Youth Hockey in Birmingham, 1975-2001

In his middle and high school years our son Amos played youth hockey in the Birmingham area. Three different organizations have supported this activity: the Birmingham Youth Hockey Association [1975-1989], the Birmingham Youth Hockey League [1993-2001] and the Pelham Youth Hockey League [2001-current]. Amos played primarily in the BYHL and then the Pelham league. Teams of all ages were involved, playing at the Oxmoor Ice Lodge [later the Alpine Ice Arena] in Homewood and the ice rink at the Pelham Civic Complex. Amos' teams practiced and played at both places until the Homewood location closed in 2000. The teams often traveled to play other youth hockey programs. 

During his BYHL years I created a WWW site to document and promote the league. The Internet Archive's Wayback database captured that site. Pages included "BYHL in the News" and such. 

Some of the adults involved in the BYHL were also associated with the original Birmingham youth league. One of them, Steve Cagle, wrote a nice account of the BYHA for the web site in May 2000.

"The BYHA was formed in 1975 by Mr. Morehouse of Harbert Construction. The first president was Buddy Emerkie. In 1978 the BYHA had a home and home series with a team from Toronto. The Birmingham teams did quite well. There is a book called "The Road To Toronto" which contains articles and pictures from this series. I will look for my copy and let you take a look at it. I hope I still have it.

At the BYHA's heyday there were 16 house teams and 4 travel teams. The travel team players also played in the house league. The house teams played games during the week and practiced on the weekends while the travel teams played. There was a separate practice for the travel teams. The travel team players turned in their jerseys after the season. If I am not mistaken, the squirt travel team went to the Silver Stick finals in 1978. My brother was the goalie for that team. I will have to ask him to make sure.

Lance Harless and I are the only former BYHA players still involved with the youth league. Bobby Garove, who has a son in the mites, Lance and I played on the same team one season. There have been three former BYHA players play college hockey. The board back then served 2 year terms and had to wait at least one season to be nominated again. The membership voted for the board members unlike how it is done today.

The BYHA had a concession stand at the BJCC. Each parent that worked got money off their child's dues. The Birmingham Bulls, WHA team, held a summer hockey camp at Alpine called "The Heart of Dixie Hockey School" I went to it twice. The BYHA had a trophy in honor of my late father. He was a board member and team manager for several years. This trophy went to the parent who did the most for the BYHA in a season. The trophy was called the Don McCullar Memorial Trophy. When the league folded in 1989, it was given to my mom.

I remember that we didn't have many kids. We had to play scrimmages and play teams from other cities when we could. I took 11 players that consisted of peewees and bantams to Lexington, Kentucky. We practiced four times and bought our own jerseys. I still have one, and I have the team picture. When we got there, the Kentucky people decided we were only going to play one game. I was furious that we had driven that far just for one game! WE won the game 9-2.
It was hard to keep the league going without a pro team in town, so the league folded.

I got this info from my memories and from my mom who served as a board member."

The Birmingham Bulls have played in the area through several incarnations since 1976. Since 2017 they have been based in Pelham in the Southern Professional Hockey League. 

I don't remember ever seeing "The Road to Toronto" book Mr. Cagle mentions. 

Below are some images and a few more comments. If you have more information about this topic, let us know in the comment section! 

 

These photos show Amos on the right with one of his coaches and his son. Oh, and that's Amos' sister Becca in the top one.

This image and the two below appeared on BYHL t-shirts. 

The Birmingham High School Hockey League existed  for a brief period, and Amos played in the first season. I don't remember anything else about this organization.