Back
To The
Future
Hockey Returns To Johnstown, Pa.,
As A New NAHL Team Looks To
Recapture The Spirit Of The Thing
The proud hockey
town made famous in
the movie Slap Shot
rejoices at the return
of the game.
T
o borrow a line from Maxine
Nightingale's catchy 1970s
pop hit, hockey fans in
Johnstown, Pa., are right back where
they started from.
The song that was featured in
the iconic 1977 hockey movie
"Slap Shot," which was filmed in
Johnstown, has long been the theme song
for residents in the small Pennsylvania city,
located about 70 miles east of Pittsburgh.
That's because hockey is back in
Johnstown with the debut of the
Tomahawks, a North American Hockey
League Junior A team.
The sport has a rich tradition in
Johnstown as the city has played host to
many minor professional squads throughout the past six decades. Also, it spawned
the classic hockey film, which starred Paul
Newman and was based on the 1974-75
Johnstown Jets season.
Even with its proud hockey heritage,
the city found itself without any highlevel hockey when the ECHL's Johnstown
Chiefs moved to Greenville, S.C., in 2010
