Toronto Mike had a couple of postings the other day that brought back alot of memories. The first was a Star Week magazine cover about the battle of the box office between The Maple Leafs and the old Toronto Toros of the World Hockey Association. Mike says he's too young to remember the Toros. Not me.
There never was a battle of the box office. When the Toros moved in to Maple Leaf Gardens there was never any question they were second rate. But boy were they fun. There was an element of Slapshot to the team and to the league. The Leafs of that time always struck me as having a massive burr planted firmly up their collective butts that needed to be surgically removed. The Toros were the direct opposite.
The Toros most exciting line was a trio of kids. Pat Hickey, Wayne Dillon and Tom Simpson known as Dilly and Hitch and Shotgun Tom. It was an adventure going into the dressing room after games. The young guys using blow driers and fluffing up their hair in front of the mirrors while the older guys, mostly 1960 era NHL and AHL'ers giving them the death stare like they were from another universe.
The Toro's had a couple of goaltenders named Gilles Gratton and Les Binkley. Gratton was the rising star, Binkley the old war horse. There's a great story about a game where Gratton got the start but injured his glove hand. Binkley went in to replace him. Everybody assumed that Gillie was in the dressing room but when they went to find him he was gone. He loved music. Saw himself as a bit of a musician and they say he turned up, whilt the game was still on, in a bar down the street while the game was still on. Leaving the Toros with one back stop.
2 of the neatest things I've seen is sport happened at Toro games. Both Gordie Howe and Bobby Hull standing outside the visitors dressing room signing autographs, mostly for kids, still in uniform, still in their skates and not quitting until everyone was taken care off. It gave me an appreciation of how much these 2 icons cared about the fans.
Hull played with the Winnipeg Jets on a line with Anders Hedberg and Ulf Nilsson. Some thought it was the best line, not just in the WHA but the NHL too. Don't know about that but it's still one of the fastest skating lines I've ever seen.
4 teams survived and moved into the NHL. The New England Whalers (now Carolina), The Quebec Nordique (now Colorado), The Jets (now Phoenix) and Wayne Gretzky's Edmonton Oilers. By the way a trivia question you might want to try out. What was Gretzky's first professional hockey team? Not the Oilers. The WHA's Indianapolis Racers.
Hello from Norway. Good blog.