Wayne Gretzky (left) of the Edmonton Oilers faces off against future teammate Mark Messier #27 of the Cincinnati Stingers during the 1978-79 World Hockey Association season.
photo: HHOF Archive
It lasted only seven years, had a championship trophy sponsored by an insurance company, and had teams come and go like the wind.
But make no mistake, the World Hockey Association changed hockey in North America and around the world forever. And today marks the 50th anniversary of the first games ever played in the “pirate league” that made millionnaires out of paupers and NHL stars out of castoffs.
On October 11, 1972, the Alberta Oilers walked into the Civic Centre and beat the hometown Ottawa Nationals, 7-4, before only 5,006 fans, while in Cleveland the local Crusaders shut out the Quebec Nordiques, 2-0, to open the first ever season of WHA play.
The inaugural season featured 12 teams in two divisions, East and West. In the East were the Crusaders, Nordiques, and Nationals, along with the New England Whalers, Philadelphia Blazers, and New York Raiders. In the West were the Oilers as well as the Winnipeg Jets, Houston Aeros, Los Angeles Sharks, Minnesota Fighting Saints, and Chicago Cougars.
The league had been the brainchild of Dennis Murphy and Gary Davidson, who a few years earlier had created the American Basketball Association to rival the NBA. The ABA was such a success they thought they could upset the cart again in hockey, and they had an even easier target.
NHL teams stood hard by something called the reserve clause. This meant that when a player signed a contract with an NHL team, he was bound to that team for life. The WHA challenged that very notion and declared this clause would never stand up in court. Time would quickly show they were right, just as they were right about signing 17-year-olds to contracts at a time when the NHL draft didn’t permit anyone younger than 20 to play.
The WHA was born in late 1971 when Murphy and Davidson announced that they had secured commitments from 12 teams to pay the $25,000 expansion fee to start play the following year. But what they needed most of all was players, and more than that they needed just one star to make the leap to the new league and guarantee respect. They found that player in Bobby Hull, Chicago’s “Golden Jet” who had become the greatest scorer in the 1960s thanks to his booming slapshot. He had criticized the league for years for under-paying its players, notably his own Black Hawks management, and the WHA banded together to give him an unprecedented $1 million signing bonus on top of a five-year contract with the Winnipeg Jets for another million.
But make no mistake, the World Hockey Association changed hockey in North America and around the world forever. And today marks the 50th anniversary of the first games ever played in the “pirate league” that made millionnaires out of paupers and NHL stars out of castoffs.
On October 11, 1972, the Alberta Oilers walked into the Civic Centre and beat the hometown Ottawa Nationals, 7-4, before only 5,006 fans, while in Cleveland the local Crusaders shut out the Quebec Nordiques, 2-0, to open the first ever season of WHA play.
The inaugural season featured 12 teams in two divisions, East and West. In the East were the Crusaders, Nordiques, and Nationals, along with the New England Whalers, Philadelphia Blazers, and New York Raiders. In the West were the Oilers as well as the Winnipeg Jets, Houston Aeros, Los Angeles Sharks, Minnesota Fighting Saints, and Chicago Cougars.
The league had been the brainchild of Dennis Murphy and Gary Davidson, who a few years earlier had created the American Basketball Association to rival the NBA. The ABA was such a success they thought they could upset the cart again in hockey, and they had an even easier target.
NHL teams stood hard by something called the reserve clause. This meant that when a player signed a contract with an NHL team, he was bound to that team for life. The WHA challenged that very notion and declared this clause would never stand up in court. Time would quickly show they were right, just as they were right about signing 17-year-olds to contracts at a time when the NHL draft didn’t permit anyone younger than 20 to play.
The WHA was born in late 1971 when Murphy and Davidson announced that they had secured commitments from 12 teams to pay the $25,000 expansion fee to start play the following year. But what they needed most of all was players, and more than that they needed just one star to make the leap to the new league and guarantee respect. They found that player in Bobby Hull, Chicago’s “Golden Jet” who had become the greatest scorer in the 1960s thanks to his booming slapshot. He had criticized the league for years for under-paying its players, notably his own Black Hawks management, and the WHA banded together to give him an unprecedented $1 million signing bonus on top of a five-year contract with the Winnipeg Jets for another million.
Bobby Hull with the WHA's Winnipeg Jets.
The NHL was so stunned by the defection it barred Hull from playing in the Summit Series, but the damage had been done. During the summer of 1972, dozens of NHLers jumped to the other league, signing for sums they never could have imagined with their NHL teams. Bernie Parent, Gerry Cheevers, Derek Sanderson, J.C. Tremblay, and Ted Green were among the big names to leave. Dave Keon, Paul Henderson, and many others departed in the next couple of years as well.
On ice, the WHA story was problematic. New teams and inexperienced owners resulted in transfers, moves, and withdrawals, sometimes before even playing a game. Crowds were iffy, but the league soldiered on, and players scored more often than the NHL giving it an air of excitement. A year later it got a major shot of adrenaline when the owners of the Houston Aeros came up with a brilliant plan. They had signed 18-year-old Mark Howe and 19-year-old brother Marty to contracts, so they cajoled father Gordie to come out of retirement and play with his sons. It was an offer too good to pass up, and Gordie became a critical element in the WHA’s success moving forward, the first ever father-son combination in pro sports.
