Denver Spurs
| Denver Spurs | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| City | Denver, Colorado |
| League |
WHL 1968–74 CHL 1974–75 WHA 1975–76 |
| Operated | 1968–1976 |
| Home arena | McNichols Sports Arena |
| Franchise history | |
| 1968–1976 | Denver Spurs |
| 1976 | Ottawa Civics |
| Championships | |
| Regular season titles | 1971–72 |
The Denver Spurs were a professional ice hockey team based out of Denver, Colorado. The Spurs began play in the Western Hockey League in 1968, and played at the Denver Coliseum. The Spurs became the first professional sports team in Colorado to win a championship in 1971–72. After the WHL folded in 1974, the team transferred to the Central Hockey League for the 1974–75 season.
In June, 1974, Ivan Mullenix, owner of the CHL Spurs, was awarded a "conditional" NHL franchise for the 1976-77 season. With the McNichols Sports Arena already complete by 1975, he looked to enter the NHL a year early, and the league attempted to broker an arrangement whereby Mullenix would acquire the California Golden Seals (then under league ownership) and move them to Denver in lieu of an expansion team. At the same time, the bankrupt Pittsburgh Penguins would be sold to a Seattle group who also held a conditional franchise.
The proposed arrangement fell through, and with the continuing franchise difficulties, the NHL called off the 1976-77 expansion. Mullenix then opted to move the Spurs to the WHA for the 1975-76 season.
The WHA Spurs are sometimes considered as a continuation of the Chicago Cougars, who had folded following the 1974-75 season, as most of the team's players were claimed from the Cougars in a dispersal draft, combined with some players from the CHL Spurs.
A Sports Illustrated preview on the upcoming WHA season noted that it was stalwart Gordie Howe's 28th year in major league hockey, and the Spurs' first. The magazine picked the expansion team to finish last in the WHA's Western Division. It also said that unless the Spurs drew well immediately, "Denver's stay in big-league hockey could be exactly 27 years shorter than Gordie Howe's."
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