Bill Hunter (ice hockey)
Bill Hunter | |
---|---|
Born | Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada | May 5, 1920
Died | December 16, 2002 Edmonton, Alberta, Canada | (aged 82)
Occupation(s) | Ice hockey manager, coach, and investor |
Known for | Founding of: Western Hockey League World Hockey Association Edmonton Oilers |
William Dickenson Hunter, OC (May 5, 1920 – December 16, 2002) was a Canadian sports promoter and ice hockey player, coach, manager, and investor. Also known as "Wild Bill", Hunter co-founded the Western Hockey League (WHL), helped to launch the World Hockey Association (WHA), and worked to bring professional hockey to Edmonton and to his hometown of Saskatoon.
Early life
Born in Saskatoon, Hunter founded his first competitive sports team when he was 18, the Saskatoon Dukes Football Club.[1] Hunter attended Notre Dame College in Wilcox, Saskatchewan, where he managed the college's sports teams, including organizing a 78-game tour for the baseball team.[2][3]
Following the outbreak of the
Career in hockey
Beginnings
Between 1945 and 1949 Hunter coached and managed hockey teams in North Battleford,
From 1953 to 1956, he was the owner, manager, and coach of the Medicine Hat Tigers. In September 1956, Hunter claimed that, as owner, he could rightfully sell players. Alberta Amateur Hockey Association president Art Potter disagreed that any junior team owned its players or had the right to sell them to another team, and compared the idea to slavery. He warned that proper transfers must be completed to change teams, and that players could be suspended if an agreement was not honoured to play for a team.[5]
Founding the WHL
Hunter was owner, manager, and coach of the junior
The league had a rocky early relationship with the
Founding the WHA and the Oilers
Following the establishment of the western junior league, Hunter set his sights on professional hockey, desiring to bring a National Hockey League (NHL) team to Edmonton. The NHL was expanding rapidly in the late 1960s and early 1970s, but the league rebuffed Hunter's proposal for an Edmonton team. Hunter offered to purchase and relocate the Pittsburgh Penguins, but this proposal was rejected.[7] In 1971, Hunter was introduced to Gary Davidson and Dennis Murphy, two American investors who wanted to establish a professional league that could rival the NHL and provide smaller markets the opportunity to join the major leagues. Hunter became the key figure in securing further investment and franchise commitments—he later recalled that it quickly became apparent that Davidson and Murphy "didn’t know a damn thing about hockey"—and before the end of 1971 the World Hockey Association was taking shape, set to begin play in 1972.[8] Hunter was the league's founding president.[4]
On November 1, 1971, the
Hunter knew that the WHA needed to make a splash to gain credibility, and he came up with a scheme to sign NHL superstar Bobby Hull, then in a contract dispute with the Chicago Black Hawks, to hockey's first million-dollar contract.[8] Ben Hatskin, who Hunter had recruited to help get the WHA off the ground and who founded the Jets, agreed to sign Hull to the contract; however, it took contributions from every team to meet the $1 million commitment, making Hull's contract the first instance in professional sports where every member of a league pitched in to sign a player to one team.[8] Another major scheme was the staging of a second Summit Series between Canada and the Soviet Union, but this time having the Canadian team made up of WHA players. This second Summit Series took place in 1974, further increasing the credibility of the new league, although Canada lost the series.[11]
Hunter and Allard's Oilers were assembled to prominently feature Albertan players, and its opening roster had eleven such players, including seven who had played for the junior Oil Kings. This included NHL-recruit and leading scorer
The WHA struggled with financial stability, and franchises commonly relocated or folded altogether. By the
Today, the Edmonton Oilers' mascot, Hunter, is named in Bill Hunter's honour.[17]
The "Saskatoon Blues"
When Hunter announced his purchase of the Blues from Ralston Purina, he exclaimed that the Saskatoon Blues would be the "finest franchise in the league" and the new arena "the most magnificent hockey building in North America," which the "wonderful people of Saskatchewan" deserved.[18] However, most NHL owners opposed the move, with Toronto Maple Leafs owner Harold Ballard famously stating that visiting teams would have to travel by dog sled to Saskatoon.[23] After the purchase agreement, Hunter still had to gain approval from the NHL's board of governors; he traveled to New York to pitch his vision, but the board voted against it by an overwhelming 15–3 margin.[18] Although the size of the Saskatoon market was one reason for the rejection, so too was Hunter's tumultuous relationship with the NHL, stemming from his earlier days with the WHA.[24][25] Hunter and his group were given the option of owning the team if they committed to keeping it in St. Louis, but Hunter was not interested.[19] The league instead took over the Blues after Ralston Purina walked away, and eventually sold the team to Harry Ornest.[26]
Although the Blues plan fell through, Saskatoon and the province followed through on building a new arena, dubbed
Later years and death
Following his unsuccessful attempts to bring the NHL to Saskatoon, Hunter organized softball tournaments in his hometown and invested in the
Hunter died of cancer in Edmonton on December 16, 2002.
Honours
Hunter was made an Officer of the
Coaching record
Team | League | Year | Regular season | Post season | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
G | W | L | T | Pts | Finish | Result | |||
Edmonton Oilers | WHA | 1972–73 | 26 | 14 | 11 | 1 | (29) | 5th Western | Missed playoffs |
Edmonton Oilers | WHA | 1974–75 | 19 | 6 | 12 | 1 | (13) | 5th Central | Missed playoffs |
Edmonton Oilers | WHA | 1975–76 | 33 | 9 | 21 | 3 | (21) | 4th Central | Lost in quarter-finals |
Total | 52 | 15 | 33 | 4 |
See also
References
- ^ a b "William "Bill" Hunter". Saskatchewan Sports Hall of Fame. Archived from the original on November 12, 2013. Retrieved August 1, 2023.
