The Birth of the San Jose Sharks

On October fourth, nineteen ninety one, the Vancouver Canucks defeated the San Jose Sharks four to three, and despite it being a relatively close game, the game itself did not stand out besides the fact it was the San Jose sharks very first game, giving San Jose their very first team and the first team in North America to be named after a shark, and had a lot of unique things going for it, making one of the most popular teams in the NHL. Today, we're going to dive into how they started today on Daily Sports History. Welcome to Daily Sports History. I'm Ethan Rees, your guide as we daily dive into sports history so you can increase your sports knowledge. And today's trivia question is why in the Shark logo do they have a red triangle now? Even though the San Jose Sharks played their first game in nineteen ninety one, their story goes back to the nineteen sixties see Professional hockey in the San Francisco San Jose Bay Area, as they would call it, started with the Pacific Coast Hockey League that played from nineteen forty four to nineteen fifty and they would later go on to change their name to the Western Hockey League, and in nineteen sixty one they would actually award a franchise to San Francisco known as the San Francisco Seals, who would be owned by former Vancouver Canucks owner Coleman Hall, under the condition that they would be able to put an ice rink in the Daily City arena, known as the Cow Palace, one of the greatest names for an arena I have ever heard. The Cow Palace actually opened in nineteen forty one and has been home to the NBA's Warriors and actually hosted the fifty six and nineteen sixty four Republican National Convention. And it is called the Cow Palace because it was inspired by livestock pavilions that were popularized in the early nineteen hundreds, and a newspaper called it a palace for cows and the name stuck, and the San Franco Seals would go on to change their name to the California Golden Seals in nineteen sixty seven when they joined the NHL, where they played until nineteen seventy six, and in nineteen seventy four, Gordon and George Gunn actually became minority owners of the team and were instrumental after this nineteen seventy six season to help move the team to Cleveland as they were struggling on the ice and in ticket sales. So they moved to Cleveland, and two years later they would actually merge with the Minnesota and North Stars, and the Minnesota north Stars actually struggled as well, and so the gun Brothers were actually trying to figure out a way to bring the Stars back to the Bay Area where they started with the Golden Seals, and it was announced that they would start expanding in the late nineteen eighties. So the Gun Brothers their rights to the North Stars in order to be instrumental in bringing another team to the Bay Area, and they would join Howard Baldwin, the former owner of the Hartford Whalers, and with these owners with experience in the league already, it was a no brainer for the league to allow a spansion team for them as they had so much experience, and they had to pay forty five million dollars for the expansion fee for the new team, which was approved on May ninth, nineteen ninety. As we've seen recently, naming a team is very hard. Currently, the NHL is moving their team from Phoenix up to Utah, and Utah still hasn't thought of a name in the NFL. They struggled for multiple years to change the Washington's former name to the Commanders, and they even played under just Washington team for a year. So sometimes it becomes a very hard deal to name your team because once you name your team, you don't want to change it. You have that solid foundation. And the actual first place winner through all the potential options was blades, which is a reference to the skates that the players wear, but it's also a slang term for possible weapons, which obviously they did not want to be part of. So the runner up option was Sharks, which is a reference to sharks from the Pacific Ocean where there are seven different varieties that live in or near the Bay Area, which is known as the Red Triangle due to its shark population, which if you look at the logo, it has a triangle representing that very effect, and the logo was actually very unique. They actually hired a whole team to make the logo and it was a unique logo because it doesn't actually have letters in the name. It just shows a shark biding on to a hockey stick where most of the logos we have today of sports teams usually feature a letter from the city or team in some kind of unique font but this was a unique logo that specified just for the Sharks, and because of that, it actually was very popular. In their first season there, jerseys were the number one selling jerseys despite not having a lot of success on the ice, because they looked really cool and that's what people really liked about it. Now, because they were an expansion team, they were actually able to be part of an expansion draft, and the way an expansion draft works is every team in the league saves certain players on their team they can't take, but