Beliveau placed loyalty to Canadiens ahead of WHA offer

The fledgling World Hockey Association already had scored two highlight-reel goals and now it was bidding on perhaps the greatest hat trick of all time.

But this July week in 1973, when Jean Beliveau saw the yawning WHA net, he chose instead to pass.

Future Hall of Famer Bobby Hull had made the jump from the Chicago Black Hawks to the Winnipeg Jets in June 1972. The electrifying left wing, who won the Stanley Cup in Chicago in 1961, gave the WHA instant credibility when he signed a 10-year playing and personal services contract that, with expected endorsements, was worth an estimated $3 million.

Gordie Howe had concluded a magnificent 25-season career with the Detroit Red Wings in 1971, and the traditional three-year waiting period was waived for his 1972 Hall of Fame induction.

But the Houston Aeros of the WHA came calling in June 1973 and Mr. Hockey, who had won the Stanley Cup four times with Detroit during the 1950s, was happy to answer, along with his family.

Bobby Hull in a publicity portrait with the Winnipeg Jets of the WHA.

Howe accepted the Aeros offer of $1 million, the legend's sons Marty Howe and Mark Howe welcomed to the fold for lesser sums. One of hockey's biggest stars ever would line up with his boys, a trio for the ages.

With Hull and Howe offering the WHA priceless marketing value, the Quebec Nordiques' bid for Beliveau would have been the third glittering jewel in the crown.

Like Howe, Beliveau had played his final NHL game in 1971, winning his 10th and final Stanley Cup championship as a player, then enshrined in the Hall of Fame with Howe in 1972.

But throughout his entire hockey life, from junior through senior with the Quebec Aces and into the NHL for the Canadiens, for whom he played full time from 1953-71, Beliveau was guided by a loyalty to the people who were important in his life.

He considered the offer from Nordiques president Paul Racine, whom he'd known since junior, of $1 million for a season on the ice and then a great deal more for three more years in senior management. It went as far as a meeting at a Montreal airport hotel with Racine and Jacques Plante, the goaltending great and former Beliveau teammate who now was the Nordiques' general manager.

Gordie Howe (left) and Jean Beliveau at the Montreal Forum before a 1950s NHL All-Star Game, and Beliveau with the Chicago Black Hawks' Bobby Hull following the Canadiens' 4-0 win in Game 7 of the 1965 Stanley Cup Final.

A day later, in a prepared statement released to the media, Beliveau cited three reasons for turning down Quebec's break-the-bank offer: he believed that at age 42, he couldn't play at the level he expected of himself; he was enjoying long-overdue time with his family; and he was happy with his Canadiens front-office position as vice president and director of corporate relations.

"I feel after talking with Mr. Racine today that we are just as friendly as we've ever been," Beliveau said. "We've been friends since my junior hockey days. His reaction when I told him? All he said was that if he could be of any help to me in any field in the future, he'd be happy to do so.

"The Quebec offer was generous and attractive. I suppose that in order to earn the same kind of money from the Canadiens, it would take me maybe five, 10 years longer. But the long-range future looks better with the Canadiens."

Beliveau would remain in senior management through his retirement on Aug. 31, 1993, his 62nd birthday, his name having been added to the Stanley Cup seven more times as a vital part of franchise championships 18 through 24, including its most recent in 1993.

The Nordiques would have loved to sign another Canadiens star who had played brilliantly as a junior in Quebec but Guy Lafleur was untouchable, having signed a three-year contract in 1971 upon his NHL arrival in Montreal.

Jean Beliveau in the Montreal Canadiens replica dressing room at the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1993, shortly after his retirement from the team’s front office.

"Whatever you put on the table, I won't go back," Beliveau told the Nordiques, relating their lucrative bid in "My Life In Hockey," his 1994 autobiography.

"Ten million, twenty million [dollars], it doesn't matter. I can't play the quality of hockey I liked to play anymore. If I could, and if I wanted to play again, I'd play with the Canadiens. It wouldn't be fair to [the Nordiques], the fans, or me. I just can't do it anymore, and I'm the first guy to recognize it."

Plante understood a proud player's psyche, perhaps better than anyone. He would return for one more season with the Edmonton Oilers of the WHA in 1974-75, "but he was a goalie, not a skater, and his powers did not decline," Beliveau said.

"You have to ask yourself, 'Are you helping your teammates? Are you producing on the ice? Or are you merely helping the owners because your name is on the marquee?' If you're satisfied to play that kind of hockey -- scoring 15 goals and deceiving yourself into thinking that you've had a good comeback season -- it's your choice and you have to live with yourself."

Gordie Howe in action with the Hartford Whalers during his final NHL season in 1979-80. With him at the Montreal Forum, from left: goalie John Garrett, Al Sims and Tim Sheehy.

Howe, of course, was built of alloys perhaps not yet even invented. He would play six seasons with Houston and the New England Whalers of the WHA, then another with the Hartford Whalers in the NHL before his second retirement following the 1979-80 season at age 52.

The money to jump was great, no doubt. But Mr. Hockey might well have remained with the Red Wings on their management team had he felt wanted.

Unhappy with almost menial roles with the team during his brief retirement, Howe wasn't a tough sell when the Aeros approached.

"They were willing to pay what I felt I had to have, and my name and reputation are part of me," Howe told reporters during a June 19, 1973, news conference to announce his signing with Houston.

"I talked to Ned [Harkness, the Red Wings GM] just the other day and he'd said he wished he'd known my feelings. He would have given up as GM and been my assistant. At least that's what he said.

Gordie Howe with his sons Mark (left) and Marty, talking to reporters at the Montreal Forum, the three having signed with the WHA Houston Aeros in 1973.

"I simply told Ned that I didn't see eye to eye with his thinking. That's no great crime, but I wasn't contributing much there or learning much and then the feeling grew that there were a few people who didn't really want me there. So, well, I can't be a hypocrite. The thing to do, I thought, was get the [heck] out. So here I am."

NHL President Clarence Campbell, whose arrival with the League had coincided with that of Howe in 1946, expressed disappointment with the superstar's jump to the rival league and an anxiety that proved to be needless.

"I hope Gordie won't suffer the fate of other people who have played too long," Campbell said. "It would make me sick if instead of applause he was greeted with boos. I'd be sorry to see him in that position."

The Howe-Beliveau friendship, one of the greatest bonds in hockey history, endured as their paths took different directions in 1973.

The Canadiens icon considered Howe's move to the WHA, wishing his rival well.

"Gordie and I could have been opponents again," he said. "But I don't have two sons playing for Quebec!"

Top photo: Jean Beliveau with the early 1950s Quebec Aces, a portrait displayed in his suburban Montreal home in a photo taken shortly after his death in 2014, and his favorite Montreal Canadiens portrait, which appeared on the cover of his 1994 autobiography.