January 19, 1964 - The Bruins franchise may have been saved by a TV replay of the night before

[Fenway]

@ChrisK97 uploaded this photo in the Old Arena Images & Beginnings thread a few months ago.

There are 16 seconds left in the game and the visiting Bruins are leading the Leafs 11-0.

The game was played on January 18, 1964.

This game might have saved the Bruins franchise.
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The Bruins were floundering in the '60s and Boston fans and media were warming up to the NBA Celtics who were without question the finest basketball team in the world. Celtics games were televised occasionally back then but not the Bruins who had not been seen on TV since 1960.

The Bruins announced they would show highlights of that game in Toronto the next day and the CBC provided an edited 60-minute version of the game with Boston's Fred Cusick doing the play by play from Maple Leaf Gardens. Cusick then drove overnight with the tape to Manchester, NH for the delayed broadcast.

That Sunday morning the Boston Globe ran this fluff piece

As it turned out all the major Boston stations were covering a memorial Mass for President Kennedy who had died 2 months before and by 11 AM many viewers were looking for ANYTHING to watch and stumbled into the Bruins replay.

The rating service reported by 11:30 AM the Bruins had more viewers than all the stations watching the JFK Mass combined.

Americans and especially Bostonians were searching for something, anything to help people snap out of the depression felt after JFK was assassinated. 2 weeks later the Beatles showed up on Ed Sullivan for the first time.

One has to wonder if that 11-0 victory was on the level as the NHL was certainly aware of the replay.




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[Big Phil]

Very interesting argument you compiled, but we have to remember one thing. The Bruins were just terrible for the most part for much of the 1950s and 1960s. Missed the playoffs a ton of times and it is understood that interest in the team would be lower. But I don't think it saved them because in two short years after that in 1966 Bobby Orr arrived on the scene and if there was any threat to the Bruins' existence it would have been Orr who would have made everyone forget about that. I don't know if there was any threat to leave though. Believe it or not the Bruins still were drawing rather well per game. Boston Garden had a capacity of about 13,000-14,000 back then. The year you are talking about they averaged 12,000 fans. Not bad considering there was nothing on the Bruins to get excited about back then and they were usually in the tank in the NHL.

 

[vikash1987]

The rating service reported by 11:30 AM the Bruins had more viewers than all the stations watching the JFK Mass combined.

@Fenway, very interesting to look back at this. Thanks for sharing. But I worry that too much historical significance is being attached to this. It sounds a bit hyperbolic when I think to myself that a Sunday morning (i.e. not prime-time) edited rebroadcast of a one-time, fluke game may have saved the Boston Bruins. Unless I'm missing other critical details about the effect this had on their subsequent TV/radio coverage (or lack thereof)?

What were the actual TV ratings, out of curiosity?

It doesn't surprise me that this outdrew the tribute to President Kennedy---as you suggest, people were emotionally drained by that coverage, especially in Massachusetts, and technically, the formal conclusion of the national mourning period had ended a month earlier.

From a Leafs' perspective, there were reports that the team was rebelling against Punch Imlach for his treatment of Johnny Bower, who wasn't in nets for this one. I will say this: to see Tim Horton a -6, Allan Stanley a -7, Red Kelly a -5, Dave Keon a -5, etc. is really weird!

 

[Fenway]

@Fenway, very interesting to look back at this. Thanks for sharing. But I worry that too much historical significance is being attached to this. It sounds a bit hyperbolic when I think to myself that a Sunday morning (i.e. not prime-time) edited rebroadcast of a one-time, fluke game may have saved the Boston Bruins. Unless I'm missing other critical details about the effect this had on their subsequent TV/radio coverage (or lack thereof)?

What were the actual TV ratings, out of curiosity?

It doesn't surprise me that this outdrew the tribute to President Kennedy---as you suggest, people were emotionally drained by that coverage, especially in Massachusetts, and technically, the formal conclusion of the national mourning period had ended a month earlier.

From a Leafs' perspective, there were reports that the team was rebelling against Punch Imlach for his treatment of Johnny Bower, who wasn't in nets for this one. I will say this: to see Tim Horton a -6, Allan Stanley a -7, Red Kelly a -5, Dave Keon a -5, etc. is really weird!

