National Brewers

After winning the Chesapeake Hockey League playoff crown in the previous season, this National Brewers team improved to become the best amateur team to take the ice in Baltimore. All of the key players were back and several new additions turned the beer men into a power house. The club added: Roger Forrest, Bill Bergantz and George Bachrach. In addition, Jim Bartlett returned to the Brewers after completing his AHL career with the Baltimore Clippers.

In CHL changes, effective in November of 1974, major penalties for fighting now would carry an automatic game misconduct and an automatic suspension for the next game as well. Each of the 4 league teams were scheduled to play games versus Navy and the University of Delaware and Benfield. The team's CHL games were scheduled primarily at Orchard Ice Rink. In the first week end of October, the club had a booth at the Fells Point Fun Festival and sold more than 100 yellow "I love it" t shirts to promote National Bohemian beer. Stu Hyatt and Steve Bachman manned the booth and the beer. They consumed a few cans of National Boh, as sales were slow at first. Later they would 'hook' potential buyers into the booth with their hockey sticks. The slurred speech of the exhibitors must have helped sales of the classic t shirts with the Mr. Boh logo. Weekly practice ice time was on Thursday night at Northwest Family Sports Center Ice Rink. New Brewer, George Bachrach stepped into the coaching void and ran the practice drills. This was followed by a few Bohs' on the parking lot before departing for Sparwasser's Mt Washington Tavern, a nearby billiard bar. The Brewers operated without an official team coach for games, as the team was disciplined enough to change lines with very few problems.

The team traveled to Charlottesville to open the campaign with a non-league contest. The result was a 4-3 victory over the University of Virginia. To start the regular CHL season, the beer men opened with a 10-2 rout of the Jr. Clippers followed by an 11-0 domination of the Orchard Mercurys. In mid November, the club traveled to Allentown to play the North Penn Eagles. Several of the players were unable to play in this non-league game. The result was a 6-2 loss to the Eagles. This would be the only blemish for 74-75 and was avenged late in the season in a rematch with North Penn. The club was so strong that one of the most competitive games of the season was a December non-league game against the Maryland Aces junior team. Several of the Brewers' players were still young enough to play junior hockey and therefore played with both clubs. When there was a game time conflict, the players missed the Brewers' game. The Aces dressed their full roster, while the Brewers were short the 5 skaters who played on both teams. When the 'grudge match' was completed, the Brewers had triumphed by a margin of 7-4.

Steve Bachman..."In an early January meeting with the Jr.Clippers at the Civic Center, Bill Bergantz gets a 1 inch gash to his forehead from a puck. This happened in the second period and the Zamboni was due to resurface the ice at the game's midpoint. Steve {Doc} Brown immediately takes off his skates, tells Berg to do the same, and they scurry the several blocks to Mercy Hospital. Doc ushers Berg right past the admissions desk and gets a doctor friend to quickly sew Berg up with 10 stitches. They then dash back to the Civic Center {still in full uniform less skates} and are both on the ice to start the third period. Amazing!!!"

A late February Friday night game at the University of Delaware proved to be a challenge for the Brewers' ability to take the play away from an opponent who was ready for the top CHL club. For the first two minutes of play, the Brewers did not get the puck out of their defensive zone as the Blue Hens swarmed the net. Over the next several minutes, Delaware scored a pair to go up by 2-0. Then the beer men came alive and began to make a game of it. Late in the first period, Bartlett took a face off next the Blue Hen net. After drawing the puck back to the point, he scored on a rebound of a shot by Randy Mattingly and the momentum shifted. The Brewers added 6 more goals over the next two periods to win 7-2.

The Brewers went undefeated in the 20 game regular season and were rarely threatened by CHL opponents, scoring 181 goals and allowing only 43. The beer men won every regular season game by at least 2 goals. Jim Bartlett led the CHL in scoring with 27 goals and 25 assists for 52 points. The National Brewers had an incredible 12 of the top 16 league scorers. Steve Bachman, Mickey McBee, Roger Forrest, John Cotter, Steve Wirth, George Bachrach, Steve Brown, Tom McLaughlin and Dave Mattingly all topped the 20 point mark. Gerry Horak, the top CHL goalie, played 17 of the league games and allowed only 31 goals for an outstanding goal against average of 1.85 per game.

In the Chesapeake Hockey League playoffs a single game was played for the championship. The National Brewers routed the Columbia Flyers 10-1 in the Guertler Cup game to win a second consecutive title. The team's CHL dominance was at it's peak in the 1974-75 season.

After the playoff crown, the Brewers topped the Chesapeake Hockey League All Stars by a 5-4 score. Then, in a fitting wrap up to an incredible season, the club took on the North Penn Eagles in a rematch at Northwest Ice Rink. Jim Bartlett led the way with 4 third period goals and the National Brewers triumphed 7-4 over the only opponent to defeat the beer men in 1974-75. The overall record for the season stood at 25-1-0, with 216 goals scored and 65 goals allowed, truly incredible statistics.