Ice Warriors: The Pacific Coast/Western Hockey League 1948-1974

Between 1948 and 1974, more than 2,500 minor-league professional hockey players skated across the Pacific Northwest states and western Canada as part of the 23 teams that made up the Western Hockey League (known as the Pacific Coast Hockey League before 1952). Some of the young players went on to enjoy careers in the National Hockey League; others were former NHLers willing to extend their careers by returning to the minors. Many of the most colorful, however, were minor-league "lifers" who simply had hockey in their blood and built their reputations in the WHL and other minor pro leagues.Ice Warriors traces the WHL's origins, rise and fall, and includes interviews with players, coaches and fans as well as statistical records and pictures from the era. The league ended with NHL expansion in 1974, but some of the legendary players and teams have lived on in great yarns that true hockey fans can't get enough of. In its 26-year run, the WHL provided winter sports entertainment for countless appreciative hockey fans west of the Mississippi.