WHA Hockey.TV: A Tribute to the Legends of the World Hockey Association by Mark Willand

Mike Antonovich to be Inducted Into University of Minnesota "M Club" Hall of Fame

Ex-New England Whaler and Minnesota Fighting Saints Mike Antonovich is one of eight former University of Minnesota standouts will be inducted into the school's "M" Club Hall of Fame on Thursday in the TCF Bank Stadium DQ Club Room.

His Golden Gopher playing days cut short due to an injury, Antonovich made up for lost time with a lengthy and successful professional hockey career. Antonovich played at the University of Minnesota from 1969-72 and led the team in scoring as a freshman, but suffered a knee injury in a game against the U.S. Olympic team during the 1971-72 season. Antonovich left the Gophers following that season and embarked on a professional career that spanned 11 seasons and five different teams.

Antonovich totaled 45 goals and 40 assists for 85 points in 77 career games as a centerman for the Golden Gophers. He notched team highs in every category as a freshman with 23 goals, 20 assists, 43 points and 60 penalty minutes. Antonovich followed with 14 goals and 18 assists for 32 points as a sophomore and was off to a strong start during his junior season with eight goals and two assists before his injury in the ninth game and first home contest of the year.

Ex-Birmingham Bull Rick Vaive up on DUI Charge

Former "Baby Bull" Rick Vaive has been charged with impaired driving in Vaughan,Ont., according to a report.

The 50-year-old faces a charge after a July arrest, according to court documents obtained by Global News.

Vaive was pulled over in the area of Hwy. 407 and Hwy. 427 after a concerned citizen reported seeing an impaired man get into a vehicle at Hwy. 7 and Pine Valley Dr. in Vaughan, Global reports.

Investigators told the TV station Vaive, who captained the Toronto Maple Leafs from 1981-1986, had been at a charity golf tournament on the day of his arrest. Vaive is scheduled to appear in court on Sept. 23.

Gordie "Machine Gun" Gallant and the Harry Neale punch-out

WHA goon Gordie "Machine Gun" Gallant punches out his coaches (Harry Neale and jack McCarten) prior to the 1975 Minnesota Fighting Saints/New England Whalers WHA Playoff.

Ballard Smith,President, San Diego Mariners 1976: "When we came in here today, we knew the Saints were going to play goon-style hockey and that's what came about," said Smith. "The Saints have a lot of goons and Gord Gallant is the worst. He tried to start a brawl and he did. This is the very kind of violence we are trying to legislate against "

Terry Ruskowski, "The Game I'll Never Forget", the Winnipeg Jets Win Final Avco Cup

The Game I'll Never Forget - Terry Ruskowski recalls game that won the World Hockey Association's Avco Cup Hockey Digest,  Feb, 2001  by Chuck O'Donnell .

Terry Ruskowski The perennial leader recalls how a team once divided came together to, win the final Avco Cup title I HAD ONE OF THE WORST injuries of my career--a hyperextended shoulder or a sprained shoulder or something--during the 1979 World Hockey Association Finals. Whatever-I had done to my shoulder, I had trouble just putting on my Winnipeg Jets jersey because I couldn't raise my arm over my head. Someone had checked me into the boards during our Finals series with the Edmonton Oilers. My shoulder was so sore, I sat out Game 5. There were a couple of days between Game 5 and Game 6, so the trainers worked on it nonstop. They treated it with therapy and messaging and all that.

Before Game 6, coach Tom McVie approached me in the locker room. "Can you play?" McVie asked. I was a young kid back then. I didn't know any better so I just looked at him. "Oh yeah, I can play," I said. It didn't matter that I could barely move my arm, I was going to play in Game 6--although I knew that there was no way I would be able to play if the series had to go the distance. It was pretty amazing that we were just one victory away from winning the Avco Cup considering everything we had been through that season. What a weird year. In November, Bobby Hull retired. Then, our captain, defenseman Lars-Erik Sjoberg, was lost for a chunk of the season with an injury. Veteran defenseman Ted Green retired. When the Indianapolis Racers folded during the season, that left only six teams in the league, and every team was really good.

