When did Teams start Air-travel?

[Lshap]

Funny story from the VERY early days of commercial flight in the PCHA:

During the 1921 season, the Seattle Metropolians were due to play a game in Victoria, which is across the Puget Sound on Vancouver Island. In those days, the way to get from Seattle to Victoria was by a long-ish ferry trip.

Just as the Mets were walking up the gangplank to board the Victoria ferry, it dawned on team manager Pete Muldoon that he had left winger Jim Riley's skates sitting on his desk in his office. Riley was having a big season, so leaving him on the sideline wasn't an option. And his nickname was "Big Jim" for a reason... his feet wouldn't fit in anybody else's skates.

Without saying a word to the team about why he was leaving, Muldoon turned around and ran back down to the street, hailed a cab, and sped off to retrieve the skates.

Now, put yourself in the mindset of someone in 1921. If you leave somebody at the ferry terminal, that's it. End of story, see ya later. Alternate transportation to an island city was non-existent. So seeing your team manager run away and jump in a taxi as the ferry was getting ready to leave... the players had to have been mystified.

Muldoon's taxi arrived back at the port just in time to see the ferry churning across the waterway, headed for Victoria. But Muldoon was a desperate man, and he happened to see a new-fangled seaplane docked nearby. This before commercial seaplane service had been conceived as an industry, so at most this would have been some sort of irregular plane-for-hire. Muldoon found the pilot, apparently came up with payment, and flew to Victoria ahead of the ferry.

So, again putting yourself in the mindset of 1921, you can only imagine the bewildered reaction of the players when they stepped off the ferry in Victoria, and there was Muldoon standing at the dock... casually waiting for them to arrive, Big Jim's skates in hand.

Fantastic story!

The other thing that jumped out at me was the manager's name, Muldoon, is as tied to a bygone era as travelling by ferry and train. I can't imagine meeting a Muldoon younger than 70. Okay, I'm sure the surname is still around, but there's probably one factory somewhere in the mid-west that cranks out Muldoons along with rotary phones and top-hats.

 

[Lshap]

... Im guessing you know well the story of Eddie Shore's Legendary Midnight Drive from Boston to Montreal in January 1929 but for others who have not.... missed the 11:30pm train carrying the Bruins for the overnight & most of the next days trip to Montreal for a game against the Maroons by a whisker... and in a blizzard, white out conditions hires a car & driver to make the 500+km (about 350 miles) journey... the driver after about an hour telling Eddie "thats it, were turning back"... no window defroster, no tire chains, coiuldnt see 3' past the hood of the car even if you rolled the window down & leaned out... and Shore having none of it... takes over the wheel himself... manages to find a service station open along the way & buys some chains.... the windshield on the car was was split screen, so he removed the top 1/2 altogether, facing the sub zero whiteout conditions bare faced at about 60 miles per hour, just as fast as the jalopies of those days could go and this long before decent paved roads & highways.... took a break mid morning, let the driver carry on, takes a cat nap, driver puts the car in a ditch.... Eddie.... he treks couple miles over frozen tundra, luckily stumbled upon a farmhouse before turning into a human popsicle.... hires a team of horses, gets the car pulled out.... finally arrives in Montreal at 5:30pm... checks into the hotel, has a steak and a nap... Shows up on time but Man, is he a mess.... Fingers, both hands frozen into claws from all that white knuckle driving in gripping the wheel with no heat, totally exposed with most of the windshield gone.... and his face.... lips, cheeks & ears, badly frostbitten, puffed up to 3X's their normal size.... eyes bloodshot... equilibrium shot ta Hell, sober but staggering, like after a long & rough ocean journey.... Art Ross wasnt going to let him play but Eddie insisted..... went on to score the game winner that night.... And thats just the way it was back then. Travel by train with sleeper berths? That was a luxury. Fabulous experience. Almost no one complained about it, a "perk" actually. Alternative was a bus and good luck with that in the NE & Midwest during the winter months....

Don't know what rock I've been under, but I never heard this story before. Eddie Shore was an icon for a reason -- holy crap! But still, I have to wonder how much of that story was... um... supplemented over the years to add to the legend. Even if part was exaggerated, Eddie was definitely among the top-10 players I wish I'd met.

 

[Killion]

Don't know what rock I've been under, but I never heard this story before. Eddie Shore was an icon for a reason -- holy crap! But still, I have to wonder how much of that story was... um... supplemented over the years to add to the legend. Even if part was exaggerated, Eddie was definitely among the top-10 players I wish I'd met.

... well Lshap.... its all true and I deliberately refrained from any "embellishments" though there are a few different versions... more to it, like apparently the chains on the car broke at 5am in the mountains of New Hampshire, and as luck would have it, the dim lights of a road crew way way up ahead who were able to assists & fix them .... As the years progressed, Eddie became a real "car nut" actually, buying the most powerful vehicle's available brand new every couple of years when at the time most people would keep a car for 10yrs. Very careful about his cars was Eddie after that night in January Nineteen Hunnert n' Twenty Nine.... Yep. Real piece a work was Eddie Shore and actually more than a few similar characters from back in the day. All kinds of stories. Could go on & on....

