El Paso Raiders-A Brief History

The El Paso Raiders

A Brief History

No, the El Paso Buzzards weren't the first team in Trans Pecos Texas. In 1975, the El Paso Raiders played in the El Paso County Coliseum. They only played for part of that season, moving to Minot North Dakota on January 24, 1976.

El Paso Raiders Uniform
Thanks to Doug Allan (SWHL Amarillo) for helping to recreate this.

List of Events

The Raiders rent the El Paso County Coliseum for $1,000 per night or 10% of gate receipts, whichever is greater.
Oct 1975: First two games calceled because of a circus.
Oct 30, 1975: Near the beginning of the season, the team had trouble with their ice making equipment. The game was called after 2 periods. They ended up having 90 minute breaks between periods. There were 3,000 angry fans on hand. To make matters worse, it was 25 cent beer night. All this put together resulted in a near riot in which County Sherriff deputies had to use mace to settle things down. The ref decided to call the game due to these circumstances.
Nov 19, 1975: The SWHL Reno Broncos go defunct, the league's first team to do so. El Paso picks up several players from Reno including goaltenders Brian Hepp and Kel Erickson; defensemen Carl Cureatz and Cal Land and forwards Rex Shepard and John Mazur. Previous to these acquisitions, the Raiders performance stands at 1-14-0. The Raiders go on to win their next 4 games.
Dec 3, 1975: An El Paso contracting firm, Bowen Co. Inc., sues the SWHL for $26,000 for unpaid bills
Jan 24, 1976: The team announces it will play the rest of its home games in Minot, ND.

Catalog of Games

Date	Day	Place	Opp	GF	GA	Res	W	L	T	GF	GA	Att
14 Oct	Tue	H	Billings	5	1	W	1	0	0	5	1
15 Oct	Wed	H	Billings	5	6	L	1	1	0	10	7	916
18 Oct	Sat	H	Albuquerque	5	9	L	1	2	0	15	16	2,965
31 Oct	Fri	A	Albuquerque	2	9	L	1	3	0	17	25	1,370
1 Nov	Sat	A	Albuquerque	4	8	L	1	4	0	21	33
7 Nov	Fri	H	Albuquerque	0	4	L	1	5	0	21	37	1,100
8 Nov	Sat	H	Albuquerque	3	9	L	1	6	0	24	46	700
14 Nov	Fri	H	Reno	3	7	L	1	7	0	27	53	1,000
15 Nov	Sat	H	Reno	2	7	L	1	8	0	29	60	822
				5	7	L	1	9	0	34	67
23 Nov	Sun	H	Albuquerque	2	4	L	1	10	0	36	71
29 Nov	Sat	H	Amarillo	6	7	L (OT)	1	11	0	42	78	600
30 Nov	Sun	H	Amarillo	5	6	L (OT)	1	12	0	47	84
6 Dec	Sat	H	Butte	4	2	W	2	12	0	51	86
7 Dec	Sun	H	Butte	8	5	W	3	12	0	59	91
11 Dec	Thu	H	Billings	4	1	W	4	12		63	92
12 Dec	Fri	H	Billings	3	5	W	5	12		66	97	400
14 Dec	Sun	A	Amarillo	3	11	L	5	13	0	75	107	600
18 Dec	Thu	A	Amarillo	4	5	L	5	14	0			1,400
19 Dec	Fri	A	Amarillo	3	6	L	5	15	0			2,310
30 Dec	Tue	H	Amarillo	5	6	L (OT)	5	16	0			1,800
1 Jan	Thu	A	Amarillo	6	4	W	6	16	0
3 Jan	Sat	H	Billings	6	3	W	7	16	0			713
4 Jan	Sun	H	Billings	5	3	W	8	16	0			150
6 Jan	Tue		Butte	8	1	W	9	16	0			288
7 Jan	Wed		Butte	8	2	W	10	16	0			425
9 Jan	Fri	H	Billings	2	5	L	10	17	0			1,500
11 Jan	Sun	A	Billings	5	4	W	11	17	0
12 Jan	Mon	A	Billings	4	5	L	11	18	0			10,832
13 Jan	Tue	A	Butte	7	4	W	12	18	0
14 Jan	Wed	A	Butte	3	9	L	12	19	0
15 Jan	Thu	H	Amarillo	4	3	W	13	19	0			479
16 Jan	Fri	H	Amarillo	7	4	W	14	19	0			726
18 Jan	Sun	H	Billings	2	3	L	14	20	0			897
20 Jan	Tue	H	Billings	3	3	T	14	20	1	155	180	333
23 Jan	Fri	H	Albuquerque	5	7	L	14	21	1			1,139
24 Jan	Sat	H	Albuquerque	7	5	W	15	21	1			912

Staff

Coaches:
Hal Schooley (beginning of season to 5 Nov: record 1-4-0)
Ron Wheele (5 Nov to 30 Dec: record 4-12-0)
Kel Land (interim) (31 Dec to 9 Jan: record 5-1-0)
Steve Trachsel (player-coach) (10 Jan to 24 Jan: record 4-4-1)

GM:
Ron Wheele (through 30 Dec)
Ron Lyon (30 Dec to 24 Jan)

Owners: Ralph Engelstad and Richard Engelstad

SWHL President: Ralph Engelstad

SWHL Vice-President: Richard Engelstad

SWHL Commissioner: Winston "Bing" Juckes

Ralph Engelstad Areana in Grand Forks, North Dakota (University of North Dakota)

Players

Forwards
Aleo, Peter	C
Ashley, Mike
Austin, Rick	RW	Left team 11/6
Biamonte, Nick
Clark, George	F	Stationed at Fort Bliss - Played on 15 Jan - Played for Army
Davis, Doug	C	Traded to Billings ca. 5 Jan (possibly for Brian Livingstone or Doug Heaslip)
Enquist, Brent
Fyffe, Kirk	C/LW
George, Dave	F
Granchukoff, Paul	C
Heaslip, Doug	F	Acquired from Billings 11 Jan
Liquer, Ron
Lynch, Barry	C
Mazur, John	C
Morgan, Garth	RW
Murray, Lyle	F	Joined Raiders about 2 Jan; played for Reno
Neeld, Norm
Sharples, Dave	LW
Shepard, Rex "Tex"	LW
Sim, Brent		Team Captain first 5 games
Smith, Dave	RW
Weatheral, Dayle		Joined team about 5 Nov

Defensemen
Cureatz, Carl		Came when the Reno Broncos folded
DeGazio, Dan "Moose"	D
Land, Cal (C)		Came when the Reno Broncos folded
Reno, Laurie
Hucul, Fred		Left team on 20 Jan with neck injury to work on father's farm
Sims, Brent (C)	D	Left team 11/6
Walker, Stu
Wirth, Steve		Joined team about 5 Nov
Livingstone, Brian	D	Acquired from Billings 11 Jan; Left team on 20 Jan

Goalies
Allen, Doug	G	Played 23 Nov game (on loan)
Erickson, Kel (Kelvin)		Came when the Reno Broncos folded
Hepp, Brian
Laing, Greg
Mason, Brent
Szabo, Rick	G	Left team 11/6
Warner, Gary	G

Position Unknown
Degazio, Dan		Left team 11/6
Knibbs, Kevin
Minogue, Warren
O'Donnell, Tim
Trachsel, Steve
Peart, Don

Wish List

If anybody can help me with game scores or complete the player roster, please e-mail me. Any pictures would be nice too.

For Comments of Suggestions, email me

Staff

Players

Wish List

Last Update: 15 December 2011