After four more seasons Mathers finally ended his unprecedented, unbroken seventeen-year coaching run and retired from the bench after the 1972-73 season to devote his efforts full time to his duties as GM. Including a brief return to the bench in 1984-85, Mathers compiled a personal coaching record of 610-513-134 for a career winning percentage of .539. As his successor as coach Mathers named 34-year old former Bears' winger Chuck Hamilton (1973-79) who had spent seven productive seasons playing for Mathers from 1963 to 1970. In his first season as the Bears' new coach, Hamilton guided a young and inexperienced squad (nine of the Bears that season were first year players) to unexpected heights as his club -- soon dubbed the “Comeback Kids” -- rallied night after night to thrilling come-from-behind victories.
Despite not having a single Bear among the league's top ten scorers and placing just one player -- veteran defenseman Duane Rupp -- on the Second All Star Team, by season's end the Bears were just two points behind the first place Baltimore Clippers in the Southern Division race. In the play-offs, however, nobody could touch them as they lost just twice on their way to clinching their fifth Cup title by defeating the Cincinnati Swords (4-1), Baltimore Clippers (4-0), and Providence Reds (4-1) with the championship game played before an Arena crowd of 8,703. Ironically at the same time the NHL Philadelphia Flyers were winning their first Stanley Cup championship thus simultaneously bringing the top two titles in professional hockey to the Keystone State for the first -- and so far only -- time in history.
Pennsylvania almost repeated in 1979-80, however, but the Flyers lost to the New York Islanders in the finals in six games exactly one week after the Bears clinched their sixth Calder Cup title. That remarkable season the Bears were led by player/coach Doug Gibson who replaced first year coach Gary Green when he was unexpectedly promoted to the Bears' then NHL affiliate, the Washington Capitals, early in the season to replace Danny Belisle. Incredibly Gibson not only led the Bears to a title as their coach, but also in play-off scoring with twelve goals and seven assists for nineteen points in sixteen Calder Cup games. In the nets former Penguin, Flyer and Capital goalie Gary Inness -- who himself would later coach the team -- compiled a 6-1 playoff record while his goaltending partner, Dave Parro, was 6-3.
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