The Rebel League: The Short and Unruly Life of the World Hockey Association

By Ed Willes

Book Overview

The wildest seven years in the history of hockey

The Rebel League celebrates the good, the bad, and the ugly of the fabled WHA. It is filled with hilarious anecdotes, behind the scenes dealing, and simply great hockey. It tells the story of Bobby Hull's astonishing million-dollar signing, which helped launch the league, and how he lost his toupee in an on-ice scrap.It explains how a team of naked Birmingham Bulls ended up in an arena concourse spoiling for a brawl. How the Oilers had to smuggle fugitive forward Frankie "Seldom" Beaton out of their dressing room in an equipment bag. And how Mark Howe sometimes forgot not to yell "Dad " when he called for his teammate father, Gordie, to pass. There's the making of Slap Shot, that classic of modern cinema, and the making of the virtuoso line of Hull, Anders Hedberg, and Ulf Nilsson.

It began as the moneymaking scheme of two California lawyers. They didn't know much about hockey, but they sure knew how to shake things up. The upstart WHA introduced to the world 27 new hockey franchises, a trail of bounced cheques, fractious lawsuits, and folded teams. It introduced the crackpots, goons, and crazies that are so well remembered as the league's bizarre legacy.

But the hit-and-miss league was much more than a travelling circus of the weird and wonderful. It was the vanguard that drove hockey into the modern age. It ended the NHL's monopoly, freed players from the reserve clause, ushered in the 18-year-old draft, moved the game into the Sun Belt, and put European players on the ice in numbers previously unimagined.

The rebel league of the WHA gave shining stars their big-league debut and others their swan song, and provided high-octane fuel for some spectacular flameouts. By the end of its seven years, there were just six teams left standing, four of which - the Winnipeg Jets, Quebec Nordiques, Edmonton Oilers, and Hartford Whalers - would wind up in the expanded NHL.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 077108949X
• ISBN13: 9780771089497
• Release Date: October 2005
• Publisher: McClelland & Stewart
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.99 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

MOST ACCURATE HISTORY OF THE WHA

As someone who followed the WHA from year one, this book represents the most accurate description of the history of the WHA. I particularly enjoyed the chapters on the Quebec Nordiques and the Minnesotta Fighting Saints. The one area I remember differently from the book was at the time of the merger, Winnipeg Jets GM John Ferguson publicly stated that he would not trade any of his draft picks in order to keep his current WHA stars from being reclaimed by NHL teams. As a result, the Jets were poorly prepared for their first NHL season.

Rebel with a Cause

This is a highly-enjoyable review of a league that came about at just the right time to raise the salaries of players -- and spread the game to markets that weren't familiar with it at all. I was a Chicago Cougars fan, and when they advanced to the Avco Cup finals with the (Gordie-Marty-Mark) "Howeston" Aeros, it was a great spectacle, even though they played the Chicago portion of the series in a Schaumberg shopping mall. The memories are great to relive, and I'm sure make for great reading for younger hockey fans as well. Pete Weber Nashville Predators

wow what a book

WOW, I read this book in just two days could not put it down.The stories had to be true because you can`t make this stuff up . Anyone who remembers the WHA or just loves hockey needs to read this book!!!!!!

The story you're about to read is true.