The arrival of flight in the NHL in the late 50's through mid 60's wasnt however quite the blessing & convenience for all, as a great many players had never flown before, grew up during the earlier years of flight & WW2, all kinds of stories of crash & burn, they along with a considerable number of the general public distrustful, actually somewhat frightened to downright terrified of that mode of transport.... Gump Worsley for example... in the "terrified" category. So bad that he'd fortify himself to that point of intoxicaion as to (wilfully & deliberately in his case) being unconscious, then poured into & out of his seat. Blissfully unaware of the flight altogether. Totally petrified. Recurring nightmares, whole 9 yards. So bad that one night in 1969 after a particularly rough flight from Dorval in Montreal to Chicago, he suffered a total nervous breakdown & had to be hospitalized. He was done, couldnt handle it, and the only reason he agreed thereafter to go to Minnesota who'd taken a chance & grabbed his rights in 1970 was that he was told that due to being centrally located on the Continent flight travel was considerably less onerous, taxing.... and you think about that. Heres a guy, no fear facing 100mph Slapshots etc, steady as a rock, cool as cucumber, but when it came to flying?... Totally lost it. And there were lots of others. Even through the 70's, 80's, even today.

 

[Lshap]

... well Lshap.... its all true and I deliberately refrained from any "embellishments" though there are a few different versions... more to it, like apparently the chains on the car broke at 5am in the mountains of New Hampshire, and as luck would have it, the dim lights of a road crew way way up ahead who were able to assists & fix them .... As the years progressed, Eddie became a real "car nut" actually, buying the most powerful vehicle's available brand new every couple of years when at the time most people would keep a car for 10yrs. Very careful about his cars was Eddie after that night in January Nineteen Hunnert n' Twenty Nine.... Yep. Real piece a work was Eddie Shore and actually more than a few similar characters from back in the day. All kinds of stories. Could go on & on....

The arrival of flight in the NHL in the late 50's through mid 60's wasnt however quite the blessing & convenience for all, as a great many players had never flown before, grew up during the earlier years of flight & WW2, all kinds of stories of crash & burn, they along with a considerable number of the general public distrustful, actually somewhat frightened to downright terrified of that mode of transport.... Gump Worsley for example... in the "terrified" category. So bad that he'd fortify himself to that point of intoxicaion as to (wilfully & deliberately in his case) being unconscious, then poured into & out of his seat. Blissfully unaware of the flight altogether. Totally petrified. Recurring nightmares, whole 9 yards. So bad that one night in 1969 after a particularly rough flight from Dorval in Montreal to Chicago, he suffered a total nervous breakdown & had to be hospitalized. He was done, couldnt handle it, and the only reason he agreed thereafter to go to Minnesota who'd taken a chance & grabbed his rights in 1970 was that he was told that due to being centrally located on the Continent flight travel was considerably less onerous, taxing.... and you think about that. Heres a guy, no fear facing 100mph Slapshots etc, steady as a rock, cool as cucumber, but when it came to flying?... Totally lost it. And there were lots of others. Even through the 70's, 80's, even today.

Hey K - Thanks for the added info on Shore.

And yeah, I remember Gump and his flight phobia. His opposing fearlessness in net is even more ironic when you recall he faced those pucks without a mask. Worsely was, I think, the very last goalie to refuse to wear one. His bare face against rock-hard pucks = okay. Sitting in a seat on a plane for two hours = not okay. The mind is a strange instrument.

 

[Killion]

The mind is a strange instrument.

Yeah, it is indeed. I for example suffer from Acrophobia a bit however Ive skied some of the steepest terrain in the world and it never bothered me looking straight down into an icy, rock strewn crevasse that was clearly the stuff made of nightmares for one so afflicted. Ultimately I figure it has to do with control. As a passenger on a plane, you dont have any. You can face your fears & overcome them if you've got the stick in your hand and the training/knowledge & skill's to overcome them, build up to it gradually, bigger planes, longer ski's, higher altitudes, steeper terrain just as with skiing. In control. You'll never totally eliminate a phobia like that as it will resurface if your a passenger rather than pilot, just wont be so debilitating, scary. I know when Ive had to download on a chair lift from peak to valley, several 1000' over sheer drop offs, freaks me out. Wont even look down. Yet if I was skiing it, no problem. Glass elevators, anything over about 5 stories and Im not comfortable. Flying however? Not a problem though I dont like take-off's.

 

[garnetpalmetto]

I remember some article in the late 90's making it a big deal that the Ilitches provided their team a private plane, and that it gave them an advantage on the ice.

Other questions I have on the topic:

1) do most teams now have a private plane?

2) when did teams begin flying for short distance, like from Fort Lauderdale to Tampa?

I don't believe so. I think most teams charter flights with commercial carriers or with charter airlines.