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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.

Cleveland CrusadersHowever, 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.

Wayne GretzkyThe 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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