Eighteen players and the head coach of the 1978-79 Avco Cup champion Winnipeg Jets will be in town this week for a series of events to celebrate the 40th anniversary of their feat.
“It was the last season that Winnipeg celebrated a hockey championship and the last time kids got to skip school to watch their hockey heroes ride in convertibles in a parade,” said event organizer Geoff Kirbyson, author of the 2016 book, The Hot Line: How the Legendary Trio of Hull, Hedberg and Nilsson Transformed Hockey and Led the Winnipeg Jets to Greatness.
In 1979, the Jets won the third of their three Avco Cups — the now-defunct WHA's equivalent of the Stanley Cup — defeating Wayne Gretzky and the Edmonton Oilers in the best-of-seven final 4-2.