The First Hurricanes Captain

Back when Jordan first started Canes This Week, I had a themed idea for the blog entitled "The Captains."

Every few weeks, I would check in with one of the many Lethbridge Hurricanes players who have worn the 'C' to see where they are now. Everyone from Brent Seabrook and Jamie Pushor to Tyler Wong and Jordy Bellerive.

To be honest, that idea kind of hit the skids right off the bat because I had some questions about who the first captain in team history was.

In going back through past news releases from the Hurricanes, I had seen a few different names listed as the first. Some lists had Kevin Heise as the first in 1987-1988 while others had Peter Berthelson.

So with the recent announcement that forward Dylan Cozens and defenseman Ty Prefontaine would be sharing the duties for the remainder this year, I thought I would reignite my captain idea by first trying to get to the bottom of my little mystery.

In doing trade trees and other historical pieces for the blog, I've become pretty good at sleuthing through the Lethbridge Herald's archives and struck gold pretty early on. As it turns out, the answer to the question of the Hurricanes' first captain might surprise a few.

In the October 5, 1987 edition of the Herald, the answer was found in the article about the club's season opening losses to Prince Albert and Medicine Hat.

A little way down Ron Davitt's article, he writes "Hurricanes captain Terry Black tied the game."

Prior to the team's home opener on October 7, the Herald's Randy Jensen wrote a lengthy piece entitled "Black prepared to lead Hurricanes."

In it, Jensen wrote "Black is one of the most, if not the most, respected players on a young team which is eligible to return 22 out of 25 players next season."

The then 18-year-old had played with the Lethbridge Broncos in 1985-1986 and admitted that he "didn't expect anything like that to happen" in getting the 'C'.

That night, the Hurricanes made their Lethbridge Sportsplex debut. And in his post-game rundown of the 3-2 loss to the Tigers, the Herald's Randy Jensen said the players were introduced individually to the crowd with Black "receiving the loudest applause."

But a change was made in late-January, with an "Ice Chips" quick mention that Heise would take over as captain with Black taking an alternate captain spot with Jim Wheatcroft.

It's not quite clear why the change was made, as I've searched around the archives.

What is clear is that I have finally stopped going down this particular rabbit hole and can now start catching up with some of the captains for the rest of the season.