Drafting Politics Into Hockey

There are about a million reasons why Hockey Blog In Canada doesn't delve into politics, but I'm going to break that rule today as I continue to examine the weirder stories from the WHA. I will point out that this article isn't about politics per se, but it will pertain to the man sitting behind the desk directly above. That's Minnesota Governor Wendell Anderson in 1971 duiring his first year in office, and the 37 year-old looks like he was quite comfortable in his clearly-posed photograph provided to MinnPost by the Minnesota Historical Society.

The late Anderson, who passed on in July 2016 at the age of 83, was a bit of hockey star in his own state before diving into the political scene in Minnesota. Anderson was born and raised in St. Paul, Minnesota where hockey is certainly the sport of choice of many young men and women. Anderson would eventually suit up for the University of Minnesota Golden Gophers for three seasons from 1951-54 where the defender appeared in 63 NCAA games, amassing seven goals and 18 assists over those contests.

If you're doing a little chronological work, Anderson graduated in 1954 from the University of Minnesota with his Bachelor of Arts Degree while the WHA wouldn't even be mentioned in hockey circles for another 15 years at the very earliest. So how does Anderson relate to the WHA?

Anderson's hockey career would continue at the highest level for amateur players back then as he earned a spot on the 1955 Team USA World Championship team. 14 teams participated in this 22nd edition of the tournament that took place in Düsseldorf, Dortmund, Krefeld, and Cologne, West Germany. Canada would win their 16th World Championship in the 1955 tournament, but the Americans finished in a respectable fourth-place after going 4-2-2 in group play. Anderson, for the record, had two goals over those eight games.

Team USA would remain together as they trained for the 1956 Olympic Games in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy. At the Games, the Americans qualified for the medal round by finishing second in their three-team pool as they defeated Poland, but lost to Czechoslovakia. It was expected that the Canadians and Soviets would be the two teams competing for the gold medal, but the Americans defeated West Germany 7-2, upset Canada 4-1, hammered Sweden 6-1, and fell to the Russians 4-0 in the first four games of the medal round with a game against Czechoslovakia remaining.

With the Soviets holding a 4-0 record, the Americans needed the Canadians to beat the Russians at the very least in order for Team USA to have a shot at the gold medal and they also needed to defeat Czechoslovakia. With the Czechoslovakians already out of medal contention, they put up little resistance in their game against the US as the Americans defeated them by a 9-4 score. The Soviets, though, would beat Canada 2-0 to win the gold medal with the Americans earning silver and the Canadians taking the bronze. Just for the stats people, Anderson recorded one assist in his seven Olympic games.

Again, the question needs to be asked how Anderson and the WHA are related when all we've seen thus far are some college hockey stats, a fourth-place finish at an IIHF World Championship, and a silver-medal effort at the 1956 Winter Olympics?

Anderson was elected to the Minnesota Legislature in 1958 at age 25, and his political career would blossom over the next twelve years as he was eventually elected to the gubernatorial post in Minnesota in 1971. His hockey career has long been over by the time he ascended to the Governor's office outside of a handful of senior men's hockey games in and around Minneapolis, but Wendell Anderson was enjoying his life in politics by all accounts.

In 1972, though, there was a new hockey squad on the Minnesota horizon as the WHA was getting set to begin, and they needed players to fill out rosters. They needed lots of players, in fact, and the Fighting Saints were looking to add a few local hockey heroes to their roster. Early in the February 1972 General Player Draft, they selected well-known players like Pete Mahovlich, Dale Tallon, and Bill Goldsworthy, but, later in the draft, they made the rather questionable choice of drafting 38 year-old, former Olympian Wendell Anderson... the same Wendell Anderson who was the sitting Governor in Minnesota in 1972.

It was pretty clear to most that Anderson was unlikely to accept an offer from the WHA's Fighting Saints to play hockey, so Minnesota GM Glen Somnor was asked why he'd draft Anderson. His response, documented by Sports Illustrated's Mark Mulvoy, seems as crazy as the decision to draft a sitting US Governor: "[H]e has the type of job where he might become available at any time."

Personally, it would have been at this point where I would have stopped that WHA draft and started asking what these general managers were thinking in trying to draft sitting 38 year-old politicians. Somnor is correct in that Anderson could have left the Governor's office at any time he wanted by stepping down, but Anderson was in Year Two of his first term in office. The likelihood of Anderson choosing hockey over the Governor's office was not only unlikely, but it was as close to zero as one could get when one considers that Anderson had been working towards that very goal for 12 years prior to him earning Minnesota's vote.

That political draft pick, however, wasn't the most absurd on that day, though. There was one WHA team who took the idiocy to an extreme, and the Winnipeg Jets own that honour after they inexplicably used a 70th-round pick on a man who never played a lick of organized hockey, but did lend his political grandeur in organizing one of the greatest hockey events in history.

As seen in following years in the WHA, the Winnipeg Jets used their European connections to bring over some amazing talent in players like Ulf Nilsson, Anders Hedberg, and Lars-Erik Sjöberg. It seemed, however, that the Jets were looking to find a key to open the Iron Curtain to the Soviets in 1972 when they drafted 68 year-old Russian Premier Alexei Kosygin in the same WHA Draft where the Fighting Saints chose Anderson.

Yes, you read that correctly: the Jets chose a 68 year-old Russian politician in the draft.

Kosygin had a long political career in Russia and hadn't played any organized hockey by the time he ascended to the Premier's office in 1964. It was in this position where Kosygin met with Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau following Trudeau's task force in 1968 that led to the founding of Hockey Canada, and Kosygin and Trudeau were instrumental in laying the groundwork that led to the 1972 Summit Series between Canada and the Soviet Union. Needless to say, Alexei Kosygin certainly played a role in changing the hockey landscape, but his on-ice contributions at 68 years of age were not going to help the Jets whatsoever.

Again, there is no logical reason for the Jets to make this selection on February 13, 1972 unless they had their sights on some of the Soviet players who would participate in the Summit Series in September 1972. By "drafting" the very man who had the ability to allow those Soviet players to visit and play in Canada, perhaps the Jets were thinking they foster a relationship with the 68 year-old Premier of the Soviet Union to allow those players to suit up with the Jets? Otherwise, making this pick might be one of the all-time goofiest draft selections in any league.

Whatever the reasons the Fighting Saints and the Jets had for drafting two well-known political figures to play hockey for them, neither of Wendell Anderson, Governor of Minnesota, nor Alexei Kosygin, Premier of Russia, saw the ice in the WHA. These men made their careers working in politics, and both men were pretty successful in their chosen professions. But, in a weird way, one has to wonder what kind of deals they were have negotiated if they had decided to play hockey being that politicians do a lot of negotiating in their professional lives.

Would politicians-turned-hockey-players have pushed for four-year deals based on their previous jobs?

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!