The crazy and chaotic WHA

 

It was an inauspicious start for the fledgling World Hockey Association. One of the initial teams, the Miami Screaming Eagles never even held a practice – it didn’t have an arena.

The franchise was quickly moved to Philadelphia and renamed the Blazers. On opening night, Oct. 13, 1972 (yes, it was Friday the thirteenth), thousands of excited fans came out for souvenir puck day but were quickly disappointed.

“We had been practicing all week and the ice was in very poor condition,” recalls Kingston’s Ron Plumb, who was making his debut with the squad after two years of minor pro hockey. “On game night the ice was just a slushy mess. The Zamboni came out and with its weight it cracked the ice and it got stuck in the middle of the rink.”

Things went from bad to worse.

The ice was so bad that arena officials decided to cancel the game – before the first puck was even dropped. Blazers star Derek Sanderson was sent out to calm the unruly mob of fans. Sanderson had just been lured away from the Boston Bruins with a $2.6 million contract. He had been earning less than $80,000 with the Bruins.

A microphone on a cord was lowered from the rafters and the team’s lawyer Jim Cooper and Sanderson explained the reason for the cancelation and apologized to the fans.

“Then, some fan threw one of the souvenir pucks at Sanderson,” recalls Plumb. “Then another puck came flying, then another.”

Soon, there were so many pucks going through the air that Cooper and Sanderson had to take cover behind the Zamboni. However, Sanderson forgot that the mic was still live – and began swearing at the Philadelphia fans for their antics. Sanderson eventually fled to the dressing room, where the entire team hid until 1 am, when the mob finally gave up and went home. The Philadelphia team only lasted one season before being moved to Vancouver.

Welcome to the WHA. It was wild, chaotic and colorful - and only lasted seven years. But it had a huge impact on hockey, especially player salaries as the NHL and the upstart league competed for both star players and journeymen.

In 1972, the average NHL salary was just $25,000.

At the time, the league had control over the players and was able to keep a lid on salaries by prohibiting free agency. When a player’s contract expired, they weren’t allowed to simply move to another team. The owners held all the cards.

The creation of the competing league sent pay soaring. Chicago’s Bobby Hull famously jumped to the Winnipeg Jets for a $2.75 million contract, including a $1 million signing bonus. A total of 67 NHL players made the move – even though it was risky due to the financial shakiness of many WHA teams.

The founders of the WHA wanted to bring the game to more hockey-hungry fans in Canadian cities and introduce it across the United States. In Canada, franchises were established in Ottawa, Edmonton, Quebec City and Calgary (although Calgary, like Miami, folded before a single puck was dropped).

The league’s emphasis on rough play and fighting appealed to many American fans. Bench-clearing brawls were not uncommon and some players were hired for their pugilistic skills rather than skating ability. Indeed, the 1977 movie Slap Shot, based on a fictional minor pro team, was filled with violence and symbolized the nature of the sport during that era.

Prior to joining the WHA, Plumb was with the Bruins organization, skating for the minor pro team in Oklahoma. With an offer from the Screaming Eagles, he went to Bruins management for a raise. “Can’t you do anything,” he asked. “They said no, so I left.”

Plumb would go on to play with five different WHA teams. He eventually got to play in the NHL when the WHA went bust and the Hartford Whalers were folded into the NHL.

“Every player, whether they were in the NHL or the WHA, benefitted financially from the new league,” emphasizes Plumb.

Kingston’s Rick Smith, who won a Stanley Cup with the Bruins in 1970, was one such player. For three years, he played for the Minnesota Fighting Saints of the WHA.

“The team had excellent owners, who were 10 local businessmen in St. Paul. The funding was solid,” Smith says. However, over the years the team changed hands and the financial future became uncertain.

In January, 1976 the players heard that the team might not issue their pay cheques due to a lack of funds. The players held a meeting at the rink and voted to stand together – they demanded their pay before departing on the next road trip.

“We were waiting at the airport and refused to get on the plane until we got paid,” recalls Smith. “The cheques finally arrived. Some of the players gave their cheque to their wives and told them to deposit it right away. After the flight, they called their wives – and the cheques were all good.”

However, it didn’t last. The team could not meet the next payroll and the team folded on Feb. 28, 1976, just as the players were about to board a plane for a road trip.

Kingston’s Fred O’Donnell spent two years with the Boston Bruins and then signed with the WHA’s New England Whalers for two more seasons.

“The salaries in the WHA were much better than the NHL, certainly for an average player,” he recalls.

O’Donnell says the quality of play in Hartford was comparable to middling NHL teams. “Hockey is a sport where effort can make up for a lack of talent,” he argues. “Some of the teams compensated for it with a lot of toughness.”

Speaking of tough, Kingston pugilist Jim Dorey won two WHA championships – one with New England and one in Quebec City. The title trophy was the Avco Cup, named after a consumer finance company and lacking the cachet of that other cup named for Governor-General Lord Stanley and established in 1892.

In a search for skills, the WHA scouted players in Europe and brought them to the North American league – a trend that continues to this day. Future stars like Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier got their start in the league. Kingston’s Ken Linseman was just 18 years old when he joined the WHA’s Birmingham Bulls.

In the end, financial troubles doomed the league. In 1979, it merged with the NHL, with just four teams making the cut: The Edmonton Oilers, Winnipeg Jets, Quebec Nordiques and the New England Whalers (which were renamed the Hartford Whalers).

“Overall, the WHA was good for hockey,” O’Donnell argues. “It introduced the game to a number of new cities, created a lot of employment for players and raised salaries.”

WHA game program courtesy of the Hockey Hall of Fame