Four decades later, the names of the 1978 Toledo Goaldiggers still resonate as the cast of characters that established a brand of championship hockey that helped define an unmistakable golden era of the sport in this city.
It was Teddy and the Tin Man, the Great Wall of China, Tanner, and Eruzione — the gifted future Olympic hero.
The sharp gold and green Goaldiggers jerseys featured that simple but distinctive logo on the sweaters.
There was the aroma of stale beer wafting around in the already woefully outdated but cozy and beloved Sports Arena.
It was hard-hitting, in-your-face hockey that could rile an already eager crowd into a full frenzy with a bench-clearing brawl. But this was a team that also could thrill the spectators with highlight-reel goals from the underrated skill players.
And it all was capped off by a brilliant exclamation point. On May 24, 1978, at the old barn at 1 Main St. in East Toledo, the players hoisted the Turner Cup.
VIDEO: Toledo wins the 1978 IHL championship in the fog
Jim “The Tin Man” McCabe, who was voted MVP of the team, said it was a mutual love affair.
“We were the kings of this town,” McCabe said. “The way we were treated by the fans and the city was incredible. They felt like they were part of it — and they were. That must be how it feels like to win the Stanley Cup.”
Mike Eruzione, who would later gain worldwide acclaim as a member United States hockey team that completed the Miracle on Ice, was an emerging left winger honing his talents as a rookie in a Goaldiggers uniform.
“The whole city supported us,” Eruzione said. “If you were a Toledo Goaldigger, you were somebody. You'd walk around town and see people wearing T-shirts with your face on it.
“We had some really good players. We were good. We had fighters. We had skill. We had a solid goalie. Everything fell into place.”
The pieces were assembled and fit into place by the volatile and charismatic Ted Garvin, a true character of the times who put his signature stamp on Toledo hockey like no other coach in the city's history.
“Terrible Ted” favored fisticuffs and intimidation. Messages were sent with physicality and by dropping the gloves at the drop of a hat.
No player perfectly exemplified Toledo toughness like Paul Tantardini, a brawler like no other. “Tanner” made a notorious name for himself as a member of Garvin's feared “Murder Inc.” line.
But above all else, Garvin hated losing and would do anything to win.
“We had characters with strong personalities,” McCabe said. “And you could always count on a fight. If you've ever seen the movie Slap Shot, you could have done that story about our team. That is how we won our Cup.”
Just months after the infamous Blizzard of '78 forced the unprecedented cancellation of a Diggers game, the team clinched the title in equally unforgettable weather conditions. Game 7 of the Turner Cup finals against Port Huron at the Sports Arena is a night that will forever be remembered for the fog that constantly hung over an ice surface that became more water than ice by the final horn.
In less than ideal conditions for a decisive championship, the warm, humid weather in late May coupled with an insufficient cooling system conspired to melt the ice and form clouds thick as pea soup at times. Toledo goaltender Lindsay “The Great Wall” Middlebrook often lost sight of the puck through the haze.
By the third period the players were relegated to performing as human fans — skating in circles during breaks in the action in an attempt to break up the fog.
The late, great Blade sports writer Dave Woolford described it this way:
“Socked in by fog and not cleared for takeoff, the Toledo Goaldiggers taxied to a 4-1 lead, weathered a Port Huron rally, and were last seen pointed skyward with the Turner Cup in tow. In a contest that started as hockey and ended as water polo, the Diggers defeated Port Huron 4-3 in the seventh game of the International Hockey League's final playoff series before a boisterous sellout crowd of 5,286 at the Sports Arena.”
The run in '78 came smack dab in the middle of a golden era of Toledo hockey when the Goaldiggers claimed four championships in a span of nine years.
Teddy and his titles
The University of Toledo had dominated the local sports scene, first with quarterback Chuck Ealey's 35-game unbeaten streak from 1969-71 before the great Rockets basketball teams of coach Bobby Nichols grabbed the headlines.
But in a city with a boom-and-bust hockey history, the Goaldiggers franchise was born in 1974 with a perfect nickname dreamed up by a local kielbasa maker.
