Nashville Dixie Flyers
Encyclopedia
The Nashville Dixie Flyers were a professional minor league
ice hockey
team in Nashville, Tennessee
. They played in the Eastern Hockey League
from 1962 until the franchise folded in 1971. Their home games were held at the Nashville Municipal Auditorium
.
's "Original Six
" era. This was because of the very limited ability of talented players to move up from the minor leagues. Since there were only six teams with twenty-man rosters, at any given time there were only 120 active NHL players. Because of this, very talented players spent many years, perhaps all of a fifteen- or even twenty-year career in the minors, which is not at all common today. The Flyers had several such players, including Lloyd Hinchberger, a player-coach who almost never scored but still got his share of penalty minutes; Flo Pilote, one of the first French-Canadians ever to become prominent in the Nashville community, who for many years after the demise of the Flyers operated a tavern in the Hermitage community called "The Penalty Box," Ted McCaskill, who was called up to the NHL after expansion and was a crafty, high-scoring forward, and goaltender Marv Edwards, also called up after expansion, who as a Flyer once had 15 shutouts in one season. (McCaskill's son Kirk was a long-time Major League Baseball
pitcher.) Other unforgettable Flyers included Wally Sprange and Joe Zorica. The first Captain was Ken "Red" Murphy, whose aggressive and scrappy style of play made him a fan favorite.
which was genuinely minuscule and must have reminded the players, all of whom were of Canadian extraction, of playing on the frozen ponds of their boyhoods.
Minor league
Minor leagues are professional sports leagues which are not regarded as the premier leagues in those sports. Minor league teams tend to play in smaller, less elaborate venues, often competing in smaller cities. This term is used in North America with regard to several organizations competing in...
ice hockey
Ice hockey
Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...
team in Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the county seat of Davidson County. It is located on the Cumberland River in Davidson County, in the north-central part of the state. The city is a center for the health care, publishing, banking and transportation industries, and is home...
. They played in the Eastern Hockey League
Eastern Hockey League
-Eastern Amateur Hockey League :The league was founded in 1933 as the Eastern Amateur Hockey League . The league was founded by Thomas Lockhart, who served as its commissioner from 1933 to 1972...
from 1962 until the franchise folded in 1971. Their home games were held at the Nashville Municipal Auditorium
Nashville Municipal Auditorium
The Nashville Municipal Auditorium is an indoor sports and concert venue in Nashville, Tennessee...
.
Record
| Season | League | GP | W | L | T | Playoffs |
| 1962-63 | EHL | 68 | 16 | 48 | 4 | Lost first round |
| 1963-64 | EHL | 72 | 37 | 31 | 4 | Lost first round |
| 1964-65 | EHL | 76 | 54 | 18 | 0 | Lost finals |
| 1965-66 | EHL | 72 | 42 | 23 | 7 | Champions |
| 1966-67 | EHL | 72 | 51 | 19 | 2 | Champions |
| 1967-68 | EHL | 72 | 42 | 23 | 7 | Lost first round |
| 1968-69 | EHL | 72 | 41 | 25 | 6 | Lost finals |
| 1969-70 | EHL | 74 | 27 | 38 | 9 | Did not qualify |
| 1970-71 | EHL | 74 | 26 | 43 | 5 | Lost first round |
Personalities
Much of the Dixie Flyers' best hockey was during the NHLNational Hockey League
The National Hockey League is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league of 30 franchised member clubs, of which 7 are currently located in Canada and 23 in the United States...
's "Original Six
Original Six
The Original Six is a term for the group of six teams that composed the National Hockey League for the 25 seasons between the 1942–43 season and the 1967 NHL Expansion. These six teams are the Boston Bruins, Chicago Black Hawks, Detroit Red Wings, Montreal Canadiens, New York Rangers, and the...
" era. This was because of the very limited ability of talented players to move up from the minor leagues. Since there were only six teams with twenty-man rosters, at any given time there were only 120 active NHL players. Because of this, very talented players spent many years, perhaps all of a fifteen- or even twenty-year career in the minors, which is not at all common today. The Flyers had several such players, including Lloyd Hinchberger, a player-coach who almost never scored but still got his share of penalty minutes; Flo Pilote, one of the first French-Canadians ever to become prominent in the Nashville community, who for many years after the demise of the Flyers operated a tavern in the Hermitage community called "The Penalty Box," Ted McCaskill, who was called up to the NHL after expansion and was a crafty, high-scoring forward, and goaltender Marv Edwards, also called up after expansion, who as a Flyer once had 15 shutouts in one season. (McCaskill's son Kirk was a long-time Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...
pitcher.) Other unforgettable Flyers included Wally Sprange and Joe Zorica. The first Captain was Ken "Red" Murphy, whose aggressive and scrappy style of play made him a fan favorite.
Flavor
Playing and living conditions were often brutal in the EHL during the Flyers' existence. At times they rode, as did most EHL teams of the era, to away games on a bus that was not a retired or converted Greyhound or Trailways bus but rather a former school bus. In the years 1965 to 1968 they rode a Trailways bus driven by Bill "The Roadrunner" Hightower. The Flyers' purple-and-gold sweaters were perhaps things of beauty, but looked far more like those for a Junior or Senior team than those of a professional squad, at least during the early years. The ice sheet at the Municipal Auditorium was undersized, but not nearly as much as the one at the Civic Coliseum in KnoxvilleKnoxville, Tennessee
Founded in 1786, Knoxville is the third-largest city in the U.S. state of Tennessee, U.S.A., behind Memphis and Nashville, and is the county seat of Knox County. It is the largest city in East Tennessee, and the second-largest city in the Appalachia region...
which was genuinely minuscule and must have reminded the players, all of whom were of Canadian extraction, of playing on the frozen ponds of their boyhoods.