Top 5 Reasons You Can't Blame Marcel Aubut for the Quebec Nordiques Moving to Denver

July 1, 1995, 25 years ago: The deal to move the Québec Nordiques to Denver is made official, approved by the National Hockey League. They become the Colorado Avalanche.

Previously, Denver had been home to the Denver Spurs of the World Hockey Association in the 1975-76 season, then the Colorado Rockies of the NHL from 1976 to 1982. The Spurs failed after 1 season, the Rockies after 6. The Rockies moved to the Meadowlands, becoming the New Jersey Devils.

Starting in the WHA in 1972, the Nordiques reached the Finals in 1975, losing to the Houston Aeros. They made the Finals again in 1977, and beat the Winnipeg Jets. They made the Playoffs in their last 5 seasons in the WHA, and were 1 of the 4 teams that were absorbed into the NHL in 1979.

They didn't do so well. They only won 2 regular-season Division titles, in the Adams Division in 1985 and the Northeast Division in 1995. They got to the Conference Finals in 1982 and 1985, but fell apart by 1987.

They went 12-61-7 in 1989-90, by which time Marcel Aubut had gone from team president under their ownership group to majority owner; 16-50-14 in 1990-91, and 20-48-12 in 1991-92. They got back to the Playoffs in 1993 and 1995. But even though they were once again finding success on the ice, they were losing money, and ended up moving.

The Avalanche have been considerably more successful than their predecessors, either the Nordiques or the previous Denver teams. In just their 1st season, 1995-96, they did something they never came all that close to doing in Québec City: They won the Stanley Cup. The players did the right thing: They took the Cup back to Québec City, where it hadn't been won by a native team ever, except for the 1912 and 1913 Quebec Bulldogs.

The Avs won another Cup in 2001, beating, with some irony, the former Denver NHL team, the Devils. They've also reached the Conference Finals in 1997, 1999, 2000 and 2002. After a down period, they won a Playoff round last season, and got to Game 7 of the Conference Semifinals.

Québec City, meanwhile, has done their best to get a new team. They've built a new arena, the Videotron Centre. They've got a fan movement going. And they've seen several NHL teams have pathetically low attendance, including, in recent times, the Avalanche. But also the Carolina Hurricanes (who used to be a WHA-NHL team, the New England/Hartford Whalers), the Arizona Coyotes (who used to be a WHA-NHL team, the original version of the Winnipeg Jets), the Atlanta Thrashers (who moved to become the new Winnipeg Jets), the Florida Panthers, the New York Islanders, and, alas, the Devils.

But NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman hates Canada, and knows that a team in Québec City won't generate as much revenue as, say, a Sun Belt team. He's been proven right with the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Dallas Stars, the Anaheim Ducks and, ugh, the Vegas Golden Knights. But he's also been proven wrong with Miami (the Panthers), Atlanta and Arizona.

As for Québec City hockey, they have the Québec Remparts of the Québec Major Junior Hockey League, reaching that league's Finals in 2006 and 2015, although they lost both times. They've reached the Playoffs every season of their existence, since their establishment in 1997. And, by QMJHL standards, they're very well-supported.

Maybe it's time to move a team to Québec. The NHL overlooked Bettman's love of the Sun Belt and his hatred of Canada, and righted a wrong, and allowed the Atlanta-to-Winnipeg move of 2011. And, while Minnesota isn't in Canada (no matter how cold it gets there), they allowed an expansion team to replace the North Stars, who had moved to Dallas, righting a wrong there. Maybe they can do it again, for Québec City.

The move of the Nordiques was wrong, wasn't it? Sure, the Avs have done well at times, but shouldn't Denver have waited for the expansions of the end of the 20th Century? It was just 3 more seasons for the Nashville Predators, 4 more for the Thrashers, and 5 more for the Columbus Blue Jackets and the Minnesota Wild.

It was wrong for Aubut to sell the Nordiques to someone who would move the team out of Québec City, right? T-shirts reading "Marcel Aubut: Wanted Dead or Alive" were often seen in Québec in the late 1990s. And he walked away with $15 million from the sale (about $25 million in today's money). All Nordiques fans got was... those lousy T-shirts?

Top 5 Reasons You Can't Blame Marcel Aubut for the Québec Nordiques Moving to Denver

First, some reasons that didn't make the final cut: The Best of the Rest.

Marcel Aubut. He had already kept them afloat once, and gotten them what should have been their biggest break: Surviving the WHA and entering the NHL.

Not every good WHA team survived. The Houston Aeros made the Playoffs in each of the league's 1st 6 seasons, making the Finals 3 times, winning 2 titles, but they didn't even make it to the last season of 1978-79, much less to the merger.

The Cleveland Crusaders, the Minnesota Fighting Saints and the San Diego Mariners each made the Playoffs 3 times. So did the franchise that began as the Ottawa Nationals, and became the Toronto Toros and the Birmingham Bulls, once in each city. But none of these teams got to the final WHA season.

The Cincinnati Stingers, the Indianapolis Racers, and the Philadelphia Blazers/Calgary Cowboys franchise each made the Playoffs twice. The Chicago Cougars, the Los Angeles Sharks and the Phoenix Roadrunners each made it once, but none was still in business for the final WHA season.

The Nordiques were defending champions in 1977-78, but were still on the verge of folding when they were bought by the Carling-O'Keefe Brewery. They appointed Aubut, then a noted Québec City lawyer, as their new president.

To his credit, since 1995, he has tried to get a new team for the city. He was instrumental in helping get the Videotron Centre built. He does seem to be sorry for what he did, unlike most team owners who cause their team to move, due to either their greed, their mismanagement, or factors beyond their control. Keep that in mind as we go on: Sometimes, there are factors beyond the team owner's control.

He was respected enough to have been elected President of the Canadian Olympic Committee -- the 1st Francophone ever so honored. He was re-elected in 2014.  He resigned in 2015, after allegations of sexual harassment. He has apologized for his behavior, and has never been criminally charged, nor sued.

Gary Bettman. If he wants an NHL team to move, it moves, as we have seen.

However, for once, an NHL team moved from a cold weather city, especially in Canada, to a city in America's South or West, and Bettman was not the person most responsible. No question about it, he didn't want the Nordiques to stay in Québec City. But even if he had, I'm not sure there's much he could have done about it. There were other factors at work, as you will soon see.

The Montréal Canadiens. The rivalry between the Habs and the Nords was vicious at times, peaking in a long, nasty fight in a Playoff game at the Montreal Forum on April 20, 1984, known as the Good Friday Massacre.

In French, it is known as La Bataille du Vendredi Saint.

The Nords beat the Habs in the Playoffs in 1982 and 1985; but lost to them in 1984, 1987 and 1993. And they just couldn't compete with them for the hearts and minds of the Province of Québec. All those Stanley Cups the Canadiens won before the Nordiques were even founded. All those legends, including Georges Vezina, Howie Morenz, Maurice and Henri Richard, Doug Harvey, Jacques Plante, and Jean Beliveau, who grew up near Québec City. He and Plante both played for the Quebec Aces of the old Quebec Senior Hockey League.

And even when the Nords were succeeding in the WHA, the Habs won 6 Cups in the 1970s. Yvan Cournoyer, Ken Dryden, Guy Lafleur, Larry Robinson. Finally, Québec City native Patrick Roy starred for them in goal -- and then, to rub it in, Roy joined the team after the move to Colorado, and helped them win 2 Cups. (Lafleur ended his career with the Nords, but it was hardly the same thing.)

No matter how much the media tried to make the Nords the team of French speakers and Québec
nationalists, and the Habs the team of English speakers and Canadian nationalists, it just didn't work in the Nords' favor. The Canadiens would always be the Province's favorite team. Or, being that it's Canada, its favourite team.

