Early Hartford Whaler Logo Designs

[Joshawaggie]

Hartford deserved a NHL team.

Better yet, they also deserved an NHL team.

[powersurge]

Sometimes I forget that Hartford isn't even on the ocean. Stupid Whalers.

Actually there is a very good reason for that.

The team was originally named the "New England Whalers", which seemed fitting because the shores off the coast of New England were the world's top whaling areas for quite some time. They were forced to drop 'New England' for 'Hartford' because when they merged into the NHL the Boston Bruins were already in existence, or else they probably would have kept the name.

Hopefully that helps.

Ahh, revisionist history.

They took the name originally because ownership thought it would be neat to use "WHA" in the team name. Any actual historical significance took a back seat to their clever wordsmanship.

I've honestly never heard that, and would be curious to read any stories or official articles that you could provide about that. Regardless, I still contend that the whaling history of the area has a lot to do with the origin of the name.

Its not like the team sat in a room and said:

"Hey lets find a way to put WHA in the team name...any ideas???"

"The New England WHAves?"

"New England BloWHArds?"

"I got it!!!! the WHAlers!!! and it just so happens that Whaling was kind of important in that area way back when. What a coincidence!!!!!"

This was the 70's. That's not far from how it probably happened.

All of my WHA history comes from former players and execs sitting in bars or my dad's living room shooting the about league and team business. If we couldn't believe what Ben Hatskin told us while boozing it up in a wheelchair, then we might as well not believe in Santa either.

There's really no reason to believe any official team literature about those histories, because they'll always be written in such a way that it sounds good. If no one here bought the line about the Oilers' alt gear logo representing team history and the oil industry and Todd MacFarlane's million dollar baseball, then why believe a team history for a 70's franchise that was written 30 years later? It's all revisionist history; if you're a comics fan, we'd just call it a retcon.

For example, the Winnipeg Jets; team histories will tell you that the name was chosen for "Winnipeg's emergence as an aerospace industry hub." BS. There was a local junior team called the Jets that was going under, and ownership was able to get the equipment and jerseys cheap. There was no "the colors were chosen due to the Rangers' close territorial relationship with Manitoba," those were just the failing team's colors.

I mean, you're free to believe in whichever story you like, I'm just repeating what was told to us, or my dad, while hanging out with dudes in the 70's. I tend to believe them more than what a PR company told us

you've gotta love a bunch of stories from former players and execs from the 60's and 70's. I eat that stuff up when they have those specials on ESPN classic or SportsCenter profiling old teams and people. LOVE IT! Regardless of what I believe that story is interesting none the less.

The more I comment in this thread the more the memories of my beloved Whale are coming back. :censored:!!!! why did they have to move???!!!! (over course I know why they moved, I'm just saying)