Maven's Memories: The Long Island Hockey Club that Inspired the Islanders

The New York Islanders turned Nassau and Suffolk Counties into hockey country from which it has grown to a point where it can match many a Canadian community of a similar size.

Yet, almost forgotten from the dim, distant past is that there was a pro team on the Island producing a swashbuckling brand of stickhandling that wowed the locals.

The team was called the Long Island Ducks and its home was Long Island Arena, a 4100-seat ice palace in Commack that originally was blueprinted at Madison Square Garden by Rangers business manager Tom Lockhart.

"I got the idea of building out on the Island because I saw its growth and hockey's possibilities there," said Lockhart who founded and headed the Amateur Hockey Association of the United States as well as the Eastern Amateur Hockey League and the EAHL's New York Rovers.

"When the Rovers (a Rangers farm team) got pushed out of the Garden, I wanted to keep them alive. I saw Eastern Long Island as a possible site. That's when we began plans for a new Rovers' home."

Lockhart's much delayed dream arena was a duplicate of hockey barns in Saskatchewan and Ontario, Canada. It attracted sports-hungry Suffolk fans because the Rovers was an attractive team featuring future Rangers Hall of Fame goalie Ed Giacomin, among others.

But in 1961 a Suffolk County electrical magnate named Al Baron bought the Eastern Hockey League franchise and changed its name to Long Island Ducks. He inherited the Rovers' player-coach John Muckler and a potpourri of colorful puck chasers.

Viewers of the cult favorite hockey film, "Slapshot" believe that it was inspired by EHL hockey and especially the swashbuckling Ducks player-coach John Brophy.

In the film, player-coach Reggie Dunlop (alias Brophy) was portrayed by Hollywood legend Paul Newman. Perfect for the part., Newman called it one of his all-time favorite roles. "Since 'Slapshot'," joked Newman, "my language was right out of the locker room."

As Reggie Dunlop in the flick, Newman's character closely resembled the real, live John Brophy who would become Long Island's first ice legend. Traded to the Ducks in 1961, Brophy's hell-for-leather style was part solid defensive hockey and part Wrestlemania.

"What mattered," said former Rangers publicist Don O'Hanley, "is that the Island fans embraced Brophy as blue-collar, one of their own who also could play and -- for sure -- fight!"

 Brophy's larger-than-life character was captured by Gregg Inkpen, author of "Broph -- On And Off The Ice With John Brophy One Of Hockey's Most Colorful Characters."

Inkpen captured the Brophy spirit with a quote from the hit-first, talk-later defenseman.

Brophy: "On Long Island all you had to do was knock the snot out of somebody on the first shift and the fans would be with you all night long. My philosophy in the game was anybody you hit got hurt and if they didn't like something, they had to do something about it. 

"I certainly loved to knock people down and I basically tried to hurt everyone I was near. 
There was no in-between. And for about six years it was like cutting down a forest. It was a very dangerous league."

I could vouch for that. I drove out to Commack for many Ducks games and was impressed by such tough defensemen as Ray Crew and Don Perry.  My wife, Shirley, and I would sit at center ice, which was a challenge since there was no protective glass or wire along the boards.

The rugged play was not without its artistry. One of the classiest of Ducks was a former AHL
forward Buzzy Deschamps. Like Brophy, Buzz became "the people's choice" for his speed, stickhandling and savvy. 

Deschamps became legendary in his own right and is the subject of a just-published book, "A Stick In The Window -- The Hockey Life of Buzz Deschamps." Authored by Joseph Rossi of West Babylon, the book's catchy title is explained by Rossi.

"Buzzy once told Bryan Trottier that the window of his hockey life was closing," said Rossi. "Later on Trots handed him a stick shaft and told him to stick it in a window, so it won't close. As I said in the book, the window is still wide open."

When "Slapshot" opened on Broadway, my wife Shirley and I took Buzzy and his wife to see the movie. As the film ended, I asked Buzzy, "Is this the way it was?" On the short hop, he replied: "Exactly!"

 Other colorful Ducks' characters included the husband-and-wife ownership team of Renee and Al Baron. In particular, Al did his best to give the Ducks a big-league touch; even so far as to purchase a used Douglas DC-3 as the team plane. It was an antique that took them where they wanted to go.

"I could tell from our popularity," Baron recalled, "that sooner or later Long Island would be ready for an NHL team and we laid the groundwork in terms of fan interest. Nassau still needed a big league arena and when the Coliseum went up, the handwriting was on the wall for my Ducks."

Long Island Arena hosted EHL hockey for a couple of years after the Islanders arrived. By that time fans had shown they were ready for The Show. As the Isles moved toward their first playoff team in 1975, so were Coliseum seats filling up. In time, the Ducks became just a fond memory.

"But they can thank the Ducks for getting hockey interest revved up," Baron concluded. "In the meantime, we had a heck of a lot of fun!"

John Brophy and Buzz Deschamps saw to that; which explains why two wonderful books have been written about the ex-Ducks!