#ThrowbackThursday: Fred Ahern (Bowdoin '74) and the NHL of the 1970s

Fred Ahern (Bowdoin '74) in the NHL (courtesy of  Clover Hockey)

Bowdoin's Jon Landry ('06) recently signed a one-year, two way contract with the Minnesota Wild. He'll most likely start the season with the Iowa Wild (AHL), but if he makes it north to Minnie, he'll become the second Polar Bear to make the NHL.

The first was Fred Ahern ('74), who played 146 NHL games from 1974-78 with the California Golden Seals/Cleveland Barons and Colorado Rockies (present day New Jersey Devils). Ahern came to Brunswick, ME from Beantown, where he grew up playing youth hockey and HS puck at Boston Technical High School. Despite the Hockey Hall of Fame site listing Ahern as playing four years at Bowdoin,  freshman were not allowed to play varsity sports at Bowdoin until 1975-76, so that 1970-71 season must have been freshman hockey. In his three years of varsity hockey under the immortal Sid Watson, Ahern garnered 93 points (38-55-93); a solid career, no doubt, but south of the century club and nowhere near the top of the All-Time Polar Bear scorers' list.

Undrafted out of Bowdoin, Ahern played most of 1974-76 in Utah with the Salt Lake Golden Eagles, the Central Hockey League affiliate of the NHL's California Golden Seals. The 6'0" 180 lb wing only played in a handful of NHL games in 1975 but did well in his 1976 call-up, scoring 25 points (17-8-25) in 44 games.

In 1976, Ahern played for the USA in the Canada Cup, though the patriots were eliminated after an opening round (1-3-1) record in round robin play. 20 years later, fellow NESCAC alum Guy Hebert (Hamilton '89) would represent the red,white and blue in the 1996 World Cup, the amped up successor to the Canada Cup; only this time, the good guys took home the gold.

When the Seals packed up and moved 2,455 miles from sunny Oakland, CA to rusty Cleveland, OH to become the Cleveland Barons (named after the longtime AHL franchise) in 1976, Ahern made the trek. The NESCAC alum holds the distinction of scoring the first goal in Barons history on October 6, 1976 in a 2-2 tie with Los Angeles.  Just 25 games into the Barons inaugaral season, Ahern suffered a broken arm that would sideline him for the remainder of the season. He was traded along with Raph Klassen mid-way through the 1977-78 season to the Colorado Rockies in exchange for Chuck Arnason and Rick Jodzio.

Klassen and Jodzio win the most interesting tidbits award in that trade. Jodzio was part of one of the most infamous hockey fights in professional puck lore; as a member of the Calgary Cowboys of the Western Hockey Association in 1976, Jodzio blind-sided the Quebec Nordiques' (then a member of the WHA) Marc Tardif with a high-stick in a playoff game and continued to beat a helpless and unconscious Tardif on the ice. What ensued was a benches clearing brawl. Thanks to the wonders of YouTube, you can see the brawl (but not the initial hit), complete with metal music backing because of course it's metal for a hockey fight.

Klassen, on the other hand, is famous for something far less sinister that never even occurred on the ice. Thanks to the Hartford Whalers NHL expansion draft and some trades, Klassen was a member of four NHL teams in one day (Colorado, Hartford, N.Y. Islanders, St. Louis), a record that still stands.

Back to Ahern, he was traded back to the Barons after the 1977-78 season for cash, but would never play another NHL game. The Barons wouldn't play another game in the NHL either, as the NHL merged cash strapped Cleveland with another struggling franchise, the Minnesota North Stars, in June of 1978.  The North Stars survived, but NHL hockey in Cleveland vanished. The Barons are the last team in any of the four major North American sports leagues (MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL) to cease operations. Their legacy includes two cellar dweller seasons in the rust belt and a co-captain, Bob Stewart, who holds the record for worst career +/- in NHL history (-260). 

Ahern would go on to play five more seasons of hockey in North American minor leagues and one season internationally in Sweden before finally hanging up his skates in 1982. In the end, the Boston native ended up with 61 career NHL points (30-31-61), certainly nothing to sneeze at for a guy that couldn't crack the century club at Bowdoin.  In 2005, Ahern was elected into the Massachusetts Hockey Hall of Fame along with Ahern's coach at Bowdoin, the legendary Sidney Watson.

The pic up above comes to us thanks to a website dedicated to Clover Hockey, a summer travel team in Massachussets that Ahern played for in the 70s. The Clovers have quite the alumni list including NHL Hall of Famer Tony Amonte and Craig MacTavish, famous for being the last NHL player to not wear a helmet. Check out the site. 

Read More: Official Hockey Hall of Fame Site - - Fred Vincent Ahern

Read More: Hockey-Reference - - Fred Ahern bio and NHL stats 

Read More: Bowdoin Atheltics - - Massachusetts Hockey Hall of Fame Honors Watson, Ahern