In the early 1970’s, a new hockey league declared war on the NHL. The World Hockey Association lured Bobby Hull away with a contract worth millions, took the NHL to court and won, and somehow survived long enough to force the NHL to merge and accept four of its teams. But behind those victories was a chaotic league plagued by financial problems, franchise moves, and constant uncertainty. In today’s video we’ll take a look back at the rise and fall of the WHA.
The WHA Arrives
The World Hockey Association began taking shape in 1971, which was founded by American promoters Dennis Murphy, and Gary Davidson, who had previously been involved with the American Basketball Association and later the World Football League. They soon recruited Bill Hunter, president of the junior Western Canada Hockey League, and began traveling across North America looking for franchise owners. By September, they had announced plans for a ten-team league, with each franchise paying $25,000.
The WHA immediately positioned itself as an alternative to the NHL. In 1972, the average NHL salary was around $25,000 per year, while players were bound by a reserve clause that automatically extended their contracts and effectively tied them to their teams throughout their careers.
The WHA promised higher salaries and announced that it would not use the reserve clause, allowing players to freely move between teams. In of June 1972, the WHA had many players under contract, although a large number were career minor-league or college players. However, by the time the league began play, it had signed 67 former NHL players, including Bernie Parent, Gerry Cheevers, Derek Sanderson, J.C. Tremblay and Ted Green.
But the league’s biggest signing was still to come. Bobby Hull, one of the NHL’s top forwards, was unhappy with his contract situation in Chicago. When Hull told reporters that he would only leave the NHL for a million dollars, it was widely taken as a joke. A million dollars was considered an extraordinary amount of money for a hockey player at the time.
The Winnipeg Jets nevertheless made him an offer. Hull received a five-year contract worth $1 million, along with a $1 million signing bonus. He of course accepted, completing the deal at an elaborate ceremony in Winnipeg with his family. His contract was eventually reported as worth approximately $2.7 million over ten years and was the largest in hockey history at the time.Hull’s decision immediately gave the WHA credibility and helped attract other NHL stars.
The NHL, understandably worried about other stars defecting to the WHA, decided to fight back. The Boston Bruins attempted to prevent Sanderson and Cheevers from joining the WHA, while the Chicago Black Hawks obtained a restraining order against Hull and the Jets. But the WHA welcomed the legal battle because it wanted to challenge the legality of the reserve clause itself.
In November 1972, Judge A. Leon Higginbotham Jr. of the U.S. District Court in Philadelphia issued an injunction preventing the NHL from enforcing the reserve clause. Players who had been subject to restraining orders, including Hull, were allowed to play for their WHA teams. The ruling effectively ended the NHL’s monopoly over controlling where professional hockey players could play.
Meanwhile, the WHA was still formulating its franchises. On November 1, 1971, twelve teams were formally announced, including clubs in cities without NHL teams such as the Miami Screaming Eagles and teams in markets that already had NHL clubs, including Los Angeles, Chicago and New York.
Unfortunately for the WHA, the instability began almost immediately. The Dayton Arrows became the Houston Aeros before the first season even began, while the San Francisco Sharks became the Quebec Nordiques. The Los Angeles franchise adopted the Sharks name, while the Calgary Broncos and Miami Screaming Eagles folded before ever playing a game and were replaced by the Philadelphia Blazers and Cleveland Crusaders.
The WHA officially began play on October 11, 1972. The Alberta Oilers defeated the Ottawa Nationals 7–4 at the Ottawa Civic Centre, while the Cleveland Crusaders defeated the Quebec Nordiques 2–0. Ron Anderson of the Oilers scored the first goal in WHA history, in front of 5,065 fans, in a game broadcast live on CBC.
The league even experimented with the puck. In the lead-up to its first season, the WHA briefly tried using orange pucks, however the experiment did not last. The dye apparently affected the puck’s quality, causing them to become misshapen when hit. The league eventually switched to dark blue pucks.
The New England Whalers emerged as the WHA’s best team during its first season and won the league’s inaugural championship. Due to a mishap in timing, the design and manufacturing of the championship trophy had not yet been completed, so the Whalers were forced to skate around with their divisional championship trophy instead.
The WHA would eventually rename its championship trophy the Avco World Trophy after Avco Financial Services Corporation became its main sponsor. Over the league’s seven seasons, the team with the best regular-season record went on to win the playoffs five times. Four of the seven Avco Cup Finals were also between the two best regular-season teams. Remarkably, none of the Avco Cup Finals games ever went to overtime.
While the WHA had won the battle for players, surviving as a league proved far more difficult. Financial disasters, franchise chaos, bitter rivalries with the NHL, and a constant fight for credibility would push the league to its limit just to survive.
Chaos on Ice
From the beginning, many of the WHA’s teams struggled with instability. And even the league’s supposed flagship franchise, The New York Raiders, faced mounting problems even before they ever played a game.
During the WHA’s inaugural season, the team planned to play at the brand-new Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, but Nassau County did not recognize the WHA as a major league and refused to work with the Raiders. Instead, the county worked with William Shea, who helped convince the NHL’s New York Rangers to support a competing NHL franchise on Long Island.
