I was a big NY Raiders fan. Went to 7 of their games. Attendance improved after football season ended. Went to 3 Golden Blades games before they left. And there were a lot more than 500 fans.
8:18: That's the infamous Rick Jodzio, tough guy for the Calgary Cowboys, who attacked and injured Quebec star Marc Tardif in the 1976 playoff series between the teams. Needless to say, the rest of the Nordiques wanted a piece of Jodzio, and a mass brawl erupted. This was after all the 1970s. Jodzio was lucky to get out of the game alive.
The Baltimore Blades were so cheap that they just put orange stickets on the old home AHL Clippers Jerseys, and they used the diagonal "Baltimore" on the road sweaters.
I like how in the Volkswagen Cup in Europe, my hometown team, Södertälje Sportklubb, beat my other favourite hockey team, the Winnipeg Jets with the Jets old goalie. My dad watched that game live. He apparently he got autographs from the players.
I was a student at Carleton University and attended the first game between Ottawa and Edmonton...the WHA brass, however were in Cleveland where the Crusaders were hosting the Nordiques. They were hoping to see the first WHA goal-they were in the wrong place. It didn't take the Oilers long. In their infinite wisdom the Nationals scheduled their opener opposite the Toronto Maple Leafs' home opener-against Montreal. Billy Harris came back from Europe to coach the Nats-he brought some European methods with him...for example the Nationals were the first North American team to have "line drills" during their pre-game warm-up. Every other team's pre-game warm-up consisted of lining up at the blue line, having a few one-on-one penalty shot style shots on the goalie, then doing a couple of laps around their own end. The Nationals were the only team that didn't have a "Big-Name" defector from the NHL and were the overwhelming choice to finish last. Everybody was shocked (including the small local fan base) when they defied the odds...then shifted their playoff games to Toronto. The Cleveland Crusaders had the best unis-their crest can still be seen on a Toronto high school (I don't know if there was a royalty payment). The purple and black colour combination actually worked quite well, IMHO-but I'm no fashion critic.
The New England Whalers (later the Hartford Whalers) actually started in Boston in 1972, but moved to Hartford in 1974. Because their downtown Hartford arena wouldn't be ready until early 1975, the team played a half-season in Springfield, Massachusetts. And the Whalers moved out of Boston at the end of the 1973-74 regular-season, despite being defending WHA champions. The Whalers couldn't compete for fan interest with a Boston Bruins (NHL) club led by one Bobby Orr.
When the leagues merged in 1978, the Boston Bruins forced the Whalers to change their name from New England to Hartford as a stipulation for entering the NHL.
affiliate of the Red Wings. There were many broken "Hearts in Hartford" when the team moved to Carolina...especially when the Hurricanes won the Cup...not unlike les Nordiques relocating to Denver and winning the Cup the very next year.
They also played in Springfield during the 1974 playoffs...as well as from January 1978 through the end of the WHA in 1979, due to the Hartford CC roof collapse.
Here in Calgary we had the Cowboys for 1975-76 and 1976-77. In their first season they had a good playoff run (despite a huge and controversial brawl with the Quebec Nordiques). Their second and final season here was not successful failing to make the playoffs. They averaged around 3000 fans at home games in the Stampede Corral. That number would only go up slightly when the Winning Jets or Houston Aeros would come in. In spite of that the GM and Coach Joe Rozier ca.paigned via local media that the team needed a larger and newer arena!
Theodore Ott Nice! Mike Liut and Mark Messier played in Cincy..i'm sure there are other greats but i'm just not familiar....Didn't Cincinnati have a team called the Cyclones?
We still do, they started as a ECHL team, then moved up to IHL till it folded, and now back to ECHL, we also fielded a Mighty Ducks farm team for a bit also.
The only reason the NHL would not offer a merger was the Canadian cities in the WHA. Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver were determined to keep their CBC contract for themselves. In March 1979 the NHL had a meeting on whether to admit Quebec,Winnipeg, Edmonton and Hartford. The merger failed by one vote, because of the Canadian teams. Two days later facing a ruinous boycott of their product, Molsons Brewery, owner of the Montreal Canadians pleaded with the NHL for a new vote. The merger took place two weeks later.
