{"id":1265,"date":"2024-05-14T17:17:12","date_gmt":"2024-05-14T21:17:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rihhof.com\/rireds.org\/?p=1265"},"modified":"2024-05-14T17:17:12","modified_gmt":"2024-05-14T21:17:12","slug":"christmases-to-remember","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rihhof.com\/rireds.org\/legends-and-lore\/christmases-to-remember\/","title":{"rendered":"Christmases to Remember"},"content":{"rendered":"
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For those who regularly attended games at the old Auditorium, it was a different era than today. There were few quality shows on black and white TV and the National Football League had limited support and exposure. Sports fans eagerly looked for entertainment and many flocked to the Reds\u2019 traditional Sunday night home games.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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But it was not just Sunday nights that had become \u201cHockey Night in Providence.\u201d The Reds also regularly entertained AHL adversaries on important holiday nights like Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years. Today, those holidays are rarely scheduled.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Longtime followers agree that Christmas night games at the Auditorium were historically wild and unpredictable. The enemy always seemed to play mean spirited, as if they resented having to be on the road. And the Reds, stuffed with home-cooked turkey, played with equal belligerence.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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<\/span><\/div>One Christmas night, Kent Douglas, an aspiring prospect with Springfield and later made it to the NHL, decided he would take on Reds\u2019 player-coach Fernie Flaman, a man with the reputation of having never lost a fight.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Big mistake. Fernie toyed with his agitator for a few seconds, then gripped Douglas by the seat of the pants and nap of the neck and casually hurled the young upstart into the Indians\u2019 net. A few minutes later, with the help of several teammates, the embarrassed Douglas emerged from the entanglement of his skates and the goal mesh. Never again did Douglas annoy Mr. Flaman.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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<\/span><\/div>Another Christmas night, sometime in the 1960s, Cleveland was the unhappy visitor. The Barons were led by Fred Glover, one of the best players in the league, a tough fighter, and the player many opponents called \u201cthe consummate stick man.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Glover kept his stick high to establish his turf and to issue a visual warning, \u201cPrivate property. Do not enter.\u201d That evening a Reds\u2019 player entered Glover\u2019s area and a fight ensued, one that developed into a jolly, holiday bench-clearing brawl involving all 30 players dressed for the game. It took 40 minutes to restore order and a CPA to record the penalties.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

On that Christmas, there was no “Peace on Earth” in Providence!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For those who regularly attended games at the old Auditorium, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1266,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-legends-and-lore"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rihhof.com\/rireds.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1265","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rihhof.com\/rireds.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rihhof.com\/rireds.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rihhof.com\/rireds.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rihhof.com\/rireds.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1265"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/rihhof.com\/rireds.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1265\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1269,"href":"https:\/\/rihhof.com\/rireds.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1265\/revisions\/1269"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rihhof.com\/rireds.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1266"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rihhof.com\/rireds.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rihhof.com\/rireds.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rihhof.com\/rireds.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}