Because you couldn't make this stuff up. Yes, Virginia, there really WERE Hanson Brothers...and among the other characters chronicled in "The Rebel League : The Short and Unruly Life of the World Hockey Association", they are some of the more well-adjusted people you'll read about. By the time I got interested in hockey the WHA had already folded its tents and began its inevitable fade into...well, somewhere between legend and the haze of attempting to recall details from an alcoholic blackout. Was it really just a league of goons, kooks, and has-been graybeard NHL stars intent on the continued drawing of a paycheck? Regardless of whether you're interested in the recent history of pro hockey in North America (which as of now is in serious jeopardy of mutually assured destruction thanks to its current labor "crisis"), you absolutely MUST read this book if you've ever seen the movie "Slap Shot". Like me, the first thing you'll probably do is look at the pictures (we're hockey fans, after all)...and there they are in all their safety-glassed glory, "The Hanson Brothers" (actually the Carlson brothers) and a very angry-looking young man with a HUGE afro called Bill Goldthorpe ("Ogie" Oglethorpe, as you live and breathe)! Something like this could have only happened in that decade of bad taste, the 1970's. The "golden age" of rival leagues ran from 1960 through 1980 (you can include the USFL from the mid-'80's if you must) with the AFL (and later the WFL) in football, the ABA in basketball, and the WHA in hockey. You can make the argument that in terms of financial success and impact on the game's established LEAGUE the AFL was the most successful of all of them (with the ABA a close second), but if you know hockey at all, there can be no doubt that the WHA had the most effect on its SPORT. Without the WHA there would be no interest in expansion to the Deep South (whether even now that is a good idea remains up for debate, but still...), teen-aged players would not be drafted and given the significant ice time that they routinely see today, the free-skating, player salaries would never have reached the competitive (before reaching the unrealistic) level that we see today, European-influenced finesse oriented game ruled the NHL (until those accursed New Jersey Devils did as much to destroy the modern game as the current lockout by winning the Stanley Cup in 1995...after, ironically enough, a prior lockout). The European market would probably remain an untapped market for major league talent even today in North America had it not been for the Winnipeg Jets gambling that Anders Hedberg and Ulf Nilsson had what it took to survive the goonery that made up ALL of North American hockey (well...except the Montreal Canadiens) at the time. The entire decade from 1984-1994 in the NHL might as well never have existed had the WHA not been there to show the way the game should be played. NHL.com, with the lack of games to cover during the lockout, have

Great Verbal History of The WHA

This is a great book about the WHA, its players, coaches and franchises and its impact on modern hockey as told through interviews with many of those involved in the league. The book is written in the same style as "Loose Balls", Terry Pluto's excellent history of the ABA, which is a collection of anecdotes and interviews coupled with factual information, statistics and an ample dose of humour. It is fitting that this style was used since Dennis Murphy (who started the ABA) also started the WHA. Many of the WHA's best players are interviewed including Gordie Howe and his sons Mark and Marty, Bobby Hull, Wayne Gretzky and HNIC commentator Harry Neale, late of the Minnesota Fighting Saints. Anecdotes from these interviews abound: Jacques Plante and his cross country skiing fetish, Rocket Richard the reluctant coach, Bobby Hull making sure his check didn't bounce, the story of the Carlson brothers and Dave Hanson in "Slapshot" and the story of Gordie Howe signing with the Aeros with his sons are some of the memorable ones. Individual chapters are devoted to the league's beginnings, and to the more important and influential teams. Houston, Winnipeg, Quebec City, Ottawa/Toronto/Birmingham and Minnesota pretty much all get individual chapters, while other teams like Cincinnati, New England, Phoenix, Alberta/Edmonton and Indianapolis get less attention, the latter two mostly in the final chapters when Gretzky is discussed. Some franchises like LA/Michigan/Baltimore, Chicago, NY/NJ/San Diego and Denver/Ottawa are virtually non-existent in the book, which is too bad since their exclusion makes the league look more stable than it really was. Granted these teams weren't around long enough for much history to accumulate and its debatable whether anyone would want to admit they were affiliated with them! A lot of the information in the early chapters on how low player's salaries were and the corrupt relationship between the NHL and the CAHA is timely and interesting given the current strike in the NHL, not to mention the unethical practice of teams selecting agents for their players. The book also paints some people in a less than favourable (and rightly deserved) light, Alan Eaglson, Harold Ballard and Richard Sorkin to name a few. Overall the book was entertaining, it could have used a lot more information on some of the other lesser known franchises and perhaps more of the "front office view" (ie business aspects) of the league versus the "on the ice" view that sometimes reads like an episode of Don Cherry's old show "Grapevine". Still, it is a good read and well worth the time.