Tulsa is not usually the first city that comes to mind when people talk about hockey greatness. But over nearly a century, an impressive list of Hall of Famers, Olympic heroes, famous coaches and future NHL executives have worn an Oilers sweater. Some stayed for a season, some for years. Here are ten famous Tulsa Oilers players who show just how deep the city’s hockey roots go.
1. Duke Keats — Hall of Famer from the Coliseum era
A star center of hockey’s early professional years, Keats played 85 games for the Oilers between 1928 and 1931, when the team was dominating the American Hockey Association out of the old Tulsa Coliseum. He was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1958, making him one of the first great names connected to hockey in Oklahoma.
2. Clint Smith — player and coach
A gifted and famously clean center who won the Stanley Cup with the New York Rangers, Smith came to Tulsa near the end of his career. In 1947-48 he played 64 games for the Oilers while also serving as head coach. He was elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1991.
3. Pat Quinn — before the legendary coaching career
Long before he coached the Philadelphia Flyers, Vancouver Canucks and Toronto Maple Leafs — and led Canada to Olympic gold in 2002 — Pat Quinn was a tough young defenseman in Tulsa. He played 140 games for the Oilers across parts of four seasons in the 1960s, when the team was a Maple Leafs development club.
4. Don Cherry — the voice of Canadian hockey
Before the loud suits, before “Coach’s Corner” and before coaching the Boston Bruins, Don Cherry was a hard-working minor-league defenseman. He spent the 1965-66 season with the Oilers in the Central Professional Hockey League. Few Tulsa fans at the time could have guessed he would become one of the most recognizable personalities in the sport.
5. Marcel Pronovost — Hall of Fame defenseman
Pronovost won multiple Stanley Cups as a standout defenseman, mostly with the Detroit Red Wings, and is enshrined in the Hockey Hall of Fame. He was with the Oilers from 1969 to 1971, adding big-league experience to a young roster.
6-10. The Miracle on Ice connection
Here is a fact that surprises even longtime fans: five members of the 1980 U.S. Olympic team that beat the Soviet Union in the “Miracle on Ice” later played for the Oilers in the early 1980s:
- Bill Baker, defenseman, who scored a dramatic late tying goal against Sweden in the Olympic opener
- Steve Janaszak, the team’s backup goaltender
- Rob McClanahan, forward, who scored the winning goal in the gold-medal-clinching game against Finland
- Dave Silk, forward
- Bob Suter, defenseman
For a few seasons, a crowd in Tulsa could watch players who had been part of one of the most famous upsets in sports history.
Honorable mentions from the 1980s
John Vanbiesbrouck
The goaltender of the 1983-84 Oilers — the team that won a championship while playing its final six weeks entirely on the road — went on to win the Vezina Trophy as the NHL’s best goaltender with the Rangers. You can read the remarkable story of that season in our history of hockey in Tulsa.
George McPhee
A forward on the early-1980s Oilers, McPhee became one of the most respected executives in the NHL, serving as general manager of the Washington Capitals and later building the expansion Vegas Golden Knights into an instant contender.
Rick Bowness
Bowness played parts of four seasons for Tulsa, including the 1975-76 championship season. He went on to a coaching career that spanned several decades and many NHL benches.
The modern era
The current version of the Oilers has its own favorites. General manager Taylor Hall scored 35 goals for the 1992-93 championship team and finished his playing career seventh in team history in points. And behind today’s bench is Rob Murray, an AHL Hall of Famer in his own right.
Why it matters
Minor-league hockey is where careers begin, end and sometimes change direction completely. Tulsa’s list of alumni — Hall of Famers, Olympians, Stanley Cup winners and NHL decision-makers — is proof that the city has been an important stop on the hockey map for almost a hundred years. Next time you are at the BOK Center, remember who skated here before. For more on the eras these Tulsa Oilers players came from, see the records of the 1964-1984 Oilers and the Hockey Hall of Fame, and read about today’s club in our ECHL-era history.