It was pretty much the same thing as New England: The Whalers would never be as popular as the Boston Bruins, not even in Connecticut. Even in North and Central Jersey, the Devils still haven't eliminated fandom for the New York Rangers. The Anaheim Ducks have the same problem, with many people in Orange County not yet giving up on the Los Angeles Kings.

Eric Lindros. If he had signed with the Nords, would they have stayed? Maybe not: Eventually, he would have demanded a salary that Aubut probably could not have paid. Or, maybe his presence would have driven up revenues enough to pay his salary and save the team.

But it was never going to happen. Whether it was his decision, or that of his parents, Carl and Bonnie, who would later drive the Philadelphia Flyers' management nuts (and Ed Snider and Bob Clarke didn't need the help), Lindros wasn't going to play for the Nordiques. Upon his election to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2016, he told ESPN he didn't have a problem with the city, or with its fans, or with having to learn French. It was all about Aubut: "I was not going to play for that individual, period."

Eric Lindros, making peace with Québec City, 2017

Now, the Top 5:

5. Le Colisée de Québec. It had been built in 1949, for the Quebec Aces of the Quebec Senior Hockey League, with 10,034 seats. When the Nordiques arrived in 1972, capacity was roughly the same.

A condition for them entering the NHL was a larger arena. An expansion got capacity up to 15,750, but it remained an old-time arena. By the time the Nords left in 1995, only the Montreal Forum, Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto, and the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium were older; the Gardens was the only one of those left at the start of the 1996-97 season, and in the 1998-99 season, even that was closed.

The arena in its last years, known as Colisée Pepsi

A new arena was necessary, and it was not soon in coming. Denver had that part of the answer:

4. Denver. If an NHL team was going to move in 1995, Denver was a great place to go. It was a city of about 600,000 people with a metropolitan area of about 3 million. It had the McNichols Sports Arena, built in 1975, and by 1995 having a capacity of 17,171; and a plan to build a new arena, which became the Pepsi Center (ironically, having the same sponsor that the Colisée would have in its last years), which opened in 1999 and seated 18,007 for hockey. (UPDATE: In 2020, it was renamed the Ball Arena. Good name for an NBA venue, not so much for the NHL.)

Pepsi Center

True, both the NHL and the WHA had failed in Denver in the 1970s. But the 1990s had seen the city embrace baseball, with the Colorado Rockies name revived; and keep its interest in football with the Broncos and basketball with the Nuggets. Colorado was ready to try hockey again.

3. The Québec Major Junior Hockey League. It's not just the Remparts. It has teams from all over the Province, from Gatineau on the Québec side of the Ottawa River across from the national capital to Rimouski in the Gaspé Peninsula, a span of 456 miles. Because of the QMJHL, the people of Québec don't really miss the Nordiques.

LHJMQ (Ligue de hockey junior majeur du Québec) also includes teams in the Provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. That nearly doubles the span, to 835 miles. 

2. Demographics. Québec City is home to 532,000 people. There are cities in North America with fewer people and at least one major league sports team. But, as is the case with pretty much every major Canadian city except Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver, the metropolitan area doesn't have much in the way of suburbs. What suburbs it does have makes the overall population rise to only about 800,000.

Québec City

It simply isn't big enough of a metropolitan area to support a major league team, in any sport. Certainly not in the NHL, with 41 home games a year to sell to fans, in the cold Winter months.

But the big culprit is politics. And I don't mean NHL politics, led by dictator Gary Bettman. I mean actual politics. A very nasty form, which is tinged by national pride (for both a real country and a proposed country), language, and even religion, all of it carrying accusations of discrimination:

1. The Parti Québecois. First, they won the Provincial election in 1976, and launched a sovereignty referendum in 1980. It failed by a vote of 60 percent to 40. Then they lost the 1985 election. But they regained power in 1994, partly due to the federal government's alleged slights to the Province and its culture.

Behind party leader and Premier (like the Governor of one of our States) Jacques Parizeau, the PQ (or "Pequistes") launched a new referendum in 1995, and both sides campaigned very hard for it, including with competing rallies in downtown Montreal, the city where it was always going to be decided, and with ugly charges on both sides. In the end, on October 30, 1995, the vote was nearly an even 50-50 split.

Jacques Parizeau, Premier of Québec 1994-96,

very nearly the 1st President of the Republic of Québec

It just barely failed. With a turnout of 93.5 percent of registered voters, here was the result: Non, 2,362,648 votes, or 50.58 percent; Oui, 2,308,360 votes, or 49.42 percent. The number of spoiled ballots, ballots that could not be accepted for whatever reason, was larger than the Non side's margin of victory, 54,288 votes -- shades of what would happen in Florida 5 years later.

That was 4 months after the Nordiques moved. That was the PQ's only concern in 1995: Separating from Anglophone Canada. Prior to the move, or to the rumors of a move, the PQ were not the least bit interested in building a new arena to keep the Nordiques, or modernizing the old one. They just wanted to stick it to the federal government in Ottawa, to "protect the French language," and to promote Québec's status from that of a "distinct society" within Canada to an independent nation of its own.

Anything else was simply pas notre département. This would also include building a new ballpark for the Montreal Expos: They weren't willing to do that, either, any more than the City of Montreal was.

The PQ was more interested in stepping to Ottawa than in stepping up for its own people. Said people finally accepted this in 2003, and restored the Liberal Party to power in the Provincial election. By then, restoring the Provincial capital to the NHL had ceased to be a priority.

VERDICT: Not Guilty. Marcel Aubut is no saint, but he's also not a major reason why the Québec Nordiques moved. And he still has a chance, and apparently still has the desire, to get the city restored to the NHL.

Top 5 Reasons You Can't Blame Eric Lindros for Failing

May 26, 2000, 20 years ago: Game 7 of the NHL Eastern Conference Finals, at what was then named the First Union Center in Philadelphia. (It's now named the Wells Fargo Center.) The New Jersey Devils have come from 3 games to 1 down to force this game.

The Devils win, 2-1. Both of their goals are scored by Patrik Elias. But the biggest story is the confrontation between Scott Stevens, the Devils' Captain; and Eric Lindros, the Flyers' biggest star and former Captain. In the 1st period, Stevens hit Lindros with his shoulder, leveling him, and giving him the 7th concussion of his career, which is only in its 8th season.

Earlier in his career, with the Washington Capitals, Stevens had been known as one of the dirtiest defensemen in the game. He had grown into a man worthy of his team's Captaincy, and had already led the Devils to the 1995 Stanley Cup. Now, he was 34, and the League's top "traffic cop."

Flyer fans, who loved their "Broad Street Bullies" of the 1970s and '80s, have hated Stevens, but freely admit that this was, however devastating, a clean hit. No penalty was called on the play.

Lindros never played for the Flyers again. He had already been feuding with Flyer management, including team owner Ed Snider, his son and operating owner Jay Snider, and general manager and former Captain Bob Clarke. (In the Delaware Valley, it's understood that "Bobby Clarke" is the team's greatest legend, while "Bob Clarke" was a lousy GM.)

Lindros missed the next season due to his lingering concussion issues, and was traded to the New York Rangers, and scored 37 goals in the 2001-02 season, but only scored another 45 goals. He played all but 1 game in 2002-03, but, between more injuries and the 2004-05 NHL lockout, he only played another 121 games.

In the 1990s, each of Philadelphia's "big four sports" teams had at least 1 player who was supposed to lead them to championships: The Phillies, Lenny Dykstra, then Scott Rolen; the Eagles, Randall Cunningham; the 76ers, first Charles Barkley, then Allen Iverson; and the Flyers, Eric Lindros.

Between them, these 6 men won just 2 World Championships: Dykstra, and his had already happened, with the 1986 New York Mets; and Rolen, with the 2006 St. Louis Cardinals. Between the 6 of them, they only got 3 trips to their sports' finals, all defeats: The '93 Phillies, the '97 Flyers and the '01 Sixers. It was a complete letdown.

