.  I am beside the goalie in the picture wearing a jersey with a yellow bi-plane in a circle with the Polar Mechanical logo beneath.

I sewed a Philadephia flyers crest on a jersey and made and sewed on #3's.  Plus I made a Polar mechanical logo on one jersey similar to Philadephia's logo by turning the 'P' in Polar Mechanical's logo sideways and adding a 'M'.

My dad or wife recorded a few clips of a game.  Maybe on his video camera; more likely on a digital camera they had at the time (considering how short the clips are).

After the 2007/08 season with the team ending with a 2-26-2 record and 0-4 in the playoffs the players decided to not play in the league past the end of that season.  With the team having the oldest average age of players, the loosening of age restrictions in the league, and the league dropping from two division down to one,  it really wasn't as much fun for the team anymore.  I looked into the team joining the 35+ age Centennial League but their 4 team league did not want to expand.   I played with the Flyers in 2008/09 on 'scrub' aka 'pickup' hockey where the Flyers team played against a Hansford Insurance team Thursday nights.  I think they still are doing so.

After 2009 due to regularly working nights, I was unable to join a league team even if I had wanted to.  Even though I was one of the younger guys on the Flyers, I was probably well above the average age in the league now and not exactly anywhere near in top shape anyway.

Beer League - Part II - Bandits team

Was putting off posting 'Beer League - Part II' as I was looking through my old papers for information as accurate as I could get, plus I was going to dig through some photos.  Today only posting my years on the Bandits team.

I think I started playing in the Thunder Bay NBC League in 2001/02 but it may have been 2002/03.  In any case the first team I played for was the Bandits.  When I started there was 2 divisions - A and B.  I played in the B.  The Bandits were originally the Superior Drilling & Blasting Bandits.  When they were ordering jerseys I got the #1 - wanted one that was XXL since that would just fit over my goalie stuff at that time when they needed a last minute goalie but only got a XL and only wore it as a defenceman.  For the 2003 playoffs they made 3 groups out of the two divisions (top of the A, bottom of the A with top of the B, bottom teams in the B) .  We ended up 'winning' the C division title (bottom 4 teams of the B vision in playoffs).

Somewhere along the line, I got stuck running the team.  Started off with me filling in for a league meeting.  Ending up with me filling in for the team rep part of one season when he was away and then fully running the team for our final season in 2003/04.  We had a partial sponsor that and the previous year; the Adanac hotel along with their larger bar has a smaller bar on the Simpson Street side called the Polynesian Room.  Only I could get a handful of players usually to go there after a game.  They usually gave us popcorn, hot dogs or some small snack.

I made jerseys for the team that year; was going to sell them to each player but there was mixed interest in that so I ended up selling the whole lot of them as a team set after the team folded.  The blank green jerseys were bought at a clearance sale at local sports memorabilia store with the added bonus of no one needing a 2nd jersey since none of the other teams in the league were green.  Slightly modified a font called Maverick for the team name on front and the number on back.  Black mesh material was used to enlarge a couple larger player's jerseys plus the goalie's; the mesh material was also used on the front name area.  White tackle twill was used for the team name and the numbers on back.  I had no clue how much work doing a team set in this style would be.

Here's the front of my jersey.  Only time I'd have a 'C' in any league; probably the only 'bonus' of running the team.  At first had put the 'C' closer to the arm than it should have been; moved it to the location it is in the photo.  #8 is on the back.

Player's wanted their stats kept for the year I was running it.  Compiled them through the copies of the game sheets I was given.  If you are interested my stats for the regular season of 30 games they are 1G, 5A, 4PM.  That season all the teams played each other until the Xmas break; the top 6 teams at that point became the A division and the bottom 7 the B division.  The B division contained Galaxy (Flyers), (Sportop) Goats, Ducks, Bandits, Kings, Billies, Bees.  Before the B side split we were 4-8; after the split 10-5-3.  They must have divided it into 3 divisions for the playoffs that year since I have us getting pummeled two games in a best of 3 by an A division team called the Redmen.

Manitoba Moose jersey & Paraphernalia

Here is a Manitoba Moose jersey I once had.  It was either sold, traded or given away.  I remember having some item from the Moose back when they were in Minnesota (jersey or some other item?); like my much of my memory, it is also long gone.  The Minnesota Moose and Manitoba Moose were located about the same distance from where I am.  Never saw either of them play though the Manitoba Moose did play some pre-season games for a couple years locally at Fort William Gardens.

