World Hockey Association (1974-1977)
Tombstone
Born: April 30, 1974 – The Jersey Knights relocate to San Diego, CA
Folded: Postseason 1977
First Game: October 16, 1974 (L 8-2 @ Phoenix Roadrunners)
Last Game: April 24, 1977 (L 7-3 @ Winnipeg Jets)
AVCO World Trophy Champions: None
Arena
San Diego Sports Arena (13,039)11975-76 World Hockey Association Media Guide
Opened: 1966
Marketing
Team Colors: Orange, Blue & White21975-76 World Hockey Association Media Guide
Ownership
Owners:
- 1974-1976: Joseph Schwartz
- 1976: World Hockey Association
- 1976-1977: Ray Kroc
Our Favorite Gear
San Diego Mariners Replica Jersey
When it comes to Replica Jerseys, we turn to our friends at Royal Retros, who put extraordinary detail into their fully customizable hockey sweaters.
Free Customization Included
Each jersey individually handmade
Any name and number
Sewn tackle twill crest, numbers & letters
100% polyester
Heavyweight fabric made to game standards
Fight strap included
When you make a purchase through an affiliate link like this one, Fun While It Lasted earns a commission at no additional cost to you. Thanks for your support!
Background
The Mariners were the first and only Major pro hockey team to play in the city of San Diego. The team was part of the World Hockey Association, the colorful 1970’s rival to the National Hockey League, from 1974 through 1977.
The Mariners franchise was one of the league’s most troubled. The team started out at Madison Square Garden as the New York Raiders during the WHA’s debut season in 1972-73. Over the next year and a half, the team cycled through various owners, three names and as many buildings in New York and New Jersey, bottoming out in tiny Cherry Hill Arena as the owner-less Jersey Knights in the spring of 1974.
The team’s third owner in two years moved the team to San Diego in the spring of 1974, displacing the city’s popular minor league San Diego Gulls from the Sports Arena. The Mariners were never able to replicate the Gulls popularity in San Diego. And the franchise’s history of ownership turmoil never really improved in California either. But the Mariners would acquit themselves rather well on the ice.
End of the Voyage
The Mariners’ second season was barely a month old when The Toronto Globe and Mail reported the team might fold by Christmas 1975. That didn’t happen, but the WHA seized the franchise from owner Joseph Schwartz in March 1976 after he failed to meet the Mariners’ payroll and fell behind on league dues.
The club soldiered on amidst the uncertainty and made the playoffs, where they ran into the Houston Aeros once again and were eliminated in the quarterfinal stage.
By late summer 1976 the Mariners were all but dead. Sports promoter Bill Putnam made an unsuccessful bid to move the club to Hollywood, Florida. At the 11th hour, San Diego Mayor Pete Wilson prevailed upon San Diego Padres owner Ray Kroc to rescue the team. The 74-year old board chairman of McDonald’s, with a personal fortune estimated in the neighborhood of half a billion dollars, agreed. It’s hard to know why. Kroc spared few opportunities to express his boredom and disdain for the sport of ice hockey during his nine-month stewardship of the club.
Upon buying the Mariners: “I don’t even like hockey.” (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, 8/26/1976)
Putting the team up for sale six months later: “At $7.50 per ticket, I don’t think the value is there. I don’t blame people for staying away when we ask them to pay $15 per couple.” [Escondido Times Advocate 3/1/1977]
Clarifying his previous remarks: “Lots of people own theatres, but they don’t go to the movies.” (Vancouver Sun 3/5/1977)
After burning ~$1.5 million on the Mariners: “I’d rather give the money to crippled children.“3ASSOCIATED PRESS. “Kroc’s had it with hockey”. The Californian (Bakersfield, CA). May 3, 1977
Kroc also expressed pessimism that San Diego would be accepted into any future merger of the WHA with the National Hockey League, feeling the 13,000-seat Sports Arena was too small among other factors.
In May 1977 Kroc tried to sell the team to Jerry Saperstein, son of Harlem Globetrotters founder Abe Saperstein. Like Bill Putnam a year earlier, Saperstein hoped to move the Mariners to Hollywood, Florida. When that deal swiftly collapsed, the Mariners went out of business in the spring of 1977.
Revival
Soon after the Mariners demise, San Diego Sports Arena owner Peter Graham, invested in a new minor league hockey promotion, the Pacific Hockey League. He entered a new minor league club under the Mariners name in the PHL for the 1977-78 season. Graham unloaded the team after one season and the new owner changed its name to the San Diego Hawks in 1978. The minor league Mariners/Hawks went out of business in 1979.
San Diego Mariners Shop
Our Favorite Stuff
San Diego Mariners
Logo T-Shirt
The San Diego Mariners had a fun logo but unfortunately the team never made much use of it. The mustachioed Mariner and his helm never made it onto the team’s jerseys between 1974 and 1977, as the club went with simple “San Diego” and “Mariners” wordmarks instead.
This Mariners design is available now in sizes Small through 3XL from our friends at Old School Shirts!
When you make a purchase through an affiliate link like this one, Fun While It Lasted earns a commission at no additional cost to you. Thanks for your support!
Editor's Pick
The Rebel League
The Short and Unruly Life of the World Hockey Association
By Ed Willes
The Rebel League celebrates the good, the bad, and the ugly of the fabled WHA. It is filled with hilarious anecdotes, behind the scenes dealing, and simply great hockey. The upstart WHA introduced to the world 27 new hockey franchises, a trail of bounced cheques, fractious lawsuits, and folded teams. It introduced the crackpots, goons, and crazies that are so well remembered as the league’s bizarre legacy.
But the hit-and-miss league was much more than a travelling circus of the weird and wonderful. It was the vanguard that drove hockey into the modern age. It ended the NHL’s monopoly, freed players from the reserve clause, ushered in the 18-year-old draft, moved the game into the Sun Belt, and put European players on the ice in numbers previously unimagined..
When you make a purchase through an affiliate link like this one, Fun While It Lasted earns a commission at no additional cost to you. Thanks for your support!
San Diego Mariners Video
Two-hour YouTube reel of assorted Mariners interviews, features and game footage from the 1970’s.
Links
World Hockey Association Programs
###
