HATFIELDS & MCCOYS TO SETTLE? 

  VERSUS  

By Bruce Berlet

For the past 13 years, it’s basically been an “us against them” mentality for the Hartford Wolf Pack and Hartford Whalers Booster Clubs.

Disparaging, insensitive remarks from both sides have filled each other’s conversations and websites, often making the Hatfields vs. the McCoys appear like a tea party – and we don’t mean that independent political party either.

Wolf Pack fans belittled their Whalers counterparts, often sounding as if the inferior stepchild of their major-league predecessor. Whalers fans continually belittled the NHL team that kept hockey alive in Hartford, saying they would never support an affiliate of the New York Rangers after disliking a new version of the Broadway Bullies so much when The Whale was still alive.

The childish behavior and petty difference on both sides were counterproductive to the game that they allegedly loved. The steady decline in Wolf Pack attendance and Whalers booster club membership the past few years proved both sides had been successful – for the wrong reason.

But since founding the Whalers Sports and Entertainment group earlier this year, former Whalers owner and managing general partner Howard Baldwin has gone out of his way to try to rectify the situation and pay homage to hockey’s past in the Capitol City. It’s not Whalers hockey, he said. It’s not Wolf Pack hockey, he said. It’s Hartford hockey, he said.

With the Wolf Pack officially being rebranded as the Connecticut Whale, likely around Thanksgiving, it was time for both booster clubs to bury their hatchets and finally do what was right for hockey in Hartford.

The process began Wednesday when Baldwin and Hartford Mayor Pedro Segarra unveiled the new Connecticut Whale logo at the Koeppel Community Sports Center on the campus of Trinity College in Hartford. The logo embraced professional hockey’s past in Hartford with a grimacing blue whale diving through a green C while gripping a hockey stick.

After the paper covering the logo was removed, Segarra, Baldwin, wife Karen, other members of the Whalers Sports and Entertainment family and fans of the Whalers and Wolf Pack applauded heartily. Baldwin and five members of his staff then had a productive 45-minute Q&A session with 25 members of the Wolf Pack Booster Club.

Several Whalers Booster Club members then spent part of the Wolf Pack’s 3-0 victory over the Albany Devils joking with Sonar, the Wolf Pack mascot. The ice between the booster clubs had apparently been cracked, and it softened even more Friday.

At the prompting of Karen Baldwin and special encouragement from former Whalers right wing Bob Crawford, now the senior vice president of hockey operations for Whalers Sports and Entertainment, a teleconference call was set up between the two booster clubs. A series of emails got both sides on board, and a 30-minute chat seemed to do wonders for Howard Baldwin’s quest to turn Whalers hockey and Wolf Pack hockey into Hartford hockey.

Still, the overriding question was: Are both parties on board with Howard’s wishes? Can the 135 (and expanding) members of the Wolf Pack Booster Club and 56 members of the Whalers Booster Club (down from an all-time high of about 1,000) finally put their differences aside and co-exist in peace and harmony? (I sound like John Lennon and the Beatles 45 years ago.)

If the first 30 minutes was any indication, the answer was a resounding yes.

“I’m on board,” Wolf Pack Booster Club president Bob Wood said. “Bygones are bygones.”

Whalers Booster Club president Marty Evtushek said he has delighted to hear Wood’s words.

“I haven’t had a chance to talk to Bob, but hopefully we can start a very good relationship now,” Evtushek said.

That also was music to the ears of Jerry Carroon, the only person to be president of the Whalers and Wolf Pack booster clubs and also was president of the NHL Booster Club Association the year before the Whalers hosted the NHL All-Star Game in 1986.

“Obviously the whole thing is to make improvement in the hockey relations in Connecticut,” said Carroon, a retired priest of the Episcopal Diocese of Connecticut who assists at Grace Church in Hartford and is a Canon of the Cathedral at Christ Church Cathedral in Hartford. “With the switch to the Connecticut Whale we’re expanding the whole concept, and now there are issues as to how you relate not only to each other but to the associations to which you belong. I don’t think it’s insurmountable, but one has to review the situation as it is now.”

