Talk:Great Falls Americans (WHL)

The Modern Day Americans

I am removing this entire section from this article, until a better place to put it can be decided. I'm also concerned that it might be copied directly from an internet page since it reads like a {{fansite}}. Any suggestions? Flibirigit (talk) 09:00, 2 March 2008 (UTC)

The Great Falls Americans were then resurrected in the early 90s as a Junior B team in a Junior B league based out of southern Alberta. The League has since joined with the Heritage Junior B Hockey League.

The Americans played against teams from Kainai (Standoff), Taber, Lethbridge, Brooks and Medicine Hat. The new attraction in the one-horse town was well-received. Fights and brawls were enjoyed by all. The team had occasions where more than 1,000 fans attended. The team struggled, but made the playoffs one year, losing in the first round to Brooks.

After three trying seasons, the team was sold to James King. King changed the team name and jerseys to the Great Falls Kings Americans. When questioned by the public about why he would add his name in front of Americans, he said it wasn't his name but for religious reasons.

But that wasn't the only bazaar off-ice decision he made. He also moved the team to the American Frontier Hockey League to play against teams in Pueblo, Casper, Veil, Helena, Billings and Jackson Hole. Some of the highlights of King's reign included but were not limited to:

1) King, the owner, going after one of his own players as the young lad was heading to the dressing room following an on-ice altercation.

2) During a regular season game with Billings, a Bulls goalie had beer dumped on him fron unruly fans standing on the balcony above the net. The goalie then left the ice and ran up the stairs of the balcony to revenge the ill-advised pour.

3) A 20+ goal loss at the hands of Veil during a week-night game with less than 75 fans in attendance. Starting goalie Josh Blackburn, who later would play for the University of Michigan, played as a forward in the game for some reason.

With week-night games and the youth hockey community alienated by the name change and no ties to the far-away opponents, attendance crashed. Not helping matters was the team's terrible on-ice play. After a couple of losing seasons, King sold the team to another owner, who changed the team jerseys back to the old logo from the team's Junior B days. The team stayed in the Mickey-Mouse run league and constantly struggled to regain its lost fan base.

The American Frontier Hockey League was then changed to the America West Hockey League a few years later. The Americans continued to battle through some tumultious times in the front office. The AWHL was forced to buy the franchise in the late 90s. However, in one of their final seasons the team actually had success on the ice in a long playoff run. The franchise, however, then folded for good after more than a decade of an attempt at junior hockey in Great Falls.

I won't be able to find sources for a lot of this stuff... but I found the league's standings on hockeydb... they were part of a fairly big league in the US. DMighton (talk) 18:29, 2 March 2008 (UTC)

I wrote this on memory. It's all true. Ask anyone in Great Falls. @AmericansFan —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.226.135.245 (talk) 22:09, 2 July 2010 (UTC)

Unfortunately, "my word" is not a reliable source and Wikipedia works on verifiability, not truth. I just left you a message on your talk page - if you can come up with some offline references, I will be happy to move this content to an article dedicated to the Jr B team. I would note, though, that it would need to be rewritten into a more formal, encyclopedic tone. Resolute 22:31, 2 July 2010 (UTC)

They were in the International Junior B Hockey League that would later join with the Heritage League. The Americans never played in the Heritage League. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 96.53.225.251 (talk) 13:12, 29 July 2010 (UTC)

A little more info that the team was in the IJBHL before the AFHL and AWHL years: Today they announced in the GF Tribune they will have another team —Preceding unsigned comment added by 96.53.221.223 (talk) 19:14, 21 August 2010 (UTC)