The Rebel League - The Short And Unruly Side Of The World Hockey Association

Zusatztext “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 Informationen zum Autor ED WILLES started his journalism career in 1982 at the Medicine Hat News , which is where the idea for this book was born. After four years there he moved on to the Regina Leader-Post , then to the Winnipeg Sun , where he was the hockey writer for eight years. From 1997 to 1998, he worked as a freelancer in Montreal and ended up writing for the New York Times . That summer he was offered the sports columnist job at The Province (Vancouver), where he stayed until his retirement in 2020. He is the author of Gretzky to Lemieux: The Story of the 1987 Canada Cup and The Rebel League: The Short and Unruly Life of the World Hockey Association . He lives in North Vancouver, B.C., with his wife and two children. Klappentext 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. He probably didn’t think it would be an issue when he joined the WHA, but in addition to his many other personality quirks Mike Walton was deathly afraid of spiders, cockroaches, and anything else that crawled and had six or more legs. Sadly, this phobia qualified as something of an occupational hazard for Shaky, because the new league, in the early years at least, played in places that did not discourage the presence of insects. The Sam Houston Arena, for instance, built in 1937 and famous for its Friday-night wrestling cards, was fairly typical of the first generation of WHA rinks. Owner Paul Deneau invested enough money to bring it up to code and even installed Plexiglas in place of the chicken wire that was still in use in many of the old rinks. “I thought it was okay,” says Dineen. Still, no one was mistaking it for Madison Square Garden. “We used to have cockroach contests in the dressing room,” says John Garrett....

Product details

• Authors: Ed Willes
• Publisher: Random House Canada
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 04.10.2005
• EAN: 9780771089497
• ISBN: 978-0-7710-8949-7
• No. of pages: 304
• Dimensions: 153 mm x 227 mm x 19 mm
• Subject: Guides > Sport > Winter sport