Being born in the summer of s39, I had missed out on the Mike Izzy era in the SMJHL, but my dad loved the Knights and he would always book a flight to Kelowna in the off-season to spend alittle time with his former franchise and old team mates. and those trips I remember fondly! As a kid I remember being slapped in the fucking face by vasily Horvat for eating a pancake next to his locker. I remember Nour Harrack, Clint Eastwood and I playing hide and go seek and them never finding me on in Richard Physts SUV! Unfortunately that stopped after Physty ask I not take his car for drives.. and I remember the constant chats of the good old days between them all as they reminisce about the SMJHL. from those stories I’d like to deep dive into some of the franchises no longer with us from the 8 team junior circut back in S35.


Colorado Mammoths - Colorado wasn’t a power house in the 30’s but they had a build around defender named Fin Kruger who dazzled the SMJHL with an offensive touch, this made Colorado a bit unique in that there strategy was to win from the blue line, something not seen in the juniors at the time. this franchise did have some notable characteristics as an organization starting with the teams color scheme which at the time was a bit polarizing. A new GM came in and changed the team colours to something unique.. If I recall the Mammoths rocked a Beige, warm purple and a soft brown combination. Personally I liked the look but not everyone did. The franchise also had a mascot named Marty the Mammoth which came into controversy when Kelowna stole the animal on discord and set the beast on fire in the forums! .. not Kelonas greatest moment and if I recall my dad apologized to the franchise for almost burning marty to death. My dad said that this franchise had a place/nitche in a future SMJHL and may have Been to quick to fold up and reboot.

Montreal Militia - this was a franchise that never recovered from the Montreal ‘Impact’ name change of the early 30’s.. from my understanding the franchise reboot was quite controversial, those that played for the impact had pride in the name, it’s logo and its place in the league. The Franchise as the Militia had a hard time re-inventing itself on the ice and as an organization.. Maybe it was the Montreal fans that couldn’t let go as ‘bring back the impact’ posts were seen often back in the day. Either way the franchise eventually moved to Carolina where they nowstand as the Kraken.

Halifax Raiders - This was an interesting franchise at the time, considered a ghost town in the lr and the worst team on the ice for the first half of the S30’s to then turn into a power house after drafting Evok for the latter half. One of the problems with the organization was its look and feel.. they boasted an almost identical look as the NFL Raiders and looked to similar to the SHL Texas Renegades. new members would log in and think that  Halifax was Texas’s minor league team. In the 40’s GM king tried to add alittle colour (yellow) to the teams look, but King didn’t stay long and the franchise followed suit as they ultimately folded shortly after.

Prince George Firebirds: at the time PGF was known as the franchise with the killer goalie! Artom Zhumbayev was a recreate with a strong working knowledge of player builds, he was drafted early and was dominant early. The problem was outside of that position the team wasn’t all that strong. PGF had a pretty good look and feel to there franchise, they boasted a similar colour scheme as the new Atlanta Inferno with a very sharp bird as there logo. But Winning on goaltending isn’t all that exciting when it comes to forum chatter and this organization consistently took a backseat to Detroit who also had a great color scheme, great bird logo and a much better team on the ice. If they had won more they could have prospered in a future SMJHL, but  someone decided to move them in a different direction.

Approved, +5 TPE @Mike Izzy