Welcome to the Buffalo Bison Hockey Association

The Buffalo Bison Hockey Association is a member of USA Hockey and the New York State Amateur Hockey Association (NYSAHA). Our boys teams participate in the Western New York Amateur Hockey League (WNYAHL) and our girls teams participate in the South Western Ontario Girls Hockey League (SWGHL) and the Great Lakes Girls Hockey league (GLGHL). We compete as a Tier III travel hockey organization for boys and a Tier I organization for girls. We begin at the Initiation Program Level where we are designed to introduce youngsters to the great game of hockey. We field “House, A and AA” level teams at the Mite, Squirt, Peewee, Bantam and Midget age levels. We also have an active men’s house program that skates weekly. Bison Hockey is a volunteer-based program.

Our Mission

North Buffalo Bison Hockey provides an opportunity for players to experience the great game of ice hockey in a manner that is fun, satisfying and rewarding for all participants. Under the direction of qualified adult volunteers, our primary emphasis is on increased participation, improved skills and maintaining a responsible environment for the conduct of youth hockey.

Our Philosophy

Founded in 1959, Buffalo Bison Hockey Association is entering its 47th season of play. We are dedicated to providing an environment structured to introduce, teach and refine the fundamental skills of hockey to the youth of Western New York. We focus on the development of individual skills in the context of a team game. Our overarching goals will be to allow our young adults to build character through athletic competition. By emphasizing sound skills development, and teaching team play, our players will become competitive at various levels. We will strive to nurture their enjoyment and enable a life long interest in the game. We will seek to emphasize key performance areas throughout every level of play: Skating, passing and receiving, puck shooting, checking and goalkeeping. Each coach will execute on building a program to develop these areas as appropriate at each level.  Individual  development will be emphasized and team play and tactics will be introduced as our players mature and become more skilled.

A Little Background...

In 1959 the Buffalo Shamrocks Athletic Club was created to provide young boys the opportunity to play organized municipal hockey in Western New York and Canada. The Dann Memorial Rink on the Nichols School campus has been our home facility since inception. Nichols School has provided a beautiful roof over our heads since birth. 

Over the past 44 years the Shamrocks A.C. has grown into what is now known as the Buffalo Bison Hockey Association. In the late 1980's we began a girls program that has grown into a significant part of our program today. In April 2005, Bison Hockey merged with North Buffalo to strengthen our program. We now have over 575 boys and girls ranging from 2 to 17 years of age involved in our program.  Captured below are some personal histories of the early years of our association. We welcome your input as well. Don't forget to go to our Photo Album so you can combine some faces and names to the stories shared below.

Bison and Shamrock Hockey History

By Warren B. Gelman

The first Shamrock hockey team played during the 1959-1960 season. The previous year, Bill Russell had started a muny team under the name of Paul Batt Buick.  Bill then changed the name to the Shamrocks and he and Trey Coley were the first coaches of our Midget team. These two gentlemen went on to guide the Shamrocks AC (Athletic Club) program for years. Trey Coley had been a great high school and college hockey player for Nichols School and later for Colgate University. Bill Russell also attended Colgate and he was the great organizer of the Shamrock teams for many years to come. Along with their wives Betty Coley and Sue Russell they were joined in their organizing efforts with Barbara and Jack Gelman and Jack and Sally Walsh. These four families helped launch the Shamrocks for their young boys. It wasn’t very long before numerous teams were being formed at a variety of ages.

That first Midget team was made up of Clay Hamlin, Bruce Fennie, Paul Sullivan, Lou Surdam, Bill Constantine, Chip Clark, Allen Kew, Bill Cooley, Bill Loweth, Jack Walsh and myself from Nichols, Chip Coley and Ackley Blocher from Amherst, Tim O’Conner and Kirk Kuhlman from Canisius, Bill Russell and Andy McGennis from Park, Jim Darnell from Alden and Mark Fennie from St Mark’s.

The team played in the Buffalo Municipal Hockey League and played against such teams as the Pepsis, Webers, Blasdells and the Buffalo Regals.  Our chief rival was the Pepsi’s who had a strong forward by the name of Oscar Johnson.  The Shamrocks won both the league and playoffs that year with a final record of 20 wins and one tie.

