AJC > Sports > Columnists > Archives > 2008 > January > 22 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USHere’s to the Flames who never left
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
Billboards around town announced their impending arrival. “The Icemen Cometh,” they trumpeted. Hardly original, but a catchy means of advertising Atlanta’s introduction into the National Hockey League. The year was 1972. Nine men of prominence, and wealth, shepherded by Tom Cousins, had bought into it. The Atlanta Flames burst into life in the playpen Cousins had built for them, The Omni.
Opening night, something you could never have imagined this deep in the South, where the NHL had never ventured before, men speeding about at 30 MPH on thin blades of steel, brandishing a stick, burdened by about 10 pounds of protective gear. The Flames lost, of course, to Buffalo, 5-3, but within two years they were in the playoffs. By this time, Bernard (Boom Boom) Geoffrion had struck up a worshipful following, intrigued by his French-Canadian version of our language.
“Da Boom,” as he sometimes referred to himself. “Da Flame,” as he referred to his team. Cliff Fletcher was general manager, and he saw the franchise all the way to its new destination in Calgary. (But that’s another story.) The public relations director — ah, this will catch your eye — was Jim Huber. You know him now as TBS’s sort of version of, well, Walter Cronkite.
Almost as swiftly as they came, they went. In 1980 the franchise was sold and moved to Calgary. There were complications. A new rival league had driven up costs, but that was not the base cause, and we turn here to Dan Bouchard, the goaltender, one of several Flames who had to follow the team to Calgary, but never changed home addresses. And still hasn’t.
“Tom Cousins was an honorable owner,” Bouchard said. “The players had no pension plan, and he said there’s something wrong there. He brought up the need for a pension plan, the other owners turned on him, and it eventually cost him his franchise. That’s why he had to sell it.”
Bouchard has lived 29 years in the Marietta area. He has coached in Switzerland, run a hockey camp in Czechoslovakia, coached in Quebec, but always came back to Marietta. He coached the Life University team seven years, and is reviving that program now. He has a French restaurant in Vinings, his wife has a cleaning business, and while NHL players now have a pension plan, it is but a whisper of major-league baseball and football plans.
There is an all-star lineup of former Flames who, like Bouchard, came to play and never left, except on hockey business: Randy Manery, Eric Vail, Tom Lysiak, Greg Fox, Bobby Simpson, Willie Plett, Tim Ecclestone, and the same may be said of Boom Boom. He later went back to Montreal to coach the Canadiens, but home remained East Cobb, and so it was unto his death about two years ago. And so, too, did that distinctive French-Canadian accent stay with him to the end. It is ironic that he passed away on the day the Canadiens retired his jersey in The Forum. He never made the ceremony, but Marlene and the family represented him. To most of us who were here then, Boom Boom remains the face, rugged and humorous, and the voice of hockey here. He would be 76.
Well, this is another era, and another team and another arena in which the All-Star Game takes the ice this weekend. But our old Flames will be having their time. Thursday afternoon they gather in a Hall of Fame atmosphere, in Tim Ecclestone’s place on Holcomb Bridge Road, used to be Timothy John’s, now shortened to TJ’s Sports Bar, in company with Gordie Howe, and Bobby Hull, Bobby Clarke, Ted Lindsay, Tony Esposito, Dave Schultz, Frank Mahovlich, Johnny Bower, Clark Gillies, Kurt Walker and Pat Quinn, an original Flame who went home to Toronto.
“Our old Flames,” if we may readjust the lyrics of the song of yore. We just didn’t want the memory of them to be crunched in the All-Star pandemonium. Yep, they left under disturbing circumstances, but now you know that Tom Cousins was in pursuit of a just cause. And, that the Flames later won a Stanley Cup, it just wasn’t in Atlanta’s name.
Permalink | Comments (43) | Post your comment | Categories: Furman Bisher, Thrashers / NHL
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By Brendan
January 22, 2008 7:14 PM | Link to this
Everyone who remembers the Flames looks back on them fondly.