A native of London, Ontario, Lindros was the biggest prospect in the game in the early 1990s. In comparison with Wayne Gretzky, known as The Great One, Lindros was called The Next One -- as in, Gretzky's successor as the sport's best player. (Mario Lemieux could not be reached for comment.)

He retired early in the 2007-08 season. He had reached the Eastern Conference Finals with the Flyers in 1995, 1997 and 2000. But he only reached the Stanley Cup Finals once, in 1997, and the Flyers were swept by the Detroid Red Wings. The game where Stevens knock him out was his 50th Playoff appearance. He only had 3 more, all in 2007, his last season, with the Dallas Stars.

He played 486 regular-season games, only enough to add up to 6 full seasons. He scored 290 regular-season goals with 369 assists. He was named to the NHL All-Rookie Team in 1993. In 1995, he was awarded both of the NHL's annual Most Valuable Player awards: The Hart Memorial Trophy, voted on by the sportswriters; and the Lester B. Pearson Award (since renamed the Ted Lindsay Award), voted on by his fellow players. He was named to 7 All-Star Games, but only 1 of those came after Stevens leveled him.

Like Bobby Orr, injuries limited him to, essentially, only half a career. As Hall of Fame sportswriter Eric Duhatschek said, "This wasn't the next Gretzky. This wasn't even the first Lindros."

But is it fair to say that Eric Lindros was a failure as a hockey player? And, if so, is that all, or even mostly, his fault?

Top 5 Reasons You Can't Blame Eric Lindros for Failing

5. The Quebec Nordiques. They selected Lindros with the 1st pick in the 1991 NHL Draft, in spite of his having said that he would never play for them. Team owner Marcel Aubut ordered the selection anyway, saying he would make Lindros the centerpiece of the team's revival, and that the only way that Lindros would play in the NHL would be in Quebec City.

Lindros did play hockey in the 1991-92 season, but remained in junior hockey with the Oshawa Generals. He also played for Canada in the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, France, which, under the rules of the time, he wouldn't have been able to do had he already played in the NHL. Canada won the Silver Medal, losing the Gold Medal Game to the Soviet-to-Russian-transitioning "Unified Team."

Knowing that they would lose his rights if they still didn't sign him before the 1992 Draft, the Nords finally caved in, working out trades with the Flyers and the Rangers. An arbitrator was appointed to decide which trade had legal merit. The arbitrator was Larry Bertuzzi, and he ruled that the deal with the Flyers had been agreed to first, and it went through.

Ironically, goaltender Ron Hextall was part of the deal, going to Quebec, but would return to Philly. Through this trade, Aubut got the generational talent he wanted, but, instead of Lindros, it was Peter Forsberg. Alas, he would have to sell the team before the dream came true: In 1995, they were bought by a Denver group, moved, and became the Colorado Avalanche, winning the Cup in 1996 and 2001.

In a 2016 interview, Lindros debunked the myth that he refused to play for the Nordiques because he couldn't speak French (unlike Montreal, Quebec City is not merely majority-French but actively pro-French and anti-English), and that Aubut himself was the reason: "I was not going to play for that individual, period."

Certainly, Lindros didn't hate French people. In 2012, he married a Quebec native, Kina Lamarch. They remain together, and have 3 children. He even agreed to wear a Nordiques jersey in a 2017 interview on Francophone TV network TVA.

4. The New Jersey Devils. Twice, in 1995 and 2000, they beat the Flyers in the Eastern Conference Finals, thus standing in their way more than any other team did during Lindros' time with them.

The 1995 series ended what had been Lindros' best season. The 2000 series ended his Flyers tenure. Had the Flyers won either one of those, they (and he) might well have won the Cup: The Devils swept the Detroit Red Wings in the former (although the Wings would sweep the Flyers 2 years later), and dethroned the Dallas Stars in the latter.

Scott Stevens, June 24, 1995

3. His Parents. His father Carl, an accountant (and a football star at the University of Western Ontario, who had been good enough to be drafted by the Edmonton Eskimos in 1970), and his mother Bonnie, a nurse, promoted him, and babied him, and gave him an entitlement complex. And did they ever feud with the Flyers, especially with Clarke. They made nuisances of themselves.

Had they eased up a bit, things with the Flyers could have been smoothed out, and even the meeting between Eric and the Stevens Shoulder might not have been the end of the Lindros Era in Philadelphia.

2. The Philadelphia Flyers. Bob Clarke mishandled things six ways to Sunday. He may have been jealous that Lindros was more talented than he ever was. He didn't handle things well with Eric, or Carl, or Bonnie. The feud lasted about 10 years.

December 31, 2011: NHL Winter Classic Alumni Game in Philadelphia:

Lindros, Ed Olczyk, Clarke. Peace at last.

What's more, the one thing the Flyers have never had since Bernie Parent had to retire due to an eye injury in 1979 was a goaltender good enough to win the Stanley Cup. They went into the 1980 Finals with Pete Peeters as their starting goalie. That was as close as he got to winning a Cup with anyone.

They went into the 1985 Finals with Pelle Lindbergh. He stood up to Gretzky's Edmonton Oilers as best he could, but allowed 22 goals in the 5 games, and then, early the next season, got drunk and crashed his car, killing himself. Who knows what Lindbergh could have done if he'd lived? He was 26, so when they lost to the Devils in 2000, theoretically, he could still have been playing at 41. (A few goalie have still been playing well in the NHL at that age.)

They went into the 1987 Finals with Hextall, and he was given the Conn Smythe Trophy as Playoff MVP, but he didn't deserve it. They went into the 1989 Conference Finals with Hextall, and he didn't do so hot that time. They went into the 1995 Conference Finals, their 1st serious postseason run with Lindros, with Hextall in the net, and he couldn't even stop that 65-foot wobbler fired by Claude Lemieux in the last minute of Game 5.

Through the 1997 Playoffs, they alternated with Hextall and Garth Snow, and a Detroit fan held up a sign saying, "Hey Hextall! You and Snow get pulled more than a U-Haul!" They got swept. They went into the 2000 Conference Finals with Brian Boucher, and he allowed 18 goals, including 8 in the last 3 that the Flyers lost.

It didn't stop with Lindros' departure, or with Clarke's firing as GM. They went into the 2004 Conference Finals with Robert Esche, and while he wasn't bad, he did lose by 1 goal 3 times in that series, suggesting a lack of ability to deal with pressure. They went into the 2008 Conference Finals with Martin Biron, and he allowed 20 goals in 5 games, including 6 in the clincher.

They reached the Stanley Cup Finals against the Chicago Blackhawks in 2010, with Boucher having returned, but with Michael Leighton as the main Playoff goalie. Leighton was pulled for Boucher in Games 1 and 5, but it was Leighton who allowed the winning goal in overtime in Game 6 (though it famously required a review).

So, if we consider that Lindros let the Flyers down, we should also consider that it was much more the other way around. If Lindros let Flyer fans down, the team did so, and much more so.

Because, really, who let who down? Did Lindros let anyone down?

1. Eric Lindros. He didn't fail. Maybe he didn't reach the heights he was expected to reach. And maybe he didn't win the Stanley Cup. But he did eventually win an Olympic Gold Medal for Canada, after the ban on NHL players in the Olympics was lifted, in 2002 in Salt Lake City.

After his career ended, he received multiple honors to commemorate it. He was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame. He was named to the NHL's 100th Anniversary 100 Greatest Players. Hardly anybody has publicly said that either of these honors was undeserved. He and the Flyers patched things up, and they retired his Number 88.

In other words, while he didn't win a Stanley Cup, he didn't exactly "fail" as a player.

VERDICT: Not Guilty.

Aftermath: In 2007, shortly after his retirement, the NHL Players' Association appointed him their ombudsman, negotiating with the representatives of the NHL Commissioner, Gary Bettman, and the teams' owners. He held the job until early 2009. He became an advocate for concussion research, using his own history as an example. He and his family now live in Toronto.

