The club had been founded as an amateur team the previous year[3] in the Northwest Industrial Hockey League,[4][5] where they were known as the Seattle Isaacson Iron Workers.

As NIHL teams were operated by war industry companies, most players for the Iron Workers additionally worked at the production lines of the U.S. Navy's Isaacson Steel plant in nearby Tukwila, Washington.

Over its existence, the Ironmen's most notable stars were Gordon Kerr, the team's leading scorer in those years with 235 points in 244 games, William Robinson, Eddie Dartnell and Joe Bell.

Among other notables for the team were future NHL star goaltender Al Rollins and legendary Philadelphia Flyers coach Fred Shero.

The team continued to play poorly for two seasons, and the only bright spot was the debut for Seattle of the greatest minor league scorer of all time, Guyle Fielder.

Fielder and Filion remained the team's great stars, but like many other WHL teams the Totems had very stable rosters, and players such as Marc Boileau, Gerry Leonard, Bill MacFarland, Jim Powers, Gordie Sinclair and future NHL coach and general manager Tom McVie spent many seasons each in Seattle colors.

On June 12, 1974, the National Hockey League (NHL) announced that a Seattle group headed by Vince Abbey had been awarded an expansion team to begin play in the 1976–77 season.

[13] After a failed attempt by Abbey to purchase the California Golden Seals in June, the NHL pulled the expansion franchise from Seattle.