Accession UAA-2012-038 - UAA-2012-038

Jon C. Stott is an author and a professor emeritus at the University of Alberta. He received his PH.D. in American and English Literature from the University of Toronto, where he also taught until 1968. He then taught at Western Michigan University from 1968 to 1975, where he began to teach children’s literature courses. He moved to the University of Alberta in 1975, where he taught as an associate professor in the English department until his retirement. He founded and was editor-in-chief of the review periodical, World of Children’s Books. An avid fan of ice hockey and other sports, Stott was also a play-by-play announcer for professional hockey games on CBC sports in the late 1970s.

Stott’s writing interests include writing about children’s literature, sports, and beer. Stott’s published books include Ice Warriors: The Pacific Coast/Western Hockey League, 1948-1974; Hockey Night in Dixie: Minor Pro Hockey in the American South; A Book of Tricksters; and Beer Quest West: The Craft Brewers of Alberta and British Columbia.

The Western Hockey League (WHL) was a professional minor league in Western Canada and the United States that operated from 1948 to 1974. The WHL began in 1948 when the amateur Pacific Coast Hockey League (PCHL) became a professional league. In 1951, the PCHL absorbed three teams from the Western Canada Senior Hockey League. It adopted the Western Hockey League name in 1952 to better reflect its new geographical footprint, which included the pacific coast and the Canadian prairies. Al Leader managed the WHL as league president from the league’s inception in 1952 until his retirement in 1969. He was followed by Eugene Kinasewich from 1969 to 1971, and Bill MacFarland from 1971 to 1974. Al Leader returned following the 1974 season to wrap up the operations of the WHL.

The league began with eight teams: Seattle Bombers, Vancouver Canucks, Calgary Stampeders, Edmonton Flyers, Victoria Cougars, Saskatoon Quakers, New Westminster Royals, and Tacoma Rockets. Over the course of the leagues’ history, WHL teams played in 18 different cities across western Canada and the United States. Although some teams only lasted one season, the longest running teams included the Vancouver Canucks (1952-1970), Seattle Totems (1958-1974), and the Portland Buckaroos (1960-1974).

During the 1960s, the Western Hockey League moved into a number of large west coast markets including Los Angeles and San Francisco. The WHL aspired to become a major league, and in 1964 presented the National Hockey League (NHL) with an ultimatum to either make them a western division in the NHL, or the WHL would form an independent major league of their own. However, the NHL responded that they did not seriously consider the WHL becoming a western division. In the 1965-66 and 1967-68 seasons, the six teams of the WHL played an interlocking schedule with the American Hockey League (AHL), playing their nine teams. It proved to be unpopular with both players, who did not like the added travel, and fans, who preferred to watch known rivalries. Nonetheless, fears that a merger of the WHL and AHL could become a major league rival to the National Hockey League (NHL), led the NHL to expand for the 1967-68 season. The NHL added six new franchises to double the size of the league, including taking over the WHL teams in Los Angeles and San Francisco, with Vancouver following in 1970. This effectively quelled the Western Hockey League’s ability to go from minor to major leagues.

With three major markets no longer in the WHL, league president Eugene Kinasewich encouraged league owners to consider expansion to larger cities to attempt to complement the NHL by offering an alternative organization to watch. His successor, Bill MacFarland, struggled with depleting revenues, as the WHL competed for patrons with other sporting events, and rising costs for travel and players’ salaries. In 1972, the WHL and NHL signed an agreement, the “White Paper”, with the intent to transform the WHL into a development league that would nurture young players for NHL teams. The league faced escalating salary expenses driven by a competitive market as the WHL lost players to the newly formed World Hockey Association (WHA), as well as to the NHL, which continued to expand. Decreasing attendance and increasing expenses led to financial losses for every WHL team in the 1972-73 season.

The Western Hockey League’s final season was 1973-74. There were six teams left in the league. The Phoenix Roadrunners announced in fall 1973 that they would be joining the WHA the following season. In April 1974, the San Diego Gulls lost rights to play in their sports arena to the WHA team. Denver and Seattle were then granted NHL expansion franchises in June, and with only two teams left the WHL announced that its league would suspend operations. They had been driven out of business by a combination of increased costs, and increased competition from the NHL and World Hockey Association for fans and players.