The Cleveland Crusaders were a professional

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two o ...

team from

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U ...

. They played in the

World Hockey Association The World Hockey Association (french: Association mondiale de hockey) was a professional ice hockey major league that operated in North America from 1972 to 1979. It was the first major league to compete with the National Hockey League (NHL) ...

from

1972 Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using Solar time, me ...

1976 Events January * January 3 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 11 – The 1976 Phil ...

. Their home ice was the Cleveland Arena from 1972 to 1974, and the

Richfield Coliseum Richfield Coliseum, also known as the Coliseum at Richfield, was an indoor arena located in Richfield Township, between Cleveland and Akron, Ohio. It opened in 1974 as a replacement for the Cleveland Arena, and had a seating capacity of 20, ...

from 1974 to 1976. The team was owned by Nick Mileti, who had been the founder of the NBA's

Cleveland Cavaliers The Cleveland Cavaliers (often referred to as the Cavs) are an American professional basketball team based in Cleveland. The Cavaliers compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference (NBA), Ea ...

, and also owned

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL) ...

Cleveland Indians The Cleveland Guardians are an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland. The Guardians compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. Since , they have played at Progressive ...

. He had also owned the nine-time

American Hockey League The American Hockey League (AHL) is a professional ice hockey league based in the United States and Canada that serves as the primary developmental league for the National Hockey League (NHL). Since the 2010–11 season, every team in the le ...

champion Cleveland Barons, but moved them to

Jacksonville, Florida Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the List of United States cities by area, largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the co ...

to make room for the Crusaders. The first coach for the Crusaders was Bill Needham, a mainstay of the Barons. Needham coached the Crusaders to winning records in the first two seasons, but failed to advance past the second playoff round. In the 1974–75 season, John Hanna took over as coach, to be replaced mid-season by

Jack Vivian John R. Vivian (May 14, 1941 – February 17, 2021) was a Canadian ice hockey player, college football player, ice hockey head coach, general manager, professional scout, and university administrator. He was most notable as the first head coach o ...

. Cleveland finished second in the east division despite a losing record, but fell in the first round of the playoffs. Johnny Wilson led the team for its final season, also losing in the first round of the post-season. Mileti sold the team to Jay White in 1975, but White sold it back to Mileti in 1976. However, not long after Mileti closed on his repurchase, the

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey sports league, league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranke ...

California Golden Seals The California Golden Seals were a professional ice hockey club that competed in the National Hockey League (NHL) from 1967 to 1976. Based in Oakland, California, they played their home games at the Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum Arena. T ...

moved to Cleveland and became the Cleveland Barons. Mileti knew he could not hope to compete with an NHL team and decided to move the Crusaders elsewhere. Initially, the team was going to relocate to South Florida and become the Florida Breakers, going far enough to have a logo designed.http://cdn2.vox-cdn.com/assets/4759336/Breakers1.png After the proposed move fell through, the Crusaders relocated to

St. Paul, Minnesota Saint Paul (abbreviated St. Paul) is the capital of the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of Ramsey County. Situated on high bluffs overlooking a bend in the Mississippi River, Saint Paul is a regional business hub and the center o ...

, becoming the second incarnation of the Minnesota Fighting Saints.

Players

Gary Jarrett was the Crusaders top scorer in their four seasons, playing in 298 games, scoring 104 goals, 119 assists, totalling 223 points. Gerry Pinder played the most games in a Crusader uniform, 304 in total. Other notable Crusaders players included

Paul Shmyr Paul Shmyr (January 18, 1946 – September 2, 2004) was a Canadian professional ice hockey defenceman who played in the World Hockey Association (WHA) and National Hockey League (NHL). Playing career Shmyr was one of the top defensive stars in th ...

(538 penalty minutes in four seasons), netminder

Gerry Cheevers Gerald Michael "Cheesie" Cheevers (born 7 December 1940) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey goaltender who played in the National Hockey League (NHL) and World Hockey Association (WHA) between 1961 and 1980. Cheevers is best known for ...

(99 wins in four seasons), and defenseman

Wayne Hillman Wayne James Hillman (November 13, 1938 – November 24, 1990) was a Canadian professional ice hockey defenceman who played in the National Hockey League (NHL) for the Chicago Blackhawks, New York Rangers, Minnesota North Stars and Philad ...

. The last active Crusaders player in major professional hockey was Paul Baxter, who last played the 1986-87 NHL season.

Season-by-season record

''Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against, PIM = Penalties in minutes''

References

External links

season statistics
www.hockeydb.com
List of NHL players
www.legendsofhockey.net Ice hockey teams in Ohio Ice hockey clubs established in 1972 Ice hockey clubs disestablished in 1976

Crusaders The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were ...

World Hockey Association teams 1972 establishments in Ohio 1976 disestablishments in Ohio {{Ohio-sport-team-stub