Rod Bloomfield: A Binghamton Hall of Famer

Rod Bloomfield played the full four year duration of the NAHL with the Binghamton Dusters (also known as Broome Dusters). He carried on with the club for one more season, 1977-78, when the franchise joined the American Hockey League.

During his North American Hockey League career, Bloomfield played 288 regular season games, scoring 187 goals and assisting on 310 for 497 points. In the tradition of the NAHL, Bloomfield also sat 417 minutes in the penalty box.

Rod led the league in goals during the 1974-75 season with 55. He was twice the NAHL assists leader with 73 in 1973-74 and an incredible 124 in 1976-77. In the final season of the league, Bloomfield was the scoring champion with 173 points. The point total was pretty incredible but a far cry from the NAHL record of 208 set the year before by Joe Hardy of the Beauce Jaros.

His four years with the Dusters in the NAHL and his one year with the club in the AHL were his only five years in professional hockey. He turned 26 years old during his first season and called it quits after during his fifth year due to an injury resulting from a puck to the eye. I still find it surprising he never saw at least some action with a WHA club. Sure, he was small with a listed playing height of 5’6” and weighing in at just 160 lbs. However, at the time, guys like Andre Lacroix in the WHA and Yvan Cournoyer in the NHL were proving the little guys could get it done.

Bloomfield was Binghamton’s team leader in each of the four seasons. In 1974-75, he led the Dusters to the Lockhart Cup finals before being swept by the Johnstown Jets in four games. Over 15 playoff games, Rod scored ten goals and assisted on nine more for 19 points.

The NAHL is known as the inspiration behind the cult classic move, Slap Shot. Although uncredited, Bloomfield acted as Paul Newman’s on-ice stunt double during the movie.

In 1999, Rod was inducted into the Binghamton Hockey Hall of Fame. It was just the Hall’s second year of existence. The Hall of Fame doesn’t have a web presence and is located inside the Broome County Veteran’s Memorial Arena. The Arena was completed in 1973, just in time for the Dusters to be its first tenants.

Bloomfield is also an inductee at the Bobby Orr Hall of Fame in Parry Sound, Ontario. He was inducted as an individual in 2011. In 2012, he was inducted again as a member of the 1961-62 Parry Sound Bantams, a team that also included Bobby Orr.