The EHL EASTERN HOCKEY LEAGUE ABOUT TheEHL.com

Welcome to TheEHL.com. This is a historical website for the rememberance and preservation of the Eastern Hockey League (1954-73).

Jamie Kennedy of the EHL Jersey Devils had been my first hockey idol as a kid. But, when the Devils folded (unexpectedly to me) in 1973, that part of my heart had been locked off, apparently forever. On January 1, 2008 at intermission of the NHL Winter Classic, Bob Costas told a story about Goldie Goldthorpe of the Syracuse Blazers. As Costas said the words "Jamie Kennedy" (At 5:14 on this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBzHCvYKRjE) on national television, a joyful boyish giddiness took over me. I literally jumped for joy like a little kid around the living room. In July of 2008, my wife and I were closing down our personal business. I was trying to create a website full of bells and whistles to use as an example of current work to get me back into the corporate software world. But what theme? On July 12, 2008, I got frustrated once again with the complete lack of Eastern Hockey League information on the web (except stats at http://hockeydb.com). Then my worlds colided in my mind. I should build a website to point people to the few things on the web about the EHL. When I found that "TheEHL.com" was available, I quickly snatched it up and haven't looked back. Of course, I never got around to designing all the bells and whistles. The important part was always the content. I started with one Jersey Devils patch, my lone connection to my EHL watching days. I had no idea that it would turn into a website, an e-newsletter (since dicontinued), a blog, a message board, a Facebook group with a full team of EHL players and over 400 fans, long days in libraries sitting at microfilm machines researching and collecting many notebooks full of EHL newspaper articles, traveling to EHL Arenas and events and being a Historical Consultiant on the "Gold Record: 50 Years of Hockey in Nashville" DVD. My mantra for the site was always "If you build it, they will come." And they have: EHL players, officials, front office staff, family and fans with programs and photos and articles and memorabilia and great great memories. I invite you to come join the fun.

On July 12th, 2008, http://TheEHL.com was created. My wife and I had been shutting down our business, and I was trying to come up with an interesting website with all sorts of bells and whistles (was even going to make a completely fun and useless site called "BellsAndWhistles.com"), so I could show the software world that I still had skills. On Jan 1 of that year, Bob Costas had invoked the name "Jamie Kennedy" (At 5:14 on this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBzHCvYKRjE) on national television) and a part of my heart that had been closed off since May 1973, when the Devils folded and the EHL ceased to exist, burst open with joy. On July 12th, 2008, I was putzing around on the computer, getting frustrated that there was so little out there on the EHL. About all there was was after ridiculous amounts of searching was...
* Ralph Slate's http://hockeydb.com
* Dale Pauline's http://SuncoastSuns.com
* G. Jason Head's Johnstown Jets Flicker page
* Matt Campbell's Charlotte Checkers Flickr page
* The Greensboro Hockey discussion boards
* 10-12 other EHL news articles/ rememberances that had made it onto the web.

Then the lightbulb finally went off. When I found "TheEHL.com" was available (which I quickly grabbed), I knew I was destined to build an Eastern Hockey League site. I was imagining technical things like all sorts of sortable statistical databases. I knew I had very little EHL material to work with (I abandoned the idea of a Jersey Devils specific site as too limited), but my mantra was "If you build it, they will come." And you have! With your memories and photos and articles and links and your good cheer.

At first the site was just a collection of links with very little of my own material. Then one day I received a package in the mail from Philadelphia Ramblers fan Bob Artese. The package contained full color images of dozens of EHL program covers and of his jersey collection both original and re-created. I almost cried with joy. Suddenly, there were two pretty good looking pages on the website - programs and jerseys - stuff you couldn't find elsewhere on the web. I also gained the knowledge that EHL items were out there, gradually starting up my own collection. The next two big surprise gifts were the Johnstown Jets Photo Album from Tim Barndt, whose father had been the Jets photographer for years, and the Nick "Rocky" Rukavina Philadelphia Ramblers Photo Album from Rocky himself and his daughter Nicole.
Other excellent photo collections followed:
* The Steve Self Greensboro Generals / New England Blades Photo Album from Steve himself
* The Jerry Frizzelle Photo Album (Comets, BNL, Jets, Ramblers, Larks) from Jerry's daughter, Sharon Frizzelle Fazio
* The Ned Fellers EHL Linesman and IHL Official Photo Album from Ned himself

While all this was going on, I had also created an e-newsletter (since discontinued) and an EHL blog http://TheEHL.blogspot.com in order to attract fandom and keep people current on what was happening. The Greensboro Hockey Discussion Boards were very active with EHL conversation for awhile. I created EHL specific Discusion Boards via my website provider at the time, but that had security issues, so I burned that down and created an EHL Discussion Boards http://TheEHL.Yuku.com . We had a small but determined number of fans there, including John Gibbons from New Haven, Tony Roberts from Nashville and Gregg Inkpen from Long Island, who have all been generous long term contributors. There also was an EHL Facebook Group, which was mostly used to announce new blogs. For at least a year we never got over 12 people. Then one day, I finally asked everyone to post just 1 EHL photo, and suddenly the EHL Facebook Group took off, growing in leaps and bounds. The Facebook group has become the central repository of EHL photos and memories. There is a whole team of former players, along with hundreds of family, fans, officials, and front office.

I've always seen TheEHL.com as being an open place where all could contribute and enjoy, with me just being the facilitator. Funny, I never got around to doing anything fancy or technically interesting with the site. I can't believe how much this exploded over time.

As much as I have a great memories of the 4 years I got to see the Jersey Devils play in the EHL, 99% of what I know about the league is from research. Most of my work these days isn't the website or Facebook page. It's collecting newspaper articles. I have shelves full of notebooks full of articles. The hope is to create little EHL histories. I wish I had more time to go back and clean up some of the old pages on the site. When I started many had dial-up, so I kept images small, so all could enjoy. Now, I doubt that's much of an issue. Someday I should get a cellphone (I have to walk up the hill behind the house to get reception), so I can program a cellphone usable version. One thing is for sure, I have a hobby that will last the rest of my lifetime. Welcome to TheEHL.com!

http://TheEHL.com - The EHL Website
https://www.facebook.com/groups/129103506589/ -The EHL Facebook Group.
http://TheEHL.blogspot.com - The EHL Blog to keep you up to date on current EHL articles and events.

The EHL Newspaper Archives
The goal is to collect every article from every EHL team's home newspaper during their existence.