The Goal of My Life (16 page)

After that season, Johnny Bassett decided the team would be moving to – of all places – Birmingham, Alabama! Wow, talk about a change of scenery. One of the terms of my contract with the Toros (soon to become the Bulls) was that I didn’t have to relocate with the team if they moved farther than fifty miles from Toronto. In other words, the only place I
had
to move with the team would’ve been Hamilton. I didn’t have any issues with moving, especially since Bassett had been so good to me, as a result of which I felt obligated to him from a moral perspective. Eleanor and I thought it would be a good learning experience for our family, as the children were thirteen, eleven, and six years old. As it would
turn out, being in Birmingham was great for all of us. It was there that I would meet John Bradford, who became one of my mentors in helping me discover my deep spiritual roots. We wound up living there for eight years, and it ended up being a wonderful and rewarding experience.

So off we went to the Deep South, a different place for a hockey team, to be sure. But we had great fans at our games, and we found wonderful and solid friends who we still keep in contact with to this day.

I had twenty-three goals and twenty-five assists for forty-eight points that season in eighty-one games. The best part of it all was that all five of us really fell in love with the city. There was such a positive spirit in the “Bible Belt,” and our lives revolved around the church and the many activities that it provided.

The city had a brand-new arena, and we would draw about 8,500 fans per game into it, which was pretty good for a southern city. The fans got into it as well. There was a real buzz about the team in the city, which made it kind of fun. Hardly anyone knew who Paul Henderson was, so I could go out in public and not be recognized – which suited me just fine. Eleanor was able to be herself instead of Paul Henderson’s wife, and she really thrived there.

We built a home and settled into a very comfortable lifestyle in the city. We didn’t have a great year on the ice as a team, but every player loved playing in Birmingham. The next season, 1977–78, we made the playoffs by finishing in sixth place in the East Division, and I had my best season in the
WHA
in terms of numbers, scoring thirty-seven goals and twenty-nine assists for sixty-six points. Glen Sonmor took over as coach, and we were a tough team that season,
to be sure. I had never before been on a team that had so many fighters – we had four guys with more than two hundred minutes in penalties to prove it. None of those guys played more than half of the season either, so I was the peacemaker most of the time. I must have broken up dozens of fights that season, just trying to keep our guys from being thrown out of games!

One game in particular, at home against the Cincinnati Stingers, stands out. It became known as the “Thanksgiving Day Massacre.” A massive brawl broke out just twelve seconds into the game, and it must have taken a good forty minutes or so to clean up the resulting mess. That was just the kind of team we had that year. We made a quick playoff exit, but that season was memorable in a lot of ways. The fans sure loved the fighting – and Peter Marrin and I sure played a lot because we killed the penalties, and there were a lot to kill.

In 1978–79, John Brophy became our head coach. He had gained considerable notoriety after a long career as a minor league defenceman in the Eastern Hockey League. He was the all-time leader in penalty minutes in the Eastern League by a wide margin, and he had thirty fights for every goal he scored! When he arrived, I didn’t know what to expect because his reputation certainly preceded him. But remarkably, things seemed to settle down under Brophy, who treated me extremely well, and we really hit it off and became friends.

I was used in every situation that season – on the power play and penalty kill – while still taking my regular shift. I had a lot of respect for Brophy. He was a players’ coach and the guys really loved him. If you worked hard for him, he
would back you 100 percent, but he couldn’t handle players who didn’t give it their all. He was in incredible shape himself and had to work extremely hard as a player just to stay on teams, so he couldn’t tolerate those who didn’t share his work ethic or his passion for the game. Years later, he was coaching the Toronto Maple Leafs when Harold Ballard tossed me out of the Gardens, but Brophy called me aside and told me, “Paul, my door is always open for you.” I never forgot that.

That season, Birmingham became known as the “Baby Bulls” because of how young some of the players were. Bassett had signed six eighteen-year-old players right out of junior hockey, including Rick Vaive, Rob Ramage, Craig Hartsburg, Michel Goulet, Gaston Gingras, and Pat Riggin. We also had Ken Linseman, Mark Napier, and Rod Langway. This strategy angered the
NHL
to no end, but it afforded these young kids a chance to get into pro hockey right away, and most of them did very well despite their tender ages and the fact they were playing in a pretty tough hockey league.

But despite all their potential, we just weren’t good enough to compete with more experienced teams. We won thirty-two games and finished in last place. I had twenty-four goals and twenty-seven assists for fifty-one points, but we could see that the league was, in all probability, on its last legs. Talk of a merger between the
NHL
and
WHA
had been going on for quite a while, and while some teams seemed equipped to join the
NHL
, others certainly didn’t. The Indianapolis Racers dropped out of the league after twenty-five games, leaving just six teams (we ended the season in sixth place). Playing for the Avco Cup sure didn’t match competing for a Stanley
Cup, and due in part to a weakening American economy, the crowds had really shrunk in many of the
WHA’S
markets.

That turned out to be the final season for the
WHA
, as the
NHL
agreed in March 1979 to swallow up four of the franchises – the Winnipeg Jets, New England Whalers, Quebec Nordiques, and Edmonton Oilers. Cincinnati and Birmingham didn’t make the cut.

For the record, I thought the
WHA
was a pretty good league and that it was great for hockey players. It was a great place for young players to start their careers and for European players to get a chance to learn the North American game without the intense pressure of the National Hockey League. I was thirty-two years old when I jumped, and I was able to double my salary and enjoy many other benefits. I loved the guys and the coaches, and the games were so much fun they were almost like practices some nights.