He played in the 2012 NHL Winter Classic Alumni Game at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, for the Flyer team, against alumni of another of his former teams, the Rangers. In 2017, he played for a Flyer alumni team against one from the Pittsburgh Penguins, in celebration of both teams' 50th Anniversaries.

Such games generally don't have much hitting, and the players usually don't wear helmets in them. Eric Lindros always wears one. He knows how dangerous it can be, even when you do wear one. Why take chances now?

Top 10 North American Sports Rivalries That No Longer Exist (Or Mostly Don't)

Tonight, a team will be reborn: The Rams will play their 1st regular-season game as the Los Angeles Rams since Christmas Eve 1994.

And a rivalry will be reborn, as the Rams take on their historic (1946 to 1994) geographical arch-rivals, the San Francisco 49ers.

If you are a Seattle Seahawks fan, you may now think of the 49ers as your big rivals, but don't kid yourselves: They don't see you as theirs. They hate L.A. Ask any Bay Area baseball fan: Giants vs. Dodgers. Ask any Bay Area basketball fan: Warriors vs. Lakers. Ask any Bay Area hockey fan: Sharks vs. Kings.

Another old rivalry, done in by changing college football conferences, that got restarted this past weekend was the University of Pittsburgh vs. Pennsylvania State University. Despite a furious late Penn State comeback, Pitt held on to win, 42-39.

A lot of great old sports rivalries no longer exist. These are the best of them.

Honorable Mention: Rutgers vs. Princeton, College Football, 1869 to 1980. On November 6, 1869, in what was actually a 25-a-side soccer game, Rutgers and Princeton played what is officially recognized as "the first American football game." Rutgers won. They played again the next week, and Princeton won, and Rutgers has been underachieving and letting their fans down ever since.

Indeed, After "The First Game," Rutgers didn't beat Princeton again until the dedication game of Rutgers Stadium in 1938. From 1869 to 1937, RU was 0-33 vs. Princeton. From the standardization of the current scoring system in 1883, RU didn't even come within 9 points until 1937. From 1939 to 1967, Princeton led 17-6. It was only when Rutgers made its commitment to "big-time football" (which remained laughable long afterward) that they gained the edge: From 1968 to 1980, it was 9-3-1 Rutgers, including the last 5.

Princeton refused to leave the Ivy League and go "big-time," and refused to play Rutgers again. Despite the later success, Princeton still won the all-time series, 53-17-1. In other words, had they continued playing, Rutgers would still have had to win every game until this year, 2016, to catch up.

10. New York Rangers vs. New York Americans, Hockey, 1926 to 1942. The Amerks were actually New York City's 1st National Hockey League team, beginning play in the 1925-26 season. They were so successful at the gate (less so on the ice), that Madison Square Garden owner George "Tex" Rickard wanted to establish his own team, which, before he could officially name them, got nicknamed "Tex's Rangers."

The Rangers became the glamour team, with men showing up to games in tuxedos and women in gowns, as if it was a Broadway opening. The Amerks became the blue-collar team, the team of working men, the Dodgers to the Rangers' baseball Giants. They only met in the Playoffs twice, with the Rangers winning in 1929 and the Amerks winning on an overtime goal by Lorne Carr in 1938.

Program from a 1935 game

But that 1938 win put the Amerks in what was then called the Stanley Cup Semifinals, and, due to their finances, that was as close as they ever got. The Rangers, meanwhile, reached 6 Stanley Cup Finals, winning 3 of them, between 1928 and 1940. The draft of World War II decimated the Rangers, who wouldn't get back to the Finals until 1972, but it ruined the Americans, who folded after the 1941-42 season.

New York wouldn't get a 2nd NHL team until the Islanders arrived in 1972. And that rivalry would become even nastier than Rangers vs. Americans.

9. Maryland vs. Virginia, College Football, 1919 to 2013. Still a big rivalry in basketball, Maryland's move from the Atlantic Coast Conference to the Big Ten ended it for football. The implications of this one included the hearts and minds of fans of Washington, D.C. (in 1944 and '45, they met on neutral ground at D.C.'s Griffith Stadium), but also reflected the Civil War: Maryland was a Union State, Virginia a Confederate State.

Maryland leads, 44-32-2, and it wouldn't surprise me to see this one started again.

8. The University of Cincinnati vs. the University of Louisville, College Football, 1929 to 2013. Although still a rivalry in basketball, the football rivalry, for a trophy known as the Keg of Nails, is no longer played. Cincinnati, the bigger school in football, leads 30-22-1.

7. Boston Celtics vs. Philadelphia Warriors, Pro Basketball, 1946 to 1962. Boston vs. Philadelphia has been an NBA rivalry since Day One, and reflects the rivalry of the 2 great colonial cities of America. In the last 3 years of the rivalry, it was led by Bill Russell of the Celtics (Number 6 in the photo below) and Wilt Chamberlain of the Warriors (Number 13). The Warriors won the 1947 and 1956 NBA titles, but the Celtics won in 1957, '59, '60, '61 and '62.

The Warriors were moved to San Francisco for the 1962-63 season. For 1963-64, the Syracuse Nationals became the Philadelphia 76ers, and the rivalry was rekindled. The Celtics kept on winning: 1963, '64, '65, '66, '68 and '69, while the Sixers won in 1967. Since then, the 76ers have only won in 1983, while the Celtics have added 1974, '76, '81, '84, '86 and 2008.

6. New York Yankees vs. Philadelphia Athletics, Baseball, 1901 to 1954. This one really didn't get going until 1927, because, until then, it was rare for both teams to be good at the same time. An exception came in 1906, when a September incident led to a game being forfeited to the Highlanders, as the Yankees were then known. But neither team won the Pennant: The Chicago White Sox finished 1st, the Highlanders 2nd, and the defending Champion A's 3rd.

From 1927 to 1932, one of these teams won the American League Pennant every year, and so many of the greatest players in the game's history were involved.

Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx, Babe Ruth.

3 men, 1,841 career home runs.

Once the Great Depression forced A's manager/part-owner Connie Mack to sell off his stars, the A's weren't good again until the early 1970s, and that was 2 cities later (Kansas City, 1955-67, and then Oakland). Some have attributed the A's move to Kansas City to Yankee ownership. I'm not exonerating anybody, but the real fault for the failure of the A's in Philadelphia lies with the Mack family: Old man Connie refusing to give up control, and his sons waiting too long to force it, and then running the team incompetently.

5. Michigan vs. Notre Dame, College Football, 1887 to 2014. We're talking about 2 schools that both think they're the defining program of college football. Despite the long range of time, it's only been played 42 times, with Michigan leading 24-17-1. Indeed, except for 1942 and '43, it wasn't played at all between 1909 and 1978.

That's John Kryk as the book's author, not John Kruk.

Oddly, the most famous game between these 2 powers never happened: In 2000, an episode of The West Wing, "The Portland Trip," featured the President of the United States, Jed Bartlet (played by Martin Sheen), a Notre Dame grad, and his White House Chief of Staff, Leo McGarry (John Spencer), a Michigan man, having fun arguing over the game to be played the next day. The entire episode took place that night, so we never got to hear the result. And, in real life, the teams did not play each other that year.

In 2012, Notre Dame said it was exercising its option to stop the rivalry after the 2014 season. Brady Hoke, then the head coach at Michigan, said Notre Dame was "chickening out." Michigan beat Notre Dame in Ann Arbor in 2013, and the Michigan Stadium sound-effects guy played "The Chicken Dance." But the next year, the last meeting thus far, Notre Dame won 31-0 in South Bend.

UPDATE: The game was played again in 2018, with Notre Dame winning in South Bend. It will be played in Ann Arbor in 2019. It is not currently scheduled after that.

4. Kansas vs. Missouri, College Football, 1891 to 2011. This was the 1st college football rivalry west of the Mississippi River, and there is real history behind it, not just sports history. Real history. Really bloody history. They didn't call the Jayhawk State "Bleeding Kansas" for nothing.