My first ever live hockey game was in Philadelphia between the Blazers and the LA Sharks. The Blazers had Bernie Parent, my all time favorite player. When the Blazers moved to Vancouver, Bernie didn't go(he held out in the playoffs the season before) and before the start of the 1973-74 season, his rights were traded from the Maple Leafs to the Flyers for Doug Favell. Soon after Bernie joined the Flyers and the rest is history.
I agree with your opinion, there is only one goalie I hold in the Same regard with Parent, that is Tony Esposito. He shared the Vezina with parent in 1973-74.
Studa Baker The Blazers played the first WHA pre-season game, also in Ottawa. It was the second half of a double-header with the AHL. I was seated near the players' bench...it really wasn't until I saw Bernie lead the team out-along with John Mackenzie and Derek Sanderson-that I believed it was for real.
Fenton Hardy I saw Bernie Parent in his junior days with the Niagara Falls Flyers-Doug Favell was his teammate then as well. Everybody who saw him knew that this was somebody special and the Flyers made a great move in taking them in the expansion draft...BUT...as great as Parent was the Bruins had an even better goalie prospect with their other junior team (the Oshawa Generals...best known dor somebody named Bobby😆). Ian Young, who tragically lost an eye while playing...he went on to run a goalie school in Oshawa (about 20 miles east of Toronto). Back in those days the NHL teams could sign kids out of midget hockey and they'd be locked up for life...that was the WHA'S major. impact on hockey. BTW Quebec City has a beautiful new arena with a former Prime Minister (Brian Mulroney) ready to take part in the workings... The one issue with Quebec City is that you really need to be able to speak at least some French-Quebecois or European players are more comfortable there. It's a beautiful and historic city.
@@jimbobogie8204 You wrote: "The one issue with Quebec City is that you really need to be able to speak at least some French-Quebecois or European players are more comfortable there." That says a lot about ROC! What about Toronto then? Most people are non-white and mother tongue is not English. Thinking of moving out?
The good that came out of the WHA was that it opened up into deserving Canadian markets and pushed hockey more to the west (Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver, Winnipeg, Ottawa, and Quebec City).
The NHL had already expanded to Vancouver by the time WHA started up though. But yeah, Alberta and Manitoba got exposed to major pro hockey thanks to WHA. It also tested a southern market like Texas somewhat successfully (although Houston Aeros didn't became part of the merger).
@@robins5798 It's a crying shame that Houston, Indianapolis and Cincinnati weren't included in the merger... I think those cities would have been solid additions to the NHL... more so than Hartford.
I saw my first Hockey game at the then Baltimore Civic Center watching the AHL Baltimore Clippers in 1971. Baltimore is now the largest US city without professional Hockey at any level. The now Royal Farms arena which 54 years old had poor ice conditions and they want to renovate it, putting lipstick and band aids on a old pig. Unless they build a replacement, its not going to change.
I remember and saw many AHL Nova Scotia Voyaguers games with my dad they were the farm team of Montreal and they played Baltimore in the Calder Cup finals one year and I saw one of those games at the old Halifax Forum
@@rockvilleraven I was a Eddie Shore Springfield Kings then Indians fan then and loved those teams in those years. Went to a Springfield-Clippers game in 1976 at Baltimore and loooved it. I remember a player on those Clippers Byron Baltimore they called Lord Baltimore. Yes he fans in Baltimore area should have a hockey team again.
I know the NHL hated the w h a it was a thorn in their side but I loved the league. Because of the W H A I was able to see Gordie Howe, Bobby Hall, Gerry cheevers, JC Tremblay and many others that I could only see on TV before.
Interesting-Winnipeg won a WHA Championship, Quebec won the Stanley Cup (after they moved to Colorado), the Whalers won the Stanley Cup (after moving to Carolina) and the Oilers were a Stanley Cup dynasty during the Gretzky/Messier years. The Toronto maple Leafs haven't even been to the Stanley Cup Finals since 1967-when there were only six teams...but the fans keep coming...go figure! :)
I appreciate the content and all the world that goes into creating these videos; but good god, it sounds like a robot reading a wikipedia entry. You've got to liven up your voice.
Great vids dude! 1:30 is from Baseketball right?? lol I saw it, and I knew it was from some movie, took me a day to figure it out lol Again, great job.
