Loving the ECHL

As North American hockey fans, we often tend to focus on the big leagues. The NHL, PWHL, and maybe your favorite college as well for some NCAA hockey. If you care about the sport enough, you might even adopt the AHL affiliate of your favorite NHL team. That said, I don’t want to talk about any of those leagues today. I want to talk about the often overlooked and forgotten about ECHL. It has been around since 1988, though, none of my teams were members back then. I have lived in two cities, or at least, two metropolitan areas, my entire life. Both are ECHL cities. Of these, only one was an ECHL team when I was born. For those who don’t know, I grew up in the Toledo, Ohio area. Back in 1998, our local team was the Toledo Storm, whose logo is in the running for the worst hockey logo of all time. They were early members of the ECHL, as in, they joined in 1991. The only hockey game I have ever attended was a Storm game at the old Toledo Sports Arena along the Maumee River. For music nerds, the arena inspired the YES song, “Our Song”. It’s one of two songs Toledo inspired for big-name artists not from the area that I know of (the other being the John Denver song, “Saturday Night in Toledo, Ohio”.) Anyway, back on track, I was a toddler when I attended that game. I remember next to nothing because I was too overstimulated to comprehend anything that happened. So, for that reason alone, that Storm game was the only hockey game I’ve ever attended (and likely to be the only one), and why that team has a special place in my heart. When they shut down and were replaced by the Walleye, I didn’t take to them immediately. They weren’t the Storm. They were in a different arena and not the franchise with which I had made such an important memory. These days, I fully love the Walleye, despite having not lived in Toledo since August 2013. While I don’t long to move back to Toledo like I once did, the Walleye are now one of three remaining emotional ties I have to that city. The other two are the Toledo Rockets and MacQueen’s Apple Orchard. Anyway, it’s the only thing I have that still connects me to the city that raised me. The city I spent the first 14 years of my life in. For that reason, the Walleye have remained near and dear to my heart, despite now living in enemy territory.

That’s right, now I live where their arch-rivals live: Fort Wayne, Indiana. Whereas I lived in a Toledo suburb and about half an hour away from the arena back in Ohio, here in Indiana, I live directly just outside downtown (no, seriously, I can see downtown from my window and it’s a short walk), and the arena is only about seven minutes away. Give or take how bad traffic is. I’ve also been to the arena, Allen County War Memorial Coliseum, as opposed to the current home of the Walleye, the Huntington Center. Mind you, never for a game, but I have been to a few events there and done early voting there. Fort Wayne is where I have spent the last 12 years and lived in four different areas near it. Two in the city itself, and two in the suburbs. I know this metropolitan area like the back of my hand. Way more than I ever knew the Toledo metropolitan area. To be fair, Toledo’s is far larger. Fort Wayne was never a large city and has been steadily growing. It’s become my love over the last 12 years. While Toledo raised me, Fort Wayne made me and changed me. It’s where I came to realize I’m trans and autistic. It’s where I became epileptic. It’s where I experienced homelessness, one of the most radicalizing experiences of my life. Yes, many terrible things have happened here, but the things I have gone through here have shaped far more than anything in Toledo. I am who I am today because of Fort Wayne. Not Toledo. Even when it comes to sports, it’s affected me greatly. When I moved here, there was only one radio station that played hockey games: WOWO, the original area conservative talk radio station (games are now broadcast on the local rock station, 96.3 FM WXKE). They were the home of the Fort Wayne Komets, called by the legendary Bob Chase. If you don’t know who Chase was, you should. Even though was the broadcaster of a minor league team, he was not only one of the greatest voices in hockey broadcasting history, but in sports history, as well. Only one man, Vin Scully (who called for the MLB’s Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers) lasted longer as the broadcaster of a single franchise, doing so for 67 years. Chase called the Komets for 63 years. The only reason he stopped was because he died in the middle of the 2016 season at age 90. Yes, 90 years old and still calling games. He called over 5,000 Komets games. Something that may be interesting to many of my readers is that he almost became the voice of the Detroit Red Wings. In fact, the only reason he didn’t was because he turned down the gig in 1962. Instead, Bruce Martyn took over. Chase also was considered to become the voice of the Boston Bruins, California Golden Seals, Minnesota North Stars, St. Louis Blues, and Washington Capitals. To those who aren’t fans of those teams, you might be most interested to learn that he was the mentor of Mike ‘Doc’ Emrick. Yes. You have Bob Chase to thank for Emrick. So, what made him such a desirable voice? Because he’s one of the most influential, and not just because he mentored Emrick. What Emrick and many other hockey broadcasters learned from him was his style, called “Radio Rinkside”. What is “Radio Rinkside”? Simply, calling the play on the ice to make it feel as if you’re watching it. Whether it was his detailed calls of the action as they happened or the emotion he put into it. It all brought you into the game. His most famous phrase is, “He looks, he shoots, HE SCORES!” Yes, if you hear a broadcaster say that, there’s a good chance they picked it up from Chase. If you hear them also announce the station the game is being broadcast when going into commercial breaks, that’s also because of Chase. He changed how hockey is broadcast, especially on the radio. Why do I talk so much about Chase? Simply, because he kept me in hockey. Living far away from Red Wings territory now, and not having the Walleye, all I had was the voice of Bob Chase calling the Fort Wayne Komets to keep me in hockey. Eventually, I fell in love with the Komets, despite them being the Walleye’s arch-rival. Now, I love both teams. I know. I’m a traitor to both teams, I’m sorry. Bob Chase made me love that team, hearing his energetic and detailed calls. I truly felt when listening to him that I could visualize what was happening. Not only that, but I could FEEL what those in the arena were feeling. Today, Komets games are called by Shane Albahrani. I’ll be honest: I wasn’t a fan of him at first. He was just so different from Bob Chase, such a legendary broadcaster, that it felt like a massive downgrade. While he may never be Chase, these days, I welcome hearing his voice. I have learned to enjoy his style, which took many cues from Chase, while still being different, and quite good. I stopped following sports in 2018 due to entering my “transition or die” era of my life, and I just couldn’t bring myself to care about sports anymore. When I did start getting back into sports in early 2021, Albahrani was there, welcoming me back. The Komets were there, welcoming me back. Not only that but learning to love the Komets, by extension, gave me an emotional connection to the city. It helped me truly embrace Ft. Wayne as my home.

