Philadelphia Quakers
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| Philadelphia Quakers | |
| Played | 1930-31 |
| Home ice | Philadelphia Arena |
| Based in | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania |
| Leagues | National Hockey League |
The Philadelphia Quakers were a National Hockey League team that played only one full season, 1930-31, at the Philadelphia Arena in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They were the successors of the Pittsburgh Pirates.
- Founded: 1930
- Arena: Philadelphia Arena
- Stanley Cup Finals appearances: none
- Stanley Cups won: none
[edit] History
The Pirates, the third American-based NHL team, got off to a promising start in 1925-26, making the playoffs in two of their first three seasons. However, the team soon fell on hard times both on the ice and at the box office. A sale to boxing promoter Benny Leonard didn't help the cause. With the stock market crash of 1929 followed by the Great Depression, the owners found themselves having to sell off their star players to make ends meet. By the end of the 1929-30 season, the team was $400,000 in debt. Leonard then requested permission to temporarily move to Philadelphia as the Quakers (from the historical importance of the religious community in the founding of Philadelphia and Pennsylvania) until a new arena was built in Pittsburgh.
Things got no better on the other side of Pennsylvania. The money problems continued as well as the on-ice problems. The Quakers were the definition of futility. It took the team three games to score its first goal and six games to get its first win, which came on November 30th, a 2-1 win over the visiting Toronto Maple Leafs. They finished with a franchise-worst 4 wins, 36 losses, and 4 ties in 44 games. The .136 winning percentage is still the second lowest in NHL history. They had the worst offence (76 goals for) and worst defence (184 goals against) in the league. At the end of that season (1930-31), the Quakers, along with the Ottawa Senators, announced that they would not field a team for the 1931-32 NHL season, leaving Philadelphia without an NHL team until the arrival of the Flyers in 1967.
While the Senators came back for 2 years before moving to St. Louis, the Quakers franchise never iced a team again. At each of the next five preseason NHL governors meetings, they announced that they were suspending operations for the season. They finally gave up the ghost and officially cancelled the franchise when the new arena in Pittsburgh failed to materialise on May 7, 1936.
Syd Howe was the last active Quakers player, playing his last NHL game in 1946.