The
WHA
certainly did a lot for players’ salaries, which was a good thing for all players at the time. Up until then, players were at the mercy of the owners in the
NHL
, and the
WHA
provided a great alternative and some bargaining power – especially after Bobby Hull signed his million-dollar contract with the Winnipeg Jets and left Chicago. After I saw the way the Maple Leafs made Dave Keon fight over a small raise just to make $100,000 at the peak of his career, I realized the
WHA
would be a great thing for players’ paycheques.

Some of hockey’s all-time greats played in the
WHA
, from Gordie Howe, to Bobby Hull, to Dave Keon, and the league started the careers of players like Wayne Gretzky, Mark Messier, John Tonelli, Mark Howe, Mike Gartner, and Mike Liut, to mention just a few. It was a unique and fascinating
time in hockey history. But the league was over with, and as the 1979–80 season approached, I had to decide what Paul Henderson would do.

I had thought about getting one more chance to play in the
NHL
before I retired, and I felt that I could still contribute at that level. But at the same time, I was extremely happy in Birmingham and, just as important for me at this stage of my life, so were Eleanor and the kids.

Cliff Fletcher, the general manager of the Atlanta Flames, called me during the off-season with an offer to join the Flames. It was tempting, but I wanted to stay in Birmingham, where the Flames’ farm team would now be located. I signed, but with the proviso that I would stay in Birmingham and mentor the young kids in the lineup there. If the Flames ran into problems at any point in the season and needed me, I would go there – the two cities were about one hundred miles apart. It was a perfect solution for me and my family.

It was a decent year for me in Birmingham too, as I had seventeen goals and eighteen assists for thirty-five points in forty-seven games while helping Atlanta’s future prospects develop. And sure enough, about halfway through the season, the Flames called me back up to the
NHL
.

It was a great thrill to be back in the
NHL
once again, a long-time removed from my years with the Red Wings and Maple Leafs. I got into thirty games that season and had seven goals and six assists for thirteen points. Two of those goals came in the same game, and that game turned out to be the last one I would ever play on Maple Leaf Gardens ice.

With my mother and family and friends in the crowd, I beat Toronto goaltender Mike Palmateer twice and was named the game’s first star in a 5–2 win over the Leafs. As
I was announced as the game’s first star and took a skate out onto the Gardens ice, I realized that it was a fantastic way for me to end my last game in Toronto.

Life was pretty good. I had the best of both worlds, getting another crack at the
NHL
after all those years and still keeping my home base in Birmingham, where Eleanor was working and thriving. As the 1980–81 season approached, however, there was news that the Flames were moving to Calgary. It would be another twenty years before big-league hockey returned to the Deep South.

As I’ve stated earlier, I loved Birmingham and the people there. It really turned out to be a great place for me and my family for a lot of reasons, and the friends we had there were
terrific. I can’t say enough about how much I enjoyed the environment there.

But I also have to be honest: I don’t think hockey will ever go in the South. The sport is just not in people’s blood there like it is here in Canada. It was popular for a while when I played there, but when the economy went south, so did hockey. I can only imagine how tough it would be to have a team there now. It sure was tough for the owners of the Thrashers, who sold the team to Winnipeg interests.

I mean no disrespect by saying that, but I am also very partial to hockey here in Canada. I would love to see a team in Quebec City again, and I was very supportive of Winnipeg before they got their team back. We have a passion for hockey in this country that cannot be matched. I even think there should be another team in southwestern Ontario. There is no doubt that a place like Hamilton or Kitchener could easily support an
NHL
team – or even a second team in Toronto, perhaps. When you see the interest and the passion for hockey in this part of the county, it doesn’t make any sense to try to put teams in places that don’t have that love of the game.

The Flames’ impending move meant another decision for me. Fletcher offered me a two-year contract to to Calgary. He envisioned me as a role player, a veteran who could still see spot duty and come and work with the young kids on the team.

It was tempting. Calgary was, and still is, a great Canadian hockey city, and it would have been neat to be a part of the
NHL
coming there. But Eleanor and the kids clearly did not want to move again, so I declined and stayed in Birmingham for one more year, playing once again for John Brophy.

I knew the end of my career was nearing, and I decided it was time to put my family first. I didn’t want to be a third- or fourth-line player, so I made what I consider to be the right decision for me at that time.

T
HE BEST THING ABOUT SITTING DOWN AND LOOKING
back over a life in hockey is the realization that I have been very fortunate in my career to have been able to play with and against some of the greatest players in
NHL
history. So I want to share some stories about these great players with you.

I am often asked to name the players I feel are the greatest players I ever played with, or against, in my career. I certainly don’t have to think about that question very long. Right from the start, I was surrounded by hockey’s legendary names. When I first came up to the Detroit Red Wings, we had seven Hall of Famers in our lineup.
Seven!
Terry Sawchuk in goal, Marcel Pronovost and Bill Gadsby on defence, and Norm Ullman, Alex Delvecchio, Gordie Howe, and Ted Lindsay up front. What a team we had there!

Imagine what a thrill it was for me the first time I walked into that dressing room and saw those guys. I made sure I got their autographs as I admired all of those great players
so much, and to have had the chance to play with them all at the same time, well, that was something pretty special.

Bobby Orr was the greatest defenceman of my era, and probably the best to ever play the position. Goalies? Take your pick – Terry Sawchuk, Johnny Bower, Jacques Plante, Glenn Hall, and Gump Worsley – and I played with three of them – were all outstanding. Gordie Howe was known as Mr. Hockey and could do it all, and Jean Beliveau was one of my heroes – such a classy guy and a skilled player. The muscular Bobby Hull, racing down the wing and blasting slap shots at petrified goaltenders, was poetry in motion. But at the centre of my admiration and respect is the entire roster of Team Canada 1972 – a diverse group that Harry Sinden and John Ferguson melded into a team.