The Birmingham Bulls of
the World Hockey Association
WHA Bulls  |  Bulls History, 1976-1992  |  Photos  |  Programs  |  Demise of the WHA

History of Bulls Hockey

By Jimmy Bryan

They were laughing in Canada during the fall of 1976 when it was announced John Bassett would move his Toronto Toros of The World Hockey Association to Birmingham, Alabama.  Hockey in the Deep South?

That made about as much sense as moving outdoor swimming to Winnipeg in December. But Bassett did move his team to Birmingham and re-named it the Bulls.  The Canadian entrepreneur had seen the new Birmingham-Jefferson Civic Center complex rising near downtown while owner of the Memphis Southmen of the old World Football League

The World Football League folded in 1975, but Bassett didn't forget the Civic Center Coliseum.  It was under construction at the time, and Bassett fell in love with the place.  “This will be as impressive as any hockey building in North America,” he said at the time.  And he was correct.

Bassett sent a young Canadian, Pete McAskile, to scout the market.  Pete fell in love also.  Not only with the Coliseum, but with a lovely young Birmingham Bell named Mary Jane Golden.  Pete Ok’ed Birmingham for hockey, and soon married Mary Jane.

So the players came in the fall of '76, led by two Canadian national heroes, Frank Mahovich, "the Big M;' and Paul Henderson, who scored the winning goals in each of the last three games of the Super Series matching Team Canada and the Soviet Nationals in 1972.

Also coming was a young sniper named Mark Napier.  Napier would become Binningham'S first hero as he scored 60 goals that first season.  For the core of fans, who loved the speed and grace and toughness demanded by hockey, 1976 was a year in the candy store. It was all new and exciting.

Giles Leger started the season as coach and general manager, but soon found the dual jobs too demanding. He hired Pat Kelly, [later to be] commissioner of the East Coast Hockey League, as coach.  One of the highlights of that first season was the first-ever game at the coliseum. It was an exhibition with the NHL Atlanta Flames. The Bulls won 7-6 in overtime. Napier got the winning goal in overtime to finish off a hat trick.  The Bulls also won the season opener against the Houston Aeros, which featured the Howe family, Gordie and sons Mark and Marty.

It wouldn't stay that good. Mahovlich suffered a knee injury early in the season, underwent surgery by Dr. Larry Lemak and went home for the year. The Bulls finished last in their division. 

Birmingham was in the Eastern Division with the Cincinnati Stingers, Indianapolis Racers, New England Whalers, Quebec Nordiques and St. Paul Fighting Saints.  In the Western Division were the Calgary Cowboys, Edmonton Oilers, Houston Aeros, Phoenix Roadrunners, San Diego Mariners and Winnipeg Jets.

Longtime fans will recall goalies John Garrett and Wayne Wood, Tim Sheehy, Jim Turkiewicz, Richard Farda, Gavin Kirk, Rod Langway, Tom Simpson, Vaclav Nedomansky, Lou Nistico, Peter Marrin, Terry Ball, Jeff Jacques, Jean-Guy Lagace, Jean-Luc Phaneuf, Rick Cunningham and Dale Hoganson.

They also recall some of the most famous names in the game on visiting teams. Gordie Howe and Bobby Hull were two all-timers who had joined Mahovlich and Henderson in making the jump to the WHA.  Attendance wasn't what Bassett hoped for, but the Bulls averaged almost 8,000 per game.

Despite the record, Kelly was hired away by the Colorado Rockies of the NHL. Glen Sonmor, who had coached St. Paul before it folded the year before, came to Birmingham for the 1977-78 season.  The league had tightened to only eight teams. Joining Birmingham were Houston, Indianapolis, Cincinnati and New England in the States and Quebec, Winnipeg and Edmonton in Canada.

Somnor brought a different brand of hockey to Birmingham for the 1977-78 season.  The rugged oldtimer, who had lost an eye playing the game, brought tough hockey.  The rest of the league soon called it goon hockey.

The season started with virtually the same players as the year before, with the notable exception of an underage phenom named Kenny Linseman, and Langway, who would later win a couple of Norris Trophies as the NHL's Most Valuable Defenseman, who was traded away to the Montreal Canadiens.  Sonmor wasn't getting the results he wanted and soon prevailed on Leger, the GM, to go to the market place.

Through trades and free agent signings, Sonmor changed the team considerably. Added to Gilles "Bad News" Bilodeau from the years before were such tough guys as Frank Beaton, Dave Hanson, Phil Roberto, Steve Durbano, Serge Beaudoin, and Tony Cassolato.

The Bulls got Hanson and Durbano from the Detroit Red Wings for Nedomansky and Sheehy, one of the first big trades between the leagues.  Defensemen Pat Westrum and Brent Hughes and center Joe Noris were also added from other franchises folding.

This team would terrorize rinks around the WHA and set a major league hockey record for penalty minutes, breaking the record of Philadelphia's Broad Street Bullies of the NHL.

The Bulls also made the playoffs for the only time during the three years of the WHA in Birmingham. A late season line of Dave Gorman, Steve Alley and John Stewart caught fire and became known as the GAS line. They went on an incredible scoring streak and led the Bulls into the post season.  They were eliminated in the first round by the Winnipeg Jets, however.

