Bill Hunter (ice Hockey) - The Birth of The WHL

The Birth of The WHL

By 1965 Hunter was owner, general manager and coach of the Edmonton Oil Kings. The Oil Kings won the Memorial Cup in 1966, but by then Hunter was arguing that the competitive structure of the game in Western Canada was putting the region at a disadvantage to stronger leagues in Ontario and Quebec. Each Western province still had its own junior league while Hunter believed the West needed a single elite junior league to compete effectively.

Following a dispute with the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League president and with the support of several other owners, Hunter formed the Western Canadian Hockey League (now the Western Hockey League) in 1967 with Hunter becoming the first chairman of the WCHL board. The new "Outlaw League" was not welcomed by everyone with open arms and it would be a few years before the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association allowed its champion to compete for the Memorial Cup, but it soon proved too strong for the provincial leagues to ignore and they soon stopped competing for the trophy. By 1972 the Memorial Cup's modern round-robin format was established—since then the WHL has won the Memorial Cup more times than any other league.