Height: 5-10
Weight: 175
Shoot: R
Born: 16 Jul 1949, Charlottetown PEI
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Regular Season & Playoff Scoring Record (key)
| year | team | |||||||||||
| 1972-73 | Chicago | |||||||||||
| 1973-74 | Chicago | |||||||||||
| Los Angeles | ||||||||||||
| Totals (2 teams) | ||||||||||||
| 1974-75 | Indianapolis | |||||||||||
| 1975-76 | Indianapolis | |||||||||||
| Totals: |
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Cougars Look to Whitlock • by Reid Grosky • The Hockey Spectator • November 16, 1973
With names such as Pat Stapleton, Ralph Backstrom, Darryl Maggs and Cam Newton in their den this season, why, you may ask, are the Chicago Cougars relying so heavily on an experiment with a lesser-known entity: Bobby Whitlock? The answer: Whitlock is possessed of that magic nine-letter word, "potential", and of a slapshot which has been compared in velocity with Bobby Hull's. It would do any winger proud, that shot, which brings us to the problem. Whitlock is not a winger, or rather was not until this year. "They told me about it over the summer," he said. "I've played center all the time, and that's where I'd rather be. But when they told me who I'd be playing with if I moved over to wing, I started looking forward to it." Thus, meet Bobby Whitlock, right winger. And the man he is playing with, Backstrom, who has Whitlock on his right and feisty Rick Morris on his left. The Backstrom Line is an important one, and the development of Whitlock as a right winger is essential for the Cougars, who are noticeably weak at that position. Eric Nesterenko, 40 years old, came out of retirement and won a spot on the team. Guess what postion he plays. "Yeah, I guess we're a little thin at right wing," Whitlock observed. "But I'm not worried. There are some things I have to learn — like how to play with Ralph; he likes me to come up the ice far behind him — but I think I'll be good for about 35 goals. I'll be getting a lot more shots, you know." Significantly, Whitlock — who produced 23 goals and 28 assists at center last season — rooms with Backstrom on road trips. It is a sign the experiment goes beyond the actual game. Members ot the Cougars' front office are hoping that Backstrom, the veteran, will have a maturing influence on the sometimes blithe-spirited Whitlock. "I think it will work out," said Jacques Demers, the team's director of player personnel. "Ralph can help Bobby a lot, and Bobby's been working very hard." The mop-haired Whitlock, 24, came to the Cougars in a trade from the Los Angeles Sharks just before the WHA's first season began. The Sharks have made no pretensions to conceal it was an error on their part. They have tried openly to reacquire Whitlock, especially during the periods when they passed along to the Cougars the WHA draft rights to Stapleton and Backstrom. Squabbles arose in the Los Angeles front office about being short-changed on the deals. There was talk that Dennis Murphy, the Sharks' president, and Jordan Kaiser, the Cougars' chairman of the board, who both work closely in the World Team Tennis venture, had shaken hands on the Stapleton-Backstrom transfers with no strings attached. "It was for the good of the league that they were signed," a Sharks' official said, "but it did our team no good at all. We should have gotten someone in return." "It was robbery," declared the Los Angeles Coach, Terry Slater, less tactfully. But the Sharks, it so happens, are still agressively in pursuit of Whitlock. "The last time we were out there," Whitlock said, "some of their players told me I'd be playing there soon. They thought I'd be with their team." "I've already told them (the Cougars) that if I'm traded to Los Angeles I won't go. We've got a good team in Chicago this year, and I want to stay here. There's too much fighting within the L.A. organization, and some of the players said they didn't get paid on time." The Cougars have affirmed they intend to keep Whitlock, and his new position on the Backstrom Line may serve as proof. "Bobby's one of our best young players," Demers said. "He's too important to our future to let him go." |
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Excerpts from Pro Hockey, WHA 1975-76 (by Dan Proudfoot)
As a team Racers frightened no goaltenders, but Bob Whitlock was their one gunner with a shot devastating enough to ruffle nets before goalies moved. His 31 goals made him Racers' leading scorer in 1974-75, but coach Moore believes Whitlock can accomplish much, much more. Whitlock's ability to shoot like Bobby Hull or Tom Simpson prevented him from developing other skills. Naturally, he favored the hard, long shot. Now his coach is trying to encourage Whitlock to try a few moves from his left wing position, just to confuse opponents and make the shot all the more deadly when he does detonate it. |
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Excerpts from Zander Hollander Complete Hockey Handbook, 1975-76 (by Reyn Davis)
Noted for his hard shot, and his strong skating ability ... Not especially renowned as a checker, though Racers were very satisfied with his work ... Clubs busiest shooter last season, firing 290 shots, connecting 31 times to leave the club in that department too ... Superb golfer ... Nickname is "Barkwell" for unexplained reasons ... Let the Racers point parade with 57, though he did not figure among the WHA's top 50 scorers ... Mod dresser and a bachelor. |
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