We were hovering in the middle of the pack for most of the season. One of our biggest problems was that the team was splint into two factions. On one side of the room, you have the Jets On the other side, you had all the players the Jets obtained when the Houston Aeros folded. John Ferguson was brought in as the team's new general manager. Eventually Ferguson's patience ran thin and coach Larry Hillman was fired. Ferguson brought in McVie with about 40 games remaining in the season.

A Review of the 1977-78 WHA OPC Card Set

 

Nothing shows the WHA's instability better than its final O-Pee-Chee set. More than a quarter of the cards in the relatively small 66-card set have "Now with. . ." printed somewhere on the front. Four of the twelve teams that existed during the 76-77 WHA season folded prior to the release of O-Pee-Chee's 77-78 set, which would have made it hard for O-Pee-Chee to release a full sized set with the correct teams listed on each player's card, so they really didn't bother to try to get it right

See full post here:  http://highonhockey.blogspot.com/2008/01/77-78-o-pee-chee-wha.html.

Harry Neale Pre-Game Minnesota Fighting Saints vs. Jets 1975

In this video, Coach Harry Neale rallies the troops prior to a big 1975 game vs. Bobby Hull's Winnipeg Jets

As a WHA hockey coach, Neale's career was anything but boring. In 1975, during his tenure as coach of the WHA's Minnesota Fighting Saints, Neale became embroiled in a fight with one of his players-the then notorious tough guy Gordie Gallant-in a hotel.

"I had imposed a curfew that night," recalls Neale. "When I called up to his room, he wasn't there. I told his roommate, Mike McMahon, to inform him that there would be a fine of $100." "Gallant came back a little full," as Harry puts it, and when he found out about the fine he came straight up to Neale's room and "cocked me right in the face." Before the kerfuffle was over, Gallant had taken on both Neale and the assistant coach. "Gordie Gallant was one of the toughest guys I've ever seen," reminisces Neale. "When he first came into the WHA he was only 5'10, 170 pounds, and he took on every tough guy there was. And believe me, there were plenty at that time. Last I heard he saved a child and his girlfriend from a burning car...he was 170 pounds of pure steal, he was." ( Courtesy VarsityOnline.).

After the Saints folded in 1976, Neale coached the New England Whalers through the 1977-78 campaign.  In the 1977-78 WHA season he coached the Whalers to the Avco Cup Finals as well only to lose to the Winnipeg Jets.

In six WHA seasons with Minnesota and New England, Neale's teams never missed the playoffs as he posted a regular-season record of 208-175-20 and a 32-32 playoff mark.

He went on to coach the Vancouver Canucks.  With the Canucks he made a huge error when he passed on Mike Rogers after the WHA folded.  Rogers, who played for Neale in New England, went on to record three 100 campaigns with Hartford and New York.

Gilles "Bad News" Bilodeau: A Look Back at a WHA Goon

ERIN STOCK

Birmingham News staff writer

Gilles "Bad News" Bilodeau famously delivered some bad news on Nov. 24, 1977, in what was coined The Thanksgiving Night Massacre in the next day's newspaper.

It took Bilodeau and four other Birmingham Bulls starters exactly 24 seconds to start a free-swinging, 15-minute brawl against their opponents. Players racked up 78 penalty minutes in the first 30 seconds of play.

"Bulls make a big Thanksgiving kill," The Birmingham News headline read.

Bilodeau, a Quebec native, earned his middle moniker for battles on the ice as a left wing for the Bulls, a short-lived World Hockey Association team notorious for rough play. The guy known as the enforcer in the rink played a different position away from it.

"Off the ice, he was a teddy bear," said Debbie "Good News" Bilodeau, the Birmingham belle who caught his eye after practice one day in 1977.