During the year, we took a bus trip to Guelph, Ontario and played an exhibition game.  I believe that the players stayed with the Guelph players in their homes.  At the end of the year, the team went to Lake Placid for the Midget State Tournament which was held in the old Olympic Rink.  We stayed at Marcy Hotel.  Lake Placid had a strong team led by a very good player by the name of Larry Straight.  Massena had an excellent team led by Tom Hurley who later played at Clarkson.  The day before the tournament began we had  practice outdoors on Mirror Lake. Massena beat the Shamrocks 4-3 in the opening round for our first and only loss of the season. We defeated Potsdam and Lake Placid to win the consolation in our first season.

The following year, which was the 1960-61 season, was my sophomore year at Nichols. Our team had 23 wins and 1 tie in the regular season to win the Midget Division of the Buffalo Muny League. We went on to win the playoffs and a return trip to Lake Placid for the NY State Midget Tournament. This time we had quite a following as 31 carloads of Shamrock players, parents, grandparents and fans made the trip to stay at the famous old Lake Placid Club. It was a great weekend as the Shamrocks defeated Massena 5-4 and Lake Placid 4-1 en route to our first state championship.

It wasn’t very long before a second Shamrock team was formed. This time it was at the Peewee level. Trey Coley and Bill Russell again served as coaches and the team was known as the Bisons. They wore the red replica jerseys of the AHL Buffalo Bisons with the Pepsi bottle cap logo saying “Buffalo” on the front. After dominating the Buffalo Muny League all season this team qualified for the NY State Championships, which were  held in Lake Placid. Once again a caravan of Bison families made the trek to the Adirondacks for the tourney. The Bisons didn’t disappoint their supporters. Lead by the Highland Avenue line of Eli Tubbs, Max Becker and team captain Michael Walsh, the Bisons defeated Clinton 6-0, Canton 5-3 and Lake Placid 4-3 to win the New York State crown. Dick Coley, Brad Cooke, Donnie Tracy, Rusty Collins, Mike Rush, Eddie Ambis, Steve Fernow, Tim Brennan, Jim Campbell, Steve Harbor, Jimmy Oshei, Alex Creighton, and Piper Stevens were on this team. These players formed the nucleus of Bison teams throughout the 60’s.

By this time two great volunteers had quietly joined the Shamrock ranks. Peter Rush who brought with him two very talented goalie sons, Michael and Patrick, had become involved. In addition, Chuck Rogers, whose son Freddie played in the organization, began to coach our youngest skaters for the Shamrocks. The number of teams were expanded as younger brothers arrived eager to replicate the experience their older siblings were having. Additional teams at the Bantam, Peewee and Squirt house level were formed. Peter Rush and Chuck Rogers were a big part of this expansion

In 1966-67 another NY State Championship banner was added to the rafters at the new Nichols rink – The Dann Memorial Rink was built in time for the 1965 season. This two surface facility was outstanding. The Shamrock Peewees, who were coached by John Williams, Bill Russell and Peter Rush, were made up of  a group of skaters who played together from Mites through High School. Lead by future College Hockey All-American Rick Zeller the Shamrocks were undefeated in league play. There were however some occasional wake-up games against older Canadian teams scheduled by Bill Russell to keep these boys modest. Chip Williams, Jay Waters, Peter Butzer, Peter Scamurra, Warren Schintzius, Danny Kreiner, John Moot and Barney Walsh were on the team that traveled to Syracuse to the state fairgrounds to win the New York State Peewee Championship. Then it was on to Braintree, Massachusetts to play in the National Peewee Tournament where the team ended up ranked fourth in the nation.

The next season Warren Gelman returned to Buffalo and became coach for this same core group as they became Bantams. Lead by Ted Walsh and Michael Moot this team once again competed for the NY State Championship where they lost in the semifinals to Potsdam.  The boys went on to compete for future NY State Championships over the next few years.  Tournaments with Bill Russell and even Freddie Shero, former Buffalo Bison (AHL) Head Coach and later NHL great, go down in Shamrock history. Those annual pilgrimages to Lake Placid with scores of Shamrock teams taking over the Lake Placid Club are etched in a lot of family memories. Playing on the Olympic Arena was a special experience and siblings skiing at Whiteface Mountain and skating on Mirror Lake all symbolize the Shamrock and later Bison culture. The focus on hockey was great but the overall family experience came first. Shamrock Hockey was built for great families who really enjoyed each others company. That same focus holds true for the Bison program today some 45 years later.

