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

Bullish Over the Birmingham "Baby Bulls" SI Feature

April 09, 1979 Bullish Over Baby Bulls Now that the pro hockey leagues are definitely going to merge, NHL teams are drooling over all the young stars of the soon-to-be-defunct Birmingham Bulls ... EM Swift

Last summer John Bassett, owner of the hockey team now known as the Birmingham Bulls but soon to be known as defunct, was in a pickle. He had been prepared to fold his club as soon as the World Hockey Association merged with the National Hockey League, and expected to collect several million dollars as an indemnity. Then the merger fell through. In the meantime, Bassett had lost 2,000 season-ticket holders and had sold off $1 million worth of players, including Ken Linseman, Mark Napier and All-Star Goalie John Garrett. Now he needed half a dozen players—quickly and cheaply—in order to scrape through another year. Bassett's solution was to stage a raid on the teen-agers of Canada's junior hockey leagues—amateur players who had not reached the NHL draft age of 20. He signed seven of them for $50,000 each and thus was born the Baby Bulls.

Many underage juniors had been signed to pro contracts during the long WHA-NHL war (among those who succeeded as teen-agers were Bryan Trottier, Pierre Larouche and Mark Howe), but the idea of seven on a single team was preposterous. As it was, six of the seven made the team, and not only have they contributed, they have been the heart of the Bulls. Four of the team's top six scorers and its leading goaltender all started as teen-agers—and now they are battling Cincinnati for the last WHA playoff spot in the last WHA year.

Toros vs. Leafs -- The Battle of Toronto

The Toronto Star 1975 Article on the box office battle between the WHA Toros and NHL Leafs, who both played at Leaf Gardens in 1974-75 and 1975-76.   Of course, the Leafs prevailed and the Toros moved to Birmingham in 1976.

From Wikipedia:

The Toros moved to the Gardens for the 1974–75 season. However, by this time Harold Ballard had regained control of the Gardens. Ballard was a violent opponent of the WHA; he never forgave the upstart league for nearly decimating the Leafs' roster in the early 1970s. He deliberately made the Toros' lease terms at the Gardens as onerous as possible.

The Toros' lease with Maple Leaf Gardens Ltd. called for them to pay $15,000 per game. However, much to Bassett's outrage, the arena was dim for the first game. It was then that Ballard demanded $3,500 for use of the lights. Ballard also denied the Toros access to the Leafs' locker room, forcing them to build their own at a cost of $55,000.

He also removed the cushions from the home bench for Toros' games (he told an arena worker, "Let 'em buy their own cushions!"). It was obvious that Ballard was angered at the WHA being literally in his backyard, and took his frustration on the renegade league out on the Toros.

Tim Sheehy Recalls ‘Forgotten Team’

Jay Gearan -- Worcester telegram and Gazette

Former Hartford Whaler Tim Sheehy doesn’t play hockey anymore, but he’s still always around rinks, some nights watching his son, Dan, play for Algonquin Regional, other nights scouting potential college and professional players.

Today, on the 30th anniversary of the famous “Miracle on Ice” victory for the U.S. Olympic gold-medal winning team in 1980, Sheehy can look back with pride even further, to the 1972 Games in Sapporo, Japan, when his U.S. team won the silver medal.

In 1972, with the country embroiled in social unrest and the war in Vietnam, Olympic athletes did not command the media attention that exploded eight years later at Lake Placid.

“We’ve been called ‘The Forgotten Team,’ ” said Sheehy, who co-captained the all-amateur squad. “Russia won it all, and that was probably the greatest hockey team ever assembled with someone who many of us thought was the best player in the world, Valeri Kharlamov.”

Sheehy, was a star high school hockey player from International Falls, Minn., and led his team to 59 consecutive wins and three straight state championships. He turned down NHL draft opportunities and chose a full athletic scholarship to Boston College in 1966.

"Bullish Times In Birmin'ham" from the SI Vault

OFF THE ICE, ANYWAY, AS ALABAMANS DISCOVER THE HAT TRICK.

