Just one season. The Philadelphia Quakers were just supposed to be temporary anyway. The Pittsburgh Pirates ‘temporarily’ moved their NHL franchise to Philly for the 1930-31 season.
The Pirates had played out of the Duquesne Gardens but that venue had been deemed unsuitable. The team would be the Quakers while a new arena was built.
Except, that new arena never came. Well, it did but not until the Civic Arena opened in 1961. So, the franchise spent one disastrous year in Philadelphia and officially called it quits in May, 1936 after several years of waiting.
1930-31 Philadelphia Quakers Team Results
The Quakers stuck around for all 44 regular season games. They won four, lost 36 and tied four. Their 12 points put them in fifth place in the five team American Division, 27 points behind the fourth place Detroit Falcons.
Two of their four wins came against Detroit. Included in those two was the only shutout victory. Wilf Cude was in net for the 2-0 victory. Their first win of the season came against the Toronto Maple Leafs. They also took out the Montreal Maroons 4-3 in overtime.
Along with their four ties, the Quakers also lost three in overtime. At the time, no points were awarded for an overtime loss. Two of these losses came against the Ottawa Senators while another was a 2-1 affair against the New York Rangers.
The Quakers were shutout in eight of their 44 games, including the first two games of the season. Their worst loss was a 10-3 drubbing at the hands of the Chicago Blackhawks on New Year’s Day. They lost 15 straight games from November 29, 1930 to January 10, 1931.
1930-31 Philadelphia Quakers Individual Results
Team captain Hib Milks led the team with 17 goals. The league was led by Charlie Conacher who scored 31 for the Maple Leafs. Gerry Lowrey was the team leader with 27 points, just over half of the 51 put up by Howie Morenz of the Montreal Canadiens.
D’Arcy Coulson came the closest to being a league leader. In just 28 games, Coulson accumulated 103 penalty minutes. This placed him third in the NHL, just two PIM behind the great Eddie Shore of the Boston Bruins. The league leader was Harvey Rockburn of the Red Wings with 118. Teammate Al Shields finished fourth with 98 PIM.
Player Stats
| Player Name | GP | G | A | Pts | PIM |
| Gerry Lowrey | 42 | 13 | 14 | 27 | 27 |
| Hib Milks | 44 | 17 | 6 | 23 | 42 |
| Syd Howe | 44 | 9 | 11 | 20 | 20 |
| Wally Kilrea | 44 | 8 | 12 | 20 | 22 |
| Cliff Barton | 43 | 6 | 7 | 13 | 18 |
| James “Bud” Jarvis | 43 | 5 | 7 | 12 | 30 |
| Allan Shields | 43 | 7 | 3 | 10 | 98 |
| Ron “Peaches” Lyons | 22 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 8 |
| Wilfred “Tex” White | 9 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 2 |
| Eddie McCalmon | 16 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 6 |
| Harold Darragh | 10 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| Bill Hutton | 21 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| Johnny McKinnon | 39 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 46 |
| Herbert Drury | 24 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 10 |
| Aubrey Webster | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Vernon “Jake” Forbes | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Rennison Manners | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Gord Fraser | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 22 |
| Rodger Smith | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Joe Miller | 15 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Stanley Crossett | 21 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10 |
| D’Arcy Coulson | 28 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 103 |
| Wilf Cude | 29 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Goaltender Stats
| Player Name | GP | Min | GA | GAA | W | L | T | SO |
| Vernon “Jake” Forbes | 2 | 120 | 7 | 3.50 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Joe Miller | 12 | 740 | 47 | 3.81 | 2 | 9 | 1 | 0 |
| Wilf Cude | 30 | 1850 | 130 | 4.22 | 2 | 25 | 3 | 1 |
HHOF Coach
Philadelphia was coached by Cooper Smeaton. It was only year of coaching. Smeaton was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1961. He didn’t enter as a player, though.
Smeaton was NHL Referee In Chief from 1917 to 1937. He took only the 1930-31 season off from officiating. Previous to that, the New York Rangers offered Cooper the job as the team’s first ever General Manager but he turned it down.
Cooper was also the Stanley Cup trustee from 1946 until his death in 1978.
Philadelphia Arena
The Quakers played at the Philadelphia Arena, a venue that didn’t seat much more than the Duquesne Gardens in Pittsburgh. The rink sat 5,526 for hockey and opened in 1920. Fire destroyed the building on August 24, 1983.
Over the years, the venue was home to several minor league clubs. In the American Hockey League, the arena housed the Arrows, Ramblers and Rockets. In the EHL, it was another version of the Ramblers.
The NBA’s Warriors and 76ers also spent some time in the Philadelphia Arena.
Philadelphia Quakers Players
Here’s a look at the mainstay players that appeared in most of Philadelphia’s 44 regular season games in 1930-31.
Gerry Lowrey
The team’s leading point-getter, Gerry Lowrey scored 13 goals and assisted on 14 over 42 games. His 42 games with the Quakers were part of 210 regular season games he would play in the NHL from 1927-28 to 1932-33.
