Smashville Is Back!

It's Opening Night in Nashville for the team's NHL hockey team, the Nashville Predators. Having won its opening game on the road against the Dallas Stars, early season expectations are up for the squad, which barely missed the Stanley Cup playoffs last year for the first time in a while. We will learn more tonight about this team as it plays the Colorado Avalanche.

Back when we were together in Sing-Out South in the mid-to-late
1960s, the concept of Nashville having a major-league NHL franchise would have been more than a bit far-fetched. But that wasn't because we didn't have a hockey team in town.

The Dixie Flyers played for nine seasons at Nashville's Municipal Auditorium as a member of the old Eastern Hockey League (EHL). And not surprisingly, Sing-Out South once performed at one of their games during a break between periods.

I remember being a part of the performance, and I have even been able to track down the date we did it: December 2, 1966. But beyond that, I have no memories. Do any of you? If so, please e-mail me or leave your memories below.

It's odd that I wouldn't remember more. I am pretty sure it would have been a strange experience. We would have had to walk out a bit on the ice, and probably perform on some rugs or something put over the frozen surface so we wouldn't fall (especially trying to do our choreography).

And what did we do for music and musical instruments, especially our electric guitar or piano? And, for that matter, how did they mic us so we could be heard? Anybody remember?

The season we entertained at hockey game was a very good one for the Dixie Flyers. They were in the midst of winning their second straight EHL Championship and they remained very good for the next several years losing out in the playoff finals during the 1968-69 season.

Unfortunately, Nashville then, as it remains, is a "non-traditional" hockey market, and the Flyers struggled for fans, finally folding as a franchise after the 1971 season (about the same time I think Sing-Out South disbanded). Here's a video I found on YouTube that is a look back at the old Eastern Hockey League that operated from 1954 to 1973. You can also learn in the video where to order old jerseys on line, including ones for the Dixie Flyers....

There is some irony in all this. It was because the NHL expanded beyond its "Original Six" teams, that the Nashville Dixie Flyers and the rest of the ECHL was squeezed out of existence in the early 1970s. And now it is because the NHL has continued to expand, that Nashville again has a franchise, this time in the NHL itself.

Let's Play Hockey!