I wish some millionaires would try again to start up another rival league to the NHL. Being back old time hockey instead of this soft, boring shit the NHL has become. I’ll sacrifice some skill if I could, once again, watch a violent game with bad blood and passion....the way hockey was intended until Bettman ruined it.
I was a student at Carleton University in Ottawa and lived just up the street from the Ottawa Civic Centre. I was one of the few people in Ottawa who attended Nats games (including the opener against the Oilers and their first pre-season game against Philly) and was one of the few who felt betrayed when they played their playoff games in aToronto. One issue was that the Nats' home games were on Wednesday nights as were the Toronto Maple Leafs. The home opener which was one of two "first" games (Quebec was also at Cleveland) was on the same night as the NHL's opening night featuring Montreal at Toronto broadcast nationally. The Natsir also had a TV deal with the fledgling Global TV Network. Billy Harris returned from Europe to coach the team and brought many European methods with him-some of which are taken for granted today. The Nats were picked to finish last in the East but made the playoffs. They hasn't stolen any big name stars but they had "Chilly Gilly" Great ton in goal...Google him!😆 The "new" orange sweaters that the Oilers are wearing this year are exact replicas of the Alberta Oiler WHA sweaters The best sweater was Cleveland. The Crusaders were royal purple and black-it doesn't show in pictures and the logo lives on-at least at one Toronto high school. Ottawa has gone on to enjoy success in the NHL...but not quite as much as the Oilers!😂
Venus Spa Later to become the Baltimore Blades, which had no chance of survival in Charm City. They were created by the league to finish out the Stags season and owned by the league. They only won 3 games out of the 17 representing the city, playing at the Baltimore Arena. When a sale that would have moved the team to Seattle next season fell through, they were folded and Baltimore went back to being an AHL city for many years until the Bandits left town.
Venus Spa Had they had a local owner, they probably would lasted into the next full season. Baltimore was an AHL city for many years, the last team the Bandits couldn't get many good weekend dates because of the Blast Indoor soccer and left for Cincinnati. They are talking about building a new arena at the Pier 6 Pavilion location in the Harbor East section, what they need to get a minor league (AHL or ECHL) team besides that is a ownership group. They had the preseason Baltimore Hockey Classic with the Capitals for two years, but the ice conditions sucked in year two that they discontinued. The Caps are the most popular Washington team with fans up there, drawing about 3000 fans a game from that city.
+Spencer Green The NHL used them, didn't recognize their history and were only allowed to protect a couple of players. The Oilers protected Wayne Gretzky, but mostly they were glorified expansion teams with the merger.
I was a big NY Raiders fan. Went to 7 of their games. Attendance improved after football season ended. Went to 3 Golden Blades games before they left. And there were a lot more than 500 fans.
Golden Blades had those awesome uniforms.
@@theblueoctopus4494For half a season, they bailed out well before season 2 ended
I was a Referee in the WHA, very well done
Really wow what were some of your memories
Then you knew my most favorite name of an official: Eggo.
8:18: That's the infamous Rick Jodzio, tough guy for the Calgary Cowboys, who attacked and injured Quebec star Marc Tardif in the 1976 playoff series between the teams. Needless to say, the rest of the Nordiques wanted a piece of Jodzio, and a mass brawl erupted. This was after all the 1970s. Jodzio was lucky to get out of the game alive.
IMO the WHA is underrated. I say that even though I've lived in an NHL city-Pittsburgh-all my life.
The New York Golden Blades had kickass uniforms and white skates with actual gold blades.
DevilFish69 agreed...almost as "kick-ass" as the Canucks' "Flying V's"!
golden hockey teams are usually doomed.
Let's see if Las Vegas is the exception.
The Baltimore Blades were so cheap that they just put orange stickets on the old home AHL Clippers Jerseys, and they used the diagonal "Baltimore" on the road sweaters.
I like how in the Volkswagen Cup in Europe, my hometown team, Södertälje Sportklubb, beat my other favourite hockey team, the Winnipeg Jets with the Jets old goalie. My dad watched that game live. He apparently he got autographs from the players.
I was a student at Carleton University and attended the first game between Ottawa and Edmonton...the WHA brass, however were in Cleveland where the Crusaders were hosting the Nordiques. They were hoping to see the first WHA goal-they were in the wrong place. It didn't take the Oilers long. In their infinite wisdom the Nationals scheduled their opener opposite the Toronto Maple Leafs' home opener-against Montreal.