By Brendan
January 22, 2008 7:19 PM | Link to this
Cliff Fletcher turned out to be a very good GM throughout his career. Any chance he’d come back to Atlanta???
By scott
January 22, 2008 8:00 PM | Link to this
The Flames rule. I wish they still played in Atlanta or that Atlanta could have at least kept the name. I hope the Thrashers do something this weekend to remember the Flames.
By Larry
January 22, 2008 8:34 PM | Link to this
Mr. Cousins sound like the alter ego of the Thrahser’s former owner, Ted Turner, a flaming liberal who has never met a woman he wouldn’t divorce.
Nice story!
Thanks!
By Gene
January 22, 2008 9:28 PM | Link to this
I think it was in the fall of 1972, I was in a restaurant north of Marietta, and I noticed these really rough-looking guys eating who weren’t big enough to be football players. Some were speaking a language that sounded like Louisana Cajun. Of course they were the Flames. I had just returned from Vietnam and knew nothing about hockey. They were friendly enough, and I became a fan. I still have the 1972 guidebook and a Flames hat from the late 1970’s that I wear on special occasions. I remember Boomer’s car commercials: “Da Boomer won’t tell you no lie.” Those were real athletes and class people. It is good to hear that some are still around and doing well.
By John
January 22, 2008 9:59 PM | Link to this
The Flames were the best ticket in town. Remember the Philly games? God Bless Tommy L. and the rest of our boys. We’ll always love them.
By CB
January 22, 2008 10:35 PM | Link to this
Cliff Fletcher was named interim GM of the Toronto Maple Leafs today(1/23/07), his second stint there.
The Thrashers need the old Flames to help with marketing, community relations etc. DW says it’s too much time past for the connection of the two franchises, but he’s dead wrong. He doesn’t understand the love affair original Atlantans had with these guys.
By hockeyman 3944
January 22, 2008 11:31 PM | Link to this
Thanks Furman…I never really thought of you as a hockey guy…but to see those names mentioned, (and I know almost everyone of them), really makes me proud to be a hockey fan and have you remember them…class guys all. Can’t be said for the current crop of jerks in other sports, but hockey players are some of the most down to earth people you’d ever meet. If you don’t believe me, read the sports pages and see how many hockey players get in scrapes…nuff said!
By scott
January 22, 2008 11:45 PM | Link to this
Larry,
You sound like a douche. And if you are talking about politics and divorce, looks to me like your conservative republicans are the ones that like to divorce. Just ask McCain and Rudy.
And Cousins was a great owner who cared about his players. Yeah that’s a real bad thing.
By Jameson
January 23, 2008 12:40 AM | Link to this
scott, I think you may have read some of that wrong.
“…now you know that Tom Cousins was in pursuit of a just cause.”
By ben
January 23, 2008 1:09 AM | Link to this
The Thrash have a core group of fans as well. As bad as they are, that’s saying a heckava lot. Cousins sounds like a class guy. Maybe DW could contact Calgary about incorperating fire in the logo for a third jersey. Be patient, HOCKEY will catch on in this town.
By Ross
January 23, 2008 2:26 AM | Link to this
What a strange coincidence. I was reading about football on Wikipedia and for some reason drifted over to a page about the old Flames, and was pleased to discover my favorite player from the old days, Bouchard, was still in town. And now this column. Small world.
Bouchard said back in the day that one of his goals (ha) was to build his own house, single-handedly - that seemed to fit with his, let’s say, unique personality. I wonder if he ever got around to it?
It’s been quite a while since I saw a Flames banner around town. There was one behind the bar at Aunt Charley’s in Buckhead for a long, long time (like most of old Buckhead, gone). The Calgary team used the old Atlanta flaming “A” for the assistant captain for some anniversary a few years back. That was nice.
