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

Howard Baldwin Whalers Press Conferences 1979-1989

Howard Baldwin Press Conferences 1979-1989 .. Produced by Dave Smith in 1990

Ron "Magic" Ward: The Garbage Man Cometh

Deflections, rebounds and other close-in pickings are the repertoire of the WHA's surprise scoring ace, Ron Ward—up from NHL oblivion

Mark Mulvo, Sports Illustrated, December 18, 1972

If you add up the total footage and the total velocity of the 26 goals Ron Ward has scored for the New York Raiders this season, you might—just might—get one of Bobby Hull's 50-foot, 110-miles-an-hour slap shots. A Ward goal is a deflection or a converted rebound or a soft backhander that trickles through the goaltender's pads and comes to rest 1/1,000th of an inch across the goal line. "I am," Ward candidly admits, "a true garbage collector."

There was Ward last Wednesday night, hanging around the crease as his line-mates, Wayne Rivers and Brian Bradley, battled furiously for the puck behind the New England Whalers' net. Ward casually skated around the perimeter of the crease, not bothering a soul, and then he stopped in a spot about three feet in front of Goaltender Bruce Landon, who was hugging the right post as the skirmish for the loose puck continued behind him. Suddenly the puck rolled out toward Ward's stick. Ping! With almost casual disdain, Ward flicked a backhand shot that floated past Landon's glove, hit the goalpost and caromed in.

"I don't understand it," Bradley complained afterward. "I can shoot the puck through the boards and you can't break a pane of glass, but I've got only two goals and you've got 26. It's ridiculous." Ward tried to console his frustrated line-mate. "Brian," he said in an avuncular tone, "you've just got to learn how to talk to the puck."

WHA Profile: Danny Lawson

Blessed with blazing speed and a hard shot, Danny Lawson was one of the WHA's All-Time great offensive stars.  He was known as a defensive player in the NHL, but became the top goal scorer in the WHA;s inaugural season when teamed with skilled centre Andre Lacroix in 1972-73.

Lawson played a single game with the Detroit Red Wings in the 1968 season, before becoming a full-time professional the next year, shuffling between the Wings and the minor-league Fort Worth Wings of the Central Hockey League. Before season's end he was traded to the , serving the role of a defensive forward on the third and fourth lines. He spent the next two years with the North Stars, further splitting his time between the parent club and the minor leagues, before a trade in the 1971 offseason to the Buffalo Sabres. It was with Buffalo that Lawson finally received substantial ice time, albeit in a checking role shadowing other teams' offensive stars. It was to be his first complete season in the NHL without any time spent in the minors.

In 1972 the WHA came into existence and Lawson made the jump and signed with the Philadelphia Blazers.  Although having had a five-year career in the NHL under his belt, it was not until moving to the WHA that his scoring abilities were fully realized. In the WHA’s inaugural season, despite the presence of superstar Bobby Hull, it was Lawson who on February 22 became the first player to score 50 goals and by season’s end he led the league in goals with 61.Lawson capped that season by being selected to the WHA All Star Team's First Team.

According to Lawson, things were equally exciting off the ice (as told to Murray Greig): "The off-ice stuff was just wild.  One night after a game in New York the team stopped off at a little bar in Blackwood, New Jersey.  It turned out that a gang of bikers used this bar as one of their favorite hangouts, and they showed up juts after we got there.  They started mouthing off, and one of them threw a shot glass at our table and hit Marcel Paille in the head.

World Hockey Association: Not Professional?

At best, it was ridiculous. At worst, it was insulting. The notion, that is, that the old World Hockey Association was not a “professional” league.

But, by allowing defenseman RICK CUNNINGHAM, for one, to compete for Austria at Sarajevo, that is exactly what the International Olympic Committee, in effect, stated with their ruling on the eve of the 1984 Winter Olympic Games concerning player eligibility.

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Rare WHA Footage: Derek Sanderson Philadelphia Blazers

(The above footage shows Derek Sanderson assisting on a Don Burgess goal in Quebec.

Woeful season's start for Derek Sanderson & Co., rich but unready, illuminates the fitness of things

Mark MulvoySports Illustrated, Nov. 6, 1972

 Accustomed though they are to humiliation and despair, Philadelphia sports fans could hardly believe their wary eyes last week as $3.5 million worth of shiny new hockey talent went crashing to the ice. There they came, the gaudy Blazers, among the biggest, boldest spenders of the infant World Hockey Association and, sob, there they went: Center Derek Sanderson, possessor of a $2.3 million contract, with an injured shoulder; Goalie Bernie Parent ($750,000) with a broken foot; and Player-Coach Johnny McKenzie ($450,000), self-banished temporarily from the bench in favor of crusty old Phil Watson, once the mind and mouth of the New York Rangers. As the week ended the Blazers had settled into last place in the WHA's East Division with a 1-8 record, dutifully following the example of the town's woebegone baseball Phillies, football Eagles and basketball 76ers.

It was Sanderson above all—trendy and tactless but a superior player when he was a Boston Bruin with McKenzie—who was supposed to win hockey fans away from Bobby Clarke and the Flyers of the National Hockey League. Or at least draw enough new ones to Civic Center (formerly Convention Hall) to pay his keep. Not surprisingly, Sanderson was in a let-'em-eat-cake mood. "I got an ulcer in Boston over winning," he said. "I ain't gonna get one in Philadelphia over losing."

Birthday Wishes: Fred O'Donnell, New England Whalers

 BY NEIL ACHARYA, The Hockey News

The Boston Bruins of the early 1970s are solidified in hockey lore.

Orr, Esposito, Buyck and Cheevers are some of the names that immediately come to mind.

Among those big names was a gritty young winger from Gananoque, Ont., named Fred O’Donnell.

“I was certainly fortunate to be playing for the Bruins during that time,” O’Donnell said. “A lot of the popularity with the club has stayed with that era.”

One special night in Gananoque, O’Donnell was in attendance when NHL scouts discovered a kid named Bobby Orr during a bantam playoff game.

“He must have been pretty special for me to remember that particular game,” O’Donnell noted.

Little did he know at the time, the two would one day be teammates with the Big, Bad Bruins.

O’Donnell, who came up in the era when players were signed by an organization – often in their early teens – instead of going through the draft, was no stranger to the Boston Garden when he finally broke in with the Bruins in 1972-73.

“I played my first game in the Garden when I was 17,” he said. “The Bruins sponsored both the Niagara Falls Flyers and the Oshawa Generals and flew them down to showcase prospects.

“I always enjoyed playing at the Gardens – we had good teams and I liked the smaller ice surface and the physical play,” added O’Donnell, who also played at the Gardens as a member of the American League’s Boston Braves.

O’Donnell scored his first goal on Long Island against Billy Smith. Just as any player would, he got the puck.

“A couple of months later I received another puck on a plaque stating it was my first goal,” he said. “I now have two pucks stating they were my first.”

That season, the Bruins were vying for a third Stanley Cup in four seasons, but major injuries to Orr and Phil Esposito resulted in an early exit from the playoffs at the hands of the New York Rangers. That didn’t stop O’Donnell and a few of his teammates from having Esposito join them at a party to celebrate the season.

Exclusive Interview with Jim Dorey

Click Here Good Interview with WHA Rearguard Jim Dorey