The Black Shirt of Doom - Fact or Legend?

For the first time since 2005, The Belfast Giants don Black Shirts. This time for the Cup competitions. But what of the History of the Giants wearing the colour Black? Patrick and Leafy give their take on the history and superstition held by "The Black Shirt of Doom"

Very Superstitious, Writings on the Wall

Superstitions dominate sport, for fans and players alike. Be it a lucky shirt, lucky socks or a lucky jock strap, not a game goes by without at least one ritual or superstition making its mark on a professional sporting event.

In baseball “The Curse of the Bambino”, was a widely held belief behind the Boston RedSox’ 86 year wait for a World Series.

Ice Hockey is no different to any other sports when it comes to ritual traditions and superstition. Who here says “Shut Out” when we’re on the verge of one?

In Detroit at Stanley Cup time, it's an octopus. Throwing the good luck charm on the ice started in 1952. The NHL had just two playoff rounds then, so the eight legs on the animal symbolized the eight wins needed to take two four-of-seven series for the Stanley Cup. The Wings swept eight straight that year. The tradition has seen the club through five more championships since then.

That is what creates tradition, that is what creates character, that is what gives a club an identity.. and to this day the in Ice Hockey, the Octopus is representative of one team.

Colours also play a factor in sports superstition, Tiger Woods, for example, always wears red on the Sunday of any tournament.

So what of us in Belfast? Our club is approaching it’s 10th anniversary, and one incident that hangs heavy over those 10 years is known by Giants fans as “Black Sunday”.

In only their second season, the Belfast Giants had swept to the Sekonda Ice hockey Superleague title. The combination of Ruff, Riehl and Berens proving too fast and skilful for any of their opponents, while Chad Allan and Terran Sandwith provided the protection in front of a rock named Mike Bales between the pipes. The Giants had the league title wrapped up before January was out, a 2-2 tie against the Bracknell Bees on the 19th January giving them a 29-8-5 record upon picking up the Montieth Bowl. They were without doubt the most dominant force in the league that season.

Times were different back then. The ISL was a stronger league than the EIHL we have today and one the “Powers-that-be” felt could compete with the German DEL. Therefore, while a number of the DEL International stars were off in Utah for the 2002 Winter Olympic Games, a selection of ISL teams took on DEL teams in the Aherne Trophy (named after Irish-born Hockey legend John “Bunny” Ahearne). For this the Giants produced a Black Shirt. A “one off” to be used in the Ahearne Trophy. Fans snapped up this limited piece of Giants memorabilia.

However as the Giants took to the ice for the first game against Oberhausen, the black shirts were missing. Oberhausen had only travelled with dark shirts, forcing the Giants to wear their normal colours for the game. The next night the Giants faced Hanover (and current Mincoffs Vipers netminder Andrew Verner) this time donning the Black Shirts. The game ended in a tie with the Giants winning 4-3 After Over Time.

The fans were disappointed to only see their shirt be worn once by the team having forked out £60 for the privilege of owning one. So as a gesture of good will the Giants decreed that, if they as the were to compete in Challenge Cup final, the Black Shirts would be worn there.

The scene was set. The Odyssey Arena, Sunday 3rd March 2002. The Fans were in great voice, the BBC broadcast the game live, everyone was ready!

The Giants record against the Ayr Scottish Eagles that season was a strong one. In 8 league games the Giants had won 7 and drawn the most recent encounter, so confidence was high. The Giants had taken a win the previous night in a hard fought 6-3 battle against PC Drouin and the Nottingham Panthers.. but the Giants fans expectations of their side were for a glorious League and Cup double…. It didn’t work out like that. 163 seconds into the game, Rhett Gordon latched onto a poor clearance along the plexi by Mike Bales and fired the puck into an empty net. Thus began the first shut out loss for the Giants in the Odyssey Arena since the Panthers in October of the previous year.

The Fans were stunned, the media deemed it “A Black Sunday for the Giants”. This team were dominant? League Champions before anyone could have a sniff. They’d only lost one other league game since lifting the title before going to the final! They’d reached the final with an 8-1 aggregate thrashing of the Bracknell Bees! It just didn’t make sense! What was different?

Black Shirts! We hadn’t won a game in Regulation wearing Black Shirts!

