"BUY A WHALER', "BUY A WHALER"

I recently joined "Facebook" a few days ago and today I joined the "Hartford Whalers" group. This reminded me of the "Whale".

My Dad used to work in the insurance field and with Covenant Insurance Company in Hartford, Connecticut and from time to time he was able to use the company hockey tickets for the New England Whalers during the 70's so we would go see some of the hockey games at the Hartford Civic Center.

The Whalers were in the World Hockey Association and had players such as the Legend Gordie Howe,Gordie's sons Mark & Marty, Wayne "Swoop" Carlton, Johnny McKenzie, the Abrahamsson brothers from Sweden, Nick Fotiou,Ted Green,Rick Ley, Larry Pleau,Tom Webster, Gordie Roberts,Mike Rogers and others. The Whalers joined the NHL in 1979 as the Hartford Whalers.Bobby Hull played his last game of his career as a Whaler. The games were usually good. Nick Fotiou was known as a good "fighter" and could be counted on to start a fight which the blood thirsty crowd always enjoyed.

There was one fan at these games that all of a sudden in the middle of the game would shout real loud "BUY A WHALER, BUY A WHALER" over and over again. I didn't know what that meant
and still don't to this very day.

The Whalers were Hartford's only professional team and eventually moved and became the Carolina Hurricanes. Howard Baldwin the general manager of the Whalers ended up being involved with the Pittsburgh Penguins.