Coast Guard Cutters Hockey History

U.S. Coast Guard "Cutters" Hockey Team

They came from Eveleth, Minneapolis, Sault Ste. Marie

and New York City. They included a goalie called

Mr. Zero, a menacing Italian -- Jewish defense

combination, the captain of the last new York Rangers

Stanley Cup winners, a National Hockey League

referee and a graduate of the Long Island City YMCA

Roller Hockey League. A blend of amateur and

professional players made up one of the finest hockey

teams to represent Uncle Sam. They even had a pair

of championships to prove it. They were the U.S. Coast

Guard Cutters out of Curtis Bay, Maryland.

The brainstorm of a former Michigan hockey player-

turned sailor, the Cutters were organized shortly after the

Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. They played through the 1942-43

and 1943-44 seasons in the Eastern Amateur Hockey League,

considered to be one of the most competitive leagues of its time.

They also played a number of exhibition games and once, at Carlin's

Iceland in Baltimore, their home ice, the Cutters went head-on against

the Stanley Cup champion Detroit Red Wings. Although they were

involved in only two full campaigns, the Cutters detonated more fights,

filled more seats and generally raised more hell than the Eastern

League has ever known. "There was nothing like them, before or

since," said the St. Louis Blues President Emile Francis, who was

strafed by the Cutters while goal tending for the Philadelphia Falcons.

Ironically, the Cutters' most intense competition was amongst

themselves. "Our intra-squad games," said former Coast Guard star

Bob Gilray, "were like bloody massacres." A special ambiance

surrounded the Cutters wherever they played. They wore unusual

red-white-and-blue, star-spangled jerseys with crossed anchors

emblazoned on the front and, unlike any other hockey club, they were

accompanied by a 30-piece marching band providing razzmatazz at

every game.

"Whenever we scored," said Mike Nardell, a one-time roller hockey ace, "they'd strike up Semper Paratus, the Coast Guard marching song. I loved that team so much I never wanted to take off my equipment. Years later, when I played pro for the Clinton (N.Y.) Comets, I'd always wear my Coast Guard jersey under my Comets uniform."

Nardello was in select company. Hall of Famer Frank (Mr. Zero)

Brimsek, who orchestrated the Boston Bruins to a 1941 Stanley

Cup title, was one of the three superb goalies on the Cutters

along with Muzz Murray and Hub Nelson. Minnesotan's played a

significant role on the team. In addition to Brimsek, and Nelson,

Mariucci, Dill, and Cotlow Eveleth's Joe Kucler and Ken Lundberg

represented the State of Hockey. Mariucci and Brimsek were also

from Eveleth, Dill was from St. Paul while Minneapolis claimed

Nelson and Cotlow.

The Coast Guard defense bristled with ex-Rangers' captain Art

Coulter and Alex Motter of the Red Wings as well as the terrifying

tandem of Chicago Black Hawks bruiser Johnny Mariucci and

Manny Cotlow, a Jewish defenseman who would just as soon eat

railroad spikes as T-bone steaks. "Manny," said Gilray, "was

responsible for one of the biggest riots in hockey history."

The eruption occurred at the Philadelphia Arena after Cotlow and

Marty Madore of the Falcons clashed on the ice and, again, in the

penalty box. A posse of Philadelphia fans ambushed Cotlow,

triggering a counter attack by Cotlow and Bob Dill. Another battle

started on the ice. The official were soon on their knees in

hand-to-hand combat with players from both teams. A police riot

squad was called in to subdue the battlers.

Although they reveled in rough play, the Cutters didn't have to

fight to win. The line of Gilray, Joe Kucler and Eddie Olson

delivered a formidable offense and provided endless joy for

Lieutenant Commander C. R. MacLean, a former player from

Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, who fathered the team in 1942.

MacLean, the Personnel Officer at the Curtis Bay Yard,

encouraged American-born hockey players to join his unit. The

Canadian-born Coulter was an exception. He had always wanted

to obtain American citizenship and seized the opportunity when

war broke out. The Ranger stalwart enlisted in the Coast Guard,

joined the Cutters and became a naturalized American citizen.

In time, MacLean had so many stick handlers he divided the

Cutters into two teams -- the Clippers and the Cutters -- who

competed against each other when they weren't involved in

Eastern League action.

They once played a brutal four-game series which Cotlow

described as "the most physical games of my life." George

Taylor, writing in the Baltimore News-Post, observed: "The rubber

tilt was more exciting than the Stanley Cup playoffs."

When the Clippers and the Cutters united against common ice

foes, they were virtually unbeatable, winning the National Senior

Open Championship of the Amateur Hockey Association in 1943

and 1944. Former NHL referee Mel Harwood coached the Coast

Guard skaters on both occasions.

The Cutters would play exhibition games against strong Canadian

service teams liberally sprinkled with pros and invariably beat

them. Against the powerful Ottawa Commandos, who were led

by ex-Rangers' stars Neil Colvile and Alex Shibicky, and Joe

Coper of the Black Hawks, the Cutters triumphed, 5-2.

One of the Cutters' toughest games' was against the 1943 Stanley

Cup champion Red Wings on January 6, 1944 before a capacity

crowd in Baltimore. With Brimsek in goal, the Cutters hung tough

until well into the third period -- they trained 4-3 -- but were

ultimately shellacked, 8-3. "They didn't intimidate us," assures

Cotlow, "But they were a little smarter."

Despite the Cutters' popularity in Boston and New York, were they

regularly drew crowds of more than 12,000, they were criticized

in some quarters and finally were disbanded in 1944. "A lot of

parents of servicemen couldn't understand why heir sons were

overseas fighting while we were still playing hockey," said

Kucler. "The Coast Guard was under a lot of pressure to break

us up."

The end was in sight one afternoon when an announcement

blared over the Madison Square public address system while the

Cutters were playing the New York Rovers. Kucler, the club's

leading scorer, was ordered to report for action after the match.

Olsen, now an official for the NHL, remembers the Cutters' end:

"They said that Joe was playing his last game for us and then

would be shipped out. As soon as Joe left, they began getting rid

of the other guys and, by then, we know the honeymoon was

over."

After the war, Coutler retired but Mariucci and Brimsek returned to

play several years in the NHL. Others, such as Nardello, played

minor league hockey. "I kept wearing my jersey," said Nardello,

"because it always gave me the feeling that those great guys --

Cotlow, Kucler and the rest -- were somehow around for another

chorus of Semper Paratus."

Source in part: #7-83 issue (March 28, 1983) of the Commandant's Bulletin, pages

18-19; reprinted there from the "Game Notes" section of a Los Angeles Kings'

game program; www.uscg.mil/history/faqs/Hockey_Team.asp; 2008 X-Cel Energy

Center DIsplay by Roger Godin; Game Photos donated by Roger Godin

US Coast Guard Cutters 1942-1943

US Coast Guard Cutters 1943-1944

John Mariucci

Bob Dill

Herbert "Hub" Nelson

Joe Kucler

Ken Lundberg

Manny Cotlow