Chicago Cougars Memories

If you'd like to add a Cougars memory or a memory of any other WHA team e-mail me. All help is greatly appreciated.

Ryan, Saw the article in SI! I'm a fifty year old sports fan near Peoria, Il.My team is the Blues. I did enjoy following the WHA and attended a Cougars-Whalers game in the mid-70s. I got a big kick out of your site. THe league never got credit for opening more cities up to pro hockey. I think an all-star series between the 2 leagues NHL-WHA would have been a classic. Any league that had Howe, Hull and Gretzky deserves the publicity!! How'd a 19-year old get hooked on the WHA?
Bill Kauzlarich

I was shocked and amazed to find a site dedicated to the WHA. Although I live in Arkansas now, I grew up in South Bend, Indiana, and played hockey there (and many other places) throughout my youth. Of course I remember the signing of Bobby Hull to the Jets (I was seven or eight at the time), but what I remember more vividly, strangely enough, is that the Chicago Cougar games were televised for a season or two of their existence. The games were on a strange little independent TV station with WFLD (I think) as its call letters. Channel 44 or something like it. They also used to do the White Sox games before the Sports Channels and the WGN superstations of the world took over. I wasn't too old, but I remember how the broadcasts had a real "homey" quality, unlike whatever network TV was doing then. This was most likely due to lack of budget, as the Sox were the station's cash cow and WGN (now a superstation and had a lot of power even in the mid '70's) had the Hawks. I remember an aged Ralph Backstrom on his last legs and wondering just what kind of pussy name was "Rosaire" for a guy that good. I'm sure others will come to me, but for now, these are the most vivid. Keep up the great work. Bruce J. Bennett

Back in the 70's man did we love the chicago cougars. they had the best gold, white, and green uniforms. bobby hull had jumped ship from the hawks cause wirtz was an a-hole even then. ralph backstrom, reg fleming, pat stapleton those guys were the best. and fighting like you have never seen. 36 sticks and pairs of gloves on the ice for the battle royal lasting 5-10 minutes. and they were good. the hawks had fallen apart after losing in 71 and 73 to montreal in the cup finals, so we were ready for some winners, and the cougars took the avco cup at least once that i can remember (They came runner up actually in 73-74 -RH) at the time i was playing bantam. i ended up div 1 but never was fast enough or good enough to skate for a check. still play today, and hockey is without a doubt the coolest sport on the planet. we go to the wolves games now, $12 for great seats, cause the hawks, while they can play, bury themselves early in the year. they beat dallas, detroit, and colorado consecutively sandwhiched between two losses to nashville for christ's sake. plus wirtz just upped prime seats from $75 to, get ready for this....$250! Brock Hanna

I was a big fan of the Chicago Cougars. BlackHawk tickets were too hard to get ,plus the Golden Jet had gone to Winnipeg. biggest Cougar game ever was the night Hull returned to Chicago it was standing room only. JIMMYMC38@aol.com

My neighbors had season tickets to the team and I tagged along to 20 or 30 games in their first years in the league. Went to a few playoff games in 74. The first two rounds of the playoffs were in the old Amphitheatre and only the finals moved out to Randhurst. The second round was won in overtime when the Cougars scored and the Amphitheatre went nuts. I was a suburban teen and remember people kicking apart the wood seats during the celebration. That sort of terrified me but I really do have fond memories of it all. The WHA sort of encouraged fighting in order to attract crowds. I remember one night the Cougar enforcer started a shift change and had to go back and get his stick as an afterthought. Gypsy Joe Hardy had this wacky ass slapshot that one time hit the aluminum facade in the first balcony. When he wound up the whole end crowd could be seen to cringe after that. Hilarious. I have an old Cougars patch, program and a coffee mug premium from those days. Would love to find a manufacturer of repro sweaters. Some kid in my neighborhood plays hockey in the park wearing one. Must have been his dads. Pretty damn cool. Most people got tickets because they couldnt get Hawk tickets back then. The Hawks were decent and you practically had to marry or be born into a family with season tickets to get them.
Memory by Brad Sherman brad@avenue-edit.com , Chicago, Ill.
I clearly remember watching Chicago Cougars games on a UHF station here in Chicago when the team still existed (I was a little guy of about 7-9 years of age at the time), and I also have _extremely_ vague memories of the year ('74) when they made a run for the Avco Cup and ran into Houston in the playoffs. The odd thing is that I remember the title lead-in to the games (that cougar snarling at the end of it is an image that's been stuck in my memory for years) and the fact that Pat Stapleton was one of their players better than any of the games I saw; I've gotta wonder if there isn't video of those games somewhere.
Memory by Chris Krolczyk krolczyk@MCS.COM, Chicago, Ill.

A friend of mine played for the Chicago Cougers.His name is Brian Coates. The things I remember most about the Cougers are they had nice jerseys,Pat Stapleton,Ralph Backstrom and Dave Dryden tried to save the franchise the last year backing the franchise at the end of the 74-75 season,they made the Avco Cup finals in 73-74 and they used to play in that old barn of a rink. The year they got to the finals they had to play there home games at Mt.Prospect. The attendence would range from 2500 to less than 4000 fans for playoffs. I grew up in Winnipeg so I watch alot of WHA.I played hockey with one of Bobby Hull's sons and Bobby would come watch our team play and then visit us in the dressing room after.What a class act he was.We in Winnipeg were very fortunate to have Bobby play here as long as we did.I guess being a Black Hawk fan you won't forgive our Jets.
Memory by Garth Goodbrandson goodbran@mb.sympatico.ca, Winnipeg MB.

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