In the past couple years I have acquired a few Manitoba Moose items.  With the NHL coming back to Winnipeg, the Moose ending up heading to St. John's Newfoundland and changing their name.  They wanted to change the name due to the large number of vehicle accidents involving moose (not originally native - were imported) in the province.  I won't comment on the new name other than say the team's name is the same as a large donut store's specialty beverage that is heavily advertised in the summer.

With the Moose moving and changing names some of the team's items showed up at my local 'Play it Again'.  New hockey bags, pants, and new and used hockey gloves were for sale (some gloves and some pants are still left).  My brother bought the bag for me for Christmas a little over a year ago; it is large enough to fit my goalie gear.  The Manitoba Moose logo is embroidered on the side of the bag.  There are two inner pockets for skates.

I very recently picked up a clear green moose mug at a thrift store, and got a pant shell off Ebay.  Have worn the shell once and it fits pretty well over my hockey pants.

In the picture of the hockey bag, if you look closely at the top of the bag, you will see a clear envelope area with a tag inside.  The tag there didn't come with the bag.  With help from the fonts in the forum of the Chris Creamer Sportslogos site, and a Moose logo pulled off somewhere on the internet, plus the laminating services of a local office supply store, I created this:

Made two of the tags.  Ended up cutting down the 2nd one a bit to fit into the window of one my other hockey bags.

Had some smaller self laminating sheets for business cards that either got at clearance at a office supply store or at a dollar store.  Decided to make a few of the bag tags in favouite teams of some people I play hockey with.  For privacy reasons I blacked out the phone numbers in the images of the cards.

[Edit - March 2013 - acquired a Manitoba Moose jersey at the local Value Village.]

N.O.H.A. hockey jersey & mug

Continuing on with the regional hockey jerseys (sort of), I picked up a Northern Ontario Hockey Association jersey at a thrift store.  Had never heard of it the NOHA before so looked them up; apparently they operate in the Northeastern Ontario Region.

Everything is screened or heat pressed on.  Can't really see the shoulder logos in the front & back pic, so here's a pic of the shoulders.

Kind of liked the NOHA logo when I saw it; it reminded me a bit of the Trail Smoke Eaters logo (they won the World Championship in 1961 for Canada among other things).

A week later saw a coffee mug with the NOHA logo at the same thrift store so I bought that too.

Lakehead Thunderwolves

My last few posts have had regional jerseys so this post I am going to continue with that and show my few Thunderwolves items.  The Lakehead Thunderwolves are the university hockey team for my city; they are the highest level of hockey available to watch live.  I try to get out to 1 or 2 games a year.  Their chief rival is the Western Mustangs.

The Thunderwolves hockey program started in 2001 (the previous incarnation of the university team was called the Norwesters [1965-1985]).  They play in the aging Fort William Gardens.  It opened in 1951 and was renovated in 1995 but is likely nearing the end of it's lifespan.  There is talk of a multiplex event centre being built to replace the Gardens, but that will depend on government funding and other factors.  Here's a link to a picture of the outside of the F.W. Gardens: http://www.panoramio.com/photo/18144367
You can see the giant curling stone outside the Gardens that was at one time the largest curling stone in the world.
One place more info on the stone and the Gardens can be found is this excellent blog: http://hotrodsandjalopies.blogspot.ca/search?q=fort+william+gardens

Now onto the few items that I have of Lakehead Thunderwolves stuff.  I have a Thunderwolves replica jersey that I got through someone locally off Kijiji.

Here are a couple of caps that I got at the thrift store.  One is a Thunderwolves one.  The other is one from the Canadian university championships when Thunder Bay hosted them (2009 & 2010).  As the host city the Thunderwolves were guaranteed a place in the CIS tournament (sponsored by Cavendish Farms).  I saw a couple games of the tournament one year as my father was given tickets from a friend of his.

I also picked up a toque from a local Salvation Army thrift store.

German eagle goal jersey

I guess I sort of have one more International jersey.

Took some photos today of my German eagle goal jersey.  A thrift store purchase from a while back. Originally an  XXL expanded to fit my over my goal equipment; split the seams from wrist to waist and added some black mesh.  An acquaintance of mine recognized it; it was some team from in my region - can't remember which town or team he said.

Marathon Renegades - SIJHL

Here's the other 'game worn' jersey in my collection.  It's from the same league as the Bulldogs jersey (SIJHL) and also is a defunct team.   The Marathon Renegades survived for less than 2 seasons.  I was offered 2 or 3 jerseys or other items out of a small hockey bag of stuff as payment for putting the name and number on the Finland jersey in one of my earlier posts.  This was one of the jerseys I picked.

