As the World Hockey Association approached its first season, things were getting tense with the NHL.

Chicago Blackhawks owner Bill Wirtz described the battle thus: “The war with the WHA was the third-bloodiest war in history, behind the Civil War and the Peloponnesian War.”

The WHA was more worried about having arenas where the ice didn't have hills.

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Aside from contemporary newspaper reports and research I’d done for my book The Seven Deadly Sins of Sport, for those interested in this story, there is one great book, Ed Willes’ The Rebel League: The Short and Unruly Life of the World Hockey Association .

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