On ice, the WHA story was problematic. New teams and inexperienced owners resulted in transfers, moves, and withdrawals, sometimes before even playing a game. Crowds were iffy, but the league soldiered on, and players scored more often than the NHL giving it an air of excitement. A year later it got a major shot of adrenaline when the owners of the Houston Aeros came up with a brilliant plan. They had signed 18-year-old Mark Howe and 19-year-old brother Marty to contracts, so they cajoled father Gordie to come out of retirement and play with his sons. It was an offer too good to pass up, and Gordie became a critical element in the WHA’s success moving forward, the first ever father-son combination in pro sports.
Left to right: Marty, Gordie and Mark Howe as members of the WHA's Houston Aeros during the 1973-74 season.
Gordie scored at a terrific pace and led the Aeros to the AVCO Cup championship in both 1974 and 1975, and he averaged 100 points a season in his first three seasons when he was in his mid- and late-40s. And while Gordie was doing the promotions in the south, Hull and some new friends made Winnipeg the WHA’s capital city. The Jets, and other teams, started to recruit players from Europe in large numbers, most importantly three Swedes—Ulf Nilsson, Anders Hedberg, and Lars-Erik Sjoberg. Nilsson and Hedberg played on a line with Hull, becoming the first truly international line in hockey history and setting the league on fire with their scoring. Sjoberg became team captain and later was the first European captain in NHL history.
In 1974, the WHA even had the temerity to organize a Summit Series of its own against the Soviets. Hull played, hero Paul Henderson was back, and many other notables were in the lineup, but it wasn’t the same. The WHA stars won only one of eight games.
All through the years the NHL wanted the WHA to go away. But the truth was that the new league had established deep roots in several cities, notably across Canada which had only three NHL teams—Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver. But it was clear Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, and Quebec were large enough cities to support hockey, and the WHA used this as leverage in possible merger talks, which seemed to come and go every year.
And then, in 1978, the WHA hit pay dirt. There was a 16-year-old playing with the Soo Greyhounds in the OHL who was so good it was clear even after one season as an underage he had grown out of the junior leagues. But according to NHL rules he wouldn’t be able to play in that league for another three years.
The WHA had been dwindling, though, and was down to seven teams, so it decided to sign as many underage players as possible. The Birmingham Bulls signed six “Baby Bulls,” but Nelson Skalbania, owner of the Indianapolis Racers, won the lottery when he signed Wayne Gretzky right out of the Soo. Gretzky at 17 was so good the NHL realized it could no longer call itself the best league when the best player was skating elsewhere.
As a result, the summer of 1979 saw merger plans grow serious, and the NHL agreed to take on four teams for the 1979-80 season—Edmonton, Winnipeg, Quebec, and New England. The other WHA teams folded, and most WHA players had to go into an expansion draft, but each of the four got to keep two players, a make-or-break deal for the WHA teams to ensure Gretzky stayed with Edmonton (which had acquired him from the Racers early in the 78-79 season).
In the end, the WHA lasted less than a decade, but its influence continues to this day. NHLers’ salaries increased tenfold and more by 1979; Europeans make up one third of all NHLers today; international hockey is the driving force for the game’s popularity around the globe. Gordie Howe returned to the NHL for a year, to play with his sons, and Dave Keon and Hull joined him in Hartford in 1979-80 for a remarkable season. Gretzky, of course, changed the game—on ice, in the record books, and in expanding the game to the American west and south.
The WHA is dead. Long live the WHA.
In 1974, the WHA even had the temerity to organize a Summit Series of its own against the Soviets. Hull played, hero Paul Henderson was back, and many other notables were in the lineup, but it wasn’t the same. The WHA stars won only one of eight games.
All through the years the NHL wanted the WHA to go away. But the truth was that the new league had established deep roots in several cities, notably across Canada which had only three NHL teams—Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver. But it was clear Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, and Quebec were large enough cities to support hockey, and the WHA used this as leverage in possible merger talks, which seemed to come and go every year.
And then, in 1978, the WHA hit pay dirt. There was a 16-year-old playing with the Soo Greyhounds in the OHL who was so good it was clear even after one season as an underage he had grown out of the junior leagues. But according to NHL rules he wouldn’t be able to play in that league for another three years.
The WHA had been dwindling, though, and was down to seven teams, so it decided to sign as many underage players as possible. The Birmingham Bulls signed six “Baby Bulls,” but Nelson Skalbania, owner of the Indianapolis Racers, won the lottery when he signed Wayne Gretzky right out of the Soo. Gretzky at 17 was so good the NHL realized it could no longer call itself the best league when the best player was skating elsewhere.
As a result, the summer of 1979 saw merger plans grow serious, and the NHL agreed to take on four teams for the 1979-80 season—Edmonton, Winnipeg, Quebec, and New England. The other WHA teams folded, and most WHA players had to go into an expansion draft, but each of the four got to keep two players, a make-or-break deal for the WHA teams to ensure Gretzky stayed with Edmonton (which had acquired him from the Racers early in the 78-79 season).
In the end, the WHA lasted less than a decade, but its influence continues to this day. NHLers’ salaries increased tenfold and more by 1979; Europeans make up one third of all NHLers today; international hockey is the driving force for the game’s popularity around the globe. Gordie Howe returned to the NHL for a year, to play with his sons, and Dave Keon and Hull joined him in Hartford in 1979-80 for a remarkable season. Gretzky, of course, changed the game—on ice, in the record books, and in expanding the game to the American west and south.
The WHA is dead. Long live the WHA.