In the years immediately before, during, and even for a little while after the American Civil War, there was some deadly serious fighting. Kansas was a free State, Missouri a slave State, although it never joined the Confederacy. Confederate sympathizers from Missouri would cross over and wreak havoc in Kansas, including in Lawrence. On May 21, 1856, "the Sacking of Lawrence" occurred. On August 21, 1863, William Quantrill led Quantrill's Raiders (including a young pair of brothers named Frank and Jesse James) in a massacre, killing 164 people, all civilians. The University of Kansas was founded in Lawrence on March 21, 1865.

The football rivalry between Kansas and Missouri (their University was founded in 1839) became known as the Border War, and, perhaps appropriately, was first played on October 31, 1891 -- Halloween.

The winner receives the Indian War Drum, also known as the Osage War Drum. The rivalry was so nasty that it sometimes had to be played on neutral ground in Kansas City -- in Missouri's State, but considerably closer to Kansas' campus, with the ticket allotment evenly divided. It was played in Kansas City from 1891 to 1906, again from 1908 to 1910 (in St. Joseph, Missouri in 1907), in 1944 and '45 (probably due to wartime travel restrictions), and at Arrowhead Stadium from 2007 to 2011.

Missouri's move to from the Big 12 to the Southeastern Conference put an end to it, at least for football. There is a dispute as to the record, as the 1960 game was forfeited to Kansas by the league then known as the Big Eight, because Missouri used an ineligible player. According to Missouri, they lead 57-54-9. According to everybody else (including the Big 12 and the NCAA), Missouri leads 56-55-9 -- meaning a restart and a Kansas win in the next game would tie the series at 56-all.

3. Montreal Canadiens vs. Quebec Nordiques, Hockey, 1979 to 1995. This rivalry didn't last long, but it started largely because, when the World Hockey Association was founded in 1972, the Nords took on as many former Habs players as they could, in the hopes of attracting fans and using those players' experience to benefit their younger players. (This never works, as the early New York Mets and the early New Jersey Devils can tell you.)

They even made the Habs' all-time legend, Maurice "Rocket" Richard, their 1st head coach. He discovered that he hated coaching, and quit after only 2 games, losing the 1st and winning the 2nd, and never coached another game at any level.

When the NHL absorbed the Nords and 3 other WHA teams in 1979, the Provincial government, led by Premier Rene Levesque, was setting up the 1st sovereignty referendum, which failed. But the battle between the all-Francophone Quebec City, the Provincial capital, and the mixed-language Montreal, the far bigger and (governing aside) more influential city, got intense.

Ironically, in the 1920s and '30s, it was the Montreal Maroons who were seen as Montreal's Anglophone and white-collar team, and the Canadiens who were the Francophone and blue-collar team. Despite having won 2 Stanley Cups, in 1926 and 1935, the Depression knocked the Maroons out in 1938.

The Playoff matchups between the Habs and the Nords were rough, both on the ice and in the stands, and it began to resemble hooligan rucks in European soccer. On April 20, 1984, a Playoff game at the Montreal Forum had a long fight that became known as the Good Friday Massacre (or La Bataille du Vendredi Saint).

The Nords never reached the Stanley Cup Finals, and for the 1995-96 season, they were moved to Denver to become the Colorado Avalanche -- and only then did they trade for Quebec City native Patrick Roy, the great goaltender who had backstopped 2 Canadiens Cup wins, and then win the Cup.

The Habs haven't won the Cup since 1993 (it's called the Curse of Saint Patrick, although Roy is no saint), and Quebec City has a new arena and is actively trying to get an expansion team or a moved team. This rivalry may be reborn in the next few years.

2. Texas vs. Texas A&M, College Football, 1894 to 2011. This game was usually played on Thanksgiving weekend, occasionally on Thanksgiving Day, and was always televised nationally. If, as has been suggested, football is a religion in Texas, then this game was a holy war.

(Both the annual game between in-State rivals the University of Utah and Brigham Young University and the not-annual game between Catholic schools Notre Dame and Boston College are nicknamed "The Holy War.")

Or maybe not so holy: The Longhorns-Aggies rivalry was worked into the 1978 Broadway musical The Best Little Whorehouse In Texas (and into the 1982 film version): The winning team gets a party at the titular establishment. There's even a song about it, sung by the Aggie players, who've won. (Apparently, it's 22 miles from Kyle Field to the Chicken Ranch.)

There is also a political angle. Located in the State capital of Austin, UT is seen as a liberal bastion in an otherwise very conservative State. Located in College Station -- if Texas has a "heart," like the song says, that may well be it -- the very conservative school, whose "A&M" stands for "Agricultural and Military," unlike most A&Ms that are "Agricultural and Mechanical," views UT as a bunch of "tea-sippin' liberals," or "tea-sips" for short. Longhorn fans simply view the Aggies as backward rednecks.

Like Missouri, A&M moved from the Big 12 to the Southeastern Conference, ending the football extension of this rivalry. The Longhorns have an overwhelming lead, 76-37-5.

1. Brooklyn Dodgers vs. New York Giants, Baseball, 1889 to 1957. The fact that this rivalry was moved to California and kept going, and is still going, and is occasionally nasty, doesn't change the fact that it was bigger in New York than it has ever been on the West Coast.

If you doubt this, note that the most-talked-about game in the history of baseball -- not New York baseball, but in the entire history of the sport, going back to the 1840s -- is the final game of the 1951 best-2-out-of-3 Playoff for the National League Pennant, the Bobby Thomson Game, in which the Giants completed their comeback from 13 1/2 games behind the Dodgers on August 11 to win the Pennant in the last inning on October 3. That was 65 years ago, and both teams have been gone for 59 years, but people still talk about it.

The Giants won 17 Pennants and 5 World Series before moving to California; the Dodgers, 13 Pennants and the 1955 World Series. Each had some legendary close calls.

And their fans divided the Tri-State Area, divided the City, divided neighborhoods, divided workplaces, sometimes even divided families. It's the only rivalry in the history of Major League Baseball where there were 2 teams from the same League in the same city. Yankees vs. Mets since 1962? Dodgers vs. Angels since 1961? Giants vs. A's since 1968? Cubs vs. White Sox since 1901? Only possible with Interleague Play since 1997, unless they played each other in the World Series. (Cubs-White Sox in 1906, Giants-A's in 1989, Yanks-Mets in 2000, Dodgers-Angels has still never happened in October.)

But the Giants and Dodgers faced each other 22 times a year for over half a century. Twenty-two chances to cheer your boys and boo the enemy. And every day was a chance to talk about it with people who knew the rivalry as well as you did.

The rivalry now lives in California, but a separation of 379 miles simply isn't the same as one of only 13 miles.

Faux Flashback: How to Be a Devils Fan In Quebec City

Tonight, the Devils play in Denver, the city from whence they came in 1982, against the Colorado Avalanche, the team formerly known as the Quebec Nordiques.

There is a movement to bring the NHL back to Quebec City. So far, it hasn't succeeded. I hope it will.

Until then, you can imagine what it was like to visit, in this post I found in my archives, from March 1, 1995, leading up to our March 6 contest, our last visit to Quebec City.

(Not really. I barely knew the Internet existed at that point. Humor me. Updates are in italics.)

Note that, while I know there's an accent mark, all that copying-and-pasting of "Québec," and then fixing the font, was too much of a pain in the ass to do.

*

Before You Go. Quebec City is in the Eastern Time Zone, so you won't have to turn your watch back. But it's in Canada, which is not only a lot colder (so bundle up), but a foreign country. If you have a passport, bring it. If not, you'll need a copy of your birth certificate.

As of June 1, 2009, you have to have a valid, up-to-date passport to cross the U.S.-Canadian border. You should also bring your driver's license (or other State-issued photo ID). If you don't have a valid passport, you will need a valid photo ID and a copy of your birth certificate in order to get the passport. This is not something you want to mess with. Canadian Customs officials do not fuck around: They care about their national security, too.

