1975 Long Island Tomahawks vs Philadelphia Wings

This is from the Nassau County Coliseum, August 29th, 1975. This is the last game of the regular season for the Wings and Tomahawks. Unfortunately only the first period and the intermission remain from this game. If anyone has the remainder of this game, definitely let me know in the comments.

This would turn out to be the final game the original Wings would ever play as the NLL would cease operations after the season. The Tomahawks would play one round of playoffs before being eliminated by eventual champions the Quebec Caribous. By January, 1976, the NLL would cease operations. Which brings me to the question of the hour: What the hell ever happened to the original NLL?

Like my relationship status on Facebook, it's complicated.

The "official" reason given to the players and media was that it was a combination of the league's inability to attract expansion teams, (and the revenue expansion would have generated,) and the Montreal Quebecois' being forced to suspend operations for 1976 due to the Forum being booked for the balance of the summer for prep, training and then all indoor events at the Olympics which were held in Montreal that year. This would have left them with less than 5 teams with the likelihood of Boston AND Long Island shutting down.

25 years later on Be-Lax.com's message board, (this was the then official site for the 1997-present day NLL,) former Wings like Jim Wasson had theories of their own and discussed them in the forum. The main theory for the league's inability to attract expansion teams and the dissolution of existing teams aside from Montreal, was the changing of the tax laws that had dominated the Nixon era. For much of that era investing in start up sports teams amateur or professional could be written off as a tax shelter. This was a big reason why the ABA, WHA, WFL, NLL and World Team Tennis popped up almost all at the same time. Once the tax laws changed it's no co-incidence that all of said leagues either shrank into oblivion, contracted with the more serious teams remaining until a merger with an established league could occur or simply disappeared.

There are plenty of articles about the successes and failures in the NLL at Fun While It Lasted. http://www.funwhileitlasted.net/other... The main issue the league had was few Northeastern arenas in the US or Canada had air conditioning and a summer league with that many games, (40 in 74 and 48 in 75,) was just not attractive to sports fans in places like Toronto and Boston, both of whom only lasted a single season each.

It would be 11 years before someone would attempt to make pro box lacrosse work in the US again. It would be a radical contrast and the results would be far better.

Things to watch for:

The Tomahawks played on a wooden floor over the ice painted WHITE. This made for very slick playing conditions and also made it extremely difficult for fans to see the ball while it was in play. It could not have been fun for fans seeing the game live.

I kept the commercials from the original broadcast in the video. Why? BECAUSE THEY'RE AWESOME!!! Datsun Saves. To think I always thought it was Jesus! :)

Gene Hart does an interview with Wings' president and future owner of the Philadelphia 76ers Ed Tepper about the season that was and a look forward to a 1976 season that would never take place.

As always, if you have any memories from this game or others I've posted, post them in the comments. I'd love to hear your thoughts and memories of this game and many others! :)