- ^ a b c d McLellan, Dennis (December 21, 2002). "Bill Hunter, 82; Founder of World Hockey Assn". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on April 24, 2021. Retrieved August 1, 2023.
- ^ a b c "Bill Hunter". Canada's Sports Hall of Fame. Archived from the original on October 18, 2016. Retrieved October 17, 2016.
- ^ New York Times. December 19, 2002. Archived from the originalon June 2, 2023. Retrieved August 1, 2023.
- ^ "Hunter Hits Headlines Again". Winnipeg Tribune. Winnipeg, Manitoba. September 14, 1956. p. 34.; "Bentley, Munro Dickering For Hat Tiger Boys". Medicine Hat News. Medicine Hat, Alberta. October 12, 1956. p. 4.
- ^ a b "WHL History". Western Hockey League. Archived from the original on July 31, 2023. Retrieved August 1, 2023.
- ^ ISBN 978-1-317-45947-7.
- ^ a b c Greig, Murray (October 10, 2012). "WHA Oilers were Wild Bill Hunter's baby". Edmonton Sun. Archived from the original on September 28, 2020. Retrieved August 2, 2023.
- ^ "Charles Alexander Allard, MD, FRCSC, FACS 1919–1991". Profiles and Perspectives from Alberta's Medical History. March 11, 2018 – via docspike.
- ^ MacNeil, Rob (September 17, 2010). "What's in a name?". Sportsnet. Archived from the original on October 9, 2010. Retrieved August 2, 2023.
- ^ Hornby, lance (September 11, 2014). "Looking back at 40th anniversary of Canada-Soviet hockey series". Toronto Sun. Archived from the original on September 12, 2014. Retrieved August 2, 2023.
- ^ a b Greig, Murray (October 9, 2012). "WHA: Wild Bill Hunter put the 'Alberta' in the original Oilers". Edmonton Sun. Archived from the original on November 25, 2012. Retrieved August 2, 2023.
- ^ a b "Oil drop timeline". Edmonton Journal. February 6, 2008. Archived from the original on September 23, 2018. Retrieved February 18, 2018 – via pressreader.
- ^ "Oil Kings to become Portland Winter Hawks". Edmonton Journal. June 11, 1976. p. 1. Retrieved August 2, 2023.
- ^ "Pro hockey once had two leagues, and that couldn't last". CBC Archives. March 22, 2019. Archived from the original on March 22, 2019. Retrieved August 2, 2023.
- ISBN 978-1-317-45947-7.
- ^ Bartko, Karen (September 26, 2016). "Edmonton Oilers introduce Hunter the mascot". Global News. Archived from the original on September 26, 2016. Retrieved August 1, 2023.
- ^ Saskatoon StarPhoenix. Archivedfrom the original on March 6, 2017. Retrieved August 2, 2023.
- ^ a b c d Mitchell, Kevin (May 17, 2008), "The big one that got away", The StarPhoenix, archived from the original on November 7, 2012, retrieved October 6, 2009
- ^ a b c Mitchell, Kevin (December 17, 2012). "Bill Hunter Remembered". Regina Leader-Post. Archived from the original on August 2, 2023. Retrieved August 2, 2023 – via pressreader.
- ^ a b Young, Matt (2023). "Classic Sports moments: Saskatoon's NHL dreams". CTV News. Archived from the original on May 25, 2023. Retrieved August 2, 2023.
- ^ "'We would have slayed them': Don Cherry remembers Saskatoon NHL bid". CBC News. December 7, 2016. Archived from the original on December 8, 2016. Retrieved August 2, 2023.
- ^ Mitchell, Kevin (May 30, 2019). "Thirty-six years ago, Saskatoon caught a bad case of the Blues". Saskatoon StarPhoenix. Archived from the original on May 30, 2019. Retrieved August 2, 2023.
- ^ Bare, Eman (June 7, 2016). "Saskatoon Blues: the NHL team that almost was". CBC News. Archived from the original on June 8, 2016. Retrieved August 2, 2023.
- ^ Blair, Jeff (October 26, 2014). "How Saskatoon almost landed an NHL team in 1983". Rogers Hometown Hockey. Archived from the original on June 17, 2015. Retrieved August 2, 2023.
- ^ Elliott, Helene (May 30, 2019). "The biggest save in St. Louis Blues history happened in 1983, courtesy of Harry Ornest". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on May 31, 2019. Retrieved August 3, 2023.
- ^ Hoknes, Terry (March 10, 2021). "The Final Decade of the Saskatoon Arena and the Birth of SaskPlace". Saskatchewan History & Folklore Society. Archived from the original on January 24, 2023. Retrieved August 2, 2023.
- ^ Young, Matt (May 23, 2023). "Saskatoon's second NHL bid that almost materialized". CTV News. Archived from the original on May 25, 2023. Retrieved August 2, 2023.
- ^ a b ""Wild" Bill Hunter dead at 82". CBC Sports. December 17, 2002. Archived from the original on October 19, 2016. Retrieved October 17, 2016.
- ^ Sunger, Sonia (February 20, 2010). "Bill Hunter arena opens to the public after three years". CTV News. Archived from the original on November 28, 2012. Retrieved August 2, 2023.
- ^ "WHA Hall of Fame Members". Archived from the original on January 15, 2019. Retrieved September 14, 2013.
Further reading
- Hunter, Bill and Weber, Bob. Wild Bill: Bill Hunter's Legendary 65 Years in Canadian Sport. Calgary Johnson Gorman Publishers, 2000.