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PASabreFan

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  3. Gilbert Perreault

    in The Aud Club

    Posted · Edited by PASabreFan

    I will defer to you but I am surprised to hear that they didn't sell out the first year considering they still hadn't added the oranges to the Aud.

    As far as Imlach, I just can't see him in the role hockey ambassador.

     

    OK, I'm at my daughter's dance recital do no links but a quick internet search shows average attendance near capacity right from the beginning. 9700 first year, over 15K every year till capacity was increased to 16433. Again, with the Bison fans and all the Canadien fans dying for live action I still have to question Gil being told he needed to help sell tickets.

    The following link has a link to the 71-72 media guide, which has game by game attendance for the first season. http://sabresdigitalpressbox.com/media-guide/ 

     

    Second half was a little better than the first half; there were a handful of games with crowds under 8,000 in the first half when the opponent didn't have the cachet of a Montreal or Boston. The guide has a blurb that says tickets were a "black market commodity" by the end of the first season.

     

    You don't think Imlach wanted Perreault to play it wide open to sell tickets, but do you agree that's how he wanted him to play?

  4. Gilbert Perreault

    in The Aud Club

    Posted · Edited by PASabreFan

    Considering you couldn't get a ticket without knowing someone in those early years, I doubt he was told to play offense to put fannies in the seats not to mention that Pinch couldn't give a rats ass about ownership requests if they would be so daring to try.

    The sellout streak started in October 1972, the team's third season. Before that, attendance was strong. But was it strong because of Perreault's flash and dazzle? I wouldn't be surprised if Imlach used Perreault to sell hockey in Buffalo, at the expense of his defensive play. It was no sure thing that the community would embrace the Sabres in those very early days — Buffalo was used to top-notch hockey in the form of the Bisons, who had won the Calder Trophy the season before the Sabres arrived.

     

    In his book, Paul Wieland talks about how Ted Darling would go out to "rubber chicken" dinners and any other community event they could think of and talk up the team; and how the team's vice president for business, Dave Forman, would grab people in the lobby of the Aud who were buying single game tickets and take them back to his office to sell them on seasons. They had to work hard to build an affinity for the team, an emotional connection that really bloomed in 72-73 when they made the playoffs for the first time.

  5. (OT) Who was 'Pappy' (the fellow combat infantryman in my father's WWII memoir)?

    in The Aud Club

    Posted · Edited by PASabreFan

    PA, do you live in Bradford or just your father at the time the book was written? That's where I was born. I'm doing what little digging I can. It seems like you've done a lot of research since I'm finding a lot of stuff you already did.

     

    I found another reference to this same Fred A. Scott from Washington. I know the age is a bit low for the description of late-20s, but there seems to be a lot pointing to him: http://www.ww2enlistment.org/index.php?page=directory&rec=7484352

     

    His enlistment date would also line up with your father's comment about him being in the war since it started. He joined less than a year after the US entered WWII.

    Thanks Dylan. I appreciate your reading the book and helping out.

     

    Fred was two and a half years older than my dad. Although it doesn't fit with the late-20s comment, it's enough to explain my dad's perception that he was the "old man." The term "Pappy" might even have originally been used jokingly. You know how it is when you enter college. A junior or senior is, ya know, OLD.

     

    The enlistment date for Fred argues a bit against him being "Pappy," as my dad wrote that he had been with the division "from the beginning." The Third Division invaded Morocco in the fall of '42 to kick off its participation in the war, just before Fred enlisted. I think faulty memory could explain this one.

     

    The fact Fred had no kids is a disappointment, in a way. I kind of daydreamed about giving the book to his "kid." But at least no wife got that news, and no kid grew up not knowing his father.

     

    The deceased personnel file, which from what I read can contain many details of how someone died, will be telling. I am hoping for 100% confirmation. It's going to take four months, I think, to get the file. Actually no one responded to my email yet. Hey, it's the government.

     

    Yep, all sharp-eyed and sharp-tongued Sabres analysts hail from Bradford!

  6. (OT) Who was 'Pappy' (the fellow combat infantryman in my father's WWII memoir)?

    in The Aud Club

    Posted

    PA where is the memoir available? I'm a huge fan of military history and love reading first person accounts, particularly about WWII.

     

    A few years ago I had a patient who I had to tell there was nothing unless we could do for his metastatic cancer. I knew he was a WWII Vet, but I did not know the details. I said I'm sorry about the news I had just delivered, he smiled at me and said

     

    "Doc, I was on the first Higgins Boat that landed in Easy Green Sector Omaha Beach, June 6, 1944. Out of the first ten guys to leave the boat I was the only one who made it out of the surf. I survived that day and was able to marry the girl of my dreams, be the father to five great kids, grandfather to twelve and great grandfather to seven and counting. I got to live a full life, feel sorry for my brothers who didn't. Thanks for everything you have done for me"

     

    I mumbled something along the lines of your welcome and left the room and headed to the nearest stairwell. Once there it took me fifteen minutes to regain my composure. I had read the book the greatest generation, but did not truly appreciate it until that moment.

    Thanks for your interest, and for sharing your story. Just about says it all huh?

     

    Here's where you can download the book:

     

    http://forums.sabrespace.com/topic/20923-things-that-are-awesome/?p=587375

  8. 2015 NHL Playoffs: Round 3

    in The Aud Club

    Posted

    Speaking of that song, this remains the greatest Buffalo Sabres video on YouTube. Bar none.

     


    Yup that was it. I miss that little 30 second orchestral intro that once introduced Sabres broadcasts.  I wish they would bring that back.  

    I thought I also heard that flimsy "Dancing on the Ceiling" song or whatever it was called. Another recent sound track of misery.

  14. Secure Bunker 18

    in The Aud Club

    Posted

    So you're The Historian?!

     

    My apologies sir.  Somehow I thought you would be smoking a pipe.  The floor is yours.

     

     

     

    Who invited this guy?

    "This guy" is the voice of the underground. He sang our anthem — an anthem filled with many subversive messages when played backwards.

  15. Secure Bunker 18

    in The Aud Club

    Posted

    ...Cappucinno, DelMonico, Empenada, Fettucinni...

     

    Just what are your credentials, PASabreFan, to be asking a card carrying member of the Team to authenticate in front of everyone?  

    I was being water boarded by chz in SDS' gulag when TSC was formed in my honor. I have every right, as the father of this movement.

     

    Where, sir, is your tilde over the "n" in empeñada, friend?

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