Remember the New England Whalers?
About this time two weeks ago I wish I had. In the course of rhapsodizing about the proliferation of championships won by Boston professional teams since the American League squad later known as the Red Sox won the first World Series in 1903, I undercounted by two. One was the 2011 Major League Lacrosse championship won by the Boston Cannons. I meant no offense, but even the most rabid MLL follower knows what a lonely pursuit that remains. That is a true labor of love. Maybe someday . . . Meanwhile, I’m sure Bill Belichick appreciates their achievement.
But the Whalers. Oy. The New England Whalers, the first champions of the World Hockey Association, deserved to be remembered and celebrated.
The WHA was founded in 1972 by Dennis Murphy and Gary Danielson, the same duo who had given us the American Basketball Association five years earlier. The local honcho was Howard Baldwin, an ambitious 28-year-old who was unafraid to tackle the haughty National Hockey League in one of its foremost outposts.
Of course, in one sense it was a good idea, since in 1972 Boston just couldn’t get enough hockey. The Bruins owned the town, and Bobby Orr was king. The princes went by such names as Espo, Chief, Hodgie, Cheesy, and Turk. The Bruins had won it all in 1970 and 1972, and there appeared to be no reason why more Stanley Cups wouldn’t be forthcoming. There was such a surpassing interest in the sport that even a minor league affiliate, the Braves, was capable of attracting 10,000 or more a night. In the midst of this came the Whalers, representing the WHA, an upsetter of apple carts if ever there was one.
“That first year was a true David vs. Goliath proposition, against all odds,’’ recalls Baldwin. “We went into the belly of the beast.’’
There was no hiding the fact that this was to be a Boston-oriented franchise. The head coach and general manager was Jack Kelley, a man who was coming off back-to-back NCAA hockey championships at Boston University. His roster included four Boston College products: John Cunniff, Kevin Ahearn, Paul Hurley, and Tim Sheehy; and one player each from BU (John Danby) and the University of New Hampshire (Guy Smith). Other significant names included Rick Ley, Brad Selwood, Tom Webster, and ex-Bruin Tommy Williams.
Getting Kelley was key. “Jack Kelley gave us credibility,’’ acknowledges Baldwin.
Speaking of the Bruins, the defending champs were severely victimized by the new league. Goaltender Gerry Cheevers and full-time pest Derek Sanderson were among the 67 players who jumped from the NHL to the WHA. Foremost among the crossover players was the legendary Bobby Hull, who left the Chicago Black Hawks for the Winnipeg Jets after securing a then-record 10-year, $2.75 million contract. If that sum appears to be 21st-century chump change, consider that in 1972 the average NHL salary was $25,000.
The WHA impact on the world of professional hockey was profound. Hockey was a world in which Canadians were conditioned to believe they were extraordinarily fortunate to be given the privilege of playing in the only hockey league that mattered anywhere on the globe. And it was an overwhelmingly Canadian venture at the time. Tommy Williams was for many years the lone American in the league. And Europeans? Hah!
The WHA changed all that, and much else. WHA teams went after Europeans such as Anders Hedberg, Ulf Nilsson, and Vaclav Nedomansky. And that wasn’t all.
The WHA went young.
“The NHL had all these rules about age,’’ Baldwin explains. “We figured the best way to attack was to sign the future.’’ As an example, perhaps you’ve heard of a kid named Gretzky.
“People forget that Wayne Gretzky began in the WHA,’’ points out Baldwin. Playing for Indianapolis and Edmonton in the league’s last season, 1978-79, the 18-year-old Gretzky accumulated 46 goals and 64 assists for 110 points.
The WHA legacy doesn’t end with forcing salaries up, introducing Europeans to North American hockey, and enabling teeny-boppers to become full professionals. The WHA also obliterated the infamous Reserve Clause, which had bound players to teams for life.
The new league went to court and found a sympathetic ear belonging to Judge Leon Higginbotham Jr. of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, who in November 1972 placed an injunction against the NHL, preventing it from enforcing the Reserve Clause.
It wasn’t all roses, of course.
The Whalers split their home games between Boston Garden (finding ice time behind the Bruins and Braves) and Boston Arena (now Matthews Arena). Stability was always a league issue. Not every city thrived. “By early in the second year the bloom was off the rose,’’ Baldwin admits. “After a while, it was annual Russian roulette. ‘Who’s in this league?’ ’’
But the memory of that stimulating first year lingers. “For me, it was the most fun year,’’ says Baldwin. “But looking back, it was scary. Still, it was a great, great period in my life. We were a cornerstone franchise, and if we hadn’t done what we did I’m not sure the league would have survived.’’
The Whalers swept through the 1973 playoffs. They defeated Ottawa, Cleveland, and Winnipeg, each four games to one. They were clearly the best team. There was only one little problem. They were supposed to be playing for the Avco Cup, except that the actual Cup wasn’t quite ready. Still, the Whalers skated around the ice with a cup.
“We went down to Braintree, or someplace, and bought a trophy for 29 dollars and skated around with that,’’ Baldwin laughs. League officials were not pleased.
The league folded after the 1978-79 season. The Whalers moved to Hartford, and eventually to Carolina, where they remain as the Hurricanes. The Whalers, along with Quebec, Edmonton, and Winnipeg, joined the NHL. The WHA had made its statement. Hockey was changed forever, and for the better.
And the Whalers have their place in Boston and New England sports history, and I haven’t even mentioned the Howes. Stupid me for forgetting that the first time.
Bob Ryan’s column appears regularly in the Globe. He can be reached at ryan@globe.com.