WHL TURNS 50
Anniversary will be season-long celebration.
The WHL’s 50th anniversary will be a season-long celebration.
The festivities begin Sept. 24 in Moose Jaw when the Warriors face the Regina Pats in the first game of the 2015-16 campaign. It’s a flashback to 1966-67, when the Moose Jaw Canucks beat Regina in the league’s first official championship final.
“We’re looking forward to launching the season in Saskatchewan,” WHL commissioner Ron Robison said Monday during a media gathering at the Brandt Centre. “This province is very special to the league because it got started here. We want to use this opportunity to celebrate our history and the great accomplishments of the players over the 50 years. The league has grown by leaps and bounds but we still remember and want to pay tribute to the contributions in Saskatchewan.”
The WHL has taken a number of forms during its long history, beginning in 1966 when it was originally known as the Western Canada Junior Hockey League. At that time it was a seventeam loop consisting of the Pats, Canucks, Edmonton Oil Kings, Saskatoon Blades, Estevan Bruins, Calgary Buffaloes and Weyburn Red Wings.
Regina, Moose Jaw, Saskatoon, Weyburn and Estevan made the move after previously competing in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League.
By the early ’70s, the WHL had expanded to 12 teams featuring two six-team divisions. It’s now up to 22 clubs in two conferences and four divisions.
“It has grown so much,” noted Al Dumba, who played for the Pats from 1974 to 1976 and also coached the team in the early ’90s. “It’s a younger league now because there are more teams. Back when I played it was primarily teams of 18- and 19-yearolds. Since then, the skill level for these hockey players has gone up a lot. The sticks are better, the equipment is better, the skates are better and the young athletes are training that much more. We didn’t train all year. We worked on the farm and we played fastball and golfed. Nowadays it’s a lot different. The hockey side of it is pretty well 10, 12 months a year now.”
While the game has continued to evolve over the years, the business side of the WHL followed suit.
“It’s like a mini-NHL,” said Pats head coach/GM John Paddock, who played for the Brandon Wheat Kings in the early ’70s. “It’s run by great people. To grow and expand the way they have, obviously a lot of people have done things really well over the years.”
The WHL has big plans for its golden anniversary, including a season-opening ceremony in Moose Jaw headlined by former Warriors star Ryan Smyth and ex-Pats great Clark Gillies.
Several other promotions are in the works, with each team slated to hold its own anniversary celebration at some point during the season. There’s also a commemorative book to be released by the league this fall.
Fans will have a chance to participate through an online vote to help determine the top 50 WHL players of all-time, derived from a list of 125 selected by a panel of WHL historians. The final selections are to be announced via countdown beginning in January.
The league also plans to utilize its website (whl.ca) as well as other social media avenues to introduce Championship Tuesdays — recognizing two of its 49 championship teams each week leading up to the playoffs. That’s followed by Throwback Thursdays, which are to feature photos, videos and fun facts related to the league’s 50-year history.
Other special events include the Canada-Russia Challenge (Nov. 9 in Kelowna and Nov. 10 in Kamloops) as well as the CHL Top Prospects Game (Jan. 28 in Vancouver). The season culminates with the 2016 MasterCard Memorial Cup, May 19-29 in Red Deer.