Behind the Lens
January 25, 2024
Though it’s been out for well over a year now, I recently read Behind the Lens: The World Hockey Association 50 Years Later, a book featuring the photography of Steve Babineau with text from Brian Codagnone.
Inside are hundreds of priceless photos from a bygone era, still near and dear to the hearts of many fans like me. It brought back so many fond memories.
Yet sadly, there was an embarrassing litany of spelling mistakes and misidentified players. I noticed several before even getting through the preface and it only got worse as I got more into it.
Among the misspellings were as follows:
- Jack “Kelly” (Kelley)
- Dennis “Sobchuck” (Sobchuk). Interestingly, Sobchuk’s name was misspelled multiple times early in the book, yet spelled correctly later on.
- Ron “Busnick” (Busniuk)
- Dave “Inkpin” (Inkpen)
- Kevin “Aheam” (Ahearn)
- Don “Laraway” (Larway)
- Market “Street” Arena (Square)
- Gerry “Dejardins” (Desjardins)
- John “Mizuk” (Miszuk)
- Ernie “Wakeley” (Wakely)
- Bob “Faulkenberg” (Falkenberg)
- Maple “Leafs” Gardens (Leaf)
In addition, (at least) four players were misidentified in the photos:
- John Shmyr misidentified as Dan Spring
- Joe Daley misidentified as Ernie Wakely
- Mats Lindh misidentified as Lynn Powis
- Curt Larsson misidentified as Gary Bromley
Even as a self-published author, I’d have been deeply embarrassed to send that collection to my editor, let alone release it to publication. Yet this was a professionally published book, where multiple people whose job it is to catch such things reviewed it and passed it off. It looks even worse when you consider that the authors lived through that era. They should have known better. A lot better. This isn’t a work of someone digging through 200-year-old archives, whose accuracy might be lacking and where the author could not have been expected to know differently.
On the heels of the WHA’s golden anniversary, this book had the potential to give the league the grand send-off into history it has rightly earned. Instead, the glaring unprofessionalism only adds fuel to the fire for those who recklessly dismiss the WHA as a second-rate minor league.
Just like with the ill-fated and foolish decision to hold the 50th anniversary reunion in Whistler, it was another opportunity lost.
Likely forever.
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