No matter where you live in North America, if you’re reading this hockey website then the chances are very good that you’ve heard the Brass Bonanza, the Hartford Whalers goal song that refuses to go away even long after the Whalers themselves did.
It lives on in ringtones and in video games. It’s played at weddings. It’s randomly ‘sung’ at Hartford-area sporting events and is still played occasionally at sports venues across the continent. Indeed, anyone who’s watched Red Sox games either at Fenway Park or on TV has heard the Brass Bonanza played there, in Boston; home of the Hartford Whalers biggest rivals.
The father of the Brass Bonanza is composer Jack Say, and when his creation debuted in the Hartford Civic Center during Whalers games in the 1970’s Hartford fans immediately took to it like pumpkin takes to pie.
At any rate, it’s impossible to hear the Brass Bonanza and not right away think of Hartford, Connecticut. In fact to anyone not from here it’s probably one of the only things that does that. (If not the only thing.)
So of course when Brian Burke became general manager of the Hartford Whalers, in the true Hartford fashion of making bizarre decisions for inexplicable reasons, he got rid of it along with the Whalers awesome green uniforms.
In doing so he scrapped perhaps the most unique aspect of Hartford’s hockey heritage, and shrewdly replaced it with the requisite horn followed by uninspiring, overplayed goal songs that could be heard at any number of rinks all over the U.S. and Canada. This allowed Whalers games to suddenly, uniquely, sound…exactly like every other rink.
Some time after Burke left, but before the Whalers did, the Brass Bonanza did return to the Hartford Civic Center and was played over the combined tears and cheers during their last game in Hartford on April 13th, 1997. When the New York Rangers unceremoniously showed up in Hartford with their Wolf Pack, they once again got rid of it, and it wasn’t restored to regular rotation until Howard Baldwin, the original WHA New England Whalers owner who brought the team to Hartford, returned for a couple of years to market the AHL team.
It was no surprise whatsoever that when Baldwin returned the Brass Bonanza and green jerseys back to Hartford, the AHL team’s attendance rose; with over 13,000 fans showing up to the (now) XL Center for the first night of the team’s rebrand. It was also no surprise that when Baldwin left and the Rangers re-rebranded the team back to their image and dropped the Brass Bonanza yet again, they returned to drawing flies to their games. The impact is still felt today; in the Wolf Pack’s second home game this year they drew just a hair over 2,000 fans to a building that holds over 15,000 for hockey. But, as usual, I digress.
To hockey fans outside of Connecticut, the Brass Bonanza reminds them of the Whalers in general. To Whalers fans who were here when they were, it reminds of us of a whole lot more…
…That it was played after goals scored by the Whalers’ Gordie Howe (who I believe might have played some hockey for the Detroit Red Wings, too.)…the 14 times it was played against the powerhouse Edmonton Oilers on Valentine’s Day in 1984, when Hartford beat them 11-0…the 1986 All-Star game and later sweep of Quebec that led to a Game 7 overtime loss to the Montreal Canadiens, which in turn led to Hartford throwing a downtown parade for a 4th place team…the 1987 Adams Division Championship, the only one they ever won…and so on.
If you’re a member of Generation X and a native of Hartford, you grew up with the Brass Bonanza from the very beginning. The tune was ours, and no other sports team had anything close to a song (aside from the legendary Harlem Globetrotters and Sweet Georgia Brown) that was so identified with it.
With the Whalers stay in Hartford so brief, for us hearing the Brass Bonanza evokes the many hockey memories, both good and bad, that were condensed into 18 short years. And we’re happy to share it, because no matter how many arenas and ballparks play it, it’ll be a nod to Hartford; to which it will be associated with long after I’ve, how did Shakespeare put it? shuffled off this mortal coil, I believe.
As mentioned in a previous article, UConn hockey will play its first Hockey East game at the XL Center in Hartford this November 5th, and have announced it will return the Brass Bonanza to the former Civic Center’s speaker system to become its goal song. And fans here will be waiting for it.
And so, at long last, the beloved Brass Bonanza is back in Hartford where it belongs. Welcome home, Mr. Say.