Customer Reviews

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

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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.

This is one of the better books on hockey although it does have some glaring omissions and weird photo choices.

There is virtually nothing on the 1974 Team Canada (really Team WHA) vs. USSR Summit Series plus no mention of the fact that games against the Soviet All-Stars and Czechoslovakia actually counted in the 1977/78 standings which I would like to have known how they decided on that. Plus it's not just these international connections, there's no mention of the fact the WHA reintroduced overtime (10 minutes) to regular season hockey or that they even tried out the shootout in 1972 exhibition games.

Somehow he completely left out talking about Jim Harrison who had a modern major hockey record 10-point game. Another guy to get nary a mention was goalie Don "Smokey" McLeod who was known for his curved stick, a record 43 assists in his WHA career and stopping two penalty shots in a single period not once...but in two different games!

I understand you can't touch on everyone but I often felt too much text was given to the brawlers (who are highly entertaining and funny) but not enough to some of the more remarkable offensive feats.

Also, who approved the pictures? The front cover is of Bobby Hull (as it should be) but it's of him being shoved by what looks like Brad Selwood. Come on! You gotta have Hull flying in on goal shooting the puck as your cover ...and put the Wayner on the back cover.

The appendix is totally lame just listing teams year by year. They had enough room so why not put the standings and maybe playoff results in that space?

Plus inside we get a pic of Derek Sanderson in his Blazers' jersey but it sure looks like he's wearing an AHL Boston Braves (huh?) jersey. Also, the pic of Ulf Nilsson, Anders Hedberg and Bobby Hull is not even in their Jets' jerseys. It looks like Nilsson is wearing a New York Rangers #18 Andre Dore jersey. What is up with that? The caption also says they are "celebrating a goal" but if they are, why are all three wearing different jerseys while Hull is not wearing any hockey gloves, has no stick and is clutching another jersey in his hands?

Enough of the negative as the positive does outweigh the negative here. His call for the "Hockey" (not NHL!) Hall of Fame to recognize Nilsson, Hedberg and Mark Howe is a point well taken. I also dug the whole birth of the WHA and how it all came together. Plus he is able to articulate how the NHL Oilers of the '80s based their freewheeling style on the WHA Jets of the Hull-Hedberg-Nilsson era.

He also gave the best description of what actually happened in the Rick Jodzio attack on Marc Tardif incident which was probably the WHA's low point.

The stories about Gordie Howe and his two sons were endlessly fascinating and worthy of a book on their own, too.

Willes' style is breezy and you can read this in one sitting but given the goldmine of material, I wanted about 200 more pages.

One often hears "sports is a business," typically in the context of a player getting traded or cut.

"The Rebel League" talks about the business aspects of the World Hockey Association. While the league paid players fantastically (and simultaneously helped hundreds of players who never played in the WHA get paid more by the NHL), the league's revenue side was nowhere near as robust. Further, the league struggled with the practical aspects of putting on hockey games. For instance, the New York Raiders were hamstrung at Madison Square Garden by "a series of union contracts that guaranteed certain staffing quotas in the areas of concessions and maintenance. The rent might have been $1,700 on Sundays, but when you added in the costs of all those support workers, the actual price for staging a game was close to $20,000." I had never thought about an issue like that.

An unsung hero of the WHA that "The Rebel League" brings out is the late John Bassett, the owner of the Birmingham Bulls. It was Bassett who was most prominent in signing players under the NHL's age limit. "The Rebel League" argues this was a forcing function that finally got the NHL's dinosaurs to agree to the league merger. Bassett ends up being a martyr as neither he nor the Bulls made it into the NHL.

"The Rebel League" is a quick read. Willes is a lucid writer. His journalistic background comes out, both in the positive sense of the book being well-written and in the negative sense of the book lacking much depth.

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 taken to staging an all-time fantasy league tournament. As of this writing, one of the final four teams playing are the 1983-84 Edmonton Oilers. These Oilers, including hockey's all-time star Wayne Gretzky and several of that team's core players, were playing in the WHA just five years prior. The renegade league held together by scotch tape and powered by scotch whiskey had the last laugh after all. This book brings it all back to life in a terrifically enjoyable read. Sports used to be fun first, a business second. Re-grow those sideburns, find the ugliest toupee you can, put on the polyester double-knits and enjoy this flashback of a book.

If hockey is in you blood and you love the history of the game and want to see how the WHA had the NHL shaking, this book is for you.

Stories of "rebel" leagues - new pro leagues trying to compete with the snobby established entities - are fantastic. This book was so entertaining I was bummed out when it over. I wanted more. Ed Willes did a super job. Not only are some of the stories hilarious, so is he!

If you have read this book and liked it, read the others you see on this "home page," such as Terry Pluto's "Loose Balls" on the ABA and Jeff Miller's "Going Long" about the AFL. They are all great reads that will entertain you long into the night.

In addition to the humor and great hockey insight, I was touched by some very nice stories in this book, a few that left a tear in my eyes. There are some real heroes, villains and characters in this book and I'm sad to see all but one of these WHA teams out of business now. It's a real loss, and I say that impartially as a Buffalo Sabres fan living in Western New York. By not showing these WHA games on TV, we missed some great hockey players and very entertaining teams, the way Willes tells it.

After reading this book, I would give anything to see Winnipeg's "Hot Line" in action and Gordie Howe playing with his two sons, or see the real-life "Slap Shot/Hanson Brothers" in action!

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 great read, I found myself intralled with the knowledge, and research

of the writer. A person that does not know the history of the WHA and hockey in general would have no problem understanding this book. I would recommend

this book and writer to anyone.

Easy read with great stories about the old WHA. I lived in B'ham, AL during the time of the Baby Bulls and the Bruiser Bulls so the stories of Frank (the beater)Beaton, Gilles (bad news) Biladeux and the rest of that gang were great. I gave it to my dad for Christmas and he loved it too.

You don't have to be a hockey fan to enjoy the wild & fast times of the World Hockey Association. Even the league founders - who had successfully launched the American Basketball Association - did not have a clue about the sport.

But what they saw was an opportunity to bring life to a game that for too many years was operated like a feudal empire by the National Hockey League and made Major League Baseball - before the unity of the player's association - look absolutely progressive.

The WHA operated from 1972-1979 and revolutionized pro hockey in many ways; from a court decision in its first year that basically overturned the NHL's reserve-clause on player contracts, introducing the sport to Sun Belt cities and - for numerous franchises - being literally on the ground floor in new arena construction and introducing pro fans to a pair of young players that quickly redefined the game - Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier.

Author Ed Willes gives the reader a great tour of the often unique personalities on the ice and in the front offices in this fast-moving text. And some of the wacky highlights include:

* a team so in debt that a group of potential owners backed out of a deal to buy it for one dollar;

* a player slated to be a major star lasting only eight games in the first season and then striking a buyout deal to be paid for not playing;

* an arena where the players had to be especially careful not to have cockroaches find cozy homes in their gear;

* a radio announcer who had to use his wife's gasoline credit card to refuel the team plane so it wouldn't be stuck on the tarmac until the next morning.

But through the hijinks was a small group of owners and a pool of players who wanted the league to succeed without merging with the NHL. It wasn't meant to be, as the league ended up with six teams in its last season, with four ending up in the NHL.

Maybe the WHA is judged as a failure because it sputtered to an uneventful end, but Willes demonstrates how chasing a dream can make for great memories....and some unbelievable stories.