“We came on in 1974 and took the city by storm,” McCabe said. “It was the right combination of toughness and entertainment.”
Garvin instantly endeared himself to the devoted Diggers fan base with his fiery demeanor. The crusty old-school coach, who led the Red Wings for 11 games in 1973, was brought in by general manager Andy Mulligan and Sports Arena owner Virgil Gladieux to resurrect hockey here.
He constructed his teams to mesh with the unique confines of the old Sports Arena, an intimate rink with an ice surface that fell short of regulation size. Garvin favored size and intimidation, creating the infamous Murder Inc. line of Tantardini, Willie Trognitz, and Doug Mahood.
The hardcore fans loved it, packing the place and starting the tradition of screaming “hit somebody!” at the tail end of the national anthem. There was no question the Diggers had a palpable home-ice advantage in the close quarters.
“It fit my skill set. Those fans were rabid. They gave us a one-goal lead going into every game,” McCabe said. “They would not let us let them down. They were so intense. They were an integral part of our success. They lived and died with us.”
It came to a peak on May 7, 1975, when the Goaldiggers clinched the Turner Cup, and upon arriving back from the victory in Saginaw, Mich., they were greeted by a throng of 10,000 fans.
The revered Tiedtke's building, which had been abandoned, caught fire and burned to the ground the same night — sparking what became known as the “Miracle On Main Street.” High-scoring forward Donnie Westbrooke famously quipped, “I knew our fans would burn down the town if we won the Cup.”
The following year the Diggers qualified for the playoffs but lost in the first round. Then in 1976-77, the team reached the finals once again, only to lose in seven games to Saginaw, setting up the 1977-78 campaign.
Tantardini and captain Ian MacPhee were holdovers from those original tough teams. The style was not cheap with stick work. It was crunching checks and fair flurries of punches to the face. But there was plenty of finesse on those early teams, especially McCabe and MacPhee.
Eruzione said the outgoing personality and beaming smile of Tantardini, who died tragically in 2006, still stands out.
“I never played with a better teammate than Tanner,” Eruzione said. “I had tremendous respect for him. He was a character.”
The Tin Man said his nickname was bestowed on him by Tantardini and Mahood. The moniker was based both on the way he played and on a song by the band America that was well-known at the time.
“Part of it was related to the way I skated,” McCabe said. “The song was popular at the time. My nickname was tame compared to some of the others.”
Up front, the team was led by dynamic center Len Fontaine, who was in his first year with the Goaldiggers after playing with Garvin in Port Huron. Barry Scully and Eruzione were brought in to add scoring punch, with the latter beginning his professional career after four years at Boston University.
“I'm coming from college hockey to Toledo under Teddy Garvin. It was a real eye-opener,” Eruzione said. “It was incredibly different. Even the practices were different. There was not that structure like in college. He was a showman. Teddy loved the fighting. I was on the bench, out of the way. He would stand on those boards, arms up in the air, waving at the crowds. I would be sitting there not believing what was actually happening. We had guys that fought each other in practice.”
Garvin put Eruzione on a line with Scully and Randy Mohns, and the trio combined for 166 points. McCabe, Tantardini, and MacPhee formed another line. Fontaine was paired with rookie Bob Sullivan and enforcer Joe Nathe.
The top defense pairings were Tony Horvath with Jeff Allan, and Michel Laurendeau with Francois Vachon. Pete Crawford also was a top contributor on the blue line.
Goalie Tony Piroski played in 30 games during the regular season, but Garvin's biggest move in 1978 might have been handing the goaltending reins to Middlebrook, the diminutive 5-foot-6, 170-pound netminder who had been sent down from the AHL.
“All 5-foot-4 of him or whatever he was … he was spectacular,” Eruzione said. “I rented a house with Middlebrook. We didn't stock a lot. We got $3 a day on the road, and that went to a hot dog and a six-pack. I got paid about $3,500 that first year to get the [crap] kicked out of me. I'm not sure it was worth it.”
Add it all up and the Goaldiggers had the makings of a championship team.