ON ICE, THE BULLS' MARKET HAS BEEN BEARISH

Peter Gammons, December 13, 1976

This is Birmin'ham, y'all. Sweet Home, Alabama. This is the heart of Dixie, where signs on street corners proclaim the city as the FOOTBALL CAPITAL OF THE SOUTH, where grits 'n' biscuits 'n' gravy come with breakfast and where the smoke from the chimneys of the steel, coal and natural-gas mills smudges the skyline. And, now, where one or two nights a week in the lavish Birmingham-Jefferson Civic Center Coliseum two flags hang from the scoreboard clock. One is the Stars and Stripes of the U.S.. The other? No, not the Confederate flag. The Maple Leaf of Canada.

In its 82nd year, hockey has discovered Alabama. The team is the WHA's Birmingham Bulls—formerly known as the Ottawa Nationals and the Toronto Toros—and while none of the Bulls is as popular as one of Bear Bryant's centers, the townsfolk seem fascinated by the funny new game. "We don't understand all that swishy-swishy they do with the puck," says Mike Summers, a local construction worker, "but as long as they kick some butts and win once in a while, they're the greatest thing to come here to Birmin'ham."

So, not surprisingly, the darlin' of Dixie is not an old NHLer like Frank Mahovlich or Paul Henderson, a kid star like Mark Napier or a Czechoslovakian refugee like Vaclav Nedomansky, but a 5'7", 170-pound roughneck named Leapin' Louie Nistico. Leapin' Louie and the Bulls regularly fill about half the seats in the 16,753-seat Coliseum, but so far they lead the WHA in only two departments: payroll and losses. They are in last place in the WHA's Eastern Division with an 8-20-1 record.

Exclusive Interview with Jim Dorey

Click Here Good Interview with WHA Rearguard Jim Dorey

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."

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.

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

Gilles Bilodeau and the Thansgiving Day Massacre

Bad News Bilodeau, hockey enforcer (1955-2008)

By Tom Hawthorn
Special to The Globe and Mail
November 25, 2008

A tough and fearless hockey player, Gilles Bilodeau created mayhem whenever he stepped onto the ice.

He punched like a heavyweight and he wielded a hockey stick like a woodman’s axe, tripping faster rivals and clubbing tough opponents.

Big, beefy hands rarely managed to push the puck into the net, but he was never employed for his scoring prowess.

An extensive rap sheet included a ridiculous number of fights and misconducts.

To suit up against Mr. Bilodeau demanded a gut check. Early in his career in his native Quebec, he earned such nicknames as Tarzan and Zombie. When the Toronto Toros of the World Hockey Association promoted him from the minors, the team unveiled him as Bad News Bilodeau, a fitting nickname for a hockey enforcer.

In hockey’s lexicon, a goon can also be known as a policeman, for it is his responsibility to protect smaller, more skilled players by enforcing the sport’s Biblical code of a slash for a slash, an elbow for an elbow.

Mr. Bilodeau played a central role in a notorious incident remembered today as the Thanksgiving Massacre.

On another occasion, he could only be subdued after police sprayed him with mace. When he appeared in court, a judge compared him to a bum.

As is so often the case with tough guys, Mr. Bilodeau was a kind and law-abiding presence as long as he was not wearing a hockey sweater.

He was the third of nine children born to dairy farmers at St-Prime, Que. Even in winter, his mother locked the door to the farmhouse, forcing her rambunctious sons to either play in the barn, or skate on the frozen ponds of their Saguenay farm.

As a young man, the 6-foot-1, 220-pound left winger played major junior hockey for the Sorel Eperviers, a team whose fans, many of whom laboured in the shipbuilding industry, preferred a robust style of play. Mr. Bioldeau’s muscular presence was reflected in frequent appearances on the score sheet, more often than not for time served in the penalty box.

In 1975, the Toros selected the hard-nosed player No. 122 overall in the league’s amateur draft. The teams in the more established National Hockey League did not draft him at all.

Mr. Bilodeau made his professional debut with the minor league Beauce Jaros, based at Saint-Georges, Que. His name quickly became synonymous with fighting in the North American Hockey League, a circuit known for bench-clearing brawls and mayhem both on and off the ice.

The team’s playing coach, Gypsy Joe Hardy, offered a gentlemanly presence on a team with more than a few scofflaws.

Frank Mahovlich Recalls the Birmingham Bulls

By Evan Weiner  - NHL.com Correspondent

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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