they leave a few players that usually on their end of the roster that the expansion team can pick from. This way, they can fill out their team with some veterans and not only have brookies and free agents fill up their team, we have players that have actually played in the league. This has been successful for multiple teams. And with their first pick, they picked Pat Felon, who was a journeyman player but played for nine seasons in the NHL, and during the offseason they were able to acquire Doug Wilson, who was a fourteen year veteran in the NHL and have previously played for the Chicago Blackhawks and had a no trade cause but way in order to play for this new upstart team and became their captain. And what's interesting is the Cow Palace was still there when the San Jose Sharks started their nineteen nine to one season, and it was their home again almost thirty years later. As the team was still working on building a new stadium, they went to the Cow Palace, which was a smaller venue, but it made a unique intimate experience for multiple fans of the team because it was such a smaller venue, but it made it easier to fill up for the season so they could really have success and get a home advantage for their home games. So on October fourth, nineteen ninety one, the team was finally set and they came into that first game with Brian Howard being the goaltender as he had the most experience coming into the season, but Jeff Hackett would end up taking over and play the most games on goalie that year. Doug Wilson was the leader on the defensive side, starting alongside Neil Wilkins, and the forwards were at center. Kelly Kaisso, who also was a team captain, Craig Coxi, and Pat Felon, who was their first draft pick. Now Vancouver came out scored first, but before the end of the first period, Greg Coxy scored the first goal in Shark's history. The second period went to the Canucks as they went up three to one, and they continued that into the third period, extending their lead four to one. But the Sharks fought back and scored two goals late in the third period, giving them a chance at a possible tie, but unfortunately, the game ended with the Canucks winning for to three, and sadly, this was a theme through most of their season, as in the eighty games they played, they only won seventeen games, and the next night, on October fifth, they played their first game at home at the Cow Palace. Unfortunately, they would also lose to Vancouver that day, five to two. But in their third game on October eighth, they won their very first game over the Calgary Flames four to three. But despite this win, they would go on a thirteen game losing streak and struggled as throughout the season. They would allow ten goals in a game three different times, including a club record eleven goals allowed against the Detroit Red Wings and they would finish the season with seventeen wins, fifty eight losses in five ties, earning thirty nine points, finishing six in the Smite Division and thirty five points behind the next closest team, the Cockery Flames, but their first round pick in the expansion draft, Pat Felon led the team with twenty five goals, thirty four cists and fifty nine points. But despite this challenge, it was they continued to be resilient and it only took them two years before they made their first playoff appearance in nineteen ninety three, but sadly it would take a much longer for them to reach the Stanley Cup Finals was another twenty three years in twenty sixteen when they made their very first finals appearance, facing off against the Pittsbordh Penguins and a losing effort, but it was a great historic run to the finals and during this year they averaged about ten thousand attendance, which meant they almost filled out every game at the Cow Palace. Yes, I keep saying the Cow Palace because I love that stadium and though they have not won a Stanley Cup. Yet they've been a staple in the league since they started. They've won six division titles, winning their first one in two thousand and two, and they're still fighting for that chance to raise the Stanley Cup. And they've gotten away from the Cow Palace and into their new stadium, the SAP Center, where they've been able to have way more success. And if you want to learn more about the Sharks, check out the podcast Finn Factor, where Paul, Aaron, and Jason take you through everything you need to know every week about what's going on with the Sharks, from news, trades, games. They'll be there to give you all the information so you can become an even better Sharks fan. And if you enjoyed today's Daily Sports History, please make sure you subscribe for every listening. The best way you can help us out is by subscribing and listening every day, and every time you do, know that I truly appreciate it and we'll see you next week for more Daily Sports History. In the answer today's trivia question, why in the Shark's logo do they have a red triangle, It is because San Jose is located in the red triangle, which is known for how many sharks they have in the area, and they incorporated the fact of sharks into their logo.