\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJul 16, 2026<\/p>\n
Utica, NY \u2013\u00a0The\u00a0Clinton\u00a0Comets, a storied and cherished\u00a0hockey franchise in the Mohawk Valley,\u00a0were\u00a0officially inducted into the New York\u00a0State\u00a0Hockey Hall of Fame\u2019s\u00a0Class of 2026\u00a0at a ceremony\u00a0in Troy, NY last week.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Based in Clinton, NY, the former minor league club\u00a0had a longstanding tenure, playing from 1927-1973\u00a0before becoming the Mohawk Valley Comets\u00a0of the North American Hockey League\u00a0in 1973. The\u00a0Clinton\u00a0Comets were part of three different leagues throughout\u00a0their\u00a0existence but\u00a0spent the most time in the Eastern Hockey League (EHL) where they competed from 1954-1973\u00a0and were a dominant force,\u00a0capturing\u00a0five EHL championships.\u00a0The team\u2019s\u00a0best\u00a0season came in 1967-68, under Head Coach\u00a0Pat\u00a0Kelly,\u00a0when it finished with an astonishing record of 57-5-10 in route to its\u00a0third EHL championship.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
In addition to\u00a0renowned\u00a0coaches like Pat Kelly, the Clinton Comets also produced\u00a0legendary\u00a0players like Jack Kane, Bordie Smith, and Bill Bannerman.\u00a0In addition to Smith and Bannerman, three other former Clinton Comets were present at the induction ceremony in Troy last week: Pierre Prevost, Tom Mitchell, and Dave Armstrong.\u00a0\u201cIt was quite\u00a0an evening\u00a0and the\u00a0speeches were great. Rob (Esche)\u00a0kind of surprised\u00a0us when he showed up and spoke. It was great to see him there and\u00a0he\u2019s\u00a0always been there for us,\u201d commented Armstrong. He went on to add, \u201cI just wish there were more of us there to accept the award. You\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0often come across teams like the one we had. It was one big, happy family. I\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0think\u00a0you have a lot of that in today\u2019s hockey world and being inducted was a moment\u00a0I\u2019ll\u00a0cherish for the rest of my life.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Bordie Smith, who was part of the legendary line alongside Jack Kane and Bill Bannerman, noted,\u00a0\u201cTo be associated with those guys is an honor for me. We had some epic battles back in the day and\u00a0to win\u00a0three championships in a row was\u00a0incredible. This induction\u00a0brings back memories\u00a0of those days and\u00a0reminds me of my teammates\u00a0who were like brothers. I\u00a0remain\u00a0close to\u00a0those\u00a0that are still with us and to share\u00a0that experience\u00a0with them at the induction\u00a0was something special.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Adding further color to Smith\u2019s comments about those former teams, Pierre Prevost mentioned, \u201cIt was\u00a0an\u00a0era of\u00a0tough, hard-core\u00a0hockey. We had\u00a0just 13 forwards, four\u00a0defensemen,\u00a0and\u00a0one\u00a0goalie. To have a season with only\u00a0five\u00a0losses was incredible.\u00a0We\u2019ve\u00a0been waiting a while for this and\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0a great honor to be inducted into the 2026 Class.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Hall of Fame induction is a great honor not only to the former Clinton Comets\u2019 players, but to all of those\u00a0in our community\u00a0who celebrate the sport. The Clinton Comets\u00a0led to\u00a0the\u00a0inception\u00a0of\u00a0the Utica Comets,\u00a0and\u00a0its achievements continue to\u00a0serve as inspiration for the future of hockey\u00a0in\u00a0the Mohawk Valley.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
For the latest Comets news, visit\u00a0www.uticacomets.com<\/a>\u00a0or follow the team on Facebook (www.facebook.com\/uticacomets),<\/a>\u00a0Instagram (@UticaComets), and X (@UticaComets).\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jul 16, 2026 Utica, NY \u2013\u00a0The\u00a0Clinton\u00a0Comets, a storied and cherished\u00a0hockey franchise in the Mohawk Valley,\u00a0were\u00a0officially inducted into the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":297866,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[69257,3180,9,11,10,49,51,50,113317],"class_list":["post-297865","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-ahl","tag-hockey","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-new-york-state-headlines","tag-new-york-state-news","tag-utica-comets"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297865","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=297865"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297865\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/297866"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=297865"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=297865"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=297865"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}