The Ottawa Civics were a professional ice hockey team that played a short part of a season in the World Hockey Association.
Pre-1975[]
Initially named the Denver Spurs, the franchise that enjoyed success in the Western Hockey League found itself in the need to find a new league when the WHL folded in 1974. After playing the 1974-75 season in the Central Hockey League, the team was admitted to the World Hockey Association for the 1975-76 WHA season.
1975-76[]
John Kiely makes a save on Don Borgeson, December 16, 1975.
The Spurs, not unlike most of the other teams to have played in the WHA, had financial difficulties. The home games drew poor attendences and there were ongoing reports that the National Hockey League was going to establish a team in Denver. Two teams were candidates for relocation there, the Kansas City Scouts and the California Golden Seals. All of those factors led to a legendary hasty mid-season move of the Spurs to Ottawa on January 2, 1976. Allegedly, nobody bothered telling the players that the team had moved, and they learned of it when, standing on the ice before their next game in Cincinnati against the Cincinnati Stingers, heard the O Canada being played. The team lost that night, they also lost on the next against the Houston Aeros. On January 4, the team defeated the Minnesota Fighting Saints, who wouldn't survive the season either, 5-2. This win was the first and last win of the Civics history.
On January 7, 1976, the team played its first home game in Ottawa, the first WHA game in the Canadian capital since the departure of the Ottawa Nationals two years and a half before. The players found themselves playing in front of a crowd not much bigger than that they had been accustomed to in Denver and lost to the New England Whalers 3-2. The team returned on the road for two more losses and went back to the Ottawa Civic Centre on January 15, 1976 for another match against Houston. The Civics fought hard and brought the game in overtime. The Aeros however scored the game winner, ending the game, and the franchise history it turned out, as the team officially declared it ceased activities the next day.
Ted Taylor shoots on Cam Newton in the Civics last game, January 15, 1976. Note the jerseys still have the the Spurs logo.
The Civics lasted only seven games and played in the Spurs' uniform. Reports that the jerseys had been stripped bare of its logo are untrue. All Civics players were declared free agents by the league and a dispersal draft was held. Several players found a new address, including leading scorer Ralph Backstrom, who at 37, moved to the New England Whalers. Many of the other players, however, would sit the remainder of the season out before coming back in another league the next season. Others like Brian Lavender retired.
No other major professional franchises established itself in Ottawa until the Ottawa Senators were founded in 1992.