California Golden Seals
The 1970’s were a very strange, flamboyant and colourful decade. Technology was changing fast: telephones went from rotary dial to touch button dial, the Americans were landing men on the moon, cars needed catalytic converters to stop pollution, the first 747 jumbo jets started roaring through the skies, the first personal computers were appearing, remote controls for TV’s were available, the list is vast. Hard rock music came into its own, movies had better colour and sound, the 8 track tapes were replaced by cassettes, the Walkman pocket music device became popular, not to mention disco and punk rock blasted onto the scene. In fashion and clothing, basically anything went. Bizarre colours, polyester suits, hot pants, bandanas, guys wearing orange dress shirts with purple ties. Mens white belts and white shoes. Many boys and men had hair halfway down their backs. In sports the white cleats became the norm in football, basketball and baseball. People would try anything. 
During the 70’s there was an NHL hockey team based in the San Francisco Bay Area, before the Sharks, named the California Golden Seals. The owner was an eccentric millionaire by the name of Charlie O. Finley. Charlie decided that his hockey team should be a little different from the rest of the teams. Charlie introduced white skates for his players to zoom up and down the ice on. Prior to the 1970-71 season, Charlie O. Finley, the flamboyant owner of baseball’s Oakland Athletics, purchased the Seals. Finley and Roller Derby boss Jerry Seltzer had both put in a bid on the team. 
Although Seltzer’s offer was slightly better and included a more detailed plan for revival, a majority of NHL owners from the “old establishment” voted in favor of Finley. General manager Bill Torrey left by mid-season due to clashes with Finley. 
On October 15, 1970, with the new season already two games old, Finley announced that the team’s name was being changed to California Golden Seals (“Bay Area Seals” had been reported the previous week, and appears on some of that year’s promotional material), following a number of other marketing gimmicks intended to sell the team to the fans, among them changing the Seals’ colors to green and gold to match those of the popular A’s. 
The Seals are remembered for wearing white skates, but initially Torrey convinced Finley to use green and gold painted skates instead, as team colored skates were a trend of the period. However, this was all for naught, as the Seals finished with the worst record in the NHL that year.
The 1970’s were a very strange, flamboyant and colourful decade. Technology was changing fast: telephones went from rotary dial to touch button dial, the Americans were landing men on the moon, cars needed catalytic converters to stop pollution, the first 747 jumbo jets started roaring through the skies, the first personal computers were appearing, remote controls for TV’s were available, the list is vast. Hard rock music came into its own, movies had better colour and sound, the 8 track tapes were replaced by cassettes, the Walkman pocket music device became popular, not to mention disco and punk rock blasted onto the scene. In fashion and clothing, basically anything went. Bizarre colours, polyester suits, hot pants, bandanas, guys wearing orange dress shirts with purple ties. Mens white belts and white shoes. Many boys and men had hair halfway down their backs. In sports the white cleats became the norm in football, basketball and baseball. People would try anything. 
During the 70’s there was an NHL hockey team based in the San Francisco Bay Area, before the Sharks, named the California Golden Seals. The owner was an eccentric millionaire by the name of Charlie O. Finley. Charlie decided that his hockey team should be a little different from the rest of the teams. Charlie introduced white skates for his players to zoom up and down the ice on. Prior to the 1970-71 season, Charlie O. Finley, the flamboyant owner of baseball’s Oakland Athletics, purchased the Seals. Finley and Roller Derby boss Jerry Seltzer had both put in a bid on the team. 
Although Seltzer’s offer was slightly better and included a more detailed plan for revival, a majority of NHL owners from the “old establishment” voted in favor of Finley. General manager Bill Torrey left by mid-season due to clashes with Finley. 
On October 15, 1970, with the new season already two games old, Finley announced that the team’s name was being changed to California Golden Seals (“Bay Area Seals” had been reported the previous week, and appears on some of that year’s promotional material), following a number of other marketing gimmicks intended to sell the team to the fans, among them changing the Seals’ colors to green and gold to match those of the popular A’s. 
The Seals are remembered for wearing white skates, but initially Torrey convinced Finley to use green and gold painted skates instead, as team colored skates were a trend of the period. However, this was all for naught, as the Seals finished with the worst record in the NHL that year.
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