WHA Hockey News "Legends and Lunatics

It Was a Golden Age for Hockey -- The WHA's Last Champions

Final Avco Cup for Jets one for the ages

By PAUL FRIESEN, Winnipeg Sun

Pink Floyd's The Wall was huge, the Sony Walkman was the latest gadget and bungee jumping was becoming all the rage.

That's how long it's been since Winnipeg celebrated any kind of pro hockey championship.

With the Manitoba Moose four wins away from the Calder Cup, it's time to take a look back at the 1979 Winnipeg Jets, who captured the Avco Cup on home ice in the final year of the old World Hockey Association.

Three leagues, three decades and an arena have come and gone since this city had a reason to hold a puck parade.

If you'd told Winnipeg Jets goaltender Joe Daley that would happen, back on May 20, 1979, when he was sipping champagne (OK, it was probably beer) from the Avco Cup, he would have thought you were crazy.

Winning championships is just what the Jets did in those days, three in seven years, to be exact.

To go the next 30 years without?

"I would have found that hard to believe," Daley said. "We had some pretty good hockey teams during the days of the NHL Jets. The unfortunate thing was Edmonton was in the division, and when it wasn't Edmonton it was Calgary, and when it wasn't Calgary it was Vancouver.

"It just seemed there was always somebody who was a little bit luckier or a little bit better."

Most years, there were teams a lot better than the Jets during their 17-year NHL run.

But nobody did it better than the Jets during the WHA adventure, a turbulent yet memorable period that produced one of the most exciting teams the game had ever seen.

The renegade league that stole stars like Bobby Hull and Bernie Parent from the NHL was the breeding ground for hockey's European invasion, discovering wonders like Anders Hedberg and Ulf Nilsson and creating the blueprint for the wide-open style adopted by the Edmonton Oilers dynasty of the mid-to-late 1980s.

But as the 1978-79 season unfolded, it didn't look to be Winnipeg's year.

Playing without the two super-Swedes, who'd bolted to the NHL's New York Rangers in the off-season, the Jets were a modest 39-35-6 that season, good for third place in the loop, behind Edmonton and Quebec.

Theoretically, the Jets had been bolstered by the addition of players from the Houston Aeros, which had folded.

But in reality, adding the likes of Terry Ruskowski, Morris Lukowich, Rich Preston and Scott Campbell to the roster of the defending league champ simply messed with its chemistry.

"These guys are our teammates -- and we've been pounding the heck out of them for the last couple of years," Daley explained. "So there was a little bit of an adjustment to make."

Daley himself had a running feud with Lukowich that almost led to them exchanging blows. Apparently, Lukowich had a habit of firing pucks a little too close to the Holy Goalie's head in practice.

"Me and Lukowich had it out a number of times," Daley said. "I was moody. He thought I was nuts. I'd chase him around the ice in practice. He kept a wide berth from me."

The mediocre results led to a late-season coaching change, from Larry Hillman to Tommy McVie.

It wasn't a banner season for Daley, either.

The starter for the Jets' first two championships, the Winnipeg native fell out of favour with Jets GM John Ferguson, and was the backup to Gary "Suitcase" Smith in the playoffs.

But he had a front-row seat to what would be a historic WHA finale.

The Jets went into the playoffs anything but an Avco Cup favourite. That perch was left for the Oilers and their teenaged phenom, Wayne Gretzky.

"If they had a year or two more seasoning, they probably would have beat us," Bill Lesuk, a forward on the team, admitted.

Different team

Under McVie, though, something happened when the puck dropped for the playoffs. Sweeping Quebec in four straight games, the Jets reached the final a different team, cohesive and brimming with confidence.

"He had us playing the best of our lives at the end," Daley said. "When I look at that Oiler team, I'm not so sure I would stand back and say we were better than them. It just all fell into place."

Opening the final series on the road, the Jets shocked the Edmonton faithful with 3-1 and 3-2 victories.

The Oilers wiped the smiles off their faces pretty quickly, winning the next one, 8-3, at the Winnipeg Arena.

But, led by the red-hot Willy Lindstrom (10 playoff goals), Lukowich and Preston (eight goals each) and the Magic Man, Kent Nilsson (14 playoff points), the Jets got back to business with a 3-2 win in Game 4, taking a 3-1 series lead.

After a Game 5 hiccup in Edmonton, Winnipeg returned home for a 7-3 win before a sellout crowd of some 10,000 -- the Arena hadn't been expanded, yet -- putting the finishing touch to a golden era in the city's hockey history.

This was the storybook way for the WHA to disband, with its model franchise, the one that had the audacity to lure the Golden Jet from the NHL, claiming its third championship in four years.

And while the city was giddy with the prospect of joining the NHL the following season, there was time for one last parade -- and a good, long drink from what was officially called the Avco World Trophy.

"It was a pretty big deal," radio broadcaster Bob Irving recalled. "That team had won the hearts of the fans here."

The Jets of the WHA drew similar numbers to what the Moose attract today, averaging between 8,000 and 9,000 fans that last season.

