Copper City Chiefs Semi-professional Ice Hockey Team, Rome, New York
The Copper City Chiefs semi-professional hockey team was established in 1963 and folded upon the end of the 1988 hockey season. The team played in the John F. Kennedy Ice Arena in Rome, New York when it opened in 1964. Their existence can be divided into eras, during the 1960s playing in a league which consisted of teams from cities in the state of New York, the 1970s was a period where they played in a league which consisted of teams from New England States and the State of New York. In the 1980s, the team played against Senior A, Senior B, and Intermediate Level teams from the Province of Ontario, Canada.
The Rome Copper City Chiefs were organized in 1963 under their original name of the Rome Knights, a recreational organization (unchartered) started for the purpose of providing athletic recreation in the form of ice hockey to adults who had played minor professional or college ice hockey. For six years, until 1971, the Rome Knights played ice hockey by invitation; that is, inviting teams from the surrounding area to Rome's John F. Kennedy Arena (Ron Sweeney, interview conducted by Robert Kirchner, Rome, New York, 21 May 1985). The Knights were not part of any formal league at this time, nor were they affiliated with a National Hockey League (NHL) or professional hockey team. However, during their existence many of the rostered players on the Chiefs had some minor professional experience. The Rome Knights engaged in strictly invitational hockey games, usually paying expenses of the opposing team so they would play in Rome. This was gradually expanded over the years to include teams from as far away is Massachusetts, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and the Canadian Province of Ontario. In the middle 1960s interest in the Knights ice hockey team increased primarily as an overflow from the Clinton Comets (Clinton, New York), of the Eastern Hockey League (EHL), a professional farm team for the New York Rangers of the NHL. The presence of former Clinton Comets along with the Knights physical style of play stimulated a general population interest in attending Rome Knights hockey games. In 1971 a decision was made to change the name of the Rome Knights to the Copper City Chiefs. This was a management decision, Rome, New York is referred as the Copper City, after the Revere Manufacturing Plant that once produced copper ware in the city through the 1970s.
The Rome Copper City Chiefs continued to play invitational games and increased their following in and around central New York. In 1971 the Clinton Comets folded. This brought more professional players to the Rome Copper City Chiefs and added to the increased attendance at their games. About the same time a new general manager took control of the team and instituted a publicity campaign to further increase attendance at the games and to provide further incentive for local business sponsorship.
During the 1972–1973 season, the type of ice hockey games the Chiefs were involved in underwent change. The general manager held a meeting with general managers of the teams they regularly played and decided to form a league called the Northeastern United States Hockey League (NUSHL). This league was composed of teams from upstate New York, parts of Massachusetts, and northern New Jersey. League play, coupled with increased advertising and publicity, helped increase attendance, but also necessitated the Chiefs engaging in more away games. As added incentive for fans to attend their games, schedules of play were arranged for the 1973-1974 season to give maximum home play to teams that had a traditional adversary relationship. The league was successful and attendance between 1973 and 1975 increased to an overall average of 900 per game. End-of-season league play-offs were standing room only. But involvement in the league, which was never formalized enough to support and enforce the schedules (i.e., no penalty for missed games, forfeitures, etc.), also created additional expenses on all the teams and the league folded as teams withdrew due to financial hardships (Rome (New York) Daily Sentinel, 11 February 1974). During their 25 years of existence, supporter participation fluctuated, peaking during the 1973-1975 time frame. The 1973-1975 seasons showed an average game attendance of approximately 900 (Ron Sweeney, interview conducted by Robert Kirchner, Rome, New York, 21 May 1985). Since the 1975 season participation had gradually declined, culminating in 1984-1985 season of an average attendance of 250. This had been relatively static totals sin the 1979-1980 season attendance (David Adams, interview conducted by Robert Kirchner, Rome, New York, 2 June 1985).
Read more about this topic: John F. Kennedy Civic Arena
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“He had put, within his reach,
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A piece of glass abraded by the beach,
And six or seven shells,
A bottle with bluebells,
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“I also heard the whooping of the ice in the pond, my great bed-fellow in that part of Concord, as if it were restless in its bed and would fain turn over, were troubled with flatulency and bad dreams; or I was waked by the cracking of the ground by the frost, as if some one had driven a team against my door, and in the morning would find a crack in the earth a quarter of a mile long and a third of an inch wide.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
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