To that end, the board of directors of each club will hold their first combined meeting Tuesday at 6:30 pm at Champions Skating Center in Cromwell, one of the five rinks owned by Crawford and the Wolf Pack’s training facility when they can’t use the XL Center.

Hopefully the Connecticut Whale Booster Club isn’t far from becoming a reality, perhaps even before the rebranding of the Wolf Pack to the Connecticut Whale.

“Yes, I think that’s going to happen, but I think we have to determine precisely how it’s going to happen,” Carroon said. “That’s the area of discussion that needs yet to take place.”

Al Victor, president of the Whalers Booster Club from the departure of the Whalers in 1997 until this year, backed Crawford’s idea of having one booster club table at games.

“Even if it’s two or three tables long, it’s important to show unity between the two clubs right from the get-go,” Victor said. “I also feel there shouldn’t be a big sign that says Hartford Whalers Booster Club and shouldn’t be a big sign that says Wolf Pack Booster Club. I think there should be something done up that says Hartford Hockey until we establish a Connecticut Whale Booster Club. Everyone should think about that and talk when we get together.”

Crawford then reiterated Connecticut Sports and Entertainment’s commitment to support having everything happen and move forward in a positive direction. He and his staff repainted the Champions Skating Center rink in familiar Wolf Pack colors and wishes he had enough advance notice to include “a shot of green” of the Whalers. He said that will happen next year.

“These are all great comments and ideas, and it makes me personally very happy to see everyone working together because so much can be accomplished,” Crawford said. “It’ll make it fun and part of the experience, and I appreciate everybody’s spirit in making this happen. This is a labor of love, and I’m a supporter of any kind of hockey, whether it’s ‘learn to skate’ for kids or right up to the pro level. So I’m excited.”

During the teleconference call, Wood and Evtushek each described some of their clubs’ functions, such as road trips to AHL and NHL games and merchandise that they sell. Their immediate goal is to have the one table shared by the two booster clubs and a petition to get the state legislature to fund a new arena to increase the chance of the NHL returning to Hartford.

The “Mount Rushmore of Booster Club Presidents” – Wood, Carroon, Evtushek and Victor – will drop the ceremonial first puck before the Wolf Pack’s second game against the Worcester Sharks on Oct. 10. Whalers and Wolf Pack alums are scheduled to do the honors for the Wolf Pack’s 14^th season opener Oct. 9 against the Charlotte Checkers, their former ECHL affiliate and one of the AHL’s two new teams.

“This is all about coming together for hockey, Hartford and Connecticut,” Crawford said. “That’s the spirit that I’m hoping for, and I have a distinct feeling that there’s a desire to come together with both groups and support, as one group, the common.

“We have to respect the past and everybody who has worked (for both booster clubs), but there’s a lot of good opportunity to help not only the team but to help create what I like to call the best booster club anywhere and see what else we can do within the booster club to help the community. I sense a real desire to support Howard and the vision of Whalers Sports to really revitalize the attendance and energy at the XL Center. You guys are a big part of that.”

Crawford is hoping the bonding of the two groups will help provide more volunteers for Whalers Winter Fest 2011 at Rentschler Field in East Hartford. The event has already been so well received that it has been expanded to Feb. 8-22 with 35-to-40 outdoor games for youth, junior, high school, prep school and college teams, plus an AHL game between the Wolf Pack/Whale and Providence Bruins on Feb. 19.

“We’ll need a lot of help in that endeavor,” said Crawford, who is in charge of the Winter Fest and booking all but the college games. “It’s going to take an awful lot of volunteers because we’ve got a lot of youth groups and volunteer groups that are going to be stretched pretty thin making that event the success that we want it to be.”

Folks can start to help the process at the season opener Oct. 9 or even at Champions Skating Center on Sunday, when the Wolf Pack play their preseason finale against the Worcester Sharks at 2 p.m. If you see a Wolf Pack or Whalers Booster Club member you know, tell him or her that you’d like to join what is likely to be the new Connecticut Whale Booster Club and help try to bring the NHL back to Hartford