The National Hockey League's Stanley Cup finals are in full swing, and the series is nostalgic for several reasons. Most Connecticut sports fans fondly remember the former Hartford Whalers, now based in Raleigh, North Carolina, and now known as the Hurricanes. They're playing the Edmonton Oilers in the best-of-seven championship series. The Hurricanes actually advanced to the NHL finals in 2002, but they lost to the Detroit Red Wings in five games.
I was at the final game ever in Hartford when the Whalers defeated the Tampa Bay Lightning, Sunday, April 13, 1997. My family sat in the very top row and, although it was probably not nearly as emotional as the day the Dodgers left Brooklyn, I saw many grown men crying when the Whalers took one final skate around the rink to the strains of their theme song, "Brass Bonanza."
However, did you know that both of the two finalists this year debuted during our freshman year in high school as original members of the World Hockey Association? The Alberta Oilers and New England Whalers were flagship franchises in the WHA, which began play one month into our freshman year at Andrew Warde High School, then known as the home of the Crimson Eagles. The Whalers, who took their name from the WHA, won the inagural Avco Cup in the Spring of 1973.
One year later, the Oilers changed their official name from Alberta to Edmonton, while the Whalers eventually moved from Boston to Hartford. Both teams were incorporated into the National Hockey League in 1979, and the Oilers supplanted the New York Islanders as the league's dynasty, winning five Stanley Cups from 1985 to 1990.
So, as we prepare for our 30th high school reunion in August from a school which is now known as the home of the Fairfield Warde Mustangs, and you watch the Stanley Cup championship series, realize that both of these teams began in the Autumn of 1972-73 when we were just starting high school. They're still going strong today. And, so are we!
Paul
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