A Pro Hockey Team in the Early \'70s Was Golden in Name Only

Tyrone Dukes/The New York Times Joe Junkin, goalie of the New York Golden Blades, in 1973.

It might seem unlikely that when the Islanders move to the Barclays Center arena in Brooklyn for the 2015 season their star players will be asked to pose naked to promote the team in magazines.

But that is precisely what happened the last time a major professional hockey team arrived in New York City.

“I knew things were going to be interesting as soon as I got to New York,” recalled Andre Lacroix, a star player acquired in 1973 by the New York Golden Blades, a nearly forgotten local team that played briefly in Madison Square Garden in the early 1970s as part of the short-lived World Hockey Association, a competitor to the established National Hockey League.

Lacroix had led the fledgling league in scoring with the Philadelphia Blazers the season before â€" the league's first. Now he was coming to boost the Blades, who were playing to crowds in Madison Square Garden that some nights numbered in the hundreds.

He recalled that when he arrived at the team offices in Manhattan, he was met by two models and a marketing official; they laid out a plan for Lacroix to pose naked for a magazine spread to promote the team. Lacroix politely declined.

“I told them, ‘Fellas, I come from a big Catholic family and my brother is a priest,' ” he recalled by phone on Thursday from Cleveland, where he now lives.

It was a fitting introduction to the Golden Blades, a team that had started playing in New York the previous season as the New York Raiders, one of a dozen teams in the new hockey league.

For a very select number of hockey aficionados, the announcement that the Islanders are coming to New York City could rekindle memories of the team's odd stint, reminiscent of the film “Slap Shot.”

Its logo was snappy: A skate with a yellow, lightning-shaped blade, in a purple circle trimmed with yellow sun rays.

Another gimmick cooked up by team officials was having the players wear white skates with gold-colored blades, Lacroix said. But, since the skates kept getting scuffed by pucks every game “they'd have to be repainted and the skates kept getting heavier,” he said.

“Thankfully, it didn't last because we didn't stay in New York long enough,” he said

Shortly into the franchise's second season â€" its first as the Golden Blades â€" the team went broke and in November 1973 abruptly moved to Cherry Hill, N.J. It was renamed the Jersey Knights.

For those keeping score, its New York-area incarnation saw five ownerships, three names and very few fans.

“They got such small crowds, the games felt like practices,” said Alton White, a Winnipeg native who played for the team when it was the Raiders; he was one of pro hockey's first black stars.

“The W.H.A. wanted to come into New York and I guess they figured if they made it there, they'd be successful,” said White, now 67 and living near Vancouver.

One problem for the Blades was competition for fans against the Rangers and the Islanders, which was an expansion team in the N.H.L.

“It was death going up against the Rangers, a team that goes back to 1926,” said Stan Fischler, a hockey historian and announcer who now works as a hockey analyst for the MSG network. “The W.H.A. was a league that was flying by the seat of its pants.”

Things were bumpy from the beginning. First, the Raiders could not find a home. After their attempt to play at the Nassau Coliseum was blocked, they negotiated nightly rentals at the Garden.

The Raiders had some dynamic players, including Ron Ward, who was known as Magic, but by the second season, the team's path became slightly circuslike, Mr. Fischler said.

“For starters, we were not even allowed to practice because a lot of us were still under contract to other teams,” White said. The team finally began practicing at various small rinks in New Jersey and settled at the Ironbound Arena in Newark, he said.

“It was a tough struggle for us, coming into the Garden, trying to find people who weren't Rangers fans,” White said.

The Blades' owners defaulted on arena and salary payments, and 20 games into the season - with a 6-12-2 record - the league took over the team's operations and moved it to the Cherry Hill Arena, a 4,000-seat space with wooden bleachers and only one usable locker room, which meant visiting teams had to put on their uniforms at a local hotel.

“You would see stars like Bobby Hull or Gordie Howe com ing off a school bus, all suited-up and carrying their sticks and skates,” said Lacroix, now 67.

Also, the rink itself was sloped, forcing one team to always “play uphill,” Lacroix said.

“If you shot the puck in the right direction, it would just rise up off the ice,” he said.

After the 1974 season, the team was moved to San Diego and renamed the Mariners. By 1979, the league had folded, after seven seasons.

Lacroix, who played for six teams in the ill-fated league, started in more games (551) and had more points (798) than any other player.

But one of his most enduring memories is of the day the Blades folded and the players were locked out of their own locker room.

“We never got our stuff back,” Lacroix said. “One thing the Golden Blades had was the best jersey in hockey and to this day, nobody knows where they are. Somebody has got to have one, and that is one valuable collector's item.”