Over his career, Lowrey scored 48 and assisted on 48 for 96 points. Besides Philadelphia, Gerry also played for the Toronto Maple Leafs, Pittsburgh Pirates, Chicago Blackhawks and Ottawa Senators.
Hib Milks
The team captain and goal scoring leader, Hib Milks scored 17 while playing all 44 games. He also added six assists for 23 points.
Milks played 317 regular season National Hockey League games between 1925-26 and 1932-33. He scored 87 goals and assisted on 41 for 128 points. His time was spent with the Pirates and Quakers, along with the New York Rangers and Ottawa Senators.
In 1927-28 with the Pirates, Hib got on the NHL leader board. His 18 goals tied him for tenth in the league.
Syd Howe
The most famous of the Quakers, Syd Howe was just in the first full season of his NHL career. He played the full 44 game schedule, scoring nine and assisting on eleven for 20 points.
In the age of much shorter seasons that today, Howe would go on to play in 697 regular season NHL games between 1929-30 and 1945-46 with the Senators, Quakers, Maple Leafs, St. Louis Eagles and Detroit Red Wings. Syd scored 237 goals over that time, adding 291 assists for 528 points.
Howe helped the Red Wings to three Stanley Cup championships. In 1965, he was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame.
Wally Kilrea
The uncle of Ottawa 67’s coaching legend Brian Kilrea, Wally Kilrea had similar numbers to Syd Howe with Philadelphia. In 44 games, he scored eight and assisted on 12 for 20 points.
Wally played 316 regular season games in the National Hockey League between 1929-30 and 1937-38 with the Senators, Quakers, Montreal Maroons and Detroit Red Wings. He scored 35 goals and assisted on 58 for 93 points over his career.
Kilrea was a two time Stanley Cup champion with Detroit. In the AHL, he was a Calder Cup finalist with the Hershey Bears in 1940-41 and 1941-42. He coached the Johnstown Jets to two consecutive EHL championships in 1951-52 and 1952-53.
Wally returned to Philadelphia as a head coach. In 1947-48 and 1948-49, he was behind the bench for the AHL’s Philadelphia Rockets.
Cliff Barton
1930-31 was really the finale of Barton’s short NHL career. He played 39 games with Pittsburgh in 1929-30, his rookie season. With the Quakers, he appeared in 43 games, contributing 13 points. Cliff made a brief return to the NHL in 1939-40 to play three games with the New York Rangers.
Barton spent more time in Philadelphia in the late 1930’s. He played for the Philadelphia Ramblers in the American Hockey League from 1936-37 to 1939-40.
James ‘Bud’ Jarvis
Bud Jarvis had a similar career to Cliff Barton. He broke into the NHL with the Pirates in 1929-30, appearing in 41 games. With the Quakers, he played in 43 games, totaling 12 points. He played one more season in the NHL, 1936-37, dressing for 24 games with Toronto.
Al Shields
1930-31 came in the middle of a fairly successful NHL career for Al Shields. He scored seven and assisted on three over 43 games with Philly. Between 1927-28 and 1937-38, Shields played in 457 regular season games, scoring 42 and assisting on 46 for 88 points.
During his NHL career, Al played for the Senators, Quakers, New York Americans, Montreal Maroons and Boston Bruins. He selected to the first ever NHL All-Star Team in 1934. In 1934-35, he helped the Maroons to a Stanley Cup championship.
Johnny McKinnon
For Johnny McKinnon, 1930-31 was his last campaign in the NHL. He put up a goal and an assist in 39 games. Between 1925-26 and 1930-31, McKinnon appeared in 203 games with the Canadiens, Pirates and Quakers. He scored 28 goals and assisted on just nine.
Johnny found success as a head coach. In the AHA, he won four championships with the St. Louis Flyers between 1935-36 and 1940-41. For the first few, he acted as player/coach.
D’Arcy Coulson
1930-31 was D’Arcy Coulson’s lone season of pro hockey. The Sudbury, Ontario native surely made his presence known. In just 28 games, Coulson sat 103 minutes in the penalty box. This was good for third in the league, as mentioned above.
His legacy remains in the city of Sudbury. The Coulson Hotel was established by his father and D’Arcy joined the business later on. The hotel still exists but under different ownership. Located downtown, the Coulson Hotel boasts the city’s longest operating bar (since 1937).
Wilf Cude
The primary goaltender for the Quakers. The abuse Wilf Cude took from opposing teams in what was his rookie season would prepare him to become a standout for most of the rest of his career. In 30 games, Cude had a goals against average of 4.22 while recording the team’s only shutout.
Wilf Cude went on to a NHL career that spanned from 1930-31 to 1940-41. He appeared in 282 games with the Quakers, Boston Bruins, Chicago Blackhawks, Detroit Red Wings and Montreal Canadiens. He recorded 24 shutouts and a 2.72 GAA.
Cude helped the Red Wings to their first appearance in the Stanley Cup finals. In 1933-34, the team lost to the Chicago Blackhawks. He followed that up by becoming the number one goalie for the Canadiens from 1934-35 to 1938-39. In 1935-36 and 1936-37, he was named a Second Team All-Star goalie.