Come playoff time, the Arena was often packed. Businesses would put signs in their windows. There was even a Jets song on the radio.

The Whiteout hadn't yet been invented, but the atmosphere at playoff games was electric.

"They got so up for games, you had to kind of temper it down a little bit," Lesuk said. "They became so boisterous. And I was a hyped-up guy to begin with. They can wind you up pretty quick."

The feeling in the dressing room, though, is what players remember the most.

There's no satisfaction in sports like the feeling of accomplishment that comes with knowing you're the best.

As he celebrated what would be the city's final victory for a long, long time, Daley looked around and saw something he hadn't seen early in the season.

A real team.

"You feel good about everybody who's in that room," he said. "Any animosity you may have had during the season towards any one member of the team, that's all forgotten about."

Seems Daley even shared a hug with Lukowich that day.

"If you accomplish something together that you're striving for, you kind of say, 'Hey, that's my partner.' When it's all said and done you're one big, happy family.

"You feel like, wow, we are the best. It doesn't matter what league it is. We are the best."

Contact Paul at paul.friesen@sunmedia.ca

Jim Dorey, Ron Plumb, Fred O'Donnell and Rick Smith at International Hockey Hall of Fame with Tim Gassen

Scoring on the big screen Posted By Whitney Fleming

When it comes to the topic of the World Hockey Association and the Indianapolis Racers, Tim Gassen knows that the true fanatic in himself comes out. Gassen’s passion for the team that survived less than five seasons that led him to produce a two-DVD set on the Racers, the launch of Wayne Gretzky’s pro career in 1978. The film, Gretzky, Indy and The WHA, features restored game footage of the Indianapolis Racers and Wayne Gretzky playing in his only game in Indy.

Gassen, a journalist of 25 years and a resident of Pheonix, Arizona, had an interest and driving fascination with the WHA and the coming and going of major league hockey in Indianapolis. Five years ago, Gassen made the decision to take his fascination to the next level by writing a book, making a film. He made a stop at Kingston’s Hockey Hall of Fame last weekend. Former WHA players Ron Plumb, Rick Smith, Jim Dorey and Fred O’Donnell attended the event. “I was there in Indianapolis for a lot of these games and when these events were happening in the world of hockey. I knew there were a couple of books on this topic but I wanted to write a book with a first- hand account,” says Gassen. Soon, Gassen found himself on the treasure hunt of a lifetime.

Through constant networking and persistence, Gassen was able to collect video footage of interviews and games, as well as meet various hockey icons along the way. “I felt like a kid every time I was able to meet a former hockey pro or find a new piece to add to the project.”

Gassen says the project wasn’t as simple as deciding to make a movie one day. The greatest struggle was finding the quality footage and players. “It was a lot of detective work. I found a guy who literally fished a videotape out of a dumpster that a studio had thrown away and I was lucky enough that it worked.” Gassen chose to make the trip to Kingston and share his work to help keep the hockey spirit alive in a place that clearly appreciates it.

“The hockey hall of fame in Kingston is a community museum,” he says. “It may not have all of the bells and whistles but it has spirit and this is a place where hockey has grown and continues to live.”

Ron Plumb, a Kingston native and former WHA player with the Philadelphia Blazers says the video brought back plenty of memories.

“Watching the video made me remember talking about Gretzky in the dressing room. I remembered hearing about this goal-scoring phenom,” says Plumb.

Gassen wanted to leave this little piece of history for the next generation.

“The video is full of these guys with big lamb chop sideburns and these crazy mustaches, it was just like Saturday night fever on steroids. These players had so much personality and character at this time in hockey. It’s something people should see,” says Gassen.

Gretzky, Indy and the WHA, debuted May 16 at the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto and is expected to hit stores in September. To purchase the video or for more information visit www.whaRACERS.com.

EXCLUSIVE: Kevin Smith Making WHA GOON Hockey Movie With Mitch Albom Based On Warren Zevon Song ‘Hit Somebody’

Published by Eric Ditzian on Thursday, May 14, 2009 at 3:00 pm.

To my mind, one of the coolest trends in movies these days is the wacky collaborations that keep making the news. Michel Gondry, Seth Rogen and “The Green Hornet”? Kenneth Branagh and “Thor”? Add another unlikely, though definitely dynamic, duo to the group: Kevin Smith and Mitch Albom.

The “Clerks” director and the “Tuesdays with Morrie” author will be teaming up for a movie adaptation of the Warren Zevon song, “Hit Somebody (The Hockey Song).”

You heard that right. Nothing in the previous sentence is a typo. This mad scientist alliance is happening, as Smith exclusively revealed to MTV News, and he’s pumped up about it.

Zevon, for those not in the know, was a rock ‘n’ roll singer-songwriter whose hit 1978 album “Excitable Boy” went platinum. The track “Werewolves of London”? That be Zevon. He died of cancer in 2003. A year before his death, Zevon and Albom, who’s a longtime hockey buff and former sports writer for the Detroit Free Press, decided to write a song together. Albom composed the lyrics, Zevon took care of the music, and together they came up with “Hit Somebody,” an organ-driven story in song that’s reminiscent of work by Bob Dylan, Arlo Guthrie and Randy Newman.