-drl
By BeachGaBulldog
January 23, 2008 7:25 AM | Link to this
I was 11 years old when the Atlanta Flames first organized. Already being a hockey fan, I was a die-hard Flames fan from day 1. There are so many great memories that I have of that team, and it still saddens me that they left. Once they left town, that did it for me. As for the Thrashers, I have just never been able to get into them. When they first started, I tried to become a fan, but just couldn’t. They are a joke, and I am always glad when they lose. I hope that they fold, and move to Bangor.
By TK
January 23, 2008 8:13 AM | Link to this
What ever happened to my favorite original Flame, #4 Noel Price? He was the slowest defenseman on the team, but the guys I went to the games with loved him.
By glovesave29
January 23, 2008 8:54 AM | Link to this
Cousins a good owner? This is revisionist history at work! Cousins had many opportunities to sell the team to local interests and keep the Flames here in Atlanta. We’d have a Cup and last season would have had a 35th anniversary patch on them. But, no….he could not stand to have the team here and not be the owner. So to save his failing real estate empire, he ships our team off to Calgary and Nelson Skalbania. I went nuts when they raised the cup in Montreal in 89, but that championship banner should be in our arena, not one 3500 miles away. Tom Cousins will always be a traitor to those of us who grew up here and loved the Flames.
By Keith Strawn
January 23, 2008 9:23 AM | Link to this
Thanks so much, Furman, for being the one AJC columnist who ever offers anything like perspective and insight. Hard to believe it’s been 28 years since the Flames left town. A lot of people forget that the 70s was Atlanta’s heyday as “losersville,” and the Flames were the one franchise that consistently won.
By LGYOUNG
January 23, 2008 10:39 AM | Link to this
The Flames were the hottest thing in Atlanta! Nothing was better, it was awesome and I shared some of my best moments with my dad at the games. Remember the lady with her chest painted behind the glass, there were some great brawls over the years, with the Flyers,Bruins,Winnepeg, we just could not win in the playoffs. Wish we could have kept them or the name.
By merger_king
January 23, 2008 10:51 AM | Link to this
Yes, the Flames ruled! From Myre and Bouchard Pat Quinn and Randy Manary Jiggs McDonald, Tom Lysiak to Eric Vail, Bill Clement to finally Kent Nillson
Miss then all…….
By merger_king
January 23, 2008 11:01 AM | Link to this
I know what Hartford and Quebec felt like. Hartford built the team that became the Hurricanes & won the cup in 2005.
Quebec built the that became the Avalanche and won 2 cups.
The Flames never had a losing season after 1974 and within 8 years of moving to calgary they had played in two cup finals, winning in 1988-89
By Kyle
January 23, 2008 11:01 AM | Link to this
The Calgary version is much better. For anyone who thinks that Fletch and Crispy could ahve done what they did north of the 49 in “Hot”lanta is wrong. The passion for hockey in Canada far out weighs its followingt he States. Good luck Thrashers…Kovy better keep his head up next time he seee Rozival.
S-U-S-P-E-N-T-I-O-N. Talk about a repeat of the Downie hit.
By merger_king
January 23, 2008 11:09 AM | Link to this
“The passion for hockey in Canada far out weighs its followingt he States”
Let’s see…..what was the last CANADIAN TEAM to WIN the Stanley Cup…..hum…
By merger_king
January 23, 2008 11:11 AM | Link to this
… try 1993
By Ted Turner
January 23, 2008 11:15 AM | Link to this
LARRY, you’re an IDIOT. I’ll punch you in the nose!
By ChrisFromChattanooga
January 23, 2008 11:18 AM | Link to this
I watched the Flames as a teen in the early 70s and became a HUGE fan! I have so many great memories that took place at the ol’ Omni! The one that really stands out for some reason is seeing Jim Craig in goal for his 1st game in the NHL. After his first save he took the puck up into the stands to his father who was in attendance. I hope that he has gotten his life together. I can still see Bouchard, Lysiak, Plett, Manery, Clement, Guy Chouinard (sp?) and Vail on the ice if I close my eyes … GO FLAMES!
