History
The Toros had been modestly successful on the ice since moving from Toronto, and had drawn fairly well by NHL standards. However, onerous lease terms at Maple Leaf Gardens led owner John Bassett to move to Birming ham.
John Brophy, who would later go on to coach the Leafs, joined head coach Glen Sonmor as an assistant after the move to Birmingham. Brophy became head coach in the 1978–79 when Sonmor joined the Minnesota North Stars. His team finished last in the league, but was in the middle of a youth movement.
Wayne Gretzky was heavily recruited by Birmingham Bulls owner John Bassett to be part of the youth movement. Bassett wanted to confront the NHL by signing as many young and promising superstars as possible and saw Gretzky as the most promising young prospect.
Although Bassett failed to sign Gretzky, the Bulls (affectionately known as the Baby Bulls) included several future NHL stars at the beginning of their professional careers (Rick Vaive, Michel Goulet, Rob Ramage, Pat Riggin, Craig Hartsburg, and Gaston Gingras), as well as a 36-year-old Paul Henderson. Even though his team was the only one in the league not to make the playoffs, Brophy was awarded the Robert Schmertz Memorial Trophy as the WHA's coach of the year.
Read more about this topic: Birmingham Bulls
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“All things are moral. That soul, which within us is a sentiment, outside of us is a law. We feel its inspiration; out there in history we can see its fatal strength.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Throughout the history of commercial life nobody has ever quite liked the commission man. His function is too vague, his presence always seems one too many, his profit looks too easy, and even when you admit that he has a necessary function, you feel that this function is, as it were, a personification of something that in an ethical society would not need to exist. If people could deal with one another honestly, they would not need agents.”
—Raymond Chandler (1888–1959)
“Regarding History as the slaughter-bench at which the happiness of peoples, the wisdom of States, and the virtue of individuals have been victimized—the question involuntarily arises—to what principle, to what final aim these enormous sacrifices have been offered.”
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)