The song, Smith explained, “is about a goon, a hockey goon. It’s this very wonderful, soaring, moving story that’s also bittersweet and very, very funny, about a hockey player who just wants to play hockey, who loves hockey so much, but just sucks at it. The only thing he can do to be on a team is just be the enforcer, just be the guy who goes out there and beats the s— out of people.”

“The song’s been one of my favorites since I heard it and I’ve always seen this whole movie behind,” Smith continued. “I got in touch with Mitch because Warren Zevon has passed on and we started talking about it and he was into it and into what I was kind of pitching.”

Smith is gunning to get the project going in 2010 or 2011, singling out the film from all his other projects as “the one I really want to do in a big, bad way.” It will be set in the late 1970s within the World Hockey Association, before those teams were absorbed into the National Hockey League. “It takes place during the last gasp of the goon era of hockey when it was all about fighting,” Smith said.

While there will certainly be humor in the script, he envisions the film as being more dramatic in nature, and possibly entering into awards season chatter down the road.

“I never once thought about winning awards or anything, but that movie I think can do it,” he said. “If I play my cards right and we get the right people in it, it could be an award-type movie.”

Do you think Smith has an Oscar in him? Who should he cast as the lead character?

WHA Documentary Part 2 ... Hometown Heroes, the Howes and Houston

WHA Documentary Part 3 ... A League of Their Own

WHA Documentary Part 1 ... The Beginning

Rare WHA Footage: Winnipeg's Hull, Hedberg Score vs. San Diego

Rare 1974-75 WHA film (Winnipeg at San Diego) shows goals by Bobby Hull and Anders Hedberg. Also a Save by Curt Larsson and Ulf Nilsson being attacked by San Diego's Dean Boylan.

Paul Shmyr - Hockey's Second Free Agent *

San Diego Mariner Paul Shmyr is interviewed prior to the 1976-77 season.

He had just signed with the Mariners after leaving the Cleveland Crusaders in a contract dispute.  He would become a free agent again a year later when the Mariners folded.

*The first free agent was teammate Andre Lacroix who was free agent at least five times in his WHA career due to club contract violations and team foldings.

WHA Profile: Wayne "Moon" Rivers San Diego Mariners

Wayne "Moon" Rivers was a skilled offensive player in the minor leagues who hit the WHA jackpot when he was teamed with the legendary Andre Lacroix in San Diego.

A long-time minor leaugue journyman,  Rivers joined the fledgling WHA in 1972, signing with the New York Raiders. In the WHA, Rivers' style of play was well adapted to the wide-open play he encountered. He soon became a prolific scorer, netting 37 and 30 goals in his first two seasons. In his third season, the team moved to San Diego and Rivers with teamed with playmaker Lacroix.  Rivers converted Lacroix's deft passes and scored a career-high 54 goals with the Mariners.

After his standout performance in 1974-75, Rivers wanted more money than the Mariners were willing to pay. The Mariners realized that Rivers' production was a direct result of Lacroix's amazing passes. They placed him on waivers along with a handful of other players. He slipped through the waiver net untouched, however, and eventually reconciled with the club.

However, Rivers no longer rode "shotgun" with Lacroix and, his production plummeted to just 19 goals in 1975-76 and 18 tallies in 1976-77.

He skated two more years with the team and then rounded out his career with the San Francisco Shamrocks of the PHL in 1978.

WHA Profile: Tom Webster, New England Whalers

A long-time Bruins farmhand,  Tom "Hawkeye" Webster's NHL career come to life in 1970-71 when he joined the Detroit Red Wings.  Webster scored 30 goals, assisting on 37 others for a highly productive 67-point season. 

After a stint with the Californa Golden Seals, he joined the WHA's England Whalers in 1972 and enjoyed six WHA productive seasons. In his first WHA year, Webster scored 53 goals and 50 assists for 103 points playing on a line with Terry Caffery and Brit Selby.  The Whalers went on to win the WHA championship that year, led by Webster's 12-14-26 performance in 15 games.

Webster was chosen to play for Team Canada in 1974 in the Summit Series vs. the Soviet Union.  He played sparingly but is remembered for a spectacular end-to-end rush and goal in game three.  He also played in the 1973, 1974, 1975 and 1976 WHA All-Star games.

Webster's brilliant WHA career was plagued by injuries.  In 1977-78, Webster played on a line with Mark and Gordie Howe and and amassed 15 goals in his first 20 games.  But his ailing back faltered
and he never played another WHA game.

In 352 WHA games, he amassed 220 goals, 205 assists and 425 points. He added 28-26-54 in the playoffs.

Note:  The 1971-72 Californaia Golden Seals wore white skates.  Webster took those skates to New England's training camp where he posed for the above photo.