By glovesave29
January 23, 2008 11:27 AM | Link to this
What does the “The passion for hockey in Canada far out weighs its followingt he States” have to do with the ability to win? I can certainly agree that our friends north of the border are much more passionate about the sport, but it has been a looong time since a Canadian team has raised the cup. Calgary won the cup in 89 with players drafted by the Atlanta Flames, along with some timely trades for players such as Doug Gilmour and Lanny McDonald. To say that could not have happened in Atlanta is foolish. The team had the same leadership with the same drive for a winning team. The Flames were the pride of this city, who at the time had 3 other teams that were losing. The Flames were always the first highlight on the local sports reports, and far out drew the Hawks and Braves. Ask players of that era how tough and smart the Atlanta Flames were. This city embraced them, and I know the team would have found the same success had they stayed here it Atlanta.
By merger_king
January 23, 2008 11:39 AM | Link to this
Well said glovesave29!
By FlamesFan
January 23, 2008 12:00 PM | Link to this
Cousins may have been a supporter of a players’ pension fan, but I will never accept it as the cause of the Flames leaving. Cousins was a businessman who bought and sold real estate. And that is the way he viewed the Flames; as property to be flipped. He made a hefty profit when he sold the heart and soul of this city. I will never forgive him and will forever associate him with the likes of Walter O’Malley, Robert Irsay and Art Modell.
By Bingo
January 23, 2008 12:30 PM | Link to this
Big Flames fan back in the day. I remember all the guys hanging out at the original Timothy Johns on Wieuca Road near Chastain Park. I remember the entire team passed around a bacteria that presented as a nasty jock itch that the team had a heck of a time ridding. They weren’t taking any dames home from TJs during the crotch plague. And I remember the owners and press tried to pass off the sale as due to lack of attendance which was a sham because the Omni was packed for every game. I remember heckling Ernie Cheevers when the Bruins came to the omni.
By Ted Turner
January 23, 2008 12:39 PM | Link to this
You will tear-up when I punch you in the nose! I’ll be swingin’ like a windmill on you!
By Ted Turner
January 23, 2008 12:39 PM | Link to this
You will tear-up when I punch you in the nose! I’ll be swingin’ like a windmill on you! I built Atlanta!
By 82DAWG
January 23, 2008 12:39 PM | Link to this
The Flames, sigh. Always my favorite. When they left I felt like I had lost my best friend. Never missed them on TV. I would go watch them practice whenever I could at Iceland on Hwy 41. I got pucks and sticks from players, played with them at stick time (Fox, Ribble plus Hartland Monohan of the Caps). They were always one of the people, not like the Braves, Falcons or Hawks of the time. A few years ago I used to run into Willi Plett in Woodstock when he owned the Driving Range/batting cage on 92. He was still great to talk to. In the mid 90’s I used to play softball against Eric Vail at Waller Park in Roswell.
No matter how hard I try I just cannot become a Thrasher’s fan; they just are not the same and the tickets are so overpriced. We just usually go see the Gladiators now.
By Ted Turner
January 23, 2008 12:41 PM | Link to this
I built ATLANTA … lived in the OMNI with Sid & Marty Kroftt. PUNCH you in the NOSE!
By merger_king
January 23, 2008 12:45 PM | Link to this
Ted Turner bought the wrong team….should have moved the Hawks to Canada.
By Bobby Leiter
January 23, 2008 1:05 PM | Link to this
Furman, thanks for the Flames’ memories. Take away Hank Aaron’s chase of the HR record, and the Falcons in ‘73 & ‘78, the Flames were the best thing going in Atl sports in the ’70s. I was there opening night at the Omni vs the Sabres in 10/72 (a 1-1 tie by the way)and the last home game (loss) vs the Rangers in 4/80, and have many great memories in between. Ted Turner has acknowledged that he should have bought them from Cousins in 1980. Oh well … I support the Thrashers now, but it just ain’t the same!
