Denver, Ottawa, And Murder

On Wednesday, I wrote about a potential Seattle expansion franchise that the NHL nearly admitted into its membership back in 1975. Things obviously didn't go well for that Seattle expansion plan as we didn't see an NHL team in that city until the Kraken took the ice in 2021, but that article's embedded newspaper reports spoke of a Denver-based expansion effort as well as the NHL looked to move to twenty teams in 1975. We know the Colorado Rockies began play in 1976, but this expansion story wasn't completed in my writing. And, to be honest, it's not going to end with the Rockies as the Denver Spurs never made it to the NHL as once planned.

I'll post the March 12, 1975 Winnipeg Free Press article again.

In Al Colletti's article, Denver Spurs president Ivan Mullenix was granted an NHL expansion franchise for the 1975-76 season despite his efforts to buy the California Golden Seals and move them to Denver. The NHL ruled that Mullenix could have the conditional franchise as an expansion team that would play in the Adams Division against Boston, Toronto, Buffalo, and California when they joined the league as the 19th franchise. That's where I had left the story of the Spurs on Wednesday, so let's finish off this saga today.

According to a Jamie Bradburn 2020 article, Mullenix began looking at the NHL with cynicism based on "the poor first-season performances of expansions teams in Kansas City and Washington, the $6 million entry fee, and other matters that led to an anti-trust lawsuit" by Seattle potential owner Vince Abbey. As Mullenix's view of the NHL's expansion process soured, the idea of him taking the former CHL Denver Spurs to the NHL became less and less likely.

By May 19, 1975, it seemed both sides had changed their tunes.

Victoria's Daily Colonist reported that Ivan Mullenix had decided to take his business to the WHA rather than joining the NHL, and it seems the NHL was none too pleased about this turn of developments. NHL President Clarence Campbell said that Mullenix hadn't paid any money to the NHL nor signed any binding documents during the expansion process, and he virtually slammed the door shut on Mullenix's involvement in the NHL by saying, "If he isn't prepared to back his interests with his money, and to honor the obligations he undertook, we're better off without him."

No offence to Clarence Campbell, but someone sounds a little jilted over Mullenix choosing the WHA over the NHL. Like a scorned suitor, Campbell's comments are more personal than rooted in business.

Making matters worse on all fronts was the fact that the June 14, 1975 NHL Board of Governors meeting was all about the struggling franchises of the Pittsburgh Penguins and the California Golden Seals rather than being about general league business. Campbell was asked about expansion once again on which he immediately threw cold water, and Al McNeil of the Brandon Sun noted at the end of the article that Mullenix was now suing the NHL for $1.3 million over antitrust allegations as well. Honestly, this entire 1975 expansion idea was blowing up in the NHL's face.

What the NHL didn't know is that it potentially avoided another financial crisis because the WHA's Denver Spurs didn't even complete one season. Despite adding a number of former Chicago Cougars players after that team folded in 1975, the Spurs were simply a bad team. While they had former NHLers Ralph Backstrom and Darryl Maggs on their roster, the Spurs posted a 14-26-1 record through 41 games while playing in front of meagre crowds on most nights.

Mullenix was watching his bank account be drained as costs were significantly higher than revenues, and he made the decision to abandon Denver while the team was on a road trip as it was reported that the Spurs would head to Ottawa for their Wednesday, January 7, 1976 game against the New England Whalers. The team was set to play out of the 8000-seat Ottawa Civic Arena as longtime drummer, music producer, and manager Ron Sparling and Henry Feller, a ladies' dress shop owner on Elgin Street, convinced Mullenix to bring the Spurs to Ottawa on a trial run to prove that Ottawa could support professional hockey with the hopes of buying the Spurs in the future.

Reports emerged after the relocation that star player Ralph Backstrom wanted out of his contract, but both the Spurs and the WHA made it clear he had a legal and binding contract that required him to be in Ottawa. In addition, Mullenix announced on January 6, 1976 that the team "will definitely play out the remainder of the World Hockey Association Schedule in Ottawa". Were these true?

Backstrom was in the Spurs-Civics lineup against the New England Whalers on January 7, so he did honour the contract he signed as he told reporters that he simply was looking for stability for his family after he had moved for the third time within a year. Backstrom's agent maintained that the contract his client signed was "non-transferrable" and that the Spurs moving to Ottawa counted as a transfer. Nonetheless, Backstrom played for Ottawa.

At the WHA All-Star Game in Cleveland on Tuesday, January 13, the WHA announced that the Ottawa Civics would move to the Canadian Division for the remainder of the season, creating a scenario where the WHA Final would feature a series between a Canadian team and a US team. Ottawa's move to the Canadian Division still saw them in last place in the division, but the WHA would now have a cross-border battle for the Avco Cup with their revised playoff format.

There was just one problem: the Civics stopped being a thing.

Mullenix officially shut down the entire operation of the Spurs-Civics franchise on January 17, 1976 after failing to come to an agreement to sell the franchise to the Ottawa Founders Club. That came less than two weeks after telling everyone that the team would play out the schedule in Ottawa, so that was also false. The Spurs-Civics franchise was officially dead, and all players became free agents.

Since there aren't a lot of records for this 17-day existence of the Civics, I'll point you to Jamie Bradburn's outstanding recap of the Civic's two-and-a-half week stay in Ottawa. It's filled with all sorts of information that a lot of the newspaper archives to which I have access didn't cover. Bradburn's done some really good work here, so he deserves a ton of credit for digging through history and piecing together what has to one of the shortest existences in hockey.

As for Mullenix's antitrust lawsuit against the NHL, there doesn't seem to be any history on what became of it. My guess is that it was struck down like Vince Abbey's lawsuit was as there was no evidence.

Where people should be concerned, though, is what became of Mullenix. According to news reports, Ivan Mullenix was stabbed to death on July 17, 2013 by his wife, Mary, at the age of 76. Additional reports show that police had been to the Mullenix's home sixteen times between 2009 and 2013 for various reasons including a 2012 domestic violence incident where Mary had been choked.

The resulting trial saw Mary Mullenix sentenced on reduced charges to what appeared to be 90 days in jail and five years on probation assuming she completed "a 90-day alcohol treatment program in jail, anger management classes and no alcohol use".

It's pretty crazy to think that the man who may have brought the NHL to Denver in 1975 failed in both Denver and Ottawa with the WHA before his life was tragically cut short in what sounded like an unhappy marriage. I'm not here to cast judgement on how Mullenix lived his life, but this story feels like something you'd see on Dateline or a similar TV program. In any case, that's the story of the "other team" during the NHL's failed attempt to expand in 1975.

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!