Hib Milks
November 11, 1930: For the 1st time, a team represents Philadelphia in the National Hockey League. It doesn't go so well. The rest of the season doesn't get any better.
The Pittsburgh Pirates, named for the city's baseball team, had been founded in 1925, and they made the Playoffs in 1926 and 1928. But the Great Depression hurt them, and in 1930, they moved across Pennsylvania, becoming the Philadelphia Quakers, taking the name of a 19th Century baseball team, and also the University of Pennsylvania's teams.
In their 1st game, at the Philadelphia Arena, they hosted the next-closest NHL team, the New York Rangers. The Rangers won, 3-0, getting a goal in each period: Butch Keeling at 4:37 of the 1st, Gene Carrigan at 13:04 of the 2nd, and Ivan "Ching" Johnson at 6:51 of the 3rd. There is no record of how many shots the Quakers had, but Ranger netminder John Ross Roach turned them all away, for the shutout.
The Quakers became the worst team in NHL history. They lost their 1st 3 games, tied the next, and lost the next, before finally winning in their 6th game, a 2-1 win over the Toronto Maple Leafs, at home on November 25. Then they went on a 15-game losing streak, including going 0-for-December, before beating the Montreal Maroons, 4-3 in overtime on January 10, 1931.
Then they went 0-9-2, before beating the Detroit Falcons, forerunners of the Red Wings, on February 17. This would be their only road win. They lost 6 more, before beating the Falcons in Philadelphia on March 12. They lost their next 2, and closed the season with a 4-4 tie away to the Montreal Canadiens on March 21, 1931. Ironically, the Canadiens were defending Stanley Cup Champions, and would win the Cup again.
In a 44-game season, they won 4, lost 36, and tied 4, for 12 points. Those 4 victories remain the fewest wins in an NHL season. The 4-36-4 record meant that their "winning" percentage, if ties are counted, was .136. That would remain an NHL record low until the 1974-75 expansion season of the Washington Capitals: In an 80-game season, they went 8-67-5, for .131.
The Depression really did the Quakers in: They averaged only 2,500 fans per home game, couldn't afford to acquire good players -- Hibbert "Hib" Milks led them with 12 goals in the 44 games -- and they lost $100,000. The franchise folded, and Philadelphia was doomed to minor-league hockey for the next 37 years.
The Philadelphia Arena opened in 1920, at 46th and Market Streets in West Philadelphia. ABC would build its Philadelphia affiliate's radio and later television studios across the street, broadcasting American Bandstand from there from 1952 to 1964.
The Arena hosted games of the NBA's Philadelphia Warriors and Philadelphia 76ers, but the opening of The Spectrum in 1967, allowing the 76ers and the expansion Flyers to move there, doomed it. It burned down in 1983, and a housing complex is now on the site.
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November 11, 1930 was a Tuesday. Baseball was out of season. Football was in midweek. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. There were 2 other games in the NHL that night. The New York Americans lost to the Boston Bruins, 1-0 at the Boston Garden. And the Ottawa Senators beat the Montreal Maroons, 2-0 at the Ottawa Auditorium.
And in English soccer, in a benefit game for war veterans on this anniversary of the end of World War I, North London team Arsenal traveled to Paris, and beat Racing Club de France, 7-2. I have a separate entry for this event.
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