The NHL quickly awarded a team to Long Island, the New York Islanders, who secured the Coliseum for themselves beginning in 1972. The Raiders were forced to move into Madison Square Garden as tenants of the Rangers. An expensive lease and poor attendance quickly made the arrangement unsustainable. The team’s original owners defaulted, forcing the WHA to take control midway through the season.
After the inaugural season, the Raiders were sold and renamed the New York Golden Blades. Their situation at Madison Square Garden became even more difficult. High rent and scheduling conflicts meant they could only play home games on Sundays. After just 24 games of the 1973–74 season, the WHA took control of the franchise again.
The league eventually moved the team to New Jersey, where it became the Jersey Knights. Their new home, Cherry Hill Arena, had a sloped ice surface, chain-link fencing instead of Plexiglas and cramped, inadequate dressing facilities.
Coaching was just as unstable. Of the twelve coaches hired for the WHA’s first season, only Bill Dineen and Billy Harris remained by 1974. Over the league’s seven seasons, WHA teams hired 56 head coaches, with only eleven lasting more than two years.
The Toronto Toros faced their own problems after moving from Ottawa. Their owner, John F. Bassett, had to negotiate a difficult lease at Maple Leaf Gardens with Toronto Maple Leafs owner Harold Ballard. In an attempt to make the situation particularly unpleasant, Ballard even ordered the cushions removed from the Toros’ home bench. After three seasons, the Toros left Toronto and moved to Birmingham.
The WHA reached another low point in 1975–76 with the Denver Spurs. The team had expected to join the NHL, but when that agreement fell through, owner Ivan Mullenix accepted an offer to join the WHA. Denver fans, however, had spent years expecting an NHL team and did not consider the WHA a major league. Attendance suffered.
Then the NHL’s Kansas City Scouts began serious discussions about moving to Denver. Knowing he could not compete with an NHL team, Mullenix began negotiating with businessmen in Ottawa. They required the team to move immediately, so the Spurs abruptly became the Ottawa Civics during a road trip. After only seven games in Ottawa, the franchise folded when it became clear the group did not have enough money to purchase the team. The Spurs/Civics played only 41 games, making it the shortest-lived franchise in WHA history.
High player salaries also contributed to the league’s financial problems. The Philadelphia Blazers signed Derek Sanderson for $2.6 million, making him the highest-paid athlete in the world at the time. But Sanderson’s performance failed to match his contract, and after an injury, controversial comments and financial problems within the organization, his contract was bought out before the season ended. The league also struggled because its biggest stars often lacked enough supporting talent, hurting the quality of play.
Despite its problems, the WHA achieved several important victories. A court ruling prevented the NHL from using its reserve clause to keep players tied to their teams, while the WHA continued attracting NHL stars such as Gordie Howe, André Lacroix, Marc Tardif, Frank Mahovlich and Paul Henderson.
The league also began seriously pursuing European players during the 1974–75 season. Swedish stars Anders Hedberg and Ulf Nilsson and Czech center Václav Nedomanský joined the WHA. Winnipeg became especially successful after adding Scandinavian players, with Hedberg and Nilsson joining Bobby Hull to form a formidable forward line.
The WHA’s battles with the NHL also extended to international hockey. WHA players were excluded from the 1972 Summit Series between Canada and the Soviet Union, meaning many of the league’s stars couldn’t participate in the event. The WHA organized its own 1974 Summit Series, allowing Hull and 46-year-old Gordie Howe to play for Canada against the Soviet Union. The Soviets won the 8 game series, with 4 wins, one loss, and 3 ties.
By the late 1970s, the WHA’s future was hanging by a thread. The league had survived lawsuits, financial chaos, and years of competition with the NHL. But its biggest battle was still ahead. Secret merger talks, desperate negotiations, and one incredibly close vote would decide whether the league lived on, or vanished for good.
While the WHA eventually faded away, it was successful in becoming a big enough threat to the NHL that they eventually merged, and a few of the WHA teams joined the NHL. Do you think that a modern version of the WHA could compete with the NHL today? Or would the NHL crush them before they ever got a chance to merge? Let me know in the comments below! Ok let’s get back to the video.
The Merger
By the end of the 1970s, the World Hockey Association was running out of time.
There had been talk of a merger with the NHL almost from the beginning. According to Howard Baldwin, discussions were already taking place after the 1972–73 season, including a secret meeting involving WHA and NHL figures such as Ed Snider. The WHA offered to bring all twelve of its teams into the NHL for $2 million per team, but the proposal was rejected, with Chicago Blackhawks owner Bill Wirtz representing much of the NHL’s opposition.
By the 1976–77 season, the situation had become increasingly difficult. Many WHA franchises were close to financial collapse, while the combined 32 teams between the NHL and WHA had stretched the available pool of professional hockey talent.
Merger talks formally began in 1977. Six WHA teams—the Houston Aeros, Cincinnati Stingers, Winnipeg Jets, New England Whalers, Quebec Nordiques and Edmonton Oilers—applied for admission to the NHL, but the proposal was rejected.
