Frank Mahovlich played for three of hockey's most storied franchises -- the Toronto Maple Leafs, where he was part of four Stanley Cup teams; the Detroit Red Wings, where he played left wing on a line that featured Alex Delvecchio and Gordie Howe, and in Montreal, where he was part of two Stanley Cup teams.
But "The Big M" also was part of one of the oddest collections of players ever put together on any roster in as non-traditional a hockey market as there ever could be. Mahovlich finished his playing career in Birmingham, Ala., with the World Hockey Association's Birmingham Bulls between 1976 and 1978.
Birmingham and the American Deep South were not hockey hotbeds, as Mahovlich quickly discovered.
"It was different," said Mahovlich of his fondest Birmingham memories. "We did have one snowstorm, believe it or not. It snowed there one day and it closed the whole town.
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