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

Paul "Stew Cat" Stewart Recalls Meeting Wayne Gretzky

My First Time Meeting 99

Paul Stewart appears courtesy of Officiating by Stewart

In 1978 The Cincinnati Stingers of the WHA were scheduled to play their first preseason game against the Indianapolis Racers. Yet another, yawn, preseason game except for the fact that similar to people who remember where they were when Pearl Harbor was bombed, when President Kennedy was assassinated and when the planes hit the twin towers on 9/11, this game had a special moment that reverberated not only through Hockey but in my life as well.

Pat “Whitey” Stapleton, a former teammate, was both Coach and General Manager of the Racers. That summer, Whitey had called me about signing to play for him and the Racers. It seemed that Indy was about to sign some new WHIZ KID who would turn there Hockey World and the World Hockey Association into a huge success. There was a number of signings of 18 year old players that summer in the WHA especially in Birmingham by John Bassett, owner of the Bulls. Players like Rick Vaive, Mike Gartner and Mark Messier certainly became household words as their careers both in the WHA and the NHL blossomed. It was, however, a skinny kid in Indy who eventually turned the entire world into a Hockey watching, Hockey playing, Hockey excited tide that continues to this today.

“Hey, Stew Cat, come on over here, I want you to meet someone”…that was Whitey talking as he brought me into the neutral area under the stands near the Zamboni.

“I want you to meet Wayne Gretzky, the guy that someday will be one of the best that ever played!”

“Hello MISTER Stewart”, said this young, skinny looking kid standing in front of me.

“Do me a favor, call me Stewy….I am told I might be calling you MISTER pretty soon….”

“Whitey tells me that tonight is your first game in the Pro’s…Good Luck with your career….but do me a favor…play the game and don’t be a stick man…I don’t like guys who use their sticks and then run and hide….Play clean and hard you won’t have any problems with me….”

Remembering Steve "Demolition Durby" Durbano

By STEVE SIMMONS -- Toronto Sun

Steve Durbano lived a confusing life of hockey noise, violence and headlines and died this past Saturday, so very quietly. Liver cancer managed what few could ever do on the ice. It beat him up and took the life of one the most notorious bad guys in sporting history. A hockey villain 20 years in retirement but forever a household name: Dead, one month before his 51st birthday, living in obscurity in Yellowknife of all places, where he had moved to find peace. "You should have heard the noise when he played," said his cousin, Anthony Cola. "It didn't matter what the rink was, when Steve Durbano came to play, you knew about it. "I remember one game against the Philadelphia Flyers and Dave Schultz jumped him and then Bob Kelly jumped him. And Steve didn't care who it was, he'd fight anybody. The arenas were electric then. Those are sounds you don't hear anymore. "We'd go to watch him play. He couldn't always guarantee you a goal, but he'd guarantee you a fight."

Banned for Life: "Wild" Willie Trognitz Signs with WHA Stingers

Sports Illustrated, Peter Gammons, Nov. 1977

Until the night of Oct. 29, Raymond William (Wild Willie) Trognitz was just another guy banging out a living as a 10-grand-a-year minor league hockey bad man for the Dayton Owls. On that night in Port Huron, Mich., Trognitz banged his hockey stick over the head of an opponent named Archie Henderson. Five days later Wild Willie was "permanently suspended," banned for life from the International League, the lowest rung on the professional hockey ladder, by President William Beagan.

 Unbelievably, just four days after that, the World Hockey Association's Cincinnati Stingers, in dire need of an on-ice policeman to protect their fancy skaters, asked the "permanently suspended" Trognitz to come play in the big leagues for them. And so there was Trognitz last week, relaxing in an Edmonton tavern with his new Cincinnati teammates, chasing down a big steak with a beer and reflecting on the events that had so changed his life.

"They'll never believe this story back in Thunder Bay," Trognitz said.

BIll Butters Hockey Ministry

Separated by Plexiglas and a generational gap, he watches a familiar scene. Players swoop and spin, occasionally crashing into one another with a shout, or blasting a slap shot that explodes in the empty arena at the National Hockey Center.

"It's a violent game," Bill Butters said.

He should know. Butters, 58, played at the University of Minnesota in the early 1970s, then went on to a pro career that included 100 fights and more than 240 stitches in his face.

Thirty years after he last appeared as a defenseman with the Minnesota North Stars, he's still around the rinks — only now it's with a Bible under his arm. Its black cover carries the logo of a skate with a cross on the heel.

