These guys weren't a collection of bums, a la "Slap Shot," although a lot that happened with the 1990-91 Albany Choppers resembled parts of the iconic hockey movie.

Sunday is the 25th anniversary of the disbandment of the first professional hockey team to inhabit what is now Times Union Center. The end came 55 games into the Choppers' only International Hockey League season.

Named in recognition of one of their prime sponsors, the Price Chopper supermarket chain, the Choppers ceased operations, drowning in a pool of red ink that wasn't going away.

Twenty-one of the 45 players who suited up for the Choppers wound up with NHL experience, either before or after their season in purgatory. Stories abound about players not getting paychecks, creditors trying to get money and pieces of equipment getting borrowed from opponents.

"It was quite the circus," said Billy Welker, the equipment manager and son of the owner, the late David Welker.

"It was like 'Slap Shot,' " said coach Dave Allison, who coached the Choppers to a 22-30-0-3 record. "Any time the phone would ring, we'd go, 'Oh, that's the new owners.' "

The Choppers have generated enough tales to fill a movie, although Hollywood is known for exaggerating details.

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Allison often tells the story of a shootout against Fort Wayne. Albany had gone through four or five shooters when Allison tapped Dale Henry, one of two Choppers (Soren True was the other) to have played in all 55 games that season.

"He said, 'I can't go. I don't have any stick,' " Allison said. "Then we went to Gordie Paddock, and he didn't have a stick.

"Finally, Jim McGeough, who never, ever scored on breakaways, said, 'I've got a good stick.' It was like that little cartoon character, Foghorn Leghorn. Finally, I let Jimmy go. He beat Stephane Beauregard, like, unbelievable."

Henry couldn't recall that incident, but he added, "There were a lot of things that did happen that season."

Welker called the story "a bunch of crap."

"I know it's funny," said Welker, now the equipment manager for the Huntsville (Ala.) Havoc of the Southern Professional Hockey League. "It was bad for Dave. It was bad for Jim (Salfi, Choppers general manager). It was bad for myself. We made the best of it."

Salfi, who lives in Clifton Park, knew the franchise was doomed as soon as he found out the financial arrangement David Welker had made with the IHL.

"They let him in the league based on the fact he made a commitment to pay the transportation and hotel and per diem for some of the (other) teams," Salfi said. "To do that was crazy."

The IHL had no other teams in the East, which was American Hockey League territory, when Welker wanted to move the team out of Fort Wayne, Ind., where it had been for three seasons.

"He moved the team there because the Coliseum in Fort Wayne and him were at odds," his son said. "There were people in Albany that said, 'Hey, come to our new arena.' I was 23 years old. A 23-year-old kid is not going to tell his dad what to do."

The downtown Albany facility opened Jan. 30, 1990, and Knickerbocker Arena quickly had its first hockey tenant.

With no NHL affiliation, the Choppers had some players loaned from other organizations. The rest were free agents who signed IHL contracts.

"They didn't win for a long time," said Alan Hart, a retired sports writer who covered the team for the Times Union. "One of the funny things I remember, they had this theme song when they came on the ice for warmups, 'Bad to the Bone.' They decided to change it to that Christopher Cross song, 'Ride Like The Wind.' They won that night, so that was their theme song for the rest of the year."

Many of the players were hockey veterans, in the third period of their pro careers.

Alain Lemieux, older brother of hockey legend Mario Lemieux, scored 41 points in 33 games. Former RPI standout Kraig Nienhuis, who played 87 games with the Boston Bruins, got into three games with the Choppers.

"We got some real good players at a pretty good price," Salfi said. "A lot of guys at that time, they wanted to play hockey."

"The money we were making back then, we knew we weren't going to get a chance to retire," said Henry, who had played 132 NHL games and now runs hockey programs in San Antonio. "I enjoyed playing the game. I gave myself every opportunity to play as long as I could."

As the season wore on and the team started to play better, the on-ice result became a secondary concern to whether the players and staff would be compensated.

"At that point we were taking the tape off old sticks to make the knob," Allison said. "Brian Patafie (the Salt Lake trainer) was good enough to give us some blades and some shafts, but he said, 'You can't tell Calgary, because if they find out you guys beat us, they're going to fire me, for crying out loud.' "

Salfi contended, "We had equipment. The bottom line, it was more the salary thing."