@vikash1987 - Early 1964 the Bruins AND Boston Garden were cash poor. The Garden under archaic tax laws paid enormous property tax to the city even though they did not own the land and meanwhile the Garden was in desperate need of renovation. Weston Adams had sold the team to the Garden in 1951 but was still a stockholder in the arena.

Walter Brown who ran the Garden put more resources into the Celtics which he owned. Meanwhile the actual owner of the Garden, the Boston and Maine RR wanted to end all passenger service and demolish North Station that the Garden was above. The Garden sold the old Arena to the state to stay afloat.

I would later work at the New Hampshire station that televised the replay and the station program director told me it was the most-watched hour in the history of the station. (over 200,000 homes) Because of that, the Bruins started to get the occasional road telecast on Channel 5 the following year and 2 years later when UHF stations started most road games were televised.

 

[vikash1987]

Thanks for the further explanation! I didn’t know that the situation with Boston Garden was so serious. Reading into this a bit more, I see that there had been talks in the mid-‘60s between Boston’s mayor, the sports franchise owners, and the sports authority over huge plans to develop a new, $80 million stadium complex, but that there were issues over its tax-exempt status, financing, etc. In the interim, the Bruins raised ticket prices and engaged in other short-term fixes.

I guess I always just assumed that the Bruins’ return to health towards the end of the ‘60s was attributed largely to the team’s rebuild on the ice (which obviously included #4), and that the expansion in TV coverage due to the granting of FCC licenses was the result of circumstances not tied to any specific event or specific game.

 

[Fenway]

Thanks for the further explanation! I didn’t know that the situation with Boston Garden was so serious. Reading into this a bit more, I see that there had been talks in the mid-‘60s between Boston’s mayor, the sports franchise owners, and the sports authority over huge plans to develop a new, $80 million stadium complex, but that there were issues over its tax-exempt status, financing, etc. In the interim, the Bruins raised ticket prices and engaged in other short-term fixes.

I guess I always just assumed that the Bruins’ return to health towards the end of the ‘60s was attributed largely to the team’s rebuild on the ice (which obviously included #4), and that the expansion in TV coverage due to the granting of FCC licenses was the result of circumstances not tied to any specific event or specific game.

The Garden's tax situation never improved. Adams bought the team back in 1965 after Walter Brown died suddenly but he was not a wealthy man, more upper-middle class. After the 1972 season, the Adams family sold the team to the TV station that carried the games as they could not meet the new payroll reality created by the WHA. 2 years later Storer Broadcasting sold the team to Jacobs for $2 million in cash and free TV rights for 10 years worth $8 million.

Jacobs also had problems with the tax issues and things got worse when the state took over the Boston and Maine RR's passenger service and ownership of North Station. Mass and city politicians were wary of Jacobs as it was thought at the time they were not willing to keep Bobby Orr but nobody at the time knew Eagleson had made a deal with Bill Wirtz to send Orr to Chicago.

By 1981 it got so bad the team almost moved to New Hampshire but in the end, NH politicians did not trust Paul Mooney who was Jacob's point person in Boston and the team fell ONE VOTE short in the New Hampshire Legislature. Hockey Night in Toronto devoted an intermission over the move to NH



18:04 - Brian McFarlane interviews former Bruin Johnny Peirson 20:45 - Dave Hodge interviews Bruin GM Harry Sinden

 

[vikash1987]

It definitely would’ve been weird to see the Bruins actually move to Salem, New Hampshire. Harry Sinden, in that video, didn’t make this out to be such a big deal: he noted that this was a suburb of Boston only 30 miles out (just as Landover, Maryland was a suburb of Washington), and that for many fans this would actually mean easier access to the arena—a notable exception being those fans based in South Boston. But it just goes to show how impactful city taxes can be.

 

[VanIslander]

In 15+ years here, i have never encountered a more INTRIGUING thread.

 

[vikash1987]

Out of curiosity, did the station preserve any tape, kinescope, or anything at all of this ‘64 game? I assume it’s lost to history, but I could be wrong.