Billy Harris came back from Europe to coach the Nats-he brought some European methods with him...for example the Nationals were the first North American team to have "line drills" during their pre-game warm-up. Every other team's pre-game warm-up consisted of lining up at the blue line, having a few one-on-one penalty shot style shots on the goalie, then doing a couple of laps around their own end. The Nationals were the only team that didn't have a "Big-Name" defector from the NHL and were the overwhelming choice to finish last. Everybody was shocked (including the small local fan base) when they defied the odds...then shifted their playoff games to Toronto.
The Cleveland Crusaders had the best unis-their crest can still be seen on a Toronto high school (I don't know if there was a royalty payment). The purple and black colour combination actually worked quite well, IMHO-but I'm no fashion critic.
BTW-note the clear boards in Minnesota...you didn't want to be caught "scratching"!
+Jimbo Bogie Those clear boards made it tough to see the puck.
I love this WHA stuff! I wish more people knew how colorful it was.... the NHL could learn a thing or two about having personality.
2020 anyone?
The New England Whalers (later the Hartford Whalers) actually started in Boston in 1972, but moved to Hartford in 1974.
Because their downtown Hartford arena wouldn't be ready until early 1975, the team played a half-season in Springfield, Massachusetts.
And the Whalers moved out of Boston at the end of the 1973-74 regular-season, despite being defending WHA champions.
The Whalers couldn't compete for fan interest with a Boston Bruins (NHL) club led by one Bobby Orr.
When the leagues merged in 1978, the Boston Bruins forced the Whalers to change their name from New England to Hartford as a stipulation for entering the NHL.
affiliate of the Red Wings. There were many broken "Hearts in Hartford" when the team moved to Carolina...especially when the Hurricanes won the Cup...not unlike les Nordiques relocating to Denver and winning the Cup the very next year.
Sorry about that the Griffins are the Wings' AHLI team.
They also played in Springfield during the 1974 playoffs...as well as from January 1978 through the end of the WHA in 1979, due to the Hartford CC roof collapse.
There's game footage of the Whalers playing in Boston Garden with the big Bruins "B" right at center ice.
11:41 who after his tenure with the WHA would buy the Pittsburgh Penguins during the 91-92 season and then sell it to Mario Lemieux in 1999.
Here in Calgary we had the Cowboys for 1975-76 and 1976-77. In their first season they had a good playoff run (despite a huge and controversial brawl with the Quebec Nordiques). Their second and final season here was not successful failing to make the playoffs. They averaged around 3000 fans at home games in the Stampede Corral. That number would only go up slightly when the Winning Jets or Houston Aeros would come in. In spite of that the GM and Coach Joe Rozier ca.paigned via local media that the team needed a larger and newer arena!
My first exposure to Pro Hockey was the Cincinnati Stingers, its always good to see some info put out there for the short lived WHA, thanks alot.
Theodore Ott Nice! Mike Liut and Mark Messier played in Cincy..i'm sure there are other greats but i'm just not familiar....Didn't Cincinnati have a team called the Cyclones?
We still do, they started as a ECHL team, then moved up to IHL till it folded, and now back to ECHL, we also fielded a Mighty Ducks farm team for a bit also.
If it weren't for the WHA I never would have gotten to see Gordie Howe play. RIP, Mr. Hockey.
You have to love a documentary starting with NES' Blades of Steel....
The only reason the NHL would not offer a merger was the Canadian cities in the WHA. Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver were determined to keep their CBC contract for themselves. In March 1979 the NHL had a meeting on whether to admit Quebec,Winnipeg, Edmonton and Hartford. The merger failed by one vote, because of the Canadian teams. Two days later facing a ruinous boycott of their product, Molsons Brewery, owner of the Montreal Canadians pleaded with the NHL for a new vote. The merger took place two weeks later.
My first ever live hockey game was in Philadelphia between the Blazers and the LA Sharks. The Blazers had Bernie Parent, my all time favorite player. When the Blazers moved to Vancouver, Bernie didn't go(he held out in the playoffs the season before) and before the start of the 1973-74 season, his rights were traded from the Maple Leafs to the Flyers for Doug Favell. Soon after Bernie joined the Flyers and the rest is history.
