For seven seasons in the seventies, professional hockey had a second league. It paid players more, signed teenagers the established league would not touch, put teams in cities that had never had top-level hockey, and dressed them in some of the boldest colours the sport has ever seen. The World Hockey Association lasted from 1972 to 1979, and then it was gone, folded into the NHL with four of its clubs surviving the merger.
The clothing it left behind is a strange and wonderful corner of vintage hockey. Original WHA fan apparel is scarce, much of what you see is a later tribute, and the stories attached to the logos are better than almost anything in sports. This guide walks through what the league was, which teams matter for vintage hunting, how to tell an original from a throwback, and how to wear a crest from a team that may have lasted only a season or two.
01. A league built to compete
The WHA was founded by promoters who had already launched a rival basketball league, the ABA, and its plan was simple: put teams in markets the NHL had ignored and lure stars with money. Its most famous early move came in 1972, when Bobby Hull left Chicago to sign with the Winnipeg Jets on a contract widely reported as worth a million dollars. Overnight the new league had credibility, and other players followed.
Over its short life the WHA did things the older league resisted. It signed young players before the NHL's age rules allowed, which is how a teenage Wayne Gretzky turned professional with the Indianapolis Racers in 1978 before being sold to Edmonton within months. It brought Gordie Howe out of retirement to play alongside his sons Mark and Marty in Houston. It recruited heavily from Europe, and the Jets in particular became known for Swedish and Finnish players skating with Hull.
The league was also unstable. Franchises moved, renamed, folded and reappeared at a dizzying pace. Some teams played only part of a season. By 1979, six clubs remained, and four of them, the Edmonton Oilers, Winnipeg Jets, Quebec Nordiques and New England Whalers, joined the NHL. The rest of the WHA's history lives mainly in memory, in record books, and in a small amount of clothing.
02. The teams that matter most for vintage
For anyone hunting vintage hockey clothing, WHA teams fall into roughly three groups. The first is the four survivors, whose WHA years blend into their later NHL identities. Individual guides elsewhere on this journal cover each of them, so here is the short version of what each brings:
- Winnipeg Jets: the league's flagship and its most successful club, with multiple championships and Bobby Hull as the face of the whole enterprise.
- Quebec Nordiques: fleur-de-lis blue and a fiercely French-Canadian identity that carried straight into the NHL.
- Edmonton Oilers: founded as the Alberta Oilers for the very first season, and the place where Gretzky finished his WHA career.
- New England Whalers: winners of the first league title, later renamed Hartford Whalers in the NHL.
The second group is the clubs that never made it: the Houston Aeros, Cincinnati Stingers, Birmingham Bulls, Indianapolis Racers, Minnesota Fighting Saints, Cleveland Crusaders, San Diego Mariners, Phoenix Roadrunners, Calgary Cowboys and others. These are the names that make WHA collecting feel like archaeology. The third group is the truly fleeting franchises that moved or vanished after a season or two, whose names even devoted hockey fans struggle to remember.
Toronto had a team too
Toronto fans have their own WHA thread. The Toronto Toros played in the city in the mid-seventies, after starting life as the Ottawa Nationals, and spent time at Maple Leaf Gardens before the franchise moved south and became the Birmingham Bulls. It is a small chapter, but it means WHA history is part of the local hockey story here, not just something that happened in Winnipeg and Quebec City.
03. Why original WHA clothing is so rare
The seventies were not the age of mass sports merchandise. The fan apparel boom that filled malls with team sweatshirts and satin jackets really took off in the eighties and peaked in the early nineties. During the WHA's lifetime, a fan's options were more limited: perhaps a pennant, a button, a simple printed tee or a knit toque from the arena. Many teams were struggling financially and had no reason to invest in large clothing runs.
Then there is survival. A cotton tee from 1975 has had a long time to be worn out, cut into rags or thrown away, especially if the team it represented had already folded. Garments from clubs that lasted one season might only have been produced in tiny quantities to begin with. When original WHA clothing does turn up, it is usually small items: tees, toques, the occasional jacket or warm-up piece.
That scarcity is part of the appeal, but it also means you should approach any WHA piece with curiosity rather than assumption. The odds favour a later tribute, and that is fine as long as you know it.
Half the pleasure of a WHA crest is explaining it to someone who has never heard of the team.
