Today in history: December 24

One birthday on Christmas Eve

Wayne Muloin: A hard-nosed winger, Muloin played for the short-lived Capitols team in 1963, appearing in all eight games in the team's history. He was scoreless and earned 46 penalty minutes before the team was forced to move to Cincinnati early that season. He ended up with 15 points and 169 penalty minutes in total that season, and earned a three-game callup to the Red Wings that year. That really jump-started a career that saw him spend several years in the minors before cracking the Oakland Seals' lineup in 1969. He played 405 NHL/WHA games with the Seals, Minnesota North Stars, Cleveland Crusaders and Edmonton Oilers, nearly all between 1969-77. He did play a few minor-league stints in there, but primarily stuck in the bigs. He had 77 major-league points. A native of Dryden, Ont., he is 70.

Today in history: October 31

October 31 in Indianapolis hockey history

1963: One of the saddest days in Indianapolis history, as a propane tank explodes under the bleachers at the Fairgrounds Coliseum explodes, killing 63 people at an ice show at the rink. The Coliseum is unusable as a result of the explosion, so the Central Professional Hockey League Capitols -- who were on an extended road trip at the time -- would play the balance of the season as the Cincinnati Wings. Indirectly, the franchise would actually return to Indianapolis as the Checkers in 1979. 

Today in history: July 24

Birthdays today

Roger Lafreniere: Defenseman who played for the short-lived Capitols team in the CPHL in 1963. In the team's eight games as an Indianapolis entry, he had one assist. He finished that year with three goals, 24 assists and 112 PIMs -- 10 of which were earned before the team moved to Cincinnati in early November. Lafreniere played three games for the Red Wings that season, and wouldn't play in the NHL again until 10 years later, when he played 10 games for the St. Louis Blues. He spent much of the interim time in the AHL and WHL, primarily with the Buffalo Bisons and Denver Spurs. In 1962, he won the Memorial Cup with the Hamilton Red Wings for coach (and ex-Capital) Eddie Bush. He retired in 1975. A native of Montreal, he was born in 1942. 

Rick Dorman: Right wing who played the 1984-85 season with the Checkers' first IHL entry. In 80 games, he tallied five goals, 20 assists and 263 PIMs. He had a reputation as an enforcer during an eight-year pro career that began in 1977 -- the Checkers were his last stop. In his rookie year, he racked up 475 penalty minutes for the Dayton/Grand Rapids Owls in the IHL. He also managed 16 goals and 30 assists that year. He captained the Owls' Turner Cup championship team the following season. He had at least 250 penalty minutes in seven of his eight pro seasons. Since retirement, he has been a coach and a junior hockey executive. A native of Winnipeg, he is 56. 

Sergei Kukushkin: Ice forward who was drafted by the Dallas Stars in the seventh round of the 2004 NHL Draft and played for the inaugural USHL Ice team in 2004-05. He had one goal and two assists in 19 games. After that season, he returned to Eastern Europe and has played there, matriculating to the KHL -- widely considered Europe's top pro league -- in 2008 with Dynamo Minsk in his hometown. A native of Minsk, Belarus, he is 26. 

Alex Handy: Forward who played 38 games for the Ice from 2007-09, totaling four goals and four assist. A Carmel native, Handy is one of several Hoosiers who have matriculated to the Ice during the team's seven-year USHL tenure. Handy then went on to play collegiately at Wisconsin-Stevens Point. He is 22. 

Today in history: June 30

We close out the month with a quartet of birthdays

Ron Harris: Defenseman who played with the Capitols in their short-lived eight-game run in 1963. He played several seasons in the minors before becoming an NHL fixture after the 1967 expansion, when he played with the Oakland Seals, four years with the Red Wings, and four more years spent with the Flames and Rangers. All in all, he had 20 goals and 91 assists in 476 NHL games. He retired during the 1975-76 season after a knee injury ended his career and later spent several years in coaching, matriculating to associate coach with the Quebec Nordiques in the mid-1980s.  A native of Verdun, Quebec, he is 69.

Ron Sanko: Right wing who played nine games for the Checkers in their final 1986-87 season. He had two goals and one assist. They would be the only nine games of his North American pro career. He was signed after four years in the OHL, the last with the Kitchener Rangers. A native of Windsor, Ontario, he is 46.

Jamie Wansbrough: Right wing who played 10 games for the Checkers in their final 1986-87 season, tallying three goals and three assists. He also played 23 games in Germany that year, his only professional season after four high-scoring years at Bowling Green. He had three straight 30-goal seasons at BGSU before graduating in 1986. A native of Toronto, he is 48.