Do yourself another big favor: Change your money before you go. There are plenty of currency exchanges in New York City, including one on 42nd Street between 7th and 8th Avenue. There are also a few in New Jersey: Travelex has exchange centers at Newark Liberty International Airport, and at 4 malls: Garden Sate Plaza in Paramus, Jersey Gardens in Elizabeth, Menlo Park Mall in Edison and Bridgewater Commons. 

Leave yourself $50 in U.S. cash, especially if you’re going other than by plane, so you’ll have cash on your side of the border. 

Make sure you call your bank and tell them you’re going. After all, Canada may be an English-speaking country (at least co-officially, with French, although Quebec is French-first), and a democracy (if a parliamentary one), and a country with teams in America's major leagues, but it is still a foreign country. If your bank gets a record of your ATM card making a withdrawal from any country other than the U.S., it may freeze the card, and any other accounts you may have with them. So be sure to let them know that you will, in fact, be in Canada for a little while.

Quebec City is the capital of the Province of Quebec, and the epicenter of Quebec nationalism. In Montreal, most people you will meet can, and are willing to, speak English. In Quebec City, it's French all the way: They are very paranoid about protecting the French language, and many people won't even speak to you in English, even if they can. You won't see many bilingual signs, either. So a working knowledge of French will help. A lot.

Seven months later, on October 30, 1995, the Province held a soveriegnty referendum, 15 years after solidly losing one. This time, it was defeated by the slimmest of margins. The Quebec independence movement came so close to getting what it wanted, a mandate from the people to do it, but didn't. The movement has significantly waned since, and I don't expect another referendum anytime soon.

Tickets. The Colisee de Quebec seats 15,399, making it one of the smaller arenas in the NHL. And this is the Province of Quebec, the most hockey-mad place on Earth. Getting tickets will be tough.

I don't know what ticket prices for a Nords game were in 1995. I don't know what prices are for a Remparts game at the new Centre Videotron are, and it wouldn't matter anyway, since they'd be less than for NHL games.

Getting There. It's 517 miles from Times Square to downtown Quebec City, and 512 miles from the Meadowlands to the Colisee. It's one of those tricky distances: Too far to get there any way other than flying, but so close that the stuff you gotta do to get in and out of the airports won't save you as much time as you think. Quebec City is 96 miles from the U.S. border at its closest crossing point, Sandy Bay Township, Maine; 158 miles from downtown Montreal; amd 187 miles from Lacolle Inspection Station, the usual border crossing for travelers from New York to Montreal.

(Of the major cities in Atlantic Canada, a.k.a. the Maritime Provinces: St. John, New Brunswick is 607 miles from Times Square, and 75 miles from the nearest border crossing; Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island is 803 and 271; Halifax, Nova Scotia, is 862 and 330; and St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador is a whopping 1,666 and 1,133.)

Air Canada runs flights from Newark to Quebec City's Jean Lesage International Airport (named for the 1960s Premier who led the "Quiet Revolution"), but not nonstop: You'll have to change planes in either Montreal (understandable) or Toronto (considerably less understandable, since it's in the opposite direction).

Greyhound runs buses there, and Amtrak and its Canadian equivalent, VIA Rail, operate rail service, though, in each case, you'll have to transfer in Montreal.

It's 518 miles between the new arenas, the Prudential Center here and the Videotron Centre there. Posting fares for Air Canada, Greyhound or Amtrak & VIA Rail is pointless, since they're not going to be the same as they were when the Nordiques were still in town.

If you're driving, then, depending on from where in New Jersey you're leaving, take either the Garden State Parkway or Route 17 up to Interstate 87. It will be concurrent with the New York State Thruway until you reach Albany. Remain on I-87 as it becomes the Adirondack Northway, all the way up to the border at Champlain, New York and Lacolle, Quebec.

When you get to the border, you'll be asked your citizenship, and you'll have to show your passport and your photo ID. You'll be asked why you're visiting Canada. 

If you're bringing a computer with you (counting a laptop, but probably not counting a smartphone), you don't have to mention it, but you probably should. Chances are, you won't be carrying a large amount of food or plants; if you were, depending on how much, you might have to declare them.

Chances are, you won't be bringing alcohol into the country, but you can bring in ONE of the following items duty-free, and anything above or in addition to this must have duty paid on it: 1.5 litres (53 ounces) of wine, or 8.5 litres (300 ounces or 9.375 quarts) of beer or ale, or 1.14 litres (40 ounces) of hard liquor. If you have the slightest suspicion that I'm getting any of these numbers wrong, check with Canada Customs, either by mail or at the Canadian consulate in New York. Better yet, don't bring booze in. Or out.

Of course, within a short time after this would have been posted had there been blogs in 1995, you could have checked the Canada Customs website, which is what you should do if you're going now. 

As for tobacco, well, you shouldn't use it. But, either way over the border, you can bring up to 200 cigarettes, 50 cigars, and 200 grams (7 ounces) of manufactured tobacco. 

If you've got anything in your car (or, if going by bus or train, in your luggage) that could be considered a weapon, even if it's a disposable razor or nail clippers, tell them. And while Canada does have laws that allow you to bring in firearms if you're a licensed hunter (you'd have to apply for a license to the Province where you plan to hunt), the country has the proper attitude concerning guns: They hate them. They go absolutely batshit insane if you try to bring a firearm into their country. Which, if you're sane, is actually the sane way to treat the issue.

And if you can speak French, don't try to impress the Customs officials with it. The locals might appreciate that you're trying to speak to them in their primary language, but they won't be especially impressed by any ability to speak it, and any such ability won't make it any easier for you to get through Customs.

When crossing back into the U.S., in addition to what you would have to declare on the way in (if you still have any of it), you would have to declare items you purchased and are carrying with you upon return, items you bought in duty-free shops or (if you flew) on the plane, and items you intend to sell or use in your business, including business merchandise that you took out of the United States on your trip. There are other things, but, since you're just going for hockey, they probably won't apply to you. Just in case, check the Canadian Customs website I linked to above.

As for Cuban-made cigars, forget it: They are illegal to possess on American soil. You want to buy one in Canada, that's legal, but you gotta smoke it there.

In 2015, President Obama loosened the embargo so that you can import up to $100 worth of Cuban-made tobacco per traveler.

After going through Customs, I-87 will become Autoroute 15, which will take you into the Montreal
area. Get on Autoroute 30, which will take you to the Trans-Canada Highway. Exit 315 will get you into Quebec City.

If you make 3 rest stops, counting Customs, where they will have a restroom and vending machines -- and if you don’t do anything stupid at Customs, such as fail to produce your passport, or flash a weapon -- the trip should take about 9 hours. Though that could become 10, because Montreal traffic is pretty bad, though not as bad as Toronto, which is every bit as bad as traffic in New York, Boston and Washington.

Once In the City. Quebec is the largest of Canada's 10 Provinces by area, and 2nd to Ontario in population. The name comes from an Algonquin word meaning "where the river narrows," the river in question being the St. Lawrence, which takes in the outflow of the Great Lakes to the Atlantic Ocean, and on which both of the Province's major cities sit, Montreal and Quebec City (Ville de Québec in French). Actually, the city sits between 2 rivers, the St. Lawrence and the St. Charles.

Quebec City is the oldest major city in North America, first settled by Jacques Cartier (who soon thereafter first settled Montreal) in 1535, and founded as a city on July 3, 1608 by Samuel de Champlain. That makes it 16 years older than New Amsterdam/New York, 22 years older than Boston, 34 years older than Montreal, and 74 years older than Philadelphia. It was under the governance of France from 1608 to 1759, of Britain from then until 1867, and of Canada ever since, despite the sovereignty movement's efforts.

