Buck Up!

As you know, I'm Pacific Northwest oriented when it comes to a lot of things, whether it is landscape, entertainment, sports teams, or beer (especially the beer).  Being that this is a hockey blog (despite the fact that the blog's colors are representative of the international football team Portland Timbers), today is a slightly deeper look into the history of hockey in Portland.

Before the Winterhawks came into existence in 1976, there was the Portland Buckaroos.  Actually, the Buckaroos were two different teams in two different eras.  The first incarnation played in the Pacific Coast Hockey League and North West Hockey Leagues from 1928 until 1941.  That team played in the Portland Ice Arena, where the Rosebuds had previously played in the 1910's and again in 1925-26 as the reincarnated version, the latter of which would eventually form the basis of the Chicago Blackhawks team (as the Black Hawks from inception until 1986) as founded by Frederic McLaughlin.  As for the Buckaroos, the second incarnation of the team would be formed in 1960, under the old Western Hockey League (the minor league version, not the junior league that the Winterhawks are a part of now).  That team would win three championships from 1960 until the league folded in 1974.  The Buckaroos would move to the Western International Hockey League the following year, and would be a part of the ill-fated Pacific Northwest Hockey League the year after that.

In 1976, the old Edmonton Oil Kings franchise (a new team bearing the same name has since started play in 2007) relocated to Portland, becoming the Winter Hawks (the name until 2009, when the space in between "retired") and to date, this franchise has won two championships in its existence, and counts Cam Neely, Marian Hossa, Paul Gaustad, and more recently, four first round picks in the last two years (Ryan Johansen and Nino Niederreiter in 2010 and Sven Baertschi and Joe Morrow in 2011) as players who have come through the Rose City.