In the early 1980’s the Shamrock organization merged with the Tonawanda Hockey Association as youth hockey enrollments began to shrink in western New York. Our name was changed to the Bisons so that neither organization felt taken over. Since then numerous Bison teams have competed in the Western New York Amateur Hockey League (WNYAHL) and gone on to play for NY State titles. The Bison experience is designed to introduce young skaters and their families to the great game of hockey. Success on the ice in terms of winning games is important but it has not been as important as developing skills and displaying good sportmanship. We have been very fortunate to have had great leadership, supportive coaches and parents and wonderful skaters wearing the Bison uniform in rinks all over New York and Canada the last five decades. It has been a great run so far.

We plan to expand this portion of our history as our next season unfolds. In the meantime we welcome the input of others. Please share with us your pictures and stories of past Shamrock, Bison or North Buffalo experiences. Just email or call us with your news.

Bison Hockey Girls Program History

By Warren B. Gelman

By the late 1970”s and early 1980’s, my daughters Lisa and Sarah were playing hockey on Shamrock/Bison Mite and Squirt teams.  In the fall 1987, when Sarah was 13 and Lisa was 12, it became apparent that it was time for them to begin to play with girls.  Unfortunately, there were no girl hockey teams in the area.  When I began to do some looking, I realized with Sarah and Lisa, Mimi May, Kelvey and Jean Richards and Jennifer Dagonese, we had a nucleus of a girls team.  We did some recruiting and found Shelly Jackson, Meredith McGee and several others.  I soon realized we did not have a goal tender, but I knew that Sarah had a good friend, Kate Galvin, who was an outstanding athlete.  Although Kate had never skated we recruited her to be our first goalie.  Although we had some girls who were 13 and 14 years old, we also had girls who were 8, 9 and 10 years old.  Since I did not know much about girls hockey in Ontario,  I entered the team in a tournament in Mississauga.  We were beaten in three straight games by a total of something like 64-3, but the girls had a great time, they loved playing with each other and we were obviously building something they came to really value..  Throughout the first year, we played Paul Hurley’s Pee-Wee boys team frequently.  

By the next season, we had identified some other Canadian teams such as Stoney Creek, Brantford, Port Dover and Glanbrooke that we could compete with.  We invited several of these teams to a Nichols tournament where several college hockey coaches did recruiting.  I remember meeting Laura Halderson who was coaching at Colby and Didget Murphy who was coaching at Brown.  In that tournament, the girls won their first game and their last game against Port Dover.  By the way, thinking that our team was a year older and since we had not graduated anybody, we went again to Mississauga.  Again, we were soundly defeated by the strong Canadian AA teams.

In the 1989-1990 season, we entered the Southern Ontario Girls Hockey League with teams from Brantford, Glanbrooke, Stoney Creek, Burlington and Port Dover.  Meaghan Sittler joined the team in the next couple of years.  We added several outstanding girls from Batavia and Rochester, including Jaime Totten, Alana Hayes and Kristine Pierce.  The Bisons won their first State Tournament in 1993 in New Hartford and went to the nationals in Providence.(see Kyle Walsh's article following this one for a player's point of view)

The following year, the bisons again won the State Tournament, this time at Nichols, and traveled to Detroit for the National Tournament.  The following season, despite losing Meaghan Sittler, the girls won their third straight Midget championship upsetting favored Lake Placid.  The team participated in the National Tournament in Syracuse.

Around the mid-1990’s, a second Bison girls hockey team was started.  My recollection is that Susan Gelman, Polly Graser, Linda Groff, Dalton Beaver and Ashley Sittler were some of the girls who played on the Bisons Pee-Wee girls hockey team. I will turn it over to Nick Beaver and others to fill in the blanks and provide some more recent experiences and reflections on the evolution of our girl's hockey program. It sure has grown beautifully over the last sixteen years. 

