Reliving the Miracle on Main Street

TOLEDO, Ohio — Editor’s note: This story was originally published by the Toledo Free Press, a media partner of WTOL 11. 

A majority of sports fans of a certain age are familiar with the U.S. hockey team’s “Miracle on Ice” at the 1980 Olympics in Lake Placid, N.Y. And they probably remember New York’s “Miracle Mets,” who came out of nowhere to beat the Baltimore Orioles to win the 1969 World Series.

Barry Manilow’s smash hit, “It’s a Miracle,” debuted in 1974. That same year, an expansion hockey team from Toledo would complete what local hockey fans thought was a million-to-one shot at the end of the 1974-75 season – win the Turner Cup championship trophy.

That season – particularly the Goaldiggers’ surprising playoff run – has been fondly referred to as “The Miracle on Main Street” ever since.

Eleven players and family members from the 1974-75 team returned to downtown Toledo on April 13 for a meet-and-greet at Imagination Station, celebrating the 50-year anniversary of the Miracle on Main Street. Fans got signed autographs from the players and took photos with the Turner Cup, which was on loan from the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto.

The Goaldiggers were young and led by a fiery Canadian-born coach named Ted Garvin, who coached the Detroit Red Wings a year earlier, only to get fired 11 games into the season. The Goaldiggers sloshed through the 1974-75 regular season, finishing with a 34-38-4 record and a third-place finish in the 11-team International Hockey League’s South Division.

John Martin, then a 6-foot, 200-pound left wing, was moved to defenseman by Garvin 15 games into that season. Martin played college hockey at Providence College.

“I grew up playing forward,” said Martin, 75. “Defense was not my best position. I loved it here in Toledo. The players, the fans…the reception we got was outstanding. The fans were unbelievable that year, their passion with hockey and towards us.”

Martin has fond memories of the Goaldiggers playing their home games at the old Sports Arena, located on Main Street in East Toledo. The Sports Arena was demolished in 2007.

“When I was at Providence we played at the Rhode Island Auditorium, which was similar to the Sports Arena,” Martin said. “Our fans were very friendly to us, but not to the other team. We gave everything we had and those fans gave us everything they had.”

One of those fans was Don Kier, 71, who attended the meet and greet at Imagination Station. He was a die-hard Goaldiggers fan back in the day. Kier was studying journalism at the University of Toledo when the Goaldiggers won the Cup in 1975. He still has a photo of the Goaldiggers’ players raising the trophy after winning the Cup in 1978.

“We would go downtown to the hockey games and sit in section 104, behind Eddie Rutherford, the organist,” said Kier, who is also a huge Toledo Walleye fan. “We finished towards the bottom of the division [in ‘75] and came out of nowhere to win the Cup“We had two very good goalies in Ted Tucker and Pierre Chagnon. Tucker was in net in game 7 [of the Cup finals], and it was his birthday. Ted Garvin knew how to motivate the team and how to motivate the fans. He was a coach and showman in one.”

The Goaldiggers beat the Columbus Owls in five games in the first round of the playoffs to set up a best-of-seven semifinal series with the South Division champion Dayton Gems.

Toledo inexplicably won that series in six games to advance to the Cup finals against the Saginaw Gears, who had the home-ice advantage in the series.

“Ted came up with another system for the playoffs,” Martin said. “We went more defense – one player was on the offensive end and two players stayed back. It was a different style. NHL teams used that, but these (playoff) teams never saw us do that.

“When Ted coached us, he coached us to get us into the playoffs,” Martin added. “We were a first-year team, so he wanted us to get in the playoffs and win it.”

Doug Mahood was a 5-11, 220-pound right wing for the Goaldiggers. He was raised in the tiny town of Teeswater, Ontario, Canada, and played for Toledo for two seasons before getting traded to Port Huron in 1977.

Mahood was a member of the Goaldiggers’ infamous “Murder Inc.” line in 1974-75. Mahood, at right wing, Willie Trognitz at left wing and the late Paul Tantardini at center formed a formidable trio.

“We were tough,” Mahood said. “I was tough and good in the corners, winning battles. I was intimidating, a good checker.”

Mahood said he never had an issue with Garvin’s coaching style. Garvin passed away in 1992 at age 69.

“He was phenomenal,” Mahood said. “He knew when to pat you on the back or kick you in the butt, and he never held a grudge. You knew where you stood.”

The Saginaw Gears finished third in the IHL’s North Division in 1974-75. They were a third-year franchise coming off a surprise run to the Turner Cup finals the previous season.

In essence, the ‘75 Turner Cup finals featured two third-place teams that got hot when it mattered. The Gears went 43-29-3 during the regular season and had an advantage in the fact that if the finals went to seven games, Game 7 would be played in Saginaw.

Toledo won Game 6, 7-3, to set up the championship game. On May 7, 1975, the Goaldiggers beat the Gears, 6-5, on center Juri Kudrasovs’ eventual game-winning goal with 4:45 left in the third period. Ironically, Kudrasovs, a native of Brampton, Ontario, played for the Gears the previous two seasons.

Former Toledo sportscaster Jim Mengel, who covered the Goaldiggers and worked weekends for Toledo Channel 13, was at Game 7 and watched Kudrasovs’ shot hit the back of the net.

“When they started the season, they were rough,” Mengel recalled. “Then Garvin paid more attention to winning games. Toledo fans weren’t there just for fights. I don’t like to predict, but I knew it was going to be tough.”

Mengel shared what went through his mind when Toledo scored with 4:45 left against the Gears. “I was rooting for the Goaldiggers. I thought, ‘This is going to be the longest four minutes and 45 seconds in existence.’ ”

Toledo held on when a Saginaw shot bounced off the Goaldiggers’ goal post with five seconds left in the game.

An estimated 10,000 Goaldiggers fans took to the streets downtown to celebrate that night, surrounding the Sports Arena as Tiedtke’s department store literally went up in flames, two years after it closed.

The players were thrilled with the fans’ turnout. To quote the lyrics from Manilow’s hit 1974 song: And, baby, there’ll be dancin’ in the street.

“I was 22 and our team doctor told me to savor every minute, and that I would remember this my whole life,” Mahood said. “Other than getting married and having children, that was the most special time of my life.”

Mahood retired from hockey following the 1977 season and has lived in Toledo ever since.

“Toledo,” he said. “has always been good to me.”