At the time, that meant it was French for 39 percent of its history, British for 28, and Canadian for 33. Now, it's been French for 37, British for 26, and Canadian for 37 -- a plurality, but not yet a majority.

The Provincial Parliament building, home to the National Assembly.

Note the name, "National"; and the flag at the top:

The Fleurdelyse, not the Maple Leaf.

It's home to about 460,000 people, but, because Canadian cities (the big 3, Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver, being exceptions) don't really have extensive suburbs, the metropolitan area is small, only about 750,000 people, and that, along with Canadian taxes, the U.S.-Canada currency exchange rate, and the perceived obsolescence of the Colisee are why the Nordiques are in danger of moving, despite being, for the moment, very good both on the ice and at the box office.

Today, the city is home to about 530,000 people, and the metro area to 800,000. Whether the passion for hockey and the brand-new arena will be enough to get a new team, either expansion or moved, and sustain it, remains to be seen.

According to Statistics Canada, 94.6 percent of the population has French as their 1st language, while only 1.5 percent have English. And -- this is the term Canada uses -- "visible minorities" make up only 3 percent, the smallest proportion of any major North American city. But, due to French being the dominant language, African immigrants have begun to arrive, every bit as much as they have in Montreal. Over 90 percent of the city is Catholic, which is also the high-water mark in North America. Eat your heart out, Boston.

The city's newspapers include Le Soleil (The Sun) and Le Journal de Quebec (The Journal), but both print only French editions. Avenue de Salaberry divides street addresses into East and West (Est et Ouest), and while there's no North and South (Nord et Sud) addresses, address numbers on north-south streets increase heading away from the St. Charles and toward the St. Lawrence, the opposite of how it's done in Montreal. Also like Montreal, the streets are on diagonals, and not exactly north-east-south-west.

The city has a bus service, but no subway or subway-like service, having done away with trams and streetcars decades ago.

Over 20 years on, they're considering a light rail service, but nothing official has been done about it yet.

The drinking age in Quebec is 18. Postal Codes in eastern Quebec begin with the letter G. The Area Code is 418. Hydro-Québec runs the electricity for the Province.

A new Area Code, 581, was added as an overlay in 2008.

Going In. Located 3 1/2 miles northwest of downtown, Le Colisee de Quebec is located at 250 Blvd. Wilfrid-Hamel, at Avenue du Colisee. Take the Number 3 bus from D'Youville to des Allies, and from there, it's less than a 10-minute walk.

The original Colisee was built in 1930, but burned down on March 15, 1949. It was rebuilt and opened on December 8, 1949. Because the biggest hockey star in the city at that point was Jean Béliveau of the Quebec Citadelles, the Colisee became known as the House That Béliveau Built.

The 1930 Colisee

The Colisee was home to the Citadelles in that 1st season, 1949-50, and then the Quebec Aces (with Béliveau until 1953) in the Quebec Senior Hockey League, and then the American Hockey League, from 1950 to 1971. The Quebec Ramparts of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League played there from 1969 to 1985, with Guy Lafleur as their 1st star before, like Béliveau, he moved on to the Canadiens. And the Quebec Nordiques debuted there in the World Hockey Association in 1972, moving to the NHL in 1979.

The 1949 Colisee, before its expansion

The 1949 Colisee seated just over 10,000, until the Nords' admission to the NHL required an expansion. When the 1981-82 season began, it seated 15,250, and has been set at 15,399 since 1987.

After the 1981 renovation and the selling of the naming rights

The final capacity for the Colisee, renamed Le Colisee Pepsi, was listed as 15,176. Since the Nords left, the Quebec Rafaels played there in the International Hockey League from 1996 to 1998, a reborn version of the Citadelles did so in the AHL from 1999 to 2002, and a reborn Remparts from 1999 to 2015, moving to the new Videotron Centre. It has the same mailing address, and is accessed by the same bus route. There's no point in telling you how much parking cost, then or now, until they get a new NHL team.

This overhead photo, shows how the new arena dwarfs the old one.

The rink is aligned from northwest to southeast. The Nordiques attack twice toward the southeast goal.

Post-1981 interior of the Colisee

Food. The Colisee, like most old arenas, has 1 level of concourse for 2 or more levels of seats. This is poor design, as we have seen at the not-so-old Meadowlands. Concession stands are generic, and both they and bathrooms will have very long lines. Get to the game early, and take care of both your input and your output before pregame introductions.

Team History Displays. The Colisee honors all of Quebec City's hockey history, hanging banners for:

* The 1912 and 1913 Quebec Bulldogs, the only Stanley Cups won in the city.

The 1913 Bulldogs, with "Phantom Joe" Malone in the center.

Notice how much smaller the Stanley Cup was then.

* The 1944 Quebec Aces, winners of the Allan Cup, Canada's amateur championship.

* The 1952 Quebec Aces, winners of the Alexander Cup, led by Béliveau.

Béliveau as an Ace

* The 1971 Quebec Remparts, winners of the Memorial Cup, junior hockey's championship, led by Lafleur.

Lafleur as a Rempart

* The 1977 Quebec Nordiques, winners of the WHA Championship, the Avco Cup.

Real Cloutier of the '77 Nords

* The 2006 Quebec Remparts, winners of the Memorial Cup, coached (and part-owned) by Quebec City's native son Patrick Roy.

* Lesser titles won by the Remparts.

Remparts banners

Other Quebec City-area teams that have won the Memorial Cup are Rimouski Océanic in 2000, and the Shawinigan Cataractes in 2012.

The Nordiques have retired 3 numbers: 3, for defenseman Jean-Claude Tremblay, who played for them throughout their WHA years after starring for the Canadiens; 8, for left wing Marc Tardif, another ex-Canadien who played on their 1977 title team, and into the NHL years; and 26, for center Peter Stastny, who, along with his brothers Anton and Marian defected from Czechoslavakia and played for the Nords. Peter, of course, went from the Nords to the Devils. His Number 26 was retired this past February 26.

The Remparts have retired 1 number, Number 4, for Guy Lafleur, who returned to Quebec City to wrap up his playing career with the Nordiques.

Just after this article would have been posted, on March 16, 1995, the Nords retired a 4th number, 16, for left wing Michel Goulet. All 4 of their numbers were put back into circulation by the Avalanche.

Since the Nords left, the Remparts have also retired 12, for left wing Simon Gagne; 22, for right wing Alexander Radulov; and 44, for defenseman Marc-Edouard Vlasic. Gagne, now retired, starred for the Philadelphia Flyers. Vlasic now plays for the San Jose Sharks, but has never become a star. Radulov was a journeyman in North America, getting the occasional "cup of coffee" with the Nashville Predators, but has reached stardom in his native Russia, serving as Captain of the country's most history-laden hockey team, CSKA Moscow.

Tremblay, Tardif, Goulet, Christian Bordeleau, Rich LeDuc, Serge Bernier and Richard Brodeur -- no relation to the Devils' Martin -- were named to the WHA All-Time Team. Peter Stastny (but not Anton or Marian), last Nords and 1st Avs Captain Joe Sakic, Béliveau, Lafleur, and 1912-13 Bulldogs star "Phantom" Joe Malone were named to The Hockey News' 100 Greatest Players in 1998. Stastny and Sakic were named to the NHL's 100th Anniversary 100 Greatest Players in 2017.

Since the Nords started out as a WHA team, and only NHL players were eligible, none of their players were named to the Team Canada that beat the Soviet Union in the 1972 "Summit Series." All of those players were named to Canada's Walk of Fame, but no Nordiques player was. But, for his overall contributions to the game, Béliveau was named to it. No player from the 1980 U.S. Olympic team that beat the Soviets ever played for the Nordiques.

Stastny and Mats Sundin, who went on to greater fame with the Toronto Maple Leafs, have been elected to the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) Hall of Fame.

Stuff. There isn't really room at the Colisee for a big team store, but souvenir stands are all around.

