National Brewers

In July of 1980, as a result of the difficulty in organizing an independent game schedule during the previous season, George Bachrach floated a proposal to reset the CHL of Baltimore. This would have reorganized into a 4 team league playing all games on Tuesday or Wednesday night at Northwest Ice Rink. Each team would play one game per week with no practice time purchased. Players would be assigned by the league to each team for a competitive balance. When this proposal did not fly, a more ambitious schedule was planned than the prior year, as this was what the majority of players preferred to do.

This season began a rebirth of the Columbia Brewers as there was more time to set up an independent schedule. One of the key decisions was to play 5 games as a part of the regular season schedule in the 6 team Chesapeake Hockey League of Washington. The Brewers had not regularly played games in Washington since the 1972-73 season. Eight years had passed since the 1973-74 split of the CHL into separate Baltimore and Washington leagues. The Washington CHL, due to the proximity of the NHL Washington Capitals, had fared better than the Baltimore loop. Long time Washington CHL president Stan Stanfield, still running the league, was looking for additional teams. The Washington CHL was now playing games at the Fort Dupont ice rink, as the Washington Coliseum ceased to utilize their ice surface after the 1976 campaign. Times had changed for the Brewers with the demise of the CHL of Baltimore and the opposing teams would need to be based from Washington to Philadelphia to ensure a challenging season.

The total number of games increased from 13 to 24. Nine of the home games were played at Orchard Ice Rink, but 3 were also played at the Columbia ice rink, the Brewers practice home. For the home games at Columbia, Steve Wirth provided a tape of 'Rock and Roll, Part 2'. It would be played on the public address system during the pre game warm up. This was several years before professional teams began to adopt the same song. Three games were played at Navy and fewer northern away games were played than the prior year. Road games were featured against Tendler's Eagles, Bristol Badgers, Wissahickon and the Wilmington Wheels. In late December, the team played in the Rolling Rock Tournament set for the Orchard, Benfield and Columbia ice rinks. Other participating teams were: Willow Springs, Bristol Badgers, Tendler's Eagles, Baltimore Blazers and Princeton hockey club. The club had a 2-3 record in games played in the Washington CHL. The Brewers were inconsistent early in the season and went through a December / January stretch with 5 consecutive losses. From that point on, the club went 7-3-1 including 4-0-1 in the last 5 games to finish with a 11-12-1 all non league game record. Goals scored were 142 and goals allowed were 109. The wide difference in these numbers was due to blowout margins in several victories. New Brewer star Bob Ethan led the scoring. He was followed by Steve Wirth, Mike Roy, Biff Evans, George Bachrach and Tim O'Neil all who recorded more than 20 points. Key new Brewers players included: Jim Beese, Doug Fondo, Tony Uleckas, Jim McCracken and goalie Tom Browne.

In late March an end of season party was held at George Bachrach's house. The players were tired of the many non league games on the road and preferred to enter the CHL of Washington as full time members for the following season. However, it was a successful season with 24 games and much more player interest than the previous independent season.