Fun While It Lasted

[GA Russell]

Here's a website you might enjoy, dedicated to pro sports teams which are no longer in business.

http://www.funwhileitlasted.net/

[JSngry]

Houston hockey.

For the record, let it be shown that the Fort Worth Cats went down, but came back up and still play today: http://www.fwcats.com/

And if you want to talk about the deep dark recesses of minor league baseball... start here and keep clicking: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longview_Cannibals

[John Litweiler]

Thanks, GA. First hockey game I ever saw was the Ft. Wayne Komets vs. one of the Michigan teams, about 1956 or 57. I fell in love with hockey that night.

The World Hockey Association was a lot of fun in the 1970s. For much less than the price of NHL games we could see our favorites from a few years earlier, Bobby Hull, Gordie Howe, etc.along with young guys, some of them pretty good guys. Wayne Gretzky, 18 years old, played for Edmonton's Oilers in the WHA's last year, before a few WHA teams were absorbed into the NHL.

[GA Russell]

John, for my college graduation present in 1972 I received season tickets to the New England Whalers. They won the championship that year!

[danasgoodstuff]

WHA also meant that Gordie Howe got to play on a line with his sons, but also that not everyone now realizes what a great player he was.

[John Litweiler]

Lucky GA! Weren't the Whalers where the 3 Howes first played in the WHA?

The Howes played for the Texas team by the time I saw them. By then Gordie was 50-something and not very fast, but still the dirtiest player on the ice. While the referees were up front keeping their eyes on the puck and the two Howe boys stick-handling, Gordie was in back slashing, hooking, and leaving the ice littered with the bodies of Chicago players. A joy to watch a super-villain in action.

[danasgoodstuff]

Lucky GA! Weren't the Whalers where the 3 Howes first played in the WHA?

The Howes played for the Texas team by the time I saw them. By then Gordie was 50-something and not very fast, but still the dirtiest player on the ice. While the referees were up front keeping their eyes on the puck and the two Howe boys stick-handling, Gordie was in back slashing, hooking, and leaving the ice littered with the bodies of Chicago players. A joy to watch a super-villain in action.

And yet, in S'toon people think he's a saint...my brother claims if he flys thru and doesn't get off the plane the daily still reports it!

[GA Russell]

John, the three Howes joined the WHA with the Houston Aeros in 1973, the league's second year. I saw Gordie play once in his last pro year with the Hartford Whalers in the NHL in Pittsburgh.

I read an enjoyable book about the WHA back in January called The Rebel League. You might enjoy it too.

http://www.amazon.com/Rebel-League-Unruly-Hockey-Association/dp/077108949X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1382577879&sr=1-1&keywords=The+Rebel+League