Sixty years ago Wednesday, the National Hockey League planted the seeds for what would become its first major expansion, hoping to create six new teams, ballooning from the Original Six to 12 teams in total.
In declaring its intention to expand into new markets, this date is indirectly where hockey in Pittsburgh would change forever.
By spring 1965, state Sen. Jack McGregor had already begun lobbying to bring an NHL team back to Pittsburgh after the Pittsburgh Pirates folded in 1930. Sen. McGregor rallied a group of local investors that included prominent businessmen like H.