Recognizing An AHL Hall Of Famer Who Helped The Rangers

Once upon a time, long, long ago, there were two monthly sport magazines. One was simply called Sport. It began publishing after World War II and included the very best writers who scribbled about all the major leagues – including the NHL.

Sport was so successful that a writer named Bruce Jacobs launched a competitor monthly and called it Sport Life. I remember it well – so well that in my collection of hockey scrapbooks, I saved a Sport Life hockey article. Oddly enough it was not about the NHL although it did include the Rangers.

The article – authored by Jacobs, himself – was titled "MINOR LEAGUE, BUT MIGHTY GOOD."

It was all about the AHL's Cleveland Barons and its owner Al Sutphin. Few in today's hockey world ever heard of Al Sutphin but he was just inducted into the AHL Hall of Fame for a very good reason.

From the post-World War II years – and well through the 1960's – Al Sutphin built the Barons into a big league franchise in every – farm system and all – way except admittance to the NHL.

Sutphin's Barons were a kind of Rangers' farm team."We were close," said Rangers manager Frank Boucher, "because Sutphin's teams had NHL calibre players that we dealt for them more than a few times."

One of the best was defenseman Hy Buller – once a member of the New York Rovers – who made it to the NHL Second All-Star Team in his rookie year with the Blueshirts.

Another was right wing Wally Hergesheimer who instantly made a goal-scoring hit as a Ranger. 

"Sutphin's Barons belonged in the NHL as its seventh team," recalls The Old Scout, "but politics – NHL power broker Conn Smythe – intervened. Unfortunately the Cleveland Arena only held 10,000 seats which was just a bit too small compared to NHL standards."

Too bad, because Sutphin's Barons – in so many ways – was better than the Chicago Black Hawks; maybe even the Blueshirts – in that Original Six era.

But that's old business; the new and refreshing story is that Al Sutphin has finally been dutifully recognized by the AHL for a lot things summed by a long ago headline:

MINOR LEAGUE BUT MIGHTY GOOD.