Talks resumed in 1978, although Houston was no longer included. Aeros owner Kenneth Schnitzer proposed that Houston either be admitted as an expansion team or that he be allowed to purchase an existing NHL club and move it to the city. Neither option happened, and the Aeros folded on July 6, 1978.
Another proposal called for Edmonton and New England to join the NHL, with Winnipeg entering a year later. That proposal was also rejected.
While the league was struggling financially, its final two seasons introduced a remarkable group of future NHL stars. Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier , Mike Liut and Mike Gartner all began their professional careers in the WHA. The Birmingham Bulls alone featured numerous future NHL players, including Rick Vaive, Michel Goulet, Rob Ramage, Ken Linseman, Craig Hartsburg, Rod Langway, Mark Napier, Pat Riggin and Gaston Gingras.
By the end of the 1978–79 season, only six WHA teams remained. With franchises struggling financially and unable to meet payrolls, the WHA and NHL finally reached an agreement in early 1979.
Four WHA teams—the Edmonton Oilers, New England Whalers, Quebec Nordiques and Winnipeg Jets—would join the NHL. The Whalers would be renamed the Hartford Whalers. The Cincinnati Stingers and Birmingham Bulls did not join the NHL but instead received $1.5 million each in compensation.
The NHL insisted on treating the arrangement as an expansion rather than a merger and refused to recognize WHA records. The four incoming teams had to participate in an expansion draft, while existing NHL teams were allowed to reclaim players who had previously left for the WHA.
One interesting side note was that Bobby Hull was claimed by the Winnipeg Jets despite the fact that the Chicago Blackhawks owned his original NHL rights. The Blackhawks failed to place Hull under it’s protected list, which allowed the Jets to reclaim him in the draft. Winnipeg then offered to trade Hull back to Chicago for younger players on the Blackhawks’s roster, but they refused to part ways with them. Hull then played his final season in the NHL with the Jets, and was traded to Hartford halfway through the season and finished out his career playing alongside Gordie Howe.
The WHA did manage to secure several important concessions. Each incoming team could protect two goaltenders and two skaters from being selected. The NHL also agreed to include all four Canadian WHA teams, despite initially being willing to accept only Edmonton, New England and Winnipeg. Finally, the expansion fee was set at $6 million per team, the same amount paid by other NHL expansion teams during the 1970s.
The agreement nearly collapsed. An NHL Board of Governors vote in Key Largo on March 8, 1979, ended 12–5 against the proposal, one vote short of the three-quarters majority required. Boston, Los Angeles, Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver voted against it.
Two weeks later, another vote was held in Chicago. Montreal and Vancouver changed their votes, allowing the agreement to pass. The deal officially took effect on June 22, 1979. On that day, the WHA ceased operations and Edmonton, Hartford, Quebec City and Winnipeg officially became NHL franchises.
Although the WHA had failed to survive as an independent league, its impact on hockey was significant. WHA teams had demonstrated that they could compete with NHL clubs, winning more games than they lost in interleague exhibition games.
The league also changed the hockey labor market. The WHA’s challenge to the NHL’s reserve clause helped produce much higher player salaries, while its recruitment of European players encouraged NHL teams to begin scouting overseas more aggressively. Players such as Anders Hedberg and Ulf Nilsson helped demonstrate the quality of European talent, while the WHA also provided opportunities for young American players.
The league’s influence could be seen in the NHL for years afterward. Former WHA players became major NHL stars, including Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier, Mark Howe, Mike Gartner and Mike Liut. Looking back, Howard Baldwin described the WHA as a “successful failure.”
The four former WHA teams initially had mixed fortunes in the NHL over the next decade. The Oilers, after protecting Wayne Gretzky, went on to become one of the NHL’s dominant teams of the 1980s. Meanwhile, Winnipeg was left digging for answers after losing much of its roster in the dispersal draft but eventually found some success. The Quebec Nordiques and Hartford Whalers also eventually both became competitive NHL teams.
The WHA’s legacy extended beyond its former franchises. It helped transform professional hockey’s economics, opened the door to greater European participation and demonstrated that the NHL’s dominance could be challenged.
The WHA itself lasted only seven seasons. But many of the changes it helped create remained part of professional hockey long after the league disappeared.
In the end, the WHA never became the long-term rival to the NHL that its founders envisioned, but calling it a failure would miss the bigger picture. In just seven seasons, the league changed how hockey players were paid, challenged the NHL’s control over its players, opened the door for European talent, and ultimately forced the NHL to absorb four of its franchises. The WHA may have disappeared in 1979, but its impact on professional hockey was just beginning.
If you enjoyed this post, be sure to check out my article on the World Football League, founded by the same man who helped start the WHA, Gary Davidson. I explore how the WFL tried to challenge the NFL, lured away star players, and ultimately collapsed under financial problems and franchise chaos after just two seasons. As always, please like and subscribe, and thanks for reading!
What Happened To The World Football League?
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