The truth was that the players not contracted to NHL teams weren't getting paid.

Allison joked that the paychecks depended on how the team's accountant fared at the track that day. But there was nothing funny about the possibility of the franchise folding. When paychecks failed to arrive, the independent players met several times before games to decide whether to play that night.

"We only had 11 players under NHL contract," said Curtis Hunt, who was one of the 11 and also the union representative. "The 11 signed players had to play. The bylaws of the International Hockey League said you had to have a minimum of 14 players, for safety reasons. The guys who wouldn't get paid, they were in debt, and we'd have to have a vote.

"In hindsight, I think how kids are. We just wanted to play. We didn't want the politics. We wanted to be paid, but when we got to the rink, it was about us and our teammates. There was a bond between us. We'd get to any given number, 'OK, it looks like we're playing tonight.' "

A mid-January game may have epitomized the Choppers' situation and been a warning signal of what was to come. The Gulf War was escalating, and U.S. troops had begun an attack on Iraq.

Roy Sommer, who Wednesday set a career record with his 636th AHL coaching victory, had been fired just before Christmas by a junior team in Minot, N.D. Allison brought him aboard as an assistant coach, but only at home. The Choppers couldn't afford to take Sommer on road trips.

"We had a game, and there was like four people in the building," Sommer said. "They just bombed Iraq. There was no one there. I remember going, 'This is unbelievable.' It was nasty outside. They showed the place getting bombed over there.

"It wasn't much longer after that, we went up to the office and Dave Allison said, 'We've got to go cash these checks.' We ran to the bank and cashed them. The guys who got there after us, there was no money left. We got back to the rink, and all the doors were locked."

When the announcement was made the team was folding, the coaches and players convened at a local pub.

"It was a farewell," said Hunt, now the general manager of the Western Hockey League's Prince Albert Raiders. "The guys knew it was over. They weren't sure where we were going. It wasn't exactly a rally, but it was laughing about the season and some of the things that had happened."

Virtually everyone on the roster was able to hook on with other clubs to finish the season. A half-dozen landed on teams that made it to either the AHL or IHL finals.

"You meet so many people, but you get hard-wired to individuals and teams that really dig in and show you what this sport is all about," said Allison, who coaches the Des Moines Buccaneers of the U.S. Hockey League. "We all run our own paths, but I've got a real soft spot for the guys that played on that team."

pdougherty@timesunion.com • 518-454-5416 • @Pete_Dougherty

1990-91 Albany Choppers who played in the NHL

Of the 45 players who played at least one game for the 1990-91 Albany Choppers, 21 spent time in the NHL, either before or after:

When they played in NHL Pos. Player Age* Choppers games NHL games (before or after 1990-91) RW Mike Blaisdell 31 6 343 Before (Det., NYR, Pit., Tor) G John Blue 24 19 46 After (Boston, Buffalo) LW Bob Bodak 29 5 4 Before (Calgary) F Rich Costello 27 9 12 Before (Toronto) C Daniel Gauthier 20 1 5 After (Chicago) LW Dale Henry 26 55 132 Before (N.Y. Islanders) RW Yves Heroux 25 45 1 Before (Quebec) D Paul Jerrard 25 7 5 Before (Minnesota) G Rick Knickle 30 14 14 After (Los Angeles) D Paul Laus 20 7 530 After (Florida) C Alain Lemiuex 29 33 119 Before (StL, Pit., Que.) C Jim McGeough 27 12 57 Before (Washington, Pittsburgh) LW Kraig Nienhuis 29 3 87 Before (Boston) G Bruce Racine 24 29 11 After (St. Louis) D Dave Richter 30 41 365 Before (Min., Phi., Van., StL) LW Torrie Robertson 29 1 442 Before (Was., Har., Det.) D Scott Shaunessy 27 34 7 Before (Quebec) D Vern Smith 26 46 1 Before (N.Y. Islanders) C Ryan Stewart 23 1 3 Before (Winnipeg) D Emanuel Viveiros 25 14 29 Before (Minnesota) C Dan Woodley 23 31 5 Before (Vancouver)

* — as of Feb. 14, 1991, the day the Choppers folded