Patrick WilliamsTheAHL.com Features Writer
It’s the fall of 1969, again Bruce Landon on his way to the city that would be his hockey home for much of the next century.
Change had begun to sweep minor league hockey, a challenging industry at the best of times. Much of that was to follow in the following decades.
But back in 1969, the Los Angeles Kings – two years removed from the growth period in the National Hockey League – made a major effort to build a strong development program. They had bought the Springfield Indians AHL franchise from it Eddie Shore in 1967, they were given their new AHL franchise the same Kings moniker, and dressed the team in purple-and-gold league colors.
Landon, a native of Kingston, Ont., and a fourth-round pick by Los Angeles in the 1969 NHL Amateur Draft, headed to Massachusetts to begin his professional career in the AHL’s capital.
These were the AHL moments behind the former general manager of the Indians Jack Butterfield he was elected president of the league in 1966. Since the NHL added six expansion teams in 1967, player careers have blossomed throughout hockey. The NHL-AHL deals continued to look more structured than ever. With the NHL and AHL maps expanding, and the start of the World Hockey Association only three years away, it was a great time to be a player.
Landon had just turned 20 when the Springfield Kings opened their 1969-70 season against the visiting Baltimore Clippers on Oct. 10, 1969, when he made 31 saves in a 6-0 shutout in his professional debut. He went on to play 45 games and helped Amakhosi reach the Calder Cup final.
A year later, the future Hockey Hall of Fame member Billy Smith appeared in Springfield in his rookie season. Landon was limited to 15 appearances as Smith led the Kings back to the Calder Cup title. After his third season in Springfield, Landon took a chance on the WHA and signed a contract with the New England Whalers,
Now 23 years old, Landon took a chance on the WHA before the 1972-73 campaign. He signed a contract with the New England Whalers, playing first in Boston and then briefly in Springfield before the team moved to the Hartford Civic Center in 1975.
But Landon’s road eventually brought him back to Springfield. After five years with the Whalers, Landon returned to the AHL with a different look. Shore had regained his consent and restored the name of the Indians. But that early 1970s AHL boom had stalled; after sinking to six teams in the 1976-77 campaign – up from 12 teams just three years earlier – the league found itself fighting for its survival.
Landon played in 14 games for the Indians in 1977-78 before a knee injury forced him to retire at age 28.
Since we have to support the family, what now? He was a hockey player. But now he was a hockey player who needed a job.
So when the owner George Learywho bought the Shore club in 1976, offered Landon a job, the hockey player put on a suit and tie and went to work in the front office. Back then, running an AHL team was something more like a mom and pop operation. It was in those circumstances that Landon started this new job. He was still working in hockey, but almost all of that was still the same for him.
“It was learning as you go,” said Landon, who took the job without a business or marketing background. Leary wanted him to take over the team’s sales, so Landon did. Like everyone around him — in Springfield, the organization’s front office, and across the AHL map — it was a life of doing what had to be done.
“They were able to survive the chaos,” Landon said of the AHL at the time. “The league managed to survive and come out of it.”
Landon learned the business side quickly, be it sales, marketing or public relations. In 1980, he won the AHL’s Ken McKenzie Award for his team’s outstanding promotion. And there’s a team announcer Peter Cooney bought the franchise from Leary in 1982, installing Landon as the team’s general manager.
As the AHL began to grow again, the Indians formed several separate NHL organizations in the 1980s, all protected and nurtured by Landon. The AHL also recognized him with the James C. Hendy Memorial Award as the league’s top player in 1989. The Calder Cup returned to Springfield as the team won back-to-back Calder Cup titles in 1990 and 1991, doing so under two different NHLs. affiliates with the New York Islanders and the Hartford Whalers.
“I really enjoyed it,” Landon said of learning the whole business. “I can honestly say that there is not a single day, not a single day in my entire career, that I regret going into work or think that I made a wrong decision. I think when you have your passion – and I did – it’s a lot easier. I was able to grow into the role.”
But more challenges were coming. In 1994, Cooney sold the Indians to a group of investors who would move the franchise to Worcester, Mass. An AHL staple for decades, Springfield suddenly had an uncertain hockey future.
Landon and his former partner in Springfield Wayne LaChance he hurried. They assembled the team within two weeks and acquired an expansion franchise, the Springfield Falcons, during the 1994-95 season. Landon was now in the owner’s seat. He had people he leaned on for advice, like the new division president Dave AndrewsOwner of the Syracuse Crunch Howard Dolgon and Hershey Bears GM Doug Yingst. Bob Oliver he was Landon’s “right-hand man,” starting as office manager and eventually becoming senior vice president and chief financial officer.
However, the challenges rarely subsided. The Falcons had franchise agreements with the Hartford Whalers, Winnipeg Jets/Phoenix Coyotes, Tampa Bay Lightning, Edmonton Oilers and Columbus Blue Jackets for the next two decades. Landon, who is also the team’s president and general manager, had to keep the business side going as the Falcons struggled on the ice. He remained part of the new ownership group that took over in 2002, then prepared for its sale Charles Pompey in 2010 with a commitment to keep the team in Springfield. But the Falcons went nine seasons without making the Calder Cup Playoffs.
Although Landon kept the business afloat, a loss affects any organization. In February 2014, 64-year-old Landon decided it was time to downsize, transitioning from club president to an advisory role. And it was in this position that he helped to save hockey in the city again, providing guidance to assemble a group of local owners to launch the Springfield Thunderbirds in the spring of 2016.
Landon has been inducted into the AHL Hall of Fame, the Massachusetts Hockey Hall of Fame and the Kingston & District Sports Hall of Fame. The street outside the main entrance of the MassMutual Center is now called Bruce Landon Way. And starting next spring, the AHL Board of Directors will recognize the career of one outstanding hockey official with the Bruce Landon Award, honoring a man whose career in the league spanned 48 years.
“I’m very grateful to the Board of Governors for moving forward with something like this… I’m very honored, very humbled,” said Landon. “It’s something I’m proud of.”
In Springfield, where the president of the Thunderbirds Nathan Costa following Landon’s approach of establishing a solid foundation for the business and front office, the club has seen an increase in attendance every year since joining the AHL. They reached the Calder Cup final in 2022, and recently closed a long-term partnership with St. Louis Blues.
“I think that’s what makes me smile,” Landon said, “he knows.” [we] he lived many difficult years. I was part of good years and some bad years, but at the end of it we were able to be sure that it is here to stay. I can look back and say ‘job done.’
“The team is there, the team is doing well, and I would be proud to be involved, at least, to ensure that it stays here.”
Most of the time with his wife, Marciaand his family – and a little golf and housework – they invite instead.
Hockey in Springfield was safe.
In the American Hockey League for two decades, TheAHL.com features writer Patrick Williams and currently covers the league for NHL.com and FloSports and is a regular contributor to SiriusXM NHL Network Radio. He was the recipient of the AHL’s James H. Ellery Memorial Award for the league’s top scorer in 2016.
