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The Carolina Hurricanes are close to the Stanley Cup finals. It's a reason for Carolina hockey fans to feel excited, and for Connecticut hockey fans to feel something, too. The Hurricanes used to be the Hartford Whalers until they moved south. That happened almost 30 years ago, which has not been long enough for Whalers fans to get over it. Connecticut Public Radio's Abigail Brone reports.
ABIGAIL BRONE, BYLINE: It was April of 1997 when thousands of fans packed into Connecticut's Hartford Civic Center to watch the Hartford Whalers hockey team play their final game. Then Sports Center reporter John Forslund recognized the gravity of the game and its importance for fans.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
JOHN FORSLUND: Well, it's the meaningless game with tremendous meaning. Both teams, the Hartford Whalers and the Tampa Bay Lightning, have been eliminated from Stanley Cup playoff contention. But for Whaler fans and the team, today means everything.
BRONE: On the 29th anniversary of that final game, more than a dozen Whalers fans cram into a Connecticut sports bar on a Monday night. Members of the Hartford Whalers Booster Club are decked out in blue-and-green Whalers gear while sitting around a conference-style table covered with half drunk beers and cups of Diet Coke. Club president Mark Anderson raises his glass.
MARK ANDERSON: We always toast the boys, you know, in honor of the last game. So with that being said, let's toast our boys. Twenty-nine years. God bless them.
UNIDENTIFIED WHALERS BOOSTER #1: Twenty-nine years.
ANDERSON: We miss you forever. Go whale.
UNIDENTIFIED WHALERS BOOSTER #2: Long live the whale.
ANDERSON: Long live the whale.
UNIDENTIFIED WHALERS BOOSTER #1: Whale is forever.
BRONE: Big companies being unwilling to buy into the team and outdated facilities are what led to the Whales' departure from Connecticut. They moved down south to Raleigh, North Carolina, and rebranded as the Carolina Hurricanes. Many Whalers fans made the shift in allegiance to the Hurricanes. But for some, like Booster Club secretary Jim Lamoureux, who was a Whalers season ticket holder, it just wasn't the same. He still misses the camaraderie.
JIM LAMOUREUX: You got to know people. They were kind of like friends and family that said to people behind you, like, how'd your kid do in their Little League game this week? Or how's your wife feeling? She missed the last game.
BRONE: Hartford Mayor Arunan Arulampalam often sports a Whalers pin. And residents ask him to do what he can to bring back the Whalers.
ARUNAN ARULAMPALAM: It kills me that we are a city with this size media market and no professional sports teams. And I continue to believe that we would not just be able to support a major league sports franchise, but I think most major league sports franchises would be able to thrive here in the city.
BRONE: As for why the Whalers still have such a strong fanbase nearly 30 years later, experts like Kurt Badenhausen, a sports valuations reporter with Sportico, say it comes down to nostalgia and city pride.
KURT BADENHAUSEN: Sports are emotional. And so people still gravitate to the teams they rooted for as kids or even adults, or the memories they shared with their children or their parents at these games.
BRONE: Hartford Whalers' cofounder, Howard Baldwin, wants the NHL to bring the franchise back to Connecticut. But it's out of his hands.
HOWARD BALDWIN: I'm not afraid to say they never should've been allowed to leave. And that's one of the sad moments in my life. But also, to the people back there, you never want to give up. Who's to say?
BRONE: Baldwin hopes to form a sports memorabilia museum in Hartford, selling fresh Whalers gear and keeping alive the hope for a return of the whale.
For NPR News, I'm Abigail Brone.
(SOUNDBITE OF MODEST MOUSE SONG, "THE WHALE SONG") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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