In the not always glorious history of the World Hockey Association, there was a night, like a lot of nights, when things would go wrong and there would be a fight and somebody would get suckered and somebody else would lose a clump of their hair.
It happened to Bobby Hull once. Depending on which story you hear, it was either Dave Hanson or Gilles Bilodeau who grabbed the Golden Jet by his newly transplanted roots and gave what has since been dubbed The Tug Heard 'Round the Hockey World.
"It was Bilodeau," said Mike Rogers, a WHA veteran, who was always smart enough to wear a helmet. "He was carrying around a chunk of Bobby's hair in his hands [after their fight]. What can I say? That was the WHA."
Yes, that was the 1970s version of the WHA, the league that gave us orange pucks, folding teams, a scrawny 17-year-old named Wayne Gretzky and Hull, the biggest star on ice. A man whose strength and skill and heart-stopping shot provided the WHA with the credibility it needed to challenge the National Hockey League head on.
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And now he's back, this time as the commissioner of a WHA that expects to be operating as soon as the NHL fails to negotiate a new collective agreement and locks out its players. That would be in the fall of 2004, and by then Hull and his cohorts plan to showcase a game that offers more excitement, less obstruction, smaller goalie equipment, quicker play, cheaper ticket prices and absolutely no hair pulling.
Will it work? Are hockey fans, especially Canadian hockey fans, angry enough at how the NHL does business to embrace an old-new WHA, even with the Hall of Fame Hull at the top?
It will depend on how close the WHA sticks to its policies. According to Hull, who was officially welcomed back yesterday as commissioner, the WHA will not compete directly with the NHL. For sure, there will be teams in NHL markets, such as Minnesota and Miami. Eventually, there could be as many as 30 teams throughout the United States, Europe and Canada. (Hull mentioned Halifax, Hamilton, Saskatoon, Quebec City and perhaps Calgary and Edmonton, depending on what happens with the Flames and Oilers.)
The WHA will toe the line financially and implement a $10-million (U.S.) salary cap. One marquee player will be allowed for each franchise. Junior-age players will be drafted. NHLers will not. Those who are interested in signing up will do so as free agents and be paid according to WHA standards.
It all sounds plausible, but then so did the Miami Screaming Eagles who went extinct without having played a game. Hull, who put his hockey career on the line by jumping to the Winnipeg Jets for a $1-million signing bonus in 1972, sees a lot less risk in his second go-round with the WHA.
"I'd like to think we're innovators. We're leaders, not followers. We're going to provide a great night of entertainment at a very affordable cost so we don't lose a generation of kids who can't see our game," Hull said. "That's my thinking."
Hull's vision of the new WHA is an up-tempo game (no centre line, automatic icings) played by men who can do more with their hands than extract blood. In the old WHA, fighting wasn't just frowned upon; it was encouraged. It helped pump the gate. To this day, there's hardly a WHA story that doesn't involve someone named Goldthorpe, Durbano or Carlson doing bad things and generating much laughter.
A little of that old-time flavour is fine, insisted Hull, but there will definitely be a limit with him as boss.
"We want flamboyant people. We want the guy who will grab the biscuit and go end to end with it. Hockey fans want fast, exciting action with the odd fisticuffs. They don't want brawls."
For his part, Hull wants his son Brett to join the WHA, along with "Chris Chelios, Igor Larionov, Adam Oates, Steve Thomas, Phil Housley. Guys who would like to play another two, three years." Guys willing to lend their name and credibility the way Hull did 31 years ago and, really, they owe him.
Without Hull, the WHA never would have survived or improved NHL player salaries or treated us to some of hockey's most unforgettable moments -- like the time Jacques Plante got so badly sunburned in Phoenix he couldn't put on his mask and had to sit out an Oilers road trip.
"That's why we carried three goalies," explained Rogers, who later played in Hartford with Hull. "The way I see it, this wouldn't be the WHA if Bobby wasn't the one running it. He was always so personable, smiling and signing autographs. He was the WHA."
And now he's back to carry on the challenge. It won't be easy, but with Hull as figurehead, it just might take root.
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