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.
