deepbluejacket
Verified Trader,
Between the years of 1984 and 1992, I rarely missed a home game played by the Maine Mariners, the AHL franchise that pre-dated the Portland Pirates. I have tons of Mariner memorabilia - posters, programs, pucks, street hockey sticks, megaphones, etc. but I never owned a jersey. So from time to time, I go on eBay and see what's out there. And this week, I found this replica jersey:
Some background on the team: The Mariners started play in 1977 and as the farm club of the Philadelphia Flyers were dominant from the start. But by the time I started watching hockey, the Flyers had packed up and the parent club was the New Jersey Devils. So you may be thinking this jersey is from the Flyer era, but it isn't. When the team switched affiliations, the Mariners kept their name, logo, AND team colors! Fortunately, the Flyers aligned with the Hershey Bears, who also had a long history of logo and team colors, and we didn't have two teams dressed like the Flyers skating around.
Let's turn it over:
This appears to be a screened on name and number, which would otherwise detract from the value, but check out those signatures! The seller couldn't identify any of them, but I had no trouble with 6 of the 7. These were some of the most popular players on the team. For a franchise as lowly as the Devils were at the time, their AHL team was remarkably stable. 5 of these guys played for the team the entire 4 years of the Devils affiliation and a few continued to play for them when they moved to Utica. I was also reasonably confident these signatures were legit. Let's see if these names ring any bells:
Murray Brumwell
Brumwell was arguably the team's #1 defenseman. Or more accurately, the best defenseman they had who wasn't going to get called up. The Devils had quite a few players come through during this time - Bruce Driver, Ken Daneyko, Jan Ludvig - but they didn't stick around very long. I remember Brumwell took a lot of crap from the fans when things weren't going well, largely because he was on the ice a lot.
Bud Stefanski
Stefanski was the veteran of the team. He was a solid 2nd (and later 3rd) line player. He wore #77 and his number was retired when he hung them up. Others achieved more in their time as a Mariner, but Stefanski had the love of the fans.
Larry Floyd
Floyd led the team in scoring 4 consecutive seasons, the entire run with the Devils at the helm. During that time, the Devils called him up just once and for only 7 games. Floyd didn't look like a hockey player - in fact, he kind of looks like Patton Oswalt - but the guy delivered. My 2nd favorite player growing up - 2nd only to Boston's Barry Pederson.
Rich Chernomaz
Speaking of Pederson, Chernomaz was on Pederson's wing with the Victoria Cougars as they won the WHL championship. Chernomaz did well with Maine, but he really broke out at the minor league level after the team moved on.
Alan Hepple
The #2 defenseman who wasn't getting called up. He was on the ice a lot, quietly doing his job. Think Dennis Seidenberg as a comparable.
Gordie Mark
Mark played the last two seasons and I'll admit, I don't have much memory of him. But he's the only guy here to join Brumwell with an NHL licensed hockey card after playing 18 games with Oilers in 1994.
That brings us to the 7th auto, which had me stumped for a bit:
Mystery Player
What was really throwing me was what looks like the letter "f" in the last name. There was no player with an "f" there, or even a "g". But I was fairly sure the first name started with "A" and the last name with "H", and I was also fairly sure the player was on the team at the same time as the other 6. Could it be beloved enforcer Archie Henderson?
I consulted my team photos of the era with the facsimile autos. Henderson's signature was very elaborate and readable. There was a possible match on the "Archie", but the "Henderson" wasn't close. Then I looked at Chernomaz's auto. On the team photo, he took the time to spell out his entire name. Was Henderson doing the same? Taking his time for posterity?
I needed to find an auto of his where he just signed his name on the fly. I didn't have one. Nothing came up on Google image searches. But eBay came to the rescue. The user flyersguru had various signed team photos and included was this:
That's a match. I don't know why Henderson's "s" looks like an "f", but it does.
Archie Henderson
An elite enforcer. The crowd loooooooved this guy. I remember one game the team handed out flyers where we were instructed to put on our most menancing faces and chant "Arrrrrrrrrr-cheeeeeee!" You didn't mess with Henderson. I don't recall the 6'6"er ever losing a fight.