The main front crest is very similar to the one used by the Baltimore Bandits (AHL).  It appears to be a sublimated logo that is sewn on.  Everything except the Alternate Captain 'A' is machine sewn on.  The 'A' has been hand sewn on.  The SIJHL is an embroidered patch.

The last name looks to be heat pressed on the name bar and sewn on.

The shoulder crest 'M', along with all the numbers and the front team name are made of tackle twill.

Thunder Bay Bulldogs jersey - SIJHL

Here's one of the few jerseys I have that would be considered 'game worn'.  It is from a defunct team called the  Thunder Bay Bulldogs (who played in the SIJHL).  SIJHL is a Junior A hockey league that has teams in my region.
Years ago saw one game of the Bulldogs playing the Fort William North Stars at Fort William Gardens.  Got the ticket as a bonus from my Beer League when we required to pay extra for insurance.  Bulldogs were soundly defeated that game.  The North Stars had over 3 lines with coaches, trainers, etc. on their bench.  Bulldogs had about 2 lines.

Got this jersey at a local thrift shop.  Some of the patches were coming off and there were a couple tears in the jersey.  Secured the patches with straight stitching and stitched close the tears.  Along with the Bulldogs name and shoulder patches on the jersey are a Volkswagen patch, a CKPR patch ,SIJHL patch, and on the back a Best Western patch
580 CKPR was a local AM radio station; they are now 91.5 on FM.  Best Western Crossroads is the Best Western on Arthur Street.

 

Invaders hockey jersey - Part II

Just finished a 3rd jersey today for the Lakehead Invaders.  Crest and patches are done - may add a back number in the same style as my white Invaders jersey later.  Front crest is one I originally designed for the back of a melton/leather jacket (that I haven't done).  The Invader is the same Space Invader as the one ins Ryan Connelly's Pittsburgh Invaders one (can be seen in his blog: Project 840).  The lettering is the same as his and my previous Invaders jerseys only enlarged and curved over the Invader.

* Edit (January 27/13): added #25 on back in same style as the white Invaders jersey.

Had a Sleeping Giant left over from cutting out the design from my black Invaders jersey so decided to put it on the bottom back of this jersey.

Shoulder crest is the same as the one Ryan used for his 'Red Alert' jersey and his blue jersey just recoloured with white, yellow, and black for this jersey.

Bought an Invader's handmade toque this past year (knit hat, beanie, skully, or whatever the kids are calling it these days for my non-Canadians).  Got it (the coloured one pictured) off Etsy from moderncrafter, but originally found it online here: http://gadgetsin.com/space-invaders-knit-hat.htm

Finland jersey

Continuing on the International theme, here is a jersey I customized for a friend of mine.  His son (who I think was in the wedding party) wanted to give a couple gifts to the bride and groom: A soccer jersey for the bride with the nation of the groom's ethnicity and a hockey jersey for the groom with the nation of the bride's ethnicity (it may have been the other way around but I'm pretty sure it wasn't).  In any case he game me the name and number to put on it.

He had a 2010 Finland replica hockey jersey.  He wanted me to customize this one.  He wanted it done fairly quickly and wasn't concerned about the fonts for the name and number, but I looked online at game worn jerseys and tried to find some fonts that were close to the ones actual used.  I used League Gothic for the numbers and Alternate Gothic 1D for the name.  The #12 was chosen for the year they were getting married (2012).

another Germany jersey - Mighty Ducks D2

Took some pics today of my 3rd Germany jersey.  Couldn't find any previous photos on my computer or on Facebook.   Thought I had a pic or two; maybe I had them on Webshots (lost any photos I had only on there - forgot to download because the company changed).

Got this jersey off Ebay.  It's a 'movie worn' jersey from the second Mighty Ducks movie.  Got a COA with the jersey.  The jersey was missing the D's in Deutschland; I made some out of tackle twill and sewed them on.  You can tell the D's are a bit different in the pic as they reflected more light from the camera flash. 

Also noticed an outline on the right sleeve where a patch previously was.  Not sure what it looks like.  Have never watched any of the Mighty Ducks movies.  Saw some clips of the Flying V online but you can't make out fine details on the Germany jerseys in the ones I have seen.  If anyone has a pic or link that you can see the right sleeve patch it would be appreciated.

Here's a pic I downloaded of the Flying V scene.  You can see #22 on the top right of the photo.