Bilodeau died at his Huffman home earlier this month at age 53, likely of undetected pancreatic cancer, his wife said.

He started out skating on a pond in St. Prime, Quebec. The handsome boy with the big smile came third in a line of nine children born to dairy farmers. He dreamed of playing professional hockey.

He was drafted by the Toronto Toros in 1975 and moved south when the team did, entering a climate where ice lasted as long as it took to down a glass of tea and no longer. Birmingham welcomed him and his brawling ways with savage adoration. The 6-foot-1, 220-pound Bilodeau enforced the unspoken law: Mess with my teammates and I mess with you.

"He was protecting us," said Jean-Guy Lagace, who played for the Bulls in 1976 and 1977. "When the other team was sending their goons after us, then Gilles would get on the ice."

Bilodeau left Birmingham in 1977 and played briefly in the National Hockey League, with the Quebec Nordiques, before finishing his career in Richmond with the American Hockey League. That year, he turned 26 and assumed his most important position - Dad.

The formerly fearsome Bilodeau refused to let his two sons play football until they were older. It was too rough. His children's friends would beg him for hockey stories, and Bilodeau accommodated them, sharing tales in a French accent complicated by a Southern drawl.

Brent thought his dad was Wayne Gretzky. He and Brian adored him beyond his athletic acclaim. They accompanied him into the woods on hunting trips beginning around ages 3 and 4, a tradition that continued when the Bilodeau boys grew to be men.

Fun-loving, kindhearted and jarringly frank, Bilodeau loved to joke around. And even later in life, he was still prone to fight, sort of.

It was around 1992. The place? The cafeteria at St. Barnabas Catholic School.

"We had peas that day," Brent recalls, "and out of nowhere, Dad starts putting them on spoons and flicking them at people."

The schoolchildren fired back. It rained peas.

"I'll never forget that teacher coming up and sending my dad to the office," said Brent, now 24. "I remember my dad just laughing the whole way.

Later he easily fell into the role of "Pop" when his first grandson was born. The two would squeeze into Bilodeau's armchair for SpongeBob SquarePants. And the boy, now 4, would help Bilodeau with various fix-it projects. Bilodeau ran a construction company and as a contractor would volunteer his skills at St. Barnabas Catholic Church and to elderly friends, his wife said.

Willy Lindstrom: Winnipeg Jets "Mr. Clutch"

Winnipeg Jets Right-winger Willy Lindstrom was an exciting combination of speed and scoring during his four seasons in the WHA.  Perhaps the WHA's most underrated player, Lindstrom was superior in the post-season, notching 22 goals in 38 WHA playoff games.

Born in Grunnis, Sweden, "The Wisp" excelled for five years with Vastra Frolunda. He also spent parts of two seasons on the national team and played at the World Championshios in 1974 and 1975. Lindstrom signed as a free agent with the WHA's Winnipeg Jets in July 1975 and was a top goal scorer for four seasons. In 1977, he was the Co-MVP of the WHA All Star game.

The clever forward remained on the Jets when they joined the NHL in 1979-80. He recorded four consecutive 20-goal seasons as the young club was one of the fastest in the league. In March 1983, Lindstrom was traded to the Edmonton Oilers for scrappy centre Laurie Boschman. He was a role player on his new squad but recorded 22 goals in 1983-84 and helped the club win two consecutive Stanley Cups in 1984 and 1985.

In October 1985, he was picked up on waivers by the Pittsburgh Penguins and scored 24 goals over two seasons. After sitting out the 1987-88 season, he played two years with Brynas IF Gavle of Sweden before announcing his retirement.