So that's my trip down memory lane. Hope you enjoyed!
Mike
Some background on the team: The Mariners started play in 1977 and as the farm club of the Philadelphia Flyers were dominant from the start. But by the time I started watching hockey, the Flyers had packed up and the parent club was the New Jersey Devils. So you may be thinking this jersey is from the Flyer era, but it isn't. When the team switched affiliations, the Mariners kept their name, logo, AND team colors! Fortunately, the Flyers aligned with the Hershey Bears, who also had a long history of logo and team colors, and we didn't have two teams dressed like the Flyers skating around.
Let's turn it over:
This appears to be a screened on name and number, which would otherwise detract from the value, but check out those signatures! The seller couldn't identify any of them, but I had no trouble with 6 of the 7. These were some of the most popular players on the team. For a franchise as lowly as the Devils were at the time, their AHL team was remarkably stable. 5 of these guys played for the team the entire 4 years of the Devils affiliation and a few continued to play for them when they moved to Utica. I was also reasonably confident these signatures were legit. Let's see if these names ring any bells:
Murray Brumwell
Brumwell was arguably the team's #1 defenseman. Or more accurately, the best defenseman they had who wasn't going to get called up. The Devils had quite a few players come through during this time - Bruce Driver, Ken Daneyko, Jan Ludvig - but they didn't stick around very long. I remember Brumwell took a lot of crap from the fans when things weren't going well, largely because he was on the ice a lot.
Bud Stefanski
Stefanski was the veteran of the team. He was a solid 2nd (and later 3rd) line player. He wore #77 and his number was retired when he hung them up. Others achieved more in their time as a Mariner, but Stefanski had the love of the fans.
Larry Floyd
Floyd led the team in scoring 4 consecutive seasons, the entire run with the Devils at the helm. During that time, the Devils called him up just once and for only 7 games. Floyd didn't look like a hockey player - in fact, he kind of looks like Patton Oswalt - but the guy delivered. My 2nd favorite player growing up - 2nd only to Boston's Barry Pederson.
Rich Chernomaz
Speaking of Pederson, Chernomaz was on Pederson's wing with the Victoria Cougars as they won the WHL championship. Chernomaz did well with Maine, but he really broke out at the minor league level after the team moved on.
Alan Hepple
The #2 defenseman who wasn't getting called up. He was on the ice a lot, quietly doing his job. Think Dennis Seidenberg as a comparable.
Gordie Mark
Mark played the last two seasons and I'll admit, I don't have much memory of him. But he's the only guy here to join Brumwell with an NHL licensed hockey card after playing 18 games with Oilers in 1994.
That brings us to the 7th auto, which had me stumped for a bit:
Mystery Player
What was really throwing me was what looks like the letter "f" in the last name. There was no player with an "f" there, or even a "g". But I was fairly sure the first name started with "A" and the last name with "H", and I was also fairly sure the player was on the team at the same time as the other 6. Could it be beloved enforcer Archie Henderson?
I consulted my team photos of the era with the facsimile autos. Henderson's signature was very elaborate and readable. There was a possible match on the "Archie", but the "Henderson" wasn't close. Then I looked at Chernomaz's auto. On the team photo, he took the time to spell out his entire name. Was Henderson doing the same? Taking his time for posterity?
I needed to find an auto of his where he just signed his name on the fly. I didn't have one. Nothing came up on Google image searches. But eBay came to the rescue. The user flyersguru had various signed team photos and included was this:
That's a match. I don't know why Henderson's "s" looks like an "f", but it does.
Archie Henderson
An elite enforcer. The crowd loooooooved this guy. I remember one game the team handed out flyers where we were instructed to put on our most menancing faces and chant "Arrrrrrrrrr-cheeeeeee!" You didn't mess with Henderson. I don't recall the 6'6"er ever losing a fight.
So that's my trip down memory lane. Hope you enjoyed!
Mike
