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The Rebel League: The Short and Unruly Life of the World Hockey Association, by Ed Willes
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Review
“A must-read for hockey fans.”—Canadian Press“A book fuelled by the fumes of the WHA’s audacity, reckless hope, violence, and economic hilarity. . . . A highly entertaining tale.”—Globe and Mail
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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 providedhigh-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. "From the Hardcover edition.
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Product details
Paperback: 288 pages
Publisher: McClelland & Stewart (October 4, 2005)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 077108949X
ISBN-13: 978-0771089497
Product Dimensions:
6 x 0.8 x 9 inches
Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review:
4.5 out of 5 stars
58 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank:
#87,512 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
As a former season ticket holder for the Minnesota Fighting Saints, I loved taking the trips down memory lane for the old World Hockey Association. Not only for the on-ice action, but the stories about the financial troubles and some of the creative ways players dealt with them were terrific. I also found the chronological history and standings at the end of the book helpful. If you love hockey, you will love this book.
“This is largely a Canadian story,†Ed Willes writes towards the end of “The Rebel League,†something the reader surmises well before arriving at that sentence. Indeed, the copyright page tells you the book was published in Canada and written with financial assistance from national and provincial artistic endowments.So, it’s well for the reader to know something about Canada as well as ice hockey – and, even better, know something of the rabid devotion of Canadians to the sport – in reading this entertaining history of the World Hockey Association (1972-1979).I had grown up in the 1960s as a fan of the American Football League, and so I have always had a warm spot in my heart for the three rival leagues that followed in its wake – the American Basketball Association, WHA and World Football League. Interestingly enough, the three WHA prime movers – Gary Davidson, Dennis Murphy and Don Regan – were based in Newport Beach, California, the town I was raised in. But from the surprising initial scenes set in a Balboa Bay Club conference room looking out on Newport Harbor, the book moves quickly to primarily the frozen tundra north of the border.Willes has done an admirable job of telling both an ice hockey story and a sports business story. He does so in a topical rather than chronological fashion, with maximum attention paid to remembrances by and of the many colorful personalities that made up the league.He covers the fall of the player-enslaving reserve clause and the rise of free agency by focusing on the career of Derek Sanderson, who inevitably becomes one of the first free agency busts. It covers the breaking down of minimum age requirements for signing rookies, looking at players who would go on to be successful, but mainly those for whom “It was too much, too soon.†It covers the rise and integration of overseas athletes into North American professional sports. And, it covers the arrival of Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier, both of whom played their first professional year in the WHA’s final season, and who would go on to dominate the NHL in the 1980s as teammates with the Edmonton Oilers.One thing missing from the story, I think, is that it could have more fully covered the owners who so passionately – and perhaps foolishly – bought into WHA teams. It does cover some of the major owners, such as John F. Bassett of the Toronto Toros and Birmingham Bulls. However, there are frequent references to changes of “ownership groups.†My guess is these groups comprised people who were not fabulously wealthy, looking for a toy to play with, but were small timers often investing more than they could afford to lose. I would have liked to have gotten to know some of these anonymous ownership groups on a more human level.Another thing lacking is an adequate appendix. Since Willes takes a topical approach, it is very difficult to keep track of the year-by-year performance of the teams. This could have been solved with an appendix that listed the season standings and playoff results. In addition, though the appendix does list the year-by-year make-up of the league, more details would have been helpful on the exact chronology of teams added, moved, folded or announced-but-never-took-the-ice. And, for this American reader, some brief explanation of the Canadian Junior Hockey League system would have been very helpful indeed. Apparently, it’s amateur but has all the trappings (team owners, etc.) of professional sports. Finally, the index also failed in several instances to list a name or key subject as it cropped up – though it was mainly helpful in reminding the reader of who’s who among the many people who make up the story.Published in 2004, the book is a little dated at this point. Willes complains that Mark Howe isn’t in the Hall of Fame – he entered in 2011; he bemoans that the NHL abandoned Winnipeg in 1995 – they returned in 2011. He also discusses the retreat in players rights that took place in 1979-80, when the two leagues merged – something that came home to roost that very year, with the season-long lock-out of 2004-2005.These objections, though, only add up to knocking one star off the rating for this book. There’s plenty of great hockey stories here – including a 45-year-old Gordie Howe returning in 1973 to play with his sons Mark and Marty for six years in the league; and the signing of Bobby Hull to the Winnipeg Jets in 1972, and the formation in 1974 of the extremely good and influential “Hot Line†of Hull, Andres Hedberg and Ulf Nilsson. The fun, flamboyance and fever-pitch of the amazing sports and business venture that was the WHA – the likes of which we may never see again – has been wonderfully captured by the author.
This is what I wanted to hear! I wanted the stories and legendary yarns that made up the league that captured our imaginations as kids. We couldn't see them much because they almost never had a TV contract but we knew something special was happening that was changing hockey as we knew it. The author does a magnificent job in piecing together this wonderful story thru the collections of stories that made it happen. His love for the WHA story shines thru here and the result is brilliant. This challenge was no easy feat as the WHA's disorganization WAS the organization! This book had its shortcomings. There was some obvious editing and proof reading issues. In the excitement to tell the many stories the author was obviously dying to tell he creates some confusion with long sentences and bunching up names to the point you can't tell who he's talking about. It becomes like bar room storytelling...which I love but in a book can lose a reader. The author dotes on the players mounting point totals but fails to completely make a connection that the league was made up of extremes...good to excellent players playing on and against teams with players who without the WHA would never see the roster of major league hockey. He also fails to mention the NHL owners and managers knew those stats would never translate to the NHL. A MAJOR omission in the book is there is no mention that WHA power play rules were different. Icing the puck was not allowed by the killing team. This made a power play goal almost twice as likely in the WHA as the NHL inflating the stats of many players as well.However it is very hard to be critical of this otherwise amazing book. Its satisfying and lovingly told. The author does a great job outlining the historic ramification that this league's effect still has on hockey today. The players of today need to be grateful for this league for what they have now. This book is a must for the hockey fan in your life!
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