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October 6, 2025 • 10 mins
Join us on Daily Sports History as we explore the origins of the San Jose Sharks and their journey to becoming an NHL franchise in 1991. Learn about the expansion process, the challenges faced by the team in its early years, and the fan base that embraced hockey in California. Discover how the Sharks became a beloved part of the NHL

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
On October fourth, nineteen ninety one, the Vancouver Canucks defeated
the San Jose Sharks four to three, and despite it
being a relatively close game, the game itself did not
stand out besides the fact it was the San Jose
sharks very first game, giving San Jose their very first
team and the first team in North America to be

(00:21):
named after a shark, and had a lot of unique
things going for it, making one of the most popular
teams in the NHL. Today, we're going to dive into
how they started today on Daily Sports History. Welcome to
Daily Sports History. I'm Ethan Rees, your guide as we

(00:43):
daily dive into sports history so you can increase your
sports knowledge. And today's trivia question is why in the
Shark logo do they have a red triangle now? Even
though the San Jose Sharks played their first game in
nineteen ninety one, their story goes back to the nineteen

(01:04):
sixties see Professional hockey in the San Francisco San Jose
Bay Area, as they would call it, started with the
Pacific Coast Hockey League that played from nineteen forty four
to nineteen fifty and they would later go on to
change their name to the Western Hockey League, and in
nineteen sixty one they would actually award a franchise to
San Francisco known as the San Francisco Seals, who would

(01:26):
be owned by former Vancouver Canucks owner Coleman Hall, under
the condition that they would be able to put an
ice rink in the Daily City arena, known as the
Cow Palace, one of the greatest names for an arena
I have ever heard. The Cow Palace actually opened in
nineteen forty one and has been home to the NBA's

(01:49):
Warriors and actually hosted the fifty six and nineteen sixty
four Republican National Convention. And it is called the Cow
Palace because it was inspired by livestock pavilions that were
popularized in the early nineteen hundreds, and a newspaper called
it a palace for cows and the name stuck, and
the San Franco Seals would go on to change their

(02:11):
name to the California Golden Seals in nineteen sixty seven
when they joined the NHL, where they played until nineteen
seventy six, and in nineteen seventy four, Gordon and George
Gunn actually became minority owners of the team and were
instrumental after this nineteen seventy six season to help move
the team to Cleveland as they were struggling on the

(02:32):
ice and in ticket sales. So they moved to Cleveland,
and two years later they would actually merge with the
Minnesota and North Stars, and the Minnesota north Stars actually
struggled as well, and so the gun Brothers were actually
trying to figure out a way to bring the Stars
back to the Bay Area where they started with the
Golden Seals, and it was announced that they would start

(02:54):
expanding in the late nineteen eighties. So the Gun Brothers
their rights to the North Stars in order to be
instrumental in bringing another team to the Bay Area, and
they would join Howard Baldwin, the former owner of the
Hartford Whalers, and with these owners with experience in the
league already, it was a no brainer for the league
to allow a spansion team for them as they had

(03:15):
so much experience, and they had to pay forty five
million dollars for the expansion fee for the new team,
which was approved on May ninth, nineteen ninety. As we've
seen recently, naming a team is very hard. Currently, the
NHL is moving their team from Phoenix up to Utah,

(03:35):
and Utah still hasn't thought of a name in the NFL.
They struggled for multiple years to change the Washington's former
name to the Commanders, and they even played under just
Washington team for a year. So sometimes it becomes a
very hard deal to name your team because once you
name your team, you don't want to change it. You
have that solid foundation. And the actual first place winner

(03:58):
through all the potential options was blades, which is a
reference to the skates that the players wear, but it's
also a slang term for possible weapons, which obviously they
did not want to be part of. So the runner
up option was Sharks, which is a reference to sharks
from the Pacific Ocean where there are seven different varieties

(04:18):
that live in or near the Bay Area, which is
known as the Red Triangle due to its shark population,
which if you look at the logo, it has a
triangle representing that very effect, and the logo was actually
very unique. They actually hired a whole team to make
the logo and it was a unique logo because it
doesn't actually have letters in the name. It just shows

(04:40):
a shark biding on to a hockey stick where most
of the logos we have today of sports teams usually
feature a letter from the city or team in some
kind of unique font but this was a unique logo
that specified just for the Sharks, and because of that,
it actually was very popular. In their first season there,
jerseys were the number one selling jerseys despite not having