The Girl’s Program - A Player’s Perspective

By Kyle Walsh

CLICK HERE for a list of 50 + Buffalo Bison girls who went on to play college hockey between 1991-2004

I loved playing that first year, even though we often got killed.  The tourney in Mississauga…We got our butts kicked but on the other hand, there were thousands of girls playing awesome hockey in Southern Ontario.  Wow!  Sarah Gelman scores our only goal of the tournament and Katie Galvin comes out of the goal all the way down the ice to give her a hug. I think we were outscored 64-1 in four games and loved it.

On the other end of the spectrum, the first of our state championships….three in a row wins in 1993 in New Hartford.  WE beat our rivals, Syracuse (of “Syracuse Sucks” fame), 4-1 in the final.  The New Hartford team comes into the locker room before the game to ask if they could wear our other jerseys in the stands during the game, then proceeded to heckle the crap out of them for the entire game.  The final buzzer counts down, all I remember is the blur of jumping over the boards, the pig pile, Warren Gelman crying then champagne in the locker room.  On the NYS thruway we’d stop at the same Burger King/Sbarro that we always stop at.  Whoever was carrying the huge trophy would put it on the table while we all eat pizza and party.

Going to Nationals in Providence, then Michigan and later Syracuse those three years was awesome!  We had some marathon three or four OT games with the Minnesota Thoroughbreds.  We really held our own on a national level, which was cool!  I think in ’94 we came in 2^nd or 3^rd in the country.

I have to say that while I’ve played on lots of great , fun, competive teams throughout my life in different sports at different levels; the last four years of Bison Hockey were absolutely the best combination of people I’ve played with.  It was (mostly) void of interpersonal problems, egos, or squabbling that marked some of my later experiences.  I loved those girls.  WE had a blast!  I love that we did that.  I loved traveling, sitting in the back of the Gelmans’ car laughing til I almost peed.  I loved that while most of my high school classmates were sitting around all week end doing nothing, we were playing hockey in Upstate NY, Southern Ontario or tourneys somewhere else.  I love that we were part of the explosion of Women’s Hockey and that our efforts in every dingy rink in New Hartford or Burlington led to college and the Olympics.  Seeing women I have competed against on TV is the reason it feels like my sport, OUR sport.  I love that our team was so across the board socio-economically.  We didn’t all go to the same school.   People lived in Buffalo, Williamsville, Rochester and Pennsylvania.  We had a dad that was an NHL All-Star, a truck driver, a lawyer and a dairy farmer.  There were kids who had money that went to prep schools and kids who didn’t.  Despite all that, maybe because of that, we got along better than any team I’ve ever been on- hands down.  I feel that extended across the league, we made friends with the Ithaca girls, etc.

In college, playing games against old teammates were fun, competitive and emotional.  The refs were always out for us at Colby College.  Sarah Gelman, their captain, rang my bell, Meghan Sittler lighting us up for five goals.  Northeastern – we hated each other.  Those were some DIRTY games, coaches fighting in the halls afterwards, cheap shots everywhere.  It was extremely gratifying to beat them again and again. My Senior year at Harvard when we won Nationals.  However, I was always happy for Jamie Totten, she was an amazing leader for that Northeastern team.  We’d always battle it out on the ice but when the whistle blew we’d be all “Hi Totts!”  “Hey Kylie, how ya doin?”  It was funny because our teams had this acrimonious rivalry but every time we were on the ice and the years we were captains or at ECAC or the Beanpot dinner, everyone eyed each other in a weird way.  We could feel how proud we were of each other.  Playing Cornell was my favorite.  How could it not be?  There were like fifty people on that team I played with or against…. Paige Kromke, April Wall, Alanna Hayes, Kris Herman, Leanna House, Kelvey Richards and Laura Hays at Princeton, we all played together as Bisons.  It was always good to see them.  It was like there was a Bison legacy all over the league, a lot of us, eight I think, became captains of our college teams.  I was always so, so proud of that!

Warren Gelman started something for his girls in the same way his parents did for him back in the late 1950’s. The Bison Hockey legacy for girls is awesome. It was the best time I had playing hockey.