ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, May 7, 1996 TAG: 9605070032
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: Jack Bogaczyk
SOURCE: JACK BOGACZYK
The eighth East Coast Hockey League season is history, and for all of the recent turmoil in the ownership group of the local franchise, there is at least one thing that remains constant in the league's connection to the ice age in the Roanoke Valley.
The Brabham Cup still is being treated like a spittoon.
The cup goes to the ECHL's regular-season champion, or the team with the most points in the standings since the league expanded from five to twentysomething teams. It's named for irascible Vinton petroleum baron Henry Brabham, whose wallet not only kept local hockey afloat but kept the ECHL in business.
In Boston, where the Red Sox haven't won a World Series since they sold Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees, they talk about ``the Curse of the Bambino.'' In the ECHL, it's the Curse of the Brabino. You can read all about the ``Brabham Cup Jinx'' on the ECHL's chat line. There's even been a color image of the Brabham Cup on the ECHL's page on the Internet.
No, the Brabham Cup isn't made out of Styrofoam, although its winner always seems to get crushed in the playoffs.
``I know,'' Brabham said recently from his Vinton office. ``Every year I go somewhere to hand them the Cup and I feel bad, because I figure it might be the kiss of death. This year, I really felt bad. I handed the cup to Roy Sommer, who was one of my coaches here [with the Roanoke Valley Rebels in 1991-92] before he went to Richmond. I told him, `I hope you break the damn jinx this year.'''
The Renegades didn't. After beating Hampton Roads in the first round of the playoffs, Richmond lost 3-1 to Jacksonville, which was the 15th seed in the 16-team playoffs. No Brabham Cup winner has won the Riley Cup playoff championship. In 1994 and '95, Birmingham and Wheeling lost first-round series to 16th-seeded teams from Louisville and Birmingham, respectively.
Five of the eight Brabham Cup winners have lost in the first round of the playoffs. Only one franchise, Winston-Salem turned Wheeling, has reached the Riley Cup finals (in 1990 and '93) after winning the Brabham. Now, that team isn't even the Thunderbirds. The nickname is being changed after Seattle of the Western Hockey League, also the T-birds, claimed it had the name longer.
Another thing about the Brabham Cup hasn't changed, either. Every ECHL club spends several months trying to win it.
Brabham probably thought his ECHL notoriety would end when the roof caved in at his LancerLot on the Larry Revo-owned Rampage in 1993. Brabham then twisted a few arms to help John Gagnon and Gagnon's fellow investors get an expansion franchise that became the Roanoke Express.
Brabham, who is re-roofing the LancerLot arena and will open it as part of his health club for basketball, tennis and volleyball, is an Express season-ticket holder and saw all but two of the club's home dates this past season.
He doesn't quite know what to make of the coup among Express ownership that ousted Gagnon as president. He's seen quite enough bumpy ice in his more than two decades with the sport.
``The ECHL people haven't forgotten old Henry,'' Brabham said. ``Every year they ask me to present the Brabham Cup, and they still invite me to all of the league meetings.''
As they should. There was a time when the ECHL had only five teams, and Brabham basically owned 31/2 of them - the franchises in Vinton, Johnstown, Pa., and Erie, Pa., and the lease at the Knoxville (Tenn.) Civic Coliseum.
At least in those days in the Roanoke Valley, when the subject was hockey, you knew there wasn't going to be overthrown ownership. You knew who was in charge.
LENGTH: Medium: 69 linesby CNB