The Black shirt became a symbol of that day, that stunning 5-0 loss at the hands of Ayr. The belief formed that it was unlucky, jinxed for the Giants to wear black!

But surely this is nonsense? A singularity, wearing Black is but a co-incidence, the loss may be down many factors, fatigue, complacency.. and yes you may be right.. but fast forward 3 seasons..

An 8 game playoff group involving 4 away games and 4 home games. For the first time since Black Sunday, the Giants had issued an all black special edition Playoff Jersey in line with the rest of the leagues “Special Editions”. That season Tony Hand had coached and lead the Giants to a tight 2nd place league finish behind the Coventry Blaze, so went into the Playoff group (against the Steelers who finished in 5th ,13 points behind the Giants, and the Devils who finished 6 points back in 3rd) as favourites to emerge and proceed to the final 4. Only one team in the group would be eliminated.

Once again things didn’t go at all to plan. The Giants didn’t win a single game. Losing all four games away, beginning with a 4-0 Shut Out loss to the Sheffield Steelers and ending with a 3-0 Shut Out loss to the Cardiff Devils, and tying all four home games.. eliminating them from the group and from the Playoffs, much to the surprise of not just the fans but many in the league. Did the Black Shirts strike again? Certainly after the teams elimination General Manager John Elliot stated we’d “Never wear Black Shirts again”. It seemed that once the Black shirts were donned.. the team that was, were no more.

Of course this is all superstition, a series of occurrences, co-incidences, with no basis in fact other than the beliefs of the fans that follow it. It does, however add something to our club. Do I fully believe that a Black Shirt can influence the team on the ice, I’m an engineer that works on absolutes, no of course I don’t. But do I believe in superstitions being held in a club and traditions and rituals giving a club identity? I certainly do.

Once again we have Black Shirts for the cup games, once again the superstition will be tested, we may win, we may lose, however as we approach 10 years of the club, many will look back and associate the Black shirts with “dark times”. Some may see that as negative, as “codswallop” and they may be right. But one thing can’t be denied, like the Panthers v Paxton, October 2002, Like Shane Johnson’s virtuoso performance against the Knights in the Playoff Final in 2003, Like Colin Ryders stunning performance in the Continental Cup qualifiers in the Odyssey and the subsequent adventure in Lugano, these things are factual parts of our history, while “Black Shirt of Doom” remain equally a superstitious part of our tradition.

And one many will never forget.

Superstitious Nonsense!

March 3rd 2002. A date which has gone down in Giants history as one of their darkest moments, on-ice anyways. A full Odyssey expectant of a cup success, live BBC NI TV coverage, playing against a team we’d beaten 7 out of 8 that season with 1 draw, only 2 home games lost all regular season – what could possibly go wrong?

Well, just about everything!! At the end of the day the 5-0 stuffing from Ayr was every bit as bad as the scoreline suggests it was. So much so, that the game rapidly became referred to as “Black Sunday” both in the press and forum world

How could such a dominant team flunk so badly? Surely there had to be a reason? Some Giants fans suggested the black shirts (unveiled specially for the Ahearne Trophy games, but making a return appearance for the cup final) were unlucky, a viewpoint reinforced as far as they were concerned in season 04-05 as the Giants failed to qualify for playoff finals when wearing a black set of jerseys.

The legend of the “Black Jersey of Doom” has grown amongst some to the extent they feel the G.Org should not “tempt fate” by using black again – a subject which has arisen due to the decision to make the ST Holder special edition jerseys black for this season. Should the Giants actually play a game in those jerseys or should they reserve them as “fan jerseys” only? That is the question. Would ST fans care so much if they’re not worn on ice anyways?

I like the black jersey as it looks this year. It certainly looks the part off ice and if I was to buy a Giants jersey this year, that’d probably be it. I believe the “Black Jersey of Doom” is a nice wee in-joke superstition which has a place in Giants mythology but allowing it to grow to the extent of influencing Giants jersey designs is as credible as the belief that the Leafs really are cursed by Harold Ballard.

If the Red Sox can beat the curse of the Bambino can we beat the black jerseys? Does anyone want to find out? Maybe the team wearing black for cup games only is a nice compromise, if they must wear it at all. That way, if the team lose… well, it’s just another Belfast tradition! If they win, they break the “curse”.

Deal or no deal?

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