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The World Hockey Association—A League of Their Own
The World Hockey Association (WHA)
was officially proclaimed in a Delaware courtroom in the
late spring of 1970, after a decades long evolution in the sports business
world.
Since its inception and until the 1970s, the
National Hockey League (NHL) allowed teams to have a reserve
clause —if a player's contract was ending, a
club could automatically renew the contract, without negotiation.
Clubs also had the option of retaining a player’s rights even
after being dropped from an NHL roster. Players
lived in fear of being cut and never being granted the
free agency that would allow them to find work with
other teams. Often, players would accept
lowball contract offers from ownership, knowing that if
they decided to play tough in negotiations, they could
be discarded and have their careers left in limbo.
The NHL was just as fair as the other
major North American pro sports leagues, as each league had some kind of reserve-clause system
in place.
In the late 1960s, Dennis Murphy and
Gary Davidson, two American lawyers, formed the American
Basketball Association (ABA) to challenge the National Basketball Association (NBA)
and their reserve clause. Emerging from the new league
were the New Jersey Nets, Kentucky Colonels,
Indiana Pacers and the San Antonio Spurs. Without
the reserve clause, superstars (like Julius "Dr. J" Erving)
attracted by free agency and larger contracts, agreed to
join the new league. In time, with the success of the
ABA, the NBA decided to merge with the new league and
adapted some of their rules.
In 1971, Murphy and Davidson found a
new target—the NHL. They believed that a rival pro
hockey league would be just as successful as the ABA.
However, because they knew nothing about the game (after all,
they were basketball men), they recruited Bill
Hunter,
the founder of the junior Western Hockey League and
owner of the Edmonton Oil
Kings.
Hunter became the
spokesperson for the new league, and traveled across
North America boasting of a new World Hockey Association
that would abolish the reserve clause.
Early on, the new league suffered
problems, as legitimate investors of potential teams
could not be differentiated between the scam artists. An expansion franchise was
awarded to Calgary, but later revoked. The Miami
Screaming Eagles would have brought pro hockey to
Florida, but the team relocated to Philadelphia before a
puck was ever dropped.
However,
despite early problems, twelve franchises played in the first-ever WHA season.
As an added boost to the fledging league, Winnipeg Jets’ owner Benny Hatskin made a bold move that
changed professional hockey for good. He was able to
lure Bobby Hull, the most marketable superstar in the
NHL, from Chicago to his WHA club. Hull signed a
five-year deal worth more than $1-million, with another
million tossed in as a signing bonus. He became pro
hockey’s first millionaire, and his move gave automatic
legitimacy to the WHA. With Hull's signing, an avalanche of players
started to move from the NHL to the WHA: star goaltender Gerry Cheevers left the Boston Bruins for the WHA’s Cleveland
Crusaders, and Bruins’ star Derek Sanderson signed with the
Philadelphia Blazers. A season later, the upstart
league enjoyed another coup when NHL all-time leading
scorer, Gordie Howe, signed with the Houston Aeros.
Twelve teams started that first WHA
season, including the Alberta
Oilers, Quebec Nordiques
and Winnipeg Jets. The league swelled to 14 teams
between 1974-1976, but soon rapid spending by the owners
outstripped the gate intake.
By the time the WHA folded in 1979, only four teams, the
Oilers, Jets, Nordiques and New England Whalers, were
healthy enough to survive as new members of an expanded
NHL. Three of those franchises have since relocated,
leaving the Oilers as the NHL’s last legitimate
link to the WHA.
The
legacy of the WHA on today's NHL can not only found in
the Oilers. By abolishing the reserve clause, the WHA
forced the NHL to abolish the same clasues, and
allowed pro hockey players the freedom of free agency.
As a result multi-million-dollar contracts could
potentially be signed, and players could be paid a
better salary. Sponsorship was also introduced in a new
way, as the WHA championship
had Avco Financial Services as a named sponsor; setting
the stage for the many corporate names that have made
their way onto arena names and hockey events today. The
Jets brought Swedish stars Ulf Nilsson and Anders Hedberg to Canada to play alongside Hull.
Their
playing style adapted soccer-influenced
innovations, like wingers and centres, and changed positional
play
on the rush. The technique was adapted by other teams,
and was a particularly heavy influence on the Oilers’
offensive strategies.
In 1978, when the Indianapolis Racers signed a
17-year-old Ontario player named Wayne Gretzky, the
hockey world was changed forever.
There were some WHA innovations that
were not adapted by the NHL, and may seem ridiculous in
today's game. The league did not
have an illegal-stick rule, so Hull could bend his stick
blade as much as he liked. He used that to his advantage
in 1974-75 season, when he enjoyed an amazing 77-goal campaign,
setting a new record for professional hockey at the
time. As well, the league experimented with flashy blue
pucks. And icing was still enforced when a team was
shorthanded, creating more scoring opportunities on the powerplay.
WHA CHAMPIONS
1973 - New England Whalers
1974 - Houston Aeros
1975 - Houston Aeros
1976 - Winnipeg Jets
1977 - Quebec Nordiques
1978 - Winnipeg Jets
1979 - Winnipeg Jets
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