Bullish Over Baby Bulls

Riggin comes from good goaltending stock; his father, Dennis, was being groomed as Terry Sawchuk's successor in Detroit until he lost the sight in one eye after being struck by a puck.

The teen-age Bulls all feel that the Birmingham experience has improved their hockey skills more than staying in junior hockey would have. "This puts us maybe a year ahead of the rest of the guys," Vaive says. "If a player's good enough, they shouldn't hold him back."

Now that the WHA is being absorbed by the NHL, it is unlikely that many future 18- or 19-year-olds will have a chance to play for pay as the Baby Bulls did this season. The NHL has an agreement with Canada's junior leagues not to draft players until they are 20. "It's an arbitrary age," admits Jack Button, director of the NHL's central scouting program. "When they set up the draft in 1967, that's the age they happened to choose. Maybe we should be looking at experience at the junior level instead of just age, so that a kid who has been playing major junior A hockey since he was 16 becomes eligible for the draft a little earlier. That might be the way to go."

As for owner Bassett, shed no tears for the disbanding of the Birmingham Bulls. Bassett will get $2.85 million from the rest of the WHA teams to fold the franchise. The fans who will miss the Bulls are few (they averaged about 5,000 a game this year). "They're spoiled here with football and Bear Bryant losing one game a season," says Hartsburg. "We lose two in a week and they think we're bums."

Three weeks ago, before the NHL-WHA consolidation agreement was announced, an item appeared in the Bulls' press notes that may now merit greater consideration: "A new hockey league, known as the Bermuda Triangle Hockey League, is being organized with teams in Nassau, Bermuda and Palm Beach. Halfway through the season, the franchises will disappear and no one will ever discover what becomes of the players or the management."

No bull? Sounds ideal. Count you in, Mr. Bassett?