Because of all these reasons, I love the ECHL. I love that I have spent my life in ECHL cities and that it’s my local league and that these have been my local teams. They’re two of the biggest reasons I’m still a hockey fan to this day. Now, enough about me. I went onto social media to ask readers about how the ECHL has impacted them as hockey fans. Here are the responses I got:

I was already a huge fan and I'd been to a couple of Tampa Bay Lightning games, but when the Tallahassee Tiger Sharks arrived in my city at the time, I went to as many games as I could. It was so much fun because the ECHL uniforms were a blast, and I got to see young players. I loved it!

The Sharks outlasted me in Tally by only a year, which was sad. There were some diehard fans who never missed a game and as a hockey fan in the hinterland it made me happy to know there were other fans around. - @flahawkfan.bsky.social

ECHL has so much heart! I love these guys. The Swamp Rabbits are the closest hockey team to me. All the players are amazing and they do SO MUCH for the community. I’m here for their last two back to back home games, last one tomorrow. May need therapy after it’s over. - @ripley-lv426.bsky.social

While the NHL and the Blues made me a full-on hockey fan, it was the ECHL and the KC Mavericks that first exposed me to the sport. They were my gateway to hockey and becoming a fan. - @shadowlucifer.bsky.social

sharks fan as a kid. but having the mavs nearby was really what helped me get back into it. if i didnt go to that mavs game i wouldnt have found my love of hockey again - @bretton.creator.blue

I moved back to the area i grew up in a few years ago. I wasn’t a hockey fan when Toledo had the Storm and I wasnt in state when they became the walleye.

My first year back, I saw that they were having $5 pre season games and seats were GA. Took my son and got seats by the glass.

I was in a Storm jersey I had bought a few years prior for my collection and felt out of place. But the crowd was exciting and it was the first time I got to go to a physical hockey game.

Toledo has such pride in their ECHL team. Made me a fan since (and I have since upgraded to a walleye jersey) - @aar1012.bsky.social

I love ECHL and AHL, the games are just as exciting as NHL. They tend to have more fun fan engagement (and you say Teddy Bear Toss and and post-game skate). And ticket prices are so much more affordable.

Minnesota needs an ECHL or AHL team in addition to the Wild and Frost. - jessi.kellogg

I grew up in Alaska where the ECHL, the Alaska Aces were the only professional sports you could see in person and it was where I fell in love with hockey. I wouldn’t be a fan today if I hadn’t been able to see hockey in person. Between easy entry and electric hockey play I was hooked at 13 🤩 - tabbi2toes

The ECHL may not be as glamorous as the NHL, but for many of us hockey fans, it it as loved, and maybe even more loved, than our NHL teams. For many of us, the ECHL is what brought us into the sport, made us remember why we loved the sport, etc. Here’s to us, the lowly ECHL fans. The ones whose emotional well-beings are tied to our third-tier professional hockey teams.

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