Legends of Hockey.net

WHA Profile: "Cowboy" Bill Flett

Cowboy Bill Flett took the WHA by storm with 34 goals in 48 games in 1976-77.  He follwed that with a 41-goal campaign a year later.  Flett began his career with the Melville Millionaires of the SJHL. He was drafted by the Toronto Maple Leafs. From 1963 through 1967, he played for various minor league teams. Finally, in 1967, the NHL expanded from six to twelve teams and Flett was drafted by the expansion Los Angeles Kings. In his rookie season, playing on right wing, he scored 26 goals and was named The Sporting News NHL West Division rookie of the year.

Flett was nicknamed "Cowboy" because in addition to being a hockey player, he was also a rodeo performer. Flett's rodeo career ended when the Los Angeles King's Kings owner Jack Kent Cooke threatened to fine him $1000 for every rodeo he appeared in. He was well known throughout his career for being one of the few hockey players at the time to sport a large beard, and for being one of the last players to play without a helmet.

Flett scored 24 goals in his sophomore season. His goal production declined significantly in his next two seasons. Fed up with his dwindling production, the Kings traded Flett, along with Eddie Joyal and Ross Lonsberry to the Philadelphia Flyers where he had his best season in 1972–73 with 43 goals. Flett was a member of the Flyers 1974 Stanley Cup champion team. After the season ended, he was traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs where he reverted to his indifferent play, and as a result, the Leafs put him on waivers. The Atlanta Flames picked him from waivers, and Flett had one last productive year in the NHL when he scored 23 goals in 1975–76. In 1976–77, the Flames sold him to the Edmonton Oilers of the WHA where he contributed nicely to the Oilers offence. When Edmonton joined the NHL, he found he had little left and retired after 20 games. He scouted for the Oilers after that.

In May 1999, Flett entered the hospital due to a gall bladder condition which eventually contributed to liver failure. Flett received a liver transplant; however, his body rejected the transplant. Flett died on July 13, 1999 due to liver failure.

WHA Profile: Tim Sheehy

Talented and classy Tim Sheehy is now a successful player agent. His scoring prowess was a key factor in the Whalers success from 1972-74. Sheehy, who was born in September 3rd, 1948 in Fort Frances, Ontario, was an American citizen by the time his career got underway. Sheehy was a major star as a high school player leading his team to 59-straight victories and three consecutive Minnesota State Championships. He then moved on to a University career.

After three decorated years with Boston College, Sheehy joined the United States National Team where he participated in two World Championships and the 1972 Winter Olympics. He served as the captain of the U.S. club was a major part of the team that surprised many by winning a silver medal.

His professional career began in 1972 when he signed on with the World Hockey Association's New England Whalers where he soon earned a reputation as a steady scoring winger. During his third season with the Whalers Sheehy was traded to the Edmonton Oilers where he spent parts of three seasons. After a very solid 1976-77 campaign where Sheehy scored 41 goals with Birmingham he caught the attention of the NHL and was acquired via trade by the Detroit Red Wings.

According to Sheehy: "Being a parent and coach of young hockey players at this stage of my life, I certainly understand the demeanor of a younger Jack Kelley and his climb to the top of his profession. Helping young players attain their goals by winning championships and helping in their development along the way, is a passion that I share today as a hockey agent.

Never will I forget the trade engineered by Jack Kelley that sent me to the Edmonton Oilers on Valentine’s Day 1975, while being the team’s second leading scorer. Jack would later say that I was supposed to “warm things up for the Great Wayne Gretzky.” After spending two years in Edmonton, I was traded to the Birmingham Bulls of the WHA and got to play with the likes of Frank Mahovlich and Paul Henderson. With Birmingham experiencing financial problems, Vaclav Nedomansky and I were traded to the Detroit Red Wings in the first inter-league trade. Later, on Valentine’s Day 1978, Jack Kelley would tell me “it was time to come home” and play on a line with “Mr. Hockey,” Gordie Howe and his son Mark Howe, along with his defenseman brother Marty Howe. All three Howes’ had been so well represented by the family matriarch agent in contract negotiations, that being the wonderful and classy Colleen Howe. " Tim Sheehy