It was April 11, 1975. The WHA’s New England Whalers and Minnesota Fighting Saints met on the ice of the Hartford Civic Center for what was supposed to be a hockey game. Instead, fans were treated to a main event like no other – a classic heavyweight battle between Nick Fotiu and Jack Carlson. A WHA penalty record was established, a mere 41 penalties amounting to 217 minutes total.

A very young Bob Neumeier (currently of NBC Sports) has the call, with color commentary by Bill Rasmussen (ESPN’s founder).

The first recording below was taken from the B-side of the Brass Bonanza cassette tape. This recording was also featured on the “2nd edition” Whalers 45rpm EP. The flip side of the elusive original 45rpm Brass Bonanza EP features an interview with Gordie Howe, as well as his record breaking, and 1000th goals.

The second recording is an extended version as found on the “Whalers… Score!” LP. It contains over two extra minutes of commentary which had been removed from the cassette and EP versions due to time constraints.

Title	Listen
Whalers vs. Saints (cassette version)
Whalers vs. Saints (extended version)

Unfortunately, no known video exists of this famous fight, however FSN did a retrospective a few years back and interviewed a number of Saints players.