COW PALACE FLYER 12/1977 - ILMAINEN TOIMITUS !

San Francisco'ssa Kaliforniassa pelanne-
en PHL-liigan ammattilaisjoukkueen SF
Shamrocks'in taitettava mainoslehtinen
vuodelta 1977. Kotiottelunsa Shamrocks
pelasi Cow Palace'ssa Daly Cityssä.

The San Francisco Shamrocks were a Mi-
nor Professional hockey team based in
San Francisco, CA playing in the Pacific
Hockey League from 1977 to 1979. The
team played in the Cow Palace Arena in
Daly City.

The Pacific Hockey League was a short-
lived attempt to form an independent, low
budget minor league loop in Arizona, Cali-
fornia and Washington state in the late
1970’s. According to Scott Surgent’s Com-
plete Historical and Statistical Reference
to the World Hockey Association, the idea
for the PHL took root at the 1977 World
Hockey Association All-Star Game thanks
to serial sports entrepreneur Dennis Mur-
phy (a founder of the WHA, American
Basketball Association and Roller Hockey
International among other start-ups) and
former WHA executive Walt Marlow of the
Indianapolis Racers.

The WHA was a big budget league locked
in an expensive and losing battle with the
NHL for markets and free agents. It was
also about to enter a contraction phase,
with four clubs dropping out after the
1976-77 season. The PHL concept gained
momentum when the San Diego Mariners
WHA club dropped out of the league in the
spring of 1977, leaving San Diego Sports
Arena owner Peter Graham without out a
winter tenant. Graham agreed to back a
revived low-budget version of the Mariners
in the PHL. Dennis Murphy and former
Harlem Globetrotters owner Jerry Saper-
stein (son of A-be) took the San Francis-
co franchise which would play at the
12,000-seat Cow Palace. Long Beach,
California took franchise (the Sharks - al-
so reviving an old WHA name and logo).
And, less than two weeks before opening
night, another WHA casualty - the Phoe-
nix Roadrunners - jumped from the Cent-
ral Hockey League to the PHL to round
out the first season line-up with four clubs.

The Pacific Hockey League debuted on
Christmas Day, 1977.  There league had
no shortage of available players. In addi-
tion to the contraction of the WHA, two
rough-and-tumble minor leagues - the
North American Hockey League and the
Southern Hockey League - went out of
business in 1977, creating a glut of refu-
gee players.

Murphy & Saperstein’s Shamrocks featu-
red a core of ex-WHA players, led by 35-
year old player/head coach Wayne Rivers
a 50-goal scorer for the WHA’s San Diego
Mariners three years earlier. Other WHA
vets included Bill Evo, Paul Hoganson,
Keith Kokkola and Randy Wyrozub. (Evo
later became President of the NHL’s Det-
roit Red Wings for a brief time in the mid-
1990’s.) The rest of the roster was round-
ed out primarily by castaways from the de-
funct North American and Southern leagu-
es.

The Shamrocks won the first (and only)
PHL championship during the 1977-78
season.  The club wobbled into its soph-
omore season in November 1978 low on
funds. Shamrocks players weren’t paid
for much of the second season and Mur-
phy quickly fell behind on rent to the Cow
Palace.  An attempt to sell the club to Da-
vid Peterson, owner of the Golden Ga-
ters franchise of World Team Tennis (a-
nother Murphy creation) fell through and
the Shamrocks folded in mid-season in
January 1979.

Chris Collins, who was a 17-year old equ-
ipment manager for the Shamrocks du-
ring the 1977-78 season, curates a profa-
nely entertaining tribute page to the team
on Facebook.

Flyerin mitat

- Taitettuna:

Korkeus:  21,50 cm
Leveys:  9,50 cm

- Avattuna:

Korkeus:  21,50 cm
Leveys:  28 cm

Painopaikka:  USA

Kunto:  uudenveroinen

Nopeat ja luotettavat toimitukset !

ILMAINEN TOIMITUS !