04. Telling a throwback from the real thing
Because the WHA's logos are so striking, they have been reproduced many times since the league ended. Throwback jerseys, retro tees and nostalgic caps have revived the Cincinnati Stingers, Houston Aeros, Birmingham Bulls and others for fans who were not born when those teams played. Most of these are honest products sold as retro designs, but they can be confused with originals once tags fade or are cut out.
Collectors look at a combination of clues, and none of them proves age on its own:
- Tags: seventies garments often have simple woven or printed tags, sometimes with fibre content that suggests the era, such as cotton-polyester blends common in that decade. Modern tags often carry care symbols and long lists of languages.
- Construction: single-stitch hems on tees are a common older clue, though not a guarantee.
- Print feel: older prints often look thinner and more worn into the fabric; heavy, glossy prints with very crisp edges suggest a newer reproduction.
- Licensing language: many modern retro pieces mention licensing, heritage or vintage collections on tags or hangtags.
- Fabric and fit: a tee that feels heavy and boxy in the modern way is often newer; many seventies tees are slimmer and shorter.
When in doubt, ask the seller what they know about the piece and compare it against several others. A good throwback can be a lovely garment. It just should not cost what an original might, and you should be clear in your own mind which one you own.
05. Reading seventies colour and design
WHA logos and uniforms came out of the same design moment that gave the world wide collars and bright kitchen appliances. Colours were saturated and sometimes unexpected: the bold reds and blacks of Birmingham, the oranges and greens that turn up across the league, the vivid blue of Quebec. Logos were often illustrated rather than abstract, featuring animals, insects, figures and stylised letters.
On original pieces, those colours have usually softened. Seventies dyes faded in ways that give older fabric a dusty, warm cast, and a once-bright orange can drift toward a pale tangerine. On newer throwbacks, colours tend to be sharper and more uniform. That softness is one reason originals feel so wearable today. The loudness of the design is tempered by time.
It also helps to think of WHA design as a bridge. Several logos from the surviving teams carried into the NHL with only small changes, while others were redrawn. Looking at the WHA versions gives you a feel for how hockey graphics looked before the cleaner, more corporate marks of later decades.
06. Fit and condition on seventies hockey clothing
If you do find an original seventies piece, expect it to fit differently from later vintage. Tees from that decade often run short in the body and narrow in the shoulder. A size that reads large may fit like a modern medium. Measure chest width and body length rather than trusting the label, and compare against a tee you already like.
Condition checks are mostly about fabric fatigue. Hold the garment up to a window and look for thinning at the collar, under the arms and across the back. Check that the print has not lifted away from the fabric. On knit toques, look for moth damage, which often appears as small holes or bare patches in the wool. On jackets, examine zips and snaps, which may be original and harder to replace.
Gentle care matters even more than usual. Wash rarely, cold and inside out, and dry flat. A seventies tee has already survived decades; it does not need a hot dryer to finish it off.
07. Wearing a forgotten league well
WHA clothing has a particular charm because it rarely reads as plain fandom. Most people will not recognise the logo, and those who do will usually want to talk about it. That makes these pieces closer to a graphic tee or a souvenir shirt than a straightforward team garment.
Lean into that by keeping the rest of the outfit simple. A faded Stingers or Aeros tee works with straight jeans, an open overshirt and plain sneakers. A Nordiques or Jets piece from the WHA days pairs nicely with a navy or grey jacket. Throwback jerseys with these crests are best treated like any oversized hockey sweater: worn over a hoodie or long-sleeve tee, with slim or straight trousers to balance the bulk.
Seventies colours also suit warm-toned neutrals. Tan, camel, olive and cream all flatter the oranges, golds and reds of the era. Cold grey and stark black can work, but warm neutrals make the old dyes look richer.
08. A league worth knowing, a crest worth wearing
Vintage NHL clothing tells a story of continuity, of teams that stayed and logos that slowly evolved. WHA clothing tells a story of risk and short lives, of a league that pushed the older one into changing how hockey was played and paid for. Wearing a WHA crest is a small nod to that history, and to the cities that had a team for a moment.
If you want to start, decide whether you are after an original or a well-made tribute, and be patient either way. Originals are rare enough that you may wait a long time; throwbacks are easier to find and often easier to wear. Both have a place in a vintage hockey wardrobe. In the meantime, learn the names. Knowing which team became which, and which simply disappeared, makes every find a little more rewarding when it finally turns up.