By glovesave29
January 23, 2008 1:05 PM | Link to this
Turner DID try to buy the Flames. The arrogant Cousins said no. I was fortunate enough to get to meet Tom Cousins about 10 years back. Got to tell him to his face what I thought of his selling the team. Didn’t change anything (obviously) but it did make me feel a little better! I have become a Thrashers fan, but they still take a back seat to the Flames. You always care about the team you grew up with…
By walkinvisible
January 23, 2008 2:05 PM | Link to this
i think it’s entirely classy the way the calgary flames’ current alternate captains (regehr, yelle/nolan/warrener) sport an atlanta flames logo on their chest as the A. whoever came up with that idea was a genius….
By JohnPortman
January 23, 2008 2:19 PM | Link to this
Enough with Tom Cousins and Ted Turner! I built the city! And I remember Jim Craig coming to play goalie for the Flames shortly after his Olympic heroics and shortly before the team skipped town.
By Thrasher Ryan
January 23, 2008 2:35 PM | Link to this
Nice column, Furman Bisher! Many of us have moved on and now follow the Thrashers, but we STILL love OUR Flames.
Message to the Thrashers:
“You can’t win if ya don’t score; You can’t score if ya DON’T SHOOT!”
Boom Boom Geoffrion
By Doug
January 23, 2008 4:55 PM | Link to this
My fondest memory was going to the games during the 78-79 season and watching the Flames beat the mighty NY Islanders one night, 8-2. Loved the guy who sat way up high in the rafters and waived the southern flag while “Dixie” played after a goal. Dan Bouchard was my hero and is one of the reasons I’m a goalie today.
By GladsMom
January 23, 2008 6:53 PM | Link to this
To Glovesave29! You nailed it! Cousins wanted and NEEDED to sell to Calgary so he could build the Olympic Village. My son literally grew up with the Flames, starting at 2 weeks old. I loved the Flames, but you know, there IS any game in town. Want to see hockey where it has HEART & SOUL, maybe not flaming speed, but amazing desire… come see my ‘boys’ the Gwinnett Gladiators, gorgeous Arena, the most expensive seat is $16, free parking, they love kids, can’t have Tommy, Randy, Bobby, etc back, but we have K-Wal, Ceasar, Sitter, Soupy, and Vig to name a few. It will be worth your while!
By walt
January 23, 2008 11:24 PM | Link to this
TK wrote:
What ever happened to my favorite original Flame, #4 Noel Price? He was the slowest defenseman on the team, but the guys I went to the games with loved him.
Answer: Noel Price was 41 when he hung up his skates in 1976. The Flames had sent him to the minors and never recalled him. Some numbers:
Regular Season Playoffs Season Team Lge GP G A Pts PIM GP G A Pts PIM 1972-73 Atlanta Flames NHL 54 1 13 14 38 — — — — — 1973-74 Atlanta Flames NHL 62 0 13 13 38 4 0 0 0 6 1974-75 Atlanta Flames NHL 80 4 14 18 82 — — — — — 1975-76 Atlanta Flames NHL 3 0 0 0 2 — — — — — 1975-76 Nova-Scotia Voyageurs AHL 73 2 37 39 55 8 0 7 7 12
By Bouchard is full of it
January 23, 2008 11:31 PM | Link to this
Cousins sold the team because the economy was in the dumps, like now, he needed the cash. Also like the current times, a Canadian oil guy had the cash to burn. Bouchard took too many pucks to the head.
By phil lunney
January 24, 2008 12:36 AM | Link to this
Furman- I have been going to TJ’s for over 10 years and I went to Timothy John’s prior to that. Tim, his wife Susan and his children run a wonderful neighborhood bar with good food and good atmosphere. I have been a waiter around town and he and his family are great people to have at “your place”. I saw them over the holidays and thanked them for the welcome I always receive when they are my host. I, for one, am glad that the Ecclestone’s never left! Phil Lunney “the Maestro” P.S. Prior to coming to Atlanta, my son went to school with Dave Schultz’s son. Dave was an “animal” on the ice, protecting Bobby Clarke, his line mate. But, Dave Schultz was a true gentleman off the ice, a true professional. I am sorry I missed Dave, when he was in town.