The Calgary Flames

Since I'm in a reminiscing mode, I'll go through all five of my favorite sports teams.  Last time was the San Antonio Spurs of the NBA.  Today, it's the Calgary Flames of the NHL.

The Origin of Fandom

I'm somewhat odd in that my five favorite sports teams are from five different cities.  And, how I came to be a Flames fan is most unusual.  My dad was never a hockey fan, so I had no initial bias leading me one way or another.  Growing up in eastern PA, the Flyers were the closest logical fit, and I do root for them today.  But, the Calgary Flames won out, and they captured my heart for one reason: MacGyver.  For those who don't remember, MacGyver was an adventure series (1985-1992) starring Richard Dean Anderson.  The title hero sometimes wore a Flames hat (seen below).  I thought both MacGyver and the logo looked cool, so I became a Flames fan around 1990.

MacGyver rocking the flannel and Flames hat

Another shot, this time with the bandana and vest

Recent History

The Flames moved from Atlanta to Calgary in 1980.  They won the Stanley Cup title in '88/'89, but honestly I don't remember that, so I must not have been a fan at that time.  In the early '90s, they had a plethora of good players that I still remember fondly: Theoren Fleury, Mike Vernon, Al MacInnis, Joe Nieuwendyk, Gary Roberts, Gary Suter, and Doug Gilmour.  Being a small-market club, though, they lost most of them through trades or free agency.  They would be a good team- almost always making the playoffs, though never winning it all, through the '95/'96 season (record for each year is here).

In 1996, the Flames brought in Jarome Iginla (pictured below), who quickly became a star.  Sadly, the arrival of "Iggy" (as he's affectionately known) coincided with a playoff slump- Calgary went through seven straight losing seasons.  Their woes ended, surprisingly, in the '03/'04 season.  That say, a new coach (Darryl Sutter) brought in a new goalie (Miikka Kiprusoff), and the upstart Flames nearly pulled off a Cinderella story.  They were a low seed- 7 out of 8- heading into the playoffs.  They beat the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd seeds in the Western Conference to reach the Stanley Cup Finals.  They ended up losing in 7 games, to the Tampa Bay Lightning.  The next year, the NHL had a lockout, and it looked like the league might end forever.

Jarome Iginla . . . All-star and Gentleman

The players and owners finally agreed on new terms, and the next four seasons after the lockout, Calgary would make the playoffs but lose in the first round.  Sadly, in the last four years, they've not even made the playoffs.  Their descent reached a nadir this year, when they started disassembling the team, and traded Iginla to the Pittsburgh Penguins, capping an 18-year Flames career.  He'll be hard to replace, and being a small-market team, I don't see the Flames being successful again anytime soon.


Final Thoughts

Like basketball, my interest in NHL has faded in recent years.  Of the "big four" professional sports (baseball, basketball, football, hockey), hockey has always been the one I've followed least, and the Flames' recent abysmal play has left me even less interested.  Still, I'll always have fond memories, and the 2003-04 Cinderella season will always stand out as a highlight.  Had they only won that game 7 . . . it will haunt me for a while yet.

Fun fact to end: The Calgary Flames had an alternate logo for a few years (seen below) that I loved.  In fact, I liked it so much that I had a vinyl sticker made of it, which I put on my car's hood.  I named this horse "Dennis," and I drove with pride around town in my bright yellow 2004 Toyota Matrix with Calgary horse.  Had the Flames won it all that year, I would have driven it to Calgary to celebrate.  Alas, the things that never were, and likely never will be.

The Alternate Flames Logo, Worn for a Few Years in the Early '00s