Denver Spurs/Ottawa Civics MVRP

[yave1964]

  Quick and easy one.

  The Chicago Cougars and the Baltimore Blades had just folded taking the WHA down to 12 teams, the league decided to expand, adding the Stingers in Cincinnati and placing a team in Denver, a very successful minor league city that the NHL had considered and bypassed over the previous round of expansion in favor of Kansas City and Washington. The new club in Denver was to be named the Spurs and with the expansion draft they inherited most but not all of the Chicago Cougars roster.

  The timing among other things was just plain wrong. The economy was in a down turn, the city itself did not want a WHA team, they felt worthy of an NHL club and with the state of the artMcNichol arena they were dismayed when all attempts failed to lure the bankrupt Penguin franchise or the league owned Golden Seals (The following year when the Scouts failed they moved to Denver) and in spite of good intentions and a good marketing scheme they never drew.

  They hired Jean Guy Talbot, one of my all time favorites, to be their head coach. Talbot won six cups under Toe Blake and then went to three consecutive Stanley Cup finals under Scotty Bowman as a rugged defenseman, he went on to coach the Blues and the Denver Spurs of the WHL before the WHA came calling. Popular in the area it was hoped he might help appease the fan base who were upset over losing their popular minor league team to an upstart league and not getting an NHL club as they had hoped.

  Ralph Backstrom, a solid star from the Canadiens who had joined the Cougars in Chicago transferred to the organization as did a collection of castoffs, never weres and has beens to form the club. They began to lose early and often, turning off the few fans that did regularly attend, averaging around 3,000 fans a game.

 Rumors became rampant that the Scouts were moving to Denver the following season and owner Ivan Mullinex who had owned the WHL club previous to joining the WHA did not have deep enough pockets and saw the writing on the wall. with the club sitting at 13-20-1 they were sold to a group in Ottawa and renamed the Ottawa Civics. It was done so quietly the players didn't even know. 

  The first game of the Ottawa Civics was a road game in Cincinnati on January 2nd 1975 and rumors had been swirling they were moving, but the players could not get a straight answer. Years later long time WHA vet John Arbour remembered the moment they found out they were now the Ottawa Civics. "We were standing for the National anthem and after they played the Star Spangled Banner they played O Canada, which was only played for a Canadian team. That is how we found out we didn't play in Denver anymore. It was crazy, but a lot of things like that happened in the WHA."

  So Mulinex moved the team to Ottawa and they became the Ottawa Civics, actually the second time the WHA had attempted an team in Ottawa. They lost their first two games of a road trip then won against the Minnesota Fighting Saints, the only win for the Ottawa franchise. The sale had happened so quick, I am not making this up, they never came up with a uniform, instead they simply removed the logo from their chest and sleeves for the Spurs and went with a blank jersey, with stitch marks still on them where the previous logo had been in place.

  They played in the small Ottawa Civic Center, which only seated 9,000 fans but the home opener drew a surprisingly large crowd, 8,500. They then drew 9,300 for Gordie Howe and the Aeros, standing room only, everything looked like the Civics were where they belonged.

  Then the roof caved in. The new ownership group backed out, refusing to take on half a million dollars in inherited debt that Mullinex could not afford to pay and he closed up shop, selling Backstrom to the Whalers to try to recoup some of his money and officially closing the team. I year or two previous the league may have taken it over, the fact that they drew amazingly well for a small arena with zero notice and stitches from a previous teams logo still on their blank jerseys showed that Ottawa was hockey hungry, but no owner, a near bankrupt league spelled their doom. After the game against Houston, an overtime loss, they simply ceased to be.

  BEST PLAYERS ON THE CLUB:

 RALPH BACKSTROM  Super player from the late fifties and early sixties Canadien club, played forever in the WHA. When the Cougars folded, he was part owner and moved to Denver. After the franchise folded he played very well for New England for two more years.

  GARY MACGREGOR stolen from Juniors, MacGregor chose the Cougars over the Canadiens for the money, scored 40 goals as a 20 year old rookie, then 16 in the partial season with the Spurs/Civics. He never made the NHL, drifting between the WHa and their minor leagues for six years. No idea why he didn't have a career.

  BOB JOHNSON and CAM NEWTON shared the net, both were wretched and never saw again.

   DON BORGENSON came over from the WHL Denver minor league team and potted a team leading 21 goals while with the club. After they folded he returned to the minors and never reached the NHL or WHa again.

   Career minor leaguer RICK MORRIS led the team in PIMs and was dealt to Edmonton where he played 3 more WHA seasons finishing up his career. JIM SHERRITT who had played center with the Howes in Houston played in Denver and was released when the team folded, in spite of putting up decent numbers with Denver/Ottawa never caught on anywhere else. J.P. LEBLANC AND RON DELORME went on to have mediocre NHL careers, most everyone else just faded away with the wind. Coach JEAN GUY TALBOT went on to coach again in the NHL with the Rangers, but was not successful and not destined to be the next Blake or Bowman.