“This is the best team of the six years I played under Garvin, and it was his best year coaching,” said McCabe, who played for the Diggers from 1974-80 and is the second-leading scorer in team history. “He would make slight moves to the lines, and it worked more often than not. We'd come up with that big goal. It seemed to click. He had a great sense of timing.”
Game 7 heaven
Only the storm of the century, which dumped upwards of 23 inches of snow on the region in late January, could stop the fans from showing up.
“That was the only time in my career that a game has been canceled — and I played in northern Ontario,” McCabe said. “The visiting team got to the arena, but the Toledo players and fans could not get to the Sports Arena. The local streets had not been cleared.”
McCabe remembered that the team's turning point came around the same time.
“We didn't get clicking until January of that year,” he said. “We played a great game in Saginaw, and all of the sudden we realized that was as good as we would have to be the rest of the year.”
Fontaine led the team in scoring with 88 points (34 goals, 54 assists) in 74 games. Scully was the group's top goal scorer with 42 in 75 games. Eruzione led in assists with 56 in 76 games.
Nathe, a 6-3, 210-pound winger, racked up a team-high 325 penalty minutes, followed closely by Tantardini (268) and MacPhee (243). The team finished strong on the way to a 34-28-18 record.
McCabe said Eruzione was the most dependable guy on the team.
“My wife was very pregnant at the time, and Mike Eruzione helped us paint the house,” said McCabe, a native of Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., who settled in the area. “At one point he painted on my wall, 'Eruzione was here.' Man, I wish I still had a picture of that.”
Eruzione had no bigger fan base than his former teammates when he became captain of the Olympic team.
“It was great,” McCabe said. “He was so beloved, and I think it was because he would tell Goaldiggers stories. I think that was part of the reason he became the heartbeat of that national team.”
Eruzione experienced a hockey environment in fever pitch during the playoffs when crowds close to 6,000 spilled over into the attached Exhibition Hall to watch on closed-circuit TV.
Referee Sam Sisco did not call a penalty in Game 7 after Toledo and Port Huron had combined to set an IHL record for penalty minutes in a series in the first six games.
“It had been a real tough series,” McCabe said. “We slugged it out. It was a hard-hitting, clean [Game 7]. No one wanted to cross the line and give the other team a power play, and we all respected Sisco.”
Nathe, Tantardini, and Scully staked the Diggers to a 3-1 lead before Sullivan scored what turned out to be the game-winner. Port Huron scored two goals 40 seconds apart to make it a 4-3 game with about four minutes to play, but the Flags couldn’t get the tying goal.
Middlebrook said the frequent stoppages to clear the fog affected his concentration.
“I remember thinking, 'How the hell is this happening?'” Eruzione said. “I'd never experienced anything like it. I remember how bizarre it was. The ref would blow the whistle, and we'd skate around to get rid of the fog.”
Garvin lamented after the game that the Sports Arena had seen better days.
“We've just run out of time in this building,” Garvin told The Blade. “It's embarrassing. In a town of 450,000 people, we’re playing in a building like this, and it's ridiculous.”
What Teddy didn't know is that the arena would stand for 29 more years and host 16 seasons of Toledo Storm hockey in the ECHL from 1991-2007 before it was demolished in August, 2007.
Garvin, McCabe, Tantardini, and Eruzione are all now members of the Toledo Hockey Hall of Fame. They hail from a time never to be duplicated.
“This team has not gotten its due,” McCabe said.
Eruzione opted not to play after his Olympic days were done, famously stating that he had already reached the pinnacle of the sport. He became a TV broadcaster, calling NHL and Olympic Games, and now works for his alma mater.
“Toledo is kind of my second home,” Eruzione said. “I've always felt part of the community there. I still feel a part of it. Winning was a part of my life as an athlete, so to be able to win in front of these great fans and in that environment was awesome.”
Contact Mark Monroe at mmonroe@theblade.com, 419-724-6354, or on Twitter @MonroeBlade.
First Published May 26, 2018, 10:00 a.m.
