The Daily Helmet: Schmidt’s of Philadelphia Hockey Guide New pennant New Shirts And The 10 Minute Ticker

by Mike Cline Jr. in The Daily Helmet

When I I lived in my Grandparent’s old house, a lot of the stuff was still around from when they lived there. Including a good amount of things that my father and uncle left behind. One of those things was this adorable little Hockey Guide from 1967. The sponsor of this book was Schmidt’s of Philadelphia and judging by the schedule in the back of the little book, this was acquired at a Buffalo Bisons American Hockey League game. My uncle had many tales of him and my dad and their Uncle heading Downtown to see some 1960s minor league hockey action. This team was the the pro hockey team in Buffalo before the NHL Sabres were established in 1970. They were affiliated with the Canadians, Blackhawks and rangers during their time in the league. The team won five Calder cups during their existence, including in their final season before closing up shop and letting the brand new Sabres franchise step in.

The franchise is probably most famous because of their jersey crest, which was styled after, if not blatantly advertising, a Pepsi-Cola logo. The Pepsi logo and colors were adopted in 1956 when local Pepsi bottler Ruby pastor Acquired the team. Before that their colors were mainly orange and black.

The Guide

I love this little guide. it is basically a pamphlet with an abridged edition of the hockey rule book with little illustrations and a beer add. Plus it even includes the 1967-1968 Bisons Schedule. Surprisingly my uncle kept it in really good shape. The thing is in almost perfect condition.

The opening page includes some of the Bisons stars.

I like how the illustrations depict a mask-less goaltender which was common during this era.

Obligatory mid-guide beer add. It was “One beautiful Beer”!

I think my favorite part is these officials signal illustrations. Look at that dude’s hair. That is pure 1960s.

Full Guide:

Schmidt’s Hockey Guide 1967-1968

Another pennant for the collection

I am slowly collecting pennants to display on my stairway ceiling. The last empty spot in my basement. I don’t know what it is I’m just uncomfortable with blank spaces and when I see one, my mind looks for ways to fill it up. This time I received a Houston Gamblers pennant. There were a few to choose from on eBay when I ordered, but I just had to get the two-bar and stay “on-brand” so to speak. It is interesting that the helmet is left facing, but it will match my Invaders pennant. Now I feel like i have to get all of the USFL pennants. It never ends. Instead of rolling up the pennant, the seller put it in this huge box, which all together weighed nothing. The box weighed so little, that the wind carried it away and my Fiancee found it in the backyard. next time he should stick a rock in there or something. Maybe I will put in his review.

New Shirt!

Years ago I used to frequently shop at the discount clothing store AJ Wright. The store, if you don’t recall was a lot like Marshall’s, TJ Maxx and others. In fact they were all pretty much owned by the same company. So cousins I guess. Well you might hear about your Mom, wife or Grandma going their for cheap shoes or linens, the stores actually had a great selection of closeout sports stuff. T-shirts, jerseys, hats, you name it, AJ Wright had it. Whenever I went to a different city I would search out and AJ Wright to see what local team stuff they had. I have about three or four Indians Jerseys from that time period. You could always count on traded football player jerseys to show up as well.Unfortunately as is common in retail, I guess they decided that they need to get rid of some dead weight and AJ Wright was shuttered forever. TJ Maxx and Marshall’s have picked up some of the slack with various sports stuff, but not as much as AJ Wright. The stores by me have a weird assortment of sports stuff, but mostly they sell Blue jays gear. I guess this because I live 90 miles away form Toronto? They often have jerseys and shirts of the jays, but this time around I found this awesome Montreal Expos T-Shirt for 10 bucks! I’m thinking I will need to wear it with my Expos batting helmet that I picked up a couple months ago. it is only right.

10 Minute Ticker

Back in the 80s before Fox invented the permanent score bug and then the endless stream of scores and fantasy statistics, one was left in the dark to how the other games around the league were going. It wasn’t until NBC producer Michael Weisman came up with the idea of a 10-minute ticker, that football fans could count on a time and place to get their up to the second scores. This was better than Bob Costas jumping in every once in a while with a highlight. My favorite part is how you can just tell the announcer had no idea what the scores were until he read them. Yahoo Sports had a cool write up on it a few years back.