The Bulls fought their way through every building in the league, but had some particularly memorable battles in Wmnipeg.  One night, Durbano had been ejected from a game in Winnipeg and dressed early. After the game, a fan enraged by Durbands off-the-bench attack on Hull, came to the dressing room after the game and confronted Durbano.

It was an unwise decision. The rest of the Bulls heard of the confrontation and came storming from the dressing room in various stages of undress. Fortunately for the fan, police got there in time to save his hide.

In a playoff game later, Hanson and Hull got into a major battle and Hanson yanked the Golden Jet's wig off. In place of the flowing golden hair, there stood an old-looking bald man.

Following this second season, it appeared there might not be a third. There was talk of a merger with the NHL, which would take four teams and leave four. The merger didn't go through this time, however, and Bassett decided at the last moment to go again. It would be the WHA’s final season.  For the second year in a row, the NHL hired Birmingham's coach away. Sonmor went to Minnesota and his assistant from the year before, John Brophy, became coach.

The philosophy also changed. Gone were the tough guys, and in their places Bassett signed seven of the finest underage players in Canadian Junior Hockey. Underage back then meant no player before his 20th birthday, and unwritten law observed by the NHL.

These brilliant young players, all of whom went on to fine careers in the NHL, were defensemen Craig Hartsburg, Rob Ramage, and Gaston Gingras; forwards Michel Goulet, Rick Vaive, Louis Sleigher and Keith Crowder, and goalie Pat Riggin.

So hockey suddenly went from the Birmingham Bullies to the Baby Bulls. The league was down to seven teams- Birmingham, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, New England, Edmonton, Winnipeg and Quebec.

There were growing pains. Linseman joined Napier and Langway in the NHL when Bassett sold his contract for a half-million much- needed dollars. Garrett also left for New England. Mahovlich had retired.

Henderson, Turkiewicz, Hughes, Cassolato, Beaudoin, Marrin and Gorman-Ailey-Stewart formed the veteran backbone of the team.  The Baby Bulls were fun to watch and sent young female hearts flut- tering. But there were those growing pains. A number of close games were lost early in the season.

However, Brophy had a reputation for getting the best out of young players and his influences soon began to show. By the last half of the season, the Baby Bulls were earning respect and playing excellent hockey.

The race for the last playoff spot went to the final game of the season, again in Winnipeg, and Birmingham had to win to get in.  A tie wouldn’t do it.  The Bulls lost in overtime.  Although the Bulls finished last, Brophy was named the WHA’s final Coach of the Year for his handling of the Baby Bulls.

That was the last major league game any Birmingham hockey team would play.  The NHL took New England (now Hartford), Quebec, Winnipeg and Edmonton.  Birmingham and Cincinnati were left out. Indianapolis had folded early in the season, sending a young player named Wayne Gretzky to Edmonton.

Of the Baby Bulls, only Goulet with the Chicago Blackhawks and Ramage with new Tampa Bay are still active in the NHL [as of 1992]. Langway is still with the Washington Captials.  Bassett bowed out of Birmingham hockey; and went on to other projects. He put the Tampa Bay Bandits into the United States Football League in 1983, and owned that franchise until that league folded after the '85 season. Tragically, Bassett died a few years later of brain cancer.

Meanwhile, McAskile and some of the local WHA investors, foremost among them Frank Falkenburg, put Birmingham into the Central Hockey League in 1979-80. The Bulls were a farm team of the Atlanta, soon-to-be Calgary, Flames.  Brophy stayed as coach and a few of the WHA players stayed with him. Henderson, who wanted to make Birmingham home, was foremost among these. He later went up and played for the Flames.

The Bulls made the playoffs, but lost to Fort Worth in the first round. The Flames were now in Calgary when the '80-81 season came on, and the Bulls struggled at the gate and the bank.  Calgary pulled the plug in January and Birmingham was without hockey for the first time in five years.

There was no hockey in '81-'82, but a local group of Mike McClure, Dr. Tommy Tucker, Phil Roberto and Brent Hughes revived it in the CHL for the '82-'83 season.  They arranged a working agreement with the Minnesota North Stars.

The team became the South Stars and Gene Ubriaco, who would later coach the Pittsburgh Penguins just before their Stanley Cups, became the coach. The team was successful on the ice, but again struggled off it. The franchise managed to finish the season, and made the playoffs.

The South Stars lost the first two games to Denver here in Birmingham, but went to Colorado and won four straight to make the finals. The storybook finish wasn't to be.

Indianapolis beat the Bulls in the finals.

The South Stars went out of business in the CHL. A year later, McClure and his group put together a team and joined the Atlantic Coast League. Dave Hanson was coach.

When a potential investor backed out, the team folded after only two games.

The next professional hockey game in Birmingham is when the Bulls you see on the ice opened in the East Coast Hockey League.

(Reprinted from the program of the inaugural season of the ECHL Bulls in 1992.
Bryan is a sportswriter and covered the Bulls for the The Birmingham News.)