(05:03):
a lot of success on the ice, because they looked
really cool and that's what people really liked about it. Now,
because they were an expansion team, they were actually able
to be part of an expansion draft, and the way
an expansion draft works is every team in the league
saves certain players on their team they can't take, but
they leave a few players that usually on their end

(05:24):
of the roster that the expansion team can pick from.
This way, they can fill out their team with some
veterans and not only have brookies and free agents fill
up their team, we have players that have actually played
in the league. This has been successful for multiple teams.
And with their first pick, they picked Pat Felon, who
was a journeyman player but played for nine seasons in

(05:46):
the NHL, and during the offseason they were able to
acquire Doug Wilson, who was a fourteen year veteran in
the NHL and have previously played for the Chicago Blackhawks
and had a no trade cause but way in order
to play for this new upstart team and became their captain.
And what's interesting is the Cow Palace was still there

(06:08):
when the San Jose Sharks started their nineteen nine to
one season, and it was their home again almost thirty
years later. As the team was still working on building
a new stadium, they went to the Cow Palace, which
was a smaller venue, but it made a unique intimate
experience for multiple fans of the team because it was

(06:28):
such a smaller venue, but it made it easier to
fill up for the season so they could really have
success and get a home advantage for their home games.
So on October fourth, nineteen ninety one, the team was
finally set and they came into that first game with
Brian Howard being the goaltender as he had the most
experience coming into the season, but Jeff Hackett would end

(06:51):
up taking over and play the most games on goalie
that year. Doug Wilson was the leader on the defensive side,
starting alongside Neil Wilkins, and the forwards were at center.
Kelly Kaisso, who also was a team captain, Craig Coxi,
and Pat Felon, who was their first draft pick. Now
Vancouver came out scored first, but before the end of

(07:14):
the first period, Greg Coxy scored the first goal in
Shark's history. The second period went to the Canucks as
they went up three to one, and they continued that
into the third period, extending their lead four to one.
But the Sharks fought back and scored two goals late
in the third period, giving them a chance at a
possible tie, but unfortunately, the game ended with the Canucks

(07:34):
winning for to three, and sadly, this was a theme
through most of their season, as in the eighty games
they played, they only won seventeen games, and the next night,
on October fifth, they played their first game at home
at the Cow Palace. Unfortunately, they would also lose to
Vancouver that day, five to two. But in their third
game on October eighth, they won their very first game

(07:58):
over the Calgary Flames four to three. But despite this win,
they would go on a thirteen game losing streak and
struggled as throughout the season. They would allow ten goals
in a game three different times, including a club record
eleven goals allowed against the Detroit Red Wings and they
would finish the season with seventeen wins, fifty eight losses

(08:18):
in five ties, earning thirty nine points, finishing six in
the Smite Division and thirty five points behind the next
closest team, the Cockery Flames, but their first round pick
in the expansion draft, Pat Felon led the team with
twenty five goals, thirty four cists and fifty nine points.
But despite this challenge, it was they continued to be

(08:39):
resilient and it only took them two years before they
made their first playoff appearance in nineteen ninety three, but
sadly it would take a much longer for them to
reach the Stanley Cup Finals was another twenty three years
in twenty sixteen when they made their very first finals appearance,
facing off against the Pittsbordh Penguins and a losing effort,
but it was a great historic run to the finals

(09:01):
and during this year they averaged about ten thousand attendance,
which meant they almost filled out every game at the
Cow Palace. Yes, I keep saying the Cow Palace because
I love that stadium and though they have not won
a Stanley Cup. Yet they've been a staple in the
league since they started. They've won six division titles, winning
their first one in two thousand and two, and they're

(09:22):
still fighting for that chance to raise the Stanley Cup.
And they've gotten away from the Cow Palace and into
their new stadium, the SAP Center, where they've been able
to have way more success. And if you want to
learn more about the Sharks, check out the podcast Finn Factor,
where Paul, Aaron, and Jason take you through everything you

(09:42):
need to know every week about what's going on with
the Sharks, from news, trades, games. They'll be there to
give you all the information so you can become an
even better Sharks fan. And if you enjoyed today's Daily
Sports History, please make sure you subscribe for every listening.
The best way you can help us out is by

(10:04):
subscribing and listening every day, and every time you do,
know that I truly appreciate it and we'll see you
next week for more Daily Sports History. In the answer
today's trivia question, why in the Shark's logo do they
have a red triangle, It is because San Jose is
located in the red triangle, which is known for how

(10:25):
many sharks they have in the area, and they incorporated
the fact of sharks into their logo.
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