There wouldn't have been many books or DVDs about the Nordiques at the time. In 1989, Ross Rennie wrote Quebec Nordiques for the official NHL Today series, but that's all I could find on Amazon.com.

During the Game. The rivalry between the Nordiques and the Canadiens, split along various lines -- linguistic, historical (the Habs are the game's most successful team, the Nords hardly successful at all), Quebec nationalism vs. Canadian nationalism, a city that's both Provincial capital and provincial hating the city both big and big-business vs. a cosmopolitan city that hates the Provincial government -- is the nastiest in the NHL. Canadiens vs. Toronto Maple Leafs? Canadiens vs. Boston Bruins? Rangers vs. Islanders? Rangers vs. Devils? Devils vs. Flyers? Philadelphia vs. Pittsburgh? Detroit vs. Chicago? Please: This is true hatred, which reached its peak in a 1984 Playoff fight known as the Good Friday Massacre (La Bataille Vendredi Saint) at the Montreal Forum.

But Nordiques fans have no reason to dislike people from New Jersey. Sure, head coach Jacques Lemaire, assistant coach Larry Robinson, and players Claude Lemieux, Stephane Richer, Tom Chorske and Martin Brodeur all have Montreal connections, and might get booed. But we're New Jersey, not Provincial rival Montreal, or national cultural capital Toronto, or even seat of federal government Ottawa. We're not even Canadian. They don't hate us, because that would be pointless. So as long as you don't given any indication of liking the Habs, the Leafs, or the Ottawa Senators, your safety will not be an issue.

All arena announcements will be in French -- not English. Lucie Blachette sings the National Anthem. Unlike in Montreal, here, "O, Canada" is sung entirely in French. The mascot is a big blue apelike thing. We New Jerseyans can appreciate his name: Badaboum, pronounced "Ba-da-boom," like the Italian-American expression that usually begins "Ba-da-bing."

Badaboum!

Nordiques fans are passionate. These people are more French than North American, and their songs and chants, very well organized, can make the Colisee sound like a European soccer stadium. But, as I said, they won't attack you. They're more "ultra" than "hooligan."

After the Game. Win, lose or tie, no one is going to take their frustrations of the game out on you, as long as you don't provoke anyone. Keep to yourself, and they'll do the same.

The Colisee is tucked away in a residential area, and there aren't any notable postgame eateries or bars nearby. To get a postgame meal, or even just a pint, you'll have to get back downtown.

Sidelights. Quebec City's sports history is nearly all about hockey. They've never had a team in MLB, or the NBA, or even in the CFL. But there have been minor-league baseball teams.

The Quebec Athletics played in 1940, '41 and '42, folding due to the manpower shortage of World War II. A new team played as the Quebec Alouettes in 1946, '47 and '48, and as the Quebec Braves in 1949, '50 and '51. The Quebec Indians were a Cleveland farm team from 1958 to 1970, and the Quebec Carnavals, appropriately, were a farm team of the Montreal Expos from 1971 to 1977, playing their last 2 seasons as the Quebec Metros. But the city has been without baseball since then.

All of these teams played at Stade Municipal, which opened in 1939. It seats 4,800 people, and is known for short fences: 315 feet to both foul poles, 380 to center field. 1938 Rue de Cardinal Maurice Roy, at Rue de la Croix-Rouge (Red Cross), about a mile and a half northwest of downtown. Number 28 bus to Croix-Rouge, then a 15-minute walk.

In 1999, the Quebec Capitales began play in the Northern League, an independent league, moving to the Northeast League and now to the Can-Am League. They've won Pennants in 2006, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012 and 2013 -- 6 Pennants, including 5 in a row. In 2015, they made the Playoffs again, but lost to our own New Jersey Jackals. They have also used Stade Municipal since their inception.

Because of its small metropolitan area, Quebec City would rank 30th in the NHL, ahead of only Winnipeg; 7th in the CFL, ahead of Winnipeg, Hamilton and Saskatchewan, and far below any NFL team; and easily dead last in either MLB or the NBA. While a CFL team has been considered, the only team it's ever got a chance of getting is a revived Nordiques in the NHL. And the city has no pro soccer team.

It's not clear who Quebec City's favorite MLB team is. It could well be the Red Sox, due to proximity. Or the Blue Jays, due to national pride. Or, as nationalists, resistant to both English Canada and America, maybe they simply don't care. According to an article in the May 12, 2014 New York Times, their NBA fandom is almost evenly split between the Boston Celtics, the Los Angeles Lakers and the Miami Heat.

Quebec city is home to the main campus of the Université du Québec (its Montreal campus is known as UQAM), and to Université Laval. But they don't play college football or basketball on what we would call a Division I level.

That is still true of UQ, but not of UL. UL started a football program in 1996, and have won the Vanier Cup, the championship of Canadian college football, 8 times: 1999, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012 and 2013. They play at PEPS Stadium, which has a permanent capacity of 12,257 seats, but is expandable to 19,000. It has hosted the Vanier Cup 4 times, including in 2010 and 2013 when UL won it at home. 2380 Rue de PEPS, about 5 miles southwest of downtown. Bus 807.

UPDATE: They won it again in 2016. How many times is that, Ed Rooney? "Nine times!"

The Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières (UQTR, "Three Rivers") is 82 miles southwest of Quebec City. Its hockey team was National Champion in 1987 and 1991.

They've since won it again in 2001 and 2003.

The Citadelle of Quebec, on the Plains of Abraham, was the colonial capital of New France, and the place where the Battle of Quebec ended on September 13, 1759 -- the day that ensured that Canada would be ruled by Britain, not France, but also set up the ways Britain paid for this "French and Indian War," which resulted in the American Revolution. This makes it, along with Saratoga, Yorktown, Buena Vista and Gettysburg, one of the most important battles ever fought on North American soil. (Fort McHenry was mainly a naval battle.)

It is not only a museum, but an active Canadian Forces base. 1 Côte de la Citadelle, in the Historic District of Old Quebec, within walking distance of downtown. The entire Old Quebec district is worth walking around, because there just aren't any American cities with buildings approaching 400 years old -- most don't even have very many that are 200 years old.

Quebec's other major museum is the Musee de la Civilisation. It is both a historical and a natural history museum. Think the New York Historical Society and its neighbor, the Museum of Natural History, in one complex. 85 Rue Dalhousie, downtown.

The Chateau Frontenac is a hotel that was built on the site of the residence of Britain's colonial governors. In 1943, it hosted the Quebec Conference, a meeting of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Prime Ministers William Lyon Mackenzie King of Canada and Winston Churchill of Britain to discuss Allied military policy in World War II. 1 Rue des Carrieres, downtown.

The tallest building in Quebec City is Édifice Marie-Guyart,, 579 feet tall counting its antenna. Built in 1972, its architecture is typical of North American skyscrapers of the 1950s, '60s and '70s, and, as Dick Smothers would say, That was not a compliment. 1035 Rue de la Chevrotiere, at Blvd. Rene-Levesque. The Provincial Parliament is adjacent, at 1045 Rue des Parlementaires, at Blvd. Rene-Levesque.

Most movies and TV shows set in Quebec City would be familiar only to Canadians, and not to Americans. The most notable TV show set there is Lance et Compte -- a rough translation of "He Shoots, He Scores" -- about a fictional hockey team, Le Nationale, whose uniforms had a QN logo reminiscent of the ON used by the Ottawa Nationals of the WHA. It aired on CBC from 1986 to 1989, and a revival series has aired on French-language TVA since 2004. Interestingly enough, one of the actors on the original series was named Marc Messier. (No relation to ol' Lex Luthor himself.)

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Postscript: The Nordiques beat the Devils, 6-3. On April 30, the last game between the teams under those names was played at the Meadowlands, and the Devils won, 4-2. Within 2 months, the Devils had won their 1st Stanley Cup, and the Nordiques had moved to Denver.

May the NHL once day return to Quebec City.