I agree with your opinion, there is only one goalie I hold in the Same regard with Parent, that is Tony Esposito. He shared the Vezina with parent in 1973-74.
Studa Baker The Blazers played the first WHA pre-season game, also in Ottawa. It was the second half of a double-header with the AHL. I was seated near the players' bench...it really wasn't until I saw Bernie lead the team out-along with John Mackenzie and Derek Sanderson-that I believed it was for real.
Fenton Hardy I saw Bernie Parent in his junior days with the Niagara Falls Flyers-Doug Favell was his teammate then as well. Everybody who saw him knew that this was somebody special and the Flyers made a great move in taking them in the expansion draft...BUT...as great as Parent was the Bruins had an even better goalie prospect with their other junior team (the Oshawa Generals...best known dor somebody named Bobby😆). Ian Young, who tragically lost an eye while playing...he went on to run a goalie school in Oshawa (about 20 miles east of Toronto).
Back in those days the NHL teams could sign kids out of midget hockey and they'd be locked up for life...that was the WHA'S major. impact on hockey.
BTW Quebec City has a beautiful new arena with a former Prime Minister (Brian Mulroney) ready to take part in the workings...
The one issue with Quebec City is that you really need to be able to speak at least some French-Quebecois or European players are more comfortable there. It's a beautiful and historic city.
@@jimbobogie8204 You wrote: "The one issue with Quebec City is that you really need to be able to speak at least some French-Quebecois or European players are more comfortable there." That says a lot about ROC! What about Toronto then? Most people are non-white and mother tongue is not English. Thinking of moving out?
The Ottawa Nationals had the best logo, too bad they only played the inaugural season
The good that came out of the WHA was that it opened up into deserving Canadian markets and pushed hockey more to the west (Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver, Winnipeg, Ottawa, and Quebec City).
The NHL had already expanded to Vancouver by the time WHA started up though. But yeah, Alberta and Manitoba got exposed to major pro hockey thanks to WHA. It also tested a southern market like Texas somewhat successfully (although Houston Aeros didn't became part of the merger).
@@robins5798 It's a crying shame that Houston, Indianapolis and Cincinnati weren't included in the merger... I think those cities would have been solid additions to the NHL... more so than Hartford.
Can you do one on the AHL
I saw my first Hockey game at the then Baltimore Civic Center watching the AHL Baltimore Clippers in 1971. Baltimore is now the largest US city without professional Hockey at any level. The now Royal Farms arena which 54 years old had poor ice conditions and they want to renovate it, putting lipstick and band aids on a old pig. Unless they build a replacement, its not going to change.
Bring back the Baltimore Clippers!
I remember and saw many AHL Nova Scotia Voyaguers games with my dad they were the farm team of Montreal and they played Baltimore in the Calder Cup finals one year and I saw one of those games at the old Halifax Forum
I hope he does the AHL and the ECHL
@@rockvilleraven I was a Eddie Shore Springfield Kings then Indians fan then and loved those teams in those years. Went to a Springfield-Clippers game in 1976 at Baltimore and loooved it. I remember a player on those Clippers Byron Baltimore they called Lord Baltimore. Yes he fans in Baltimore area should have a hockey team again.
Very informative. Great work.
nicely done.
I have some WHA hockey cards one with Gordie Howe
Very well done, Shibby!
I'd like to see an NHL team in Birmingham
AHL or ECHL would make more sense.
I would like to see the Bulls return, even if it is the SPHL.
They are going to be in the sphl. I'm an ice flyers fan
I know the NHL hated the w h a it was a thorn in their side but I loved the league. Because of the W H A I was able to see Gordie Howe, Bobby Hall, Gerry cheevers, JC Tremblay and many others that I could only see on TV before.
Interesting-Winnipeg won a WHA Championship, Quebec won the Stanley Cup (after they moved to Colorado), the Whalers won the Stanley Cup (after moving to Carolina) and the Oilers were a Stanley Cup dynasty during the Gretzky/Messier years.
The Toronto maple Leafs haven't even been to the Stanley Cup Finals since 1967-when there were only six teams...but the fans keep coming...go figure! :)
Well done video!
Thanks for posting :)
Can you look up information about a team named the Grand Rapids Griffins and do a let's talk about hockey about them
Ethan Renfroe The Griffins are the AHLI affiliate of the Red Wings.
