Wranglers enjoyed 10 years of rugged hockey at Corral
The summer of 1977 brought on a change at the Stampede Corral.
Pro puck was no longer in the house. Instead, the Western Canadian Hockey League’s Calgary Wranglers moved into the 27-yearold arena, bringing the junior game back to the city and replacing the World Hockey Association’s Calgary Cowboys as the team Calgarians would hopefully embrace.
“It was old-time junior hockey,” said Kelly Kisio, one of the Wranglers’ best-ever players, who went on to carve out a solid 13-year career in the NHL — including his last two with the Calgary Flames — before becoming the longtime general manager/head coach of the Western Hockey League’s Calgary Hitmen.
“Junior hockey back then was aggressive and very hard hockey. The game has changed.”
On Friday night, the Hitmen throw back to the decade of the Wranglers, a team that called the Corral its home until 1987.
“I think the Corral was a special place,” Kisio said. “I think it still is a special place, and it’s too bad that junior hockey couldn’t still be there.”
For one more night, it will be there, as the Hitmen wrap up the three-game Corral Series against the league-leading Prince Albert Raiders (7 p.m.)
The Hitmen will don the colours of the Wranglers, as the evening begins with a special pre-game ceremony featuring three alumni in head coach Doug Sauter, scoring sensation Ray Cote and team broadcaster Jack MacDonald. MacDonald will host the onice ceremony and introduce the starting lineups for both teams, and Sauter and Cote will drop the puck in a ceremonial faceoff.
“It’s a nice little tribute,” said Dana Murzyn, who starred for the Wranglers back in the early ’80s.
The Wranglers arrived from Winnipeg, where they had been the Jets, the Clubs and the Monarchs since 1967, in time for the 1977-78 WHL season.
They made the post-season seven times with their strongest playoff roll taking them to the 1981 league championship, during which they lost 4-3 to the Victoria Cougars.
That series saw legendary Alberta goalies Mike Vernon, for the Wranglers, and Grant Fuhr, for the Royals, square off in a battle to remember — and one that carried over into a rivalry in the big leagues with the Calgary Flames and the Edmonton Oilers.
The Wranglers eliminated the Billings Bighorns, the Lethbridge Broncos and the Regina Pats en route to the championship series.
In 1987, the Wranglers relocated to become the Lethbridge Hurricanes, who won a WHL championship in 1997.
Times have changed in the junior hockey world since Kisio, Murzyn & Co. suited up for the Wranglers.
The old days often meant oldtime hockey in its pure form. Fighting on the ice, for sure. And fights involving fans. Kisio recalls in fan incident in a playoff game against the Brandon Wheat Kings during a 4-3 series loss to cap the 1979-80 season.
“We were losing, and there was a fan that was fairly (ticked off ) and raced over towards the Brandon bench,” Kisio said. “And they had a bunch of idiots on their team at that time, so they jump on the ice and they string this guy out on the ice, and they were spearing him and punching him — there was about eight of them just kicking the (crap) out of this poor guy. And we were just kind of sitting on the bench going, ‘Someone help him.’”
In its heyday, the Corral rocked thanks to spirited games and a frenzied fan base.
“My first full year of junior was the Flames last year in that building,” said Murzyn, recalling a ticket special that helped the Wranglers piggyback off the excitement of the Flames. “So I thought this junior stuff was pretty special — we got 5,000 people in the Corral every night and the place was going crazy.
“And then the next year, the Flames moved into the Saddledome and I think our average crowd was between 250 and 300 people.
“But it was pretty electric place to play. I remember playoffs, and it was my last shift in the second period probably. And Kenny Wregget (of the Broncos) was standing on his head, so I had the opportunity to run him over and felt that was appropriate. It was actually one of my best hits of the year.
“And before I could even figure out what happened, Gerald Diduck and Bob Rouse dislodged half of my head and were both pounding me into the ice. And somehow I flipped the pile, so the ref and the two guys I ended up on top of, and I just remember the Corral going nuts.
“I went back to the dressing room to try and piece my face back together, and I remember thinking ‘Well ... that was nice that they cheered for that.’”
Brawling in the junior ranks was commonplace.
And there plenty of big ones. In March 1982, a brawl between the Wranglers and the Pats that saw the two teams collectively fined $2,250 and players suspended for 73 games combined.
During a 51-second span of the second period, two separate fights broke out before a bench-clearing brawl ignited in Regina’s Agridome.
The pugilists included Wranglers Darren Anholt, Ken Grant, Ken Vinge, Brian Taylor, Rob Hamill, Mike Heidt, Bob Fleming and Dan Bourbonnais. Lyndon Byers, Nevin Markwart, Barry Trotz and Gary Leeman were among the period’s combatants for the Pats.
“I remember my first training camp, we were travelling through B.C. playing some exhibition games,” Kisio said. “Patty Ginnell was coaching the other team. We had a bit of a brawl, which tended to happen in exhibition season, and with Sauts our coach and Patty Ginnell the other coach ... (it was on).
“We had the brawl and finished the game and get off the ice, and we’re standing in the hallway out of the way. And I see Patty Ginnell and Doug Sauter high-fiving each other and saying, ‘Well ... we’re going to sell some tickets now.’ ”
Meanwhile, back at the Corral ... “Coming from playing in small rinks as a kid, even the Corral is a glorious building at that age,” Murzyn said. “It’s big, and even though it was older, it still had a special feeling about it.
“… It’ll be too bad to see the old barn go, but things progress.”
And junior hockey in Calgary, whether it was with the Centennials or the Wranglers or the Hitmen, continues to roll along right with that progression.