Read Full Story Here:

Phil Langan: 1939-2009

LANGAN, Phil Phil Langan of Enfield, 70, passed away suddenly at his home on Monday (November 23, 2009). Langan was born in Boston in 1939. He attended South Boston High School and received a BA Degree in English from Boston College in 1960. Following graduation, he was the assistant sports information director at Harvard. During that time, he served six months of active duty in the United States Army. He received an Honorable Discharge following six and a half years of active reserve duty. He joined a Boston publishing firm 1963 and four years later was named sports information director at Ithaca College where he stayed for six years. He served in that same capacity at Princeton for four years. Cornell for three years and Brown University for four years before accepting a position as Vice President of Public Relations and Community Relations for the Hartford Whalers in 1983. He held the same position with the Pittsburgh Penguins from 1991-96.

Rich Leduc, Three others Named to Quebec League Hall of Fame

The Quebec Major Hockey League's Hall of Fame is growing by four new members. The league announced yesterday that Gilbert Delorme, Richard Leduc and Yanic Perreault are joining the player category, while Maurice Tanguay will be inducted in the builder category. All four will officially take their place in the Hall on March 31 in Montreal.

Leduc played two seasons with the Trois Rivières Ducs, scoring 117 goals and 166 assists in 114 games from 1969 to 1971. In 1971, the California Golden Seals selected him 29th overall in the NHL draft and he went on to play 10 seasons in the American Hockey League, World Hockey Association and the NHL.

Born in Ile Perrot, Quebec, LeDuc scored 117 goals in two seasons of junior with the Trois Rivieres Ducs. He spent most of his first two pro seasons with the AHL's Boston Braves and accumulated 57 goals. The young pivot was a solid role player for the Bruins in 1973-74 and played in five post-season contests when the club reached the finals.

Shorthanded Whalers Upset Soviets -- December 28, 1976

December 28, 1976

Hartford Connecticut ... Tom Hine, Hartford Courant

Harry Neale sipped a little tradition out of one of the Soviet
Union’s favorite past times Monday night, and the New England
Whalers stole the thunder out of the Russian’s playbook after
an unbelievable, surprisingly convincing, 5-2 exhibition win
at the Civic Center.

“I may have some vodka tonight, without any mixer,” Neale quipped
outside the jubilant Whalers locker room after a win of such
magnitude most of the sellout crowd will never know.

This was the strongest Soviet Union hockey team ever put on ice
and one which has a score to settle after last year’s Canada
Cup defeat let alone that national pride it hopes to regain in
the next World championship.

It was a bitter blow for the Russians to watch a bunch of Whalers,
hanging by a toenail in fourth place in the east division standings,
beat them convincingly.

Howard Baldwin, Stan Fischler Interview, Dec. 27, 1976

Howard Baldwin and Stan Fischler discuss the state of hockey in this 1976 Interview at the Hartford Civic Center as the Whalers battle the Soviets.

CaringBridge: Wendy Pleau

Published: 09/27/2007
Port police, NHL rally to help sick mom
By Angeljean Chiaramida
Staff writer

SALISBURY - Wendy Pleau spent her adult life caring for her children and her husband. Now, her daughter Shannon Pleau Nolan said, it's the family's turn to care for her, as she wages the fight of her life against non-Hodgkins lymphoma.

On Monday, Nolan - a Salisbury Elementary School teacher - wants hundreds of people to turn out for a marrow drive running from 3 to 7 p.m. at Salisbury Elementary School. Her hope is, the painless and quick mouth-swab test will find a stem cell donor match for her 59-year-old mother, who's battling her second bout with non-Hodgkins lymphoma since Thanksgiving 2006.
"My mother supported me and my brother and my dad all our lives," Nolan said yesterday. "It's time we supported her. When I heard the doctors (in St. Louis, Mo.) said she might need another stem cell transplant, I said, 'OK, we're going to have a marrow drive right here."
With the cooperation of school officials, the help of the Rocco family of Newburyport and sponsorship by the Newburyport Police Association, the marrow drive became a reality.
"The Pleau family lived right across the street from my family on Turkey Hill Road in Newburyport," said Christine Rocco, whose father, Richard, is a retired Newburyport policeman, and whose brother Richard Jr. is currently a Newburyport policeman. "That's how our families got so close. They moved away to Connecticut before Shannon was born, but every summer - every summer - they'd come back to their house at Seabrook Beach."