I appreciate the content and all the world that goes into creating these videos; but good god, it sounds like a robot reading a wikipedia entry. You've got to liven up your voice.
Did you use a scene from "BASEketball"?
I can’t find part two
I don’t really count the PCHA and WCHL as rival leagues to the NHL.
Awesome Video! Thanks for taking the time to put this together, I learned a lot!
Great vids dude! 1:30 is from Baseketball right?? lol I saw it, and I knew it was from some movie, took me a day to figure it out lol Again, great job.
It's pronounced "Zeegler"
That option is no longer available. =/
Bobby Hulls wife is hot!
"Zeegler" not "Ziegler"
I wish some millionaires would try again to start up another rival league to the NHL. Being back old time hockey instead of this soft, boring shit the NHL has become. I’ll sacrifice some skill if I could, once again, watch a violent game with bad blood and passion....the way hockey was intended until Bettman ruined it.
Me also wha was great for guys who played in minors and got chance to show there talents and make decent money.
I was a student at Carleton University in Ottawa and lived just up the street from the Ottawa Civic Centre. I was one of the few people in Ottawa who attended Nats games (including the opener against the Oilers and their first pre-season game against Philly) and was one of the few who felt betrayed when they played their playoff games in aToronto. One issue was that the Nats' home games were on Wednesday nights as were the Toronto Maple Leafs. The home opener which was one of two "first" games (Quebec was also at Cleveland) was on the same night as the NHL's opening night featuring Montreal at Toronto broadcast nationally. The Natsir also had a TV deal with the fledgling Global TV Network.
Billy Harris returned from Europe to coach the team and brought many European methods with him-some of which are taken for granted today. The Nats were picked to finish last in the East but made the playoffs. They hasn't stolen any big name stars but they had "Chilly Gilly" Great ton in goal...Google him!😆
The "new" orange sweaters that the Oilers are wearing this year are exact replicas of the Alberta Oiler WHA sweaters
The best sweater was Cleveland. The Crusaders were royal purple and black-it doesn't show in pictures and the logo lives on-at least at one Toronto high school.
Ottawa has gone on to enjoy success in the NHL...but not quite as much as the Oilers!😂
allow video response
TheCroatiaKid can you speak croaitan?
He's just reading out the wikipedia page (maybe he wrote it it). Don't speak how you write video maker, it's bad style.
Michigan Stags!
Venus Spa Later to become the Baltimore Blades, which had no chance of survival in Charm City. They were created by the league to finish out the Stags season and owned by the league. They only won 3 games out of the 17 representing the city, playing at the Baltimore Arena. When a sale that would have moved the team to Seattle next season fell through, they were folded and Baltimore went back to being an AHL city for many years until the Bandits left town.
The Blades had one of my favorite WHA logos actually. It's too bad they were just a placeholder like the Ottawa Civics were. :(
Venus Spa Had they had a local owner, they probably would lasted into the next full season. Baltimore was an AHL city for many years, the last team the Bandits couldn't get many good weekend dates because of the Blast Indoor soccer and left for Cincinnati. They are talking about building a new arena at the Pier 6 Pavilion location in the Harbor East section, what they need to get a minor league (AHL or ECHL) team besides that is a ownership group. They had the preseason Baltimore Hockey Classic with the Capitals for two years, but the ice conditions sucked in year two that they discontinued. The Caps are the most popular Washington team with fans up there, drawing about 3000 fans a game from that city.
This really was an awful league.
111highgh It wasn't the greatest hockey no argumentasi there- but it opened up the opportunity for hockey players to make a better living.
Jim Agnew This league made Bobby Hull hockey's first million dollar man.
What a horrible league!
merc340sr might have been been alittle Horrible but it made the NHL change some of its ways you gotta admit.
4 of the WHA Franchises that came to the NHL is all still here not maybe under another name but never folded.
+Spencer Green The NHL used them, didn't recognize their history and were only allowed to protect a couple of players. The Oilers protected Wayne Gretzky, but mostly they were glorified expansion teams with the merger.
+merc340sr Not a horrible league at all. Some really great players came out of the old WHA. You're an idiot.
The league was so good, it dissolved. You're the idiot! You have the IQ of a fucking moron!