Craig Fisher: Ice center who had a huge scoring year in his one season in Indianapolis. He tallied 53 goals and 40 assists in 1994-95, leading the Ice in scoring by more than 20 points that year. Fisher's 53 goals were the most scored in a season by an IHL Ice player, and one of seven 50-goal seasons that have been tallied by any hockey player in Indianapolis in the city's history. The next year, he would play for the Orlando Solar Bears and have an even bigger season, scoring a whopping 74 goals and 56 assists. He was drafted in the third round by the Flyers in 1988 and played 12 NHL games with Philadelphia, Winnipeg and Florida between 1989-97. He played nine seasons in the minors and one in Europe between 1990-99, scoring 20 goals eight times and 30+ goals six times. He retired after suffering a concussion in 1999 while playing for the AHL Rochester Americans. Fisher also scored 59 goals in two years with Miami University in college before finishing in 1989. A native of Oshawa, Ontario, he is 41.

Today in history: June 7-9

Catching up on a few dates here ...

Birthdays 
June 7
Leo Reise Jr.: Defenseman who played five games for the Capitals in 1946-47 after being dealt from Chicago. He quickly got called up by Detroit and continued a long NHL career that lasted nine seasons and 494 games. He won the Stanley Cup twice with the Red Wings in 1950 and 1952. He is notable because he and his father -- Leo Reise Sr. -- were the first father-and-son combo to both play in the NHL. A native of Stoney Creek, Ontario, he is 89. 
Hugh Harris: A popular center for the Racers, "Hughie" joined the Racers partway through the 1975-76 season and helped propel them to a division championship. The next year, he scored 21 goals in 46 games and was part of a team that swept Cincinnati in the opening round of the playoffs. He played 106 games for the Racers over three seasons between 1975-78, totaling 34 goals and 70 assists. He also had two goals and five assists in the seven-game loss to the Whalers in the 1976 playoffs. He broke into major-league hockey with the Buffalo Sabres in 1972 and played 396 NHL/WHA games over six seasons, scoring 119 goals. He is one of several father-and-son combos to play in Indianapolis, as he settled in Indianapolis after retirement and his son Casey played for the CHL Ice a generation later. A native of Toronto, he is 63.
Kevin Nugent: Played 25 games for the Racers in their final aborted 1978 season, totaling two goals and eight assists. That would be the only professional season for the Notre Dame graduate. A native of Minnesota, he is 56.
Gregory Squires: Right wing who played two seasons for the Ice from 2006-08, tallying 36 goals and 66 assists in 113 games. He also had three goals and two assists in 10 playoff contests. He had a 24-46-70 season in 2007-08. He has since gone on to Western Michigan University, where he now plays for former Ice coach Jeff Blashill. He has scored 18 goals in three collegiate seasons. A native of White Plains, NY, he is 23. 
Brandon Richardson: A forward who was huge in the Indiana Ice's 2009 Clark Cup championship run. He had 21 goals and 42 assists in the regular season, and added eight goals and eight assists in 12 playoff games. After his year with the Ice, he has played at Nebraska-Omaha. A native of San Clemente, California, he is 23.

Ryan Obuchowski: Defenseman who came on for the Ice late in the year in 2010-11, scoring five goals and eight assists -- four of those goals came during a late-season Ice winning streak. A native of Canton, Michigan, he is 19.

June 8
Dennis Rathwell: Left wing who suited up for the short-lived Capitols team in 1963. He had a goal and two assists in the Caps' short eight-game history, and totaled nine goals and eight assists in 29 games with the Caps and Cincinnati Wings, as the team was known after the team moved due to the Oct. 31 Coliseum explosion. He played nine professional seasons in the Central, Eastern, Western and American Hockey Leagues. A native of Fort Frances, Ontario, he is 71.

June 9
Gerry Leroux: Left wing who played 10 games for the Racers in the short-lived 1978 season. He had three assists in those games. He played two professional seasons, splitting time between the Racers and two IHL teams that season, and playing one more year with IHL Flint. A native of St. Bernadine, Quebec, he is 53.
Andre Racicot: A veteran goaltender who played 13 games for the Ice between 1995-97. Nicknamed "Red Light" by Don Cherry after he allowed three goals in his first NHL appearance, Racicot's career early was as Patrick Roy's backup in Montreal. He played for the Canadiens from 1989-94, winning the Stanley Cup in 1993. He had a 4-6-0 record in Indianapolis. He played in the IHL, ECHL, WPHL and WCHL, as well as in Britain and Russia, from 1994-2002, and two and a half more seasons of senior hockey in his native Quebec until retiring in the fall of 2004. He made 68 NHL starts in his career, and played professionally for 16 years. A native of Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec, he is 42.