DNA samples would confirm that Ray Miron is the father of NHL hockey in Denver.
He became the Colorado Rockies’ first general manager in somewhat of a shotgun wedding, with the task of putting the pieces back together from a broken Kansas City Scouts franchise that moved to Denver for the 1976-77 NHL season.
Miron got the call to come to work from owner Jack Vickers in August 1976, a scant two months before the team had to be ready to put on the skates and play hockey.
“We didn’t have coaches, we didn’t have a scouting system, we didn’t have a preseason schedule. It was a miracle that we were ready to play hockey in two months,” Miron said from his home in Tulsa, Okla.
“I don’t know that anyone has done things that quickly before or since.”
Miron and the Rockies faced a major image test as a new team on the block at a time when Denver’s sports scene was growing up. The Nuggets were moving from the defunct ABA to the NBA, and the Broncos were gearing up for their first Super Bowl appearance.
The players from the Kansas City franchise were mostly unknown to the new management trying to put a team together in Denver.
While the Rockies made the playoffs in their second season, the overall view showed signs of a dysfunctional franchise. Miron and team president Munson Campbell didn’t agree on the team’s direction, Miron favoring a path with younger players and Campbell preferring older and more experienced players in hopes of faster results.
“I was interfered with by people in the organization above me,” Miron said. “It wasn’t so much a question of money to operate the franchise, but different ideas on how to build a team. We made a lot of changes as we went along, and I had three different ownerships to deal with.”
In one span, the team had seven coaches in four years.
The Rockies played in Denver for six seasons, with their home games at McNichols Sports Arena. The first five seasons were with Miron as general manager. Their best seasons were in 1977-78 (19-40-21, 59 points) and 1980-81 (22-45-13, 57).
But their most famous season was 1979-80, when flamboyant Don Cherry was the coach. His team finished 19-48-13.
“I didn’t think Don Cherry was the type of coach that we needed,” Miron said. “He couldn’t deal with young players, and we had a terrible season. It wasn’t one of my better years as far as enjoying what I was doing.”
The Rockies lost ground in keeping up with the Nuggets and Broncos for the sports dollars. Their beginning was a far cry from the Avalanche, which won the Stanley Cup in 1996 in its first season in Denver. Vickers sold the Rockies in 1978 to Arthur Imperatore, a New Jersey trucking company owner, and rumors began almost immediately that the team was headed for New Jersey. Imperatore sold the team to Peter Gilbert, who sold it to a group led by John McMullen, who moved the franchise to New Jersey after the 1982 season to become the New Jersey Devils.
After leaving the Rockies the year before they left Denver, Miron left hockey for a time. But in 1992, he established the Central Hockey League with headquarters in Tulsa. He received the Lester Patrick Award from the NHL in 2004 for his contributions to hockey.
Miron’s goal was to be in the NHL, but in his younger days he thought it would be as a player.
“Being general manager of the Rockies was my first experience in the NHL,” Miron said. “I thought there were some very good hockey fans in Denver, but the media expected too much from a team that was starting pretty much from scratch. The only regret I have is that we weren’t able to come up with a better team.”
Miron bio
Born: March 20, 1923, in Cornwall, Ontario
High school: Cornwall Collegiate
College: Cornwall Career Colleges
Family: Wife Rowena (deceased), son Monte, daughter Cindy
Hobby: Relaxing game of pool
Ambition: Recovery from a broken hip and ditching the motorized wheelchair
