February 25, 1977: "Slap Shot" Premieres

February 25, 1977: Slap Shot premieres, directed by George Roy Hill. It is the most popular movie ever made about the sport of ice hockey.

Nancy Dowd wrote the screenplay, based on the experiences of her brother, Ned Dowd, who had played minor-league hockey, including for the Johnstown Jets in Western Pennsylvania. The movie was filmed in Johnstown, including inside the Cambria County War Memorial Arena, although the name of the team was changed to the Charlestown Chiefs, leading to the belief that it plays in the Charlestown section of Boston. The facts that their league has teams based in New England, and the Dowds are from Boston, deepen this perception.

Paul Newman plays Reggie Dunlop, head coach and, despite his age (Newman was 51 during filming), star player for the Chiefs. The local still mill, like so many others in the region, is closing down, and 10,000 workers will be laid off. This would mean the end of the team, but it could be saved if it could be moved to another city.

The Hansons, 3 lookalike brothers (but not triplets), are signed, and, in the spirit (or, at least, in the stereotype) of 1970s hockey, they start fighting all opponents. Attendance rises because of this, and gives hope that the team can be saved. What's more, the team gains confidence, and starts winning, and makes the Playoffs, increasing the hope.

Dunlop finally finds out the identity of the mysterious owner. In a rarity among sports, especially in hockey, it's a woman, Anita McCambridge (Kathryn Walker). It turns out that she is all too much like male team owners: She has found out she can make more money by folding the team as a tax write-off than she can be selling it, and so the upcoming league championship game will be the team's last.

The opponents are Syracuse, who have signed "Ogie" Ogilthorpe, the dirtiest player in the league, just for this game for the purposes of intimidating the Chiefs. (He is played by Ned Dowd. His wife, like his sister named Nancy Dowd, but credited as "Nancy N. Dowd," also appears in the movie.)

The intimidation doesn't work, and the Chiefs fight back. Their best player, Ned Braden (Michael Ontkean), had refused to fight all season long, but now, he takes his uniform off, and skates around wearing nothing but his jockstrap. Tim McCracken (Paul D'Amato), the Syracuse player-coach, tells the referee to throw Braden out of the game. He refuses. McCracken punches the ref. The ref forfeits the game to the Chiefs.

The team goes out a winner, but they can't be saved. But there is something of a happy ending: Dunlop gets an offer to coach a team in Minnesota, and he's going to bring some of the Chiefs players with him.

The movie became one of the most popular sports movies of all time, any sport. The Hanson Brothers -- Dave, Steve and Jeff -- with their long hair, their nerd glasses, and their fighting, became icons. They were based on real-life siblings who had played for the Jets in the 1974-75 season: Jack, Steve and Jeff Carlson. Steve and Jeff basically played themselves, but Jack was unavailable at the time, and so Dave Hanson, a Jets teammate, was cast, and the brothers' name was changed to Hanson.

For the record, in real life, these guys were not bad players. Dave Hanson, a defenseman, went on to play for the Detroit Red Wings and the Minnesota North Stars. Steve Carlson, a left wing, went on to play for the Los Angeles Kings. Jack Carlson, a left wing, played for the North Stars and the St. Louis Blues. Jeff Carlson, a right wing, didn't make it to the NHL. But he did play for the Minnesota Fighting Saints of the World Hockey Association, as did his brothers and Dave Hanson. The real Dave Hanson and Steve and Jeff Carlson went on to make more money every year at sports memorabilia shows than they did in their entire pro hockey careers.

Ironically, the real Johnstown Jets had to fold in 1977, but not due to greed. Johnstown is 67 miles east of Pittsburgh. It sits at the confluence of 2 tributaries of the Ohio River. Like so many other Pennsylvania towns in the 19th Century, Johnstown became a producer of iron, coal and steel. But it flooded pretty much every year.

The most famous of these floods came in 1889, killing over 2,200 people. Another flood occurred in 1936. Measures were taken to avoid another one, but, on July 19, 1977, they found out they weren't flood-proof: The Laurel Run Dam failed, and 84 people were killed. And the Arena was damaged, leading to the Jets having to move.

By the recession of the early 1990s, steel was out of Johnstown. Today, it s a small city of about 19,000 people. The University of Pittsburgh opened a campus there, and that helped. Some of the abandoned mills have been turned into low-income housing, and studios for artists and dancers. 

A new team, the Johnstown Chiefs, named for the team in Slap Shot, played in the East Coast Hockey League from 1987 to 2010. Since 2012, the old arena has been home to a junior hockey team, the Johnstown Tomahawks.

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February 25, 1977 was a Friday. There were 4 games played in the NHL that day:

* The New York Islanders beat the Cleveland Barons, 2-1 at The Coliseum in the Cleveland suburb of Richfield, Ohio.

* The Washington Capitals beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 4-2 at the Capital Centre in the Washington suburb of Landover, Maryland.

* The Atlanta Flames beat the Minnesota North Stars, 6-2 at The Omni in Atlanta.

* And the Boston Bruins beat the Colorado Rockies, 5-2 at the McNichols Sports Arena in Denver.

There were also 4 games played in the WHA:

* The Cincinnati Stingers beat the Quebec Nordiques, 5-2 at the Riverfront Coliseum (now the Heritage Bank Center) in Cincinnati.

* The Houston Aeros beat the Phoenix Roadrunners, 9-3 at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix.

* The Indianapolis Racers beat the Edmonton Oilers, 3-2 in overtime at the Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton.

* And the New England Whalers beat the Calgary Cowboys, 3-2 at the Stampede Corral in Calgary.

Baseball and football were out of season. There were 8 games played in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks lost to the New Orleans Jazz, 124-107 at the Superdome in New Orleans. Pete Maravich scored 68 points. It was the most points in an NBA game between a 70-point game by Wilt Chamberlain in 1963 and a 73-point game by David Thompson in 1978.

* The New York Nets lost to the Detroit Pistons, 112-106 at the Nassau Coliseum.

* The Golden State Warriors beat the Buffalo Braves, 104-97 at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium. Phil Smith scored 37 points.

* The Chicago Bulls beat the Atlanta Hawks, 96-87 at the Chicago Stadium.

* The Denver Nuggets beat the Kansas City Kings, 130-128 at the Kemper Arena (now the Hy-Vee Arena) in Kansas City. Dan Issel scored 40 points.

* The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Philadelphia 76ers, 104-102 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar scored 39 points.

* The Houston Rockets beat the Portland Trail Blazers, 123-106 at the Portland Memorial Coliseum.

* And the Boston Celtics beat the Seattle SuperSonics, 102-92 at the Seattle Center Coliseum.