query: sport murray kennett
supports: Murray Kennett ( born June 28 , 1952 in Kamloops , British Columbia ) is a former World Hockey Association player . He played for the Indianapolis Racers and Edmonton Oilers . The World Hockey Association was a professional ice hockey major league that operated in North America from 1972 to 1979. It was the first major league to compete with the National Hockey League (NHL) since the collapse of the Western Hockey League (195274). Although the WHA was not the first league since that time to attempt to challenge the NHL's supremacy, it was by far the most successful in the modern era. The National Hockey League (NHL) is a professional ice hockey league currently composed of 31 member clubs. Of the 30 clubs currently playing, 23 are in the United States and 7 in Canada. Headquartered in New York City, the NHL is considered to be the premier professional ice hockey league in the world, and one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada. The Stanley Cup, the oldest professional sports trophy in North America, is awarded annually to the league playoff champion at the end of each season. The Indianapolis Racers were a major league hockey team in the World Hockey Association from 1974 to 1978. They competed in four full seasons before folding 25 games into the 197879 season. They played at Market Square Arena. They are often best known for being the first major league team to secure the services of Wayne Gretzky and Mark Messier. The Edmonton Oilers are a professional ice hockey team based in Edmonton, Alberta. They are members of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League (NHL). Ice hockey is a contact team sport played on ice, usually in a rink, in which two teams of skaters use their sticks to shoot a vulcanized rubber puck into their opponent's net to score points. Ice hockey teams usually consist of six players each: one goaltender, and five players who skate up and down the ice trying to take the puck and score a goal against the opposing team. Kamloops is a city in south central British Columbia in Canada at the confluence of the two branches of the Thompson River near Kamloops Lake. It is the largest community in the Thompson-Nicola Regional District and the location of the regional district's offices. The surrounding region is more commonly referred to as the Thompson Country. It is ranked 37th on the list of the 100 largest metropolitan areas in Canada and represents the 44th largest census agglomeration nationwide, with 85,678 residents in 2011. The Western Hockey League was a minor pro ice hockey league that operated from 1952 to 1974. Managed for most of its history by Al Leader, it was created out of the merger of the Pacific Coast Hockey League and the Western Canada Senior Hockey League. During the 1960s, the WHL moved into a number of large west coast markets including Los Angeles and San Francisco. There was speculation that Western Hockey League could grow into a major league capable of rivaling even the long-entrenched National Hockey League. Wayne Douglas Gretzky (born January 26, 1961) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player and former head coach. He played 20 seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) for four teams from 1979 to 1999. Nicknamed "The Great One", he has been called "the greatest hockey player ever" by many sportswriters, players, and the NHL itself. He is the leading scorer in NHL history, with more goals and assists than any other player. He scored more assists than any other player scored total points, and is the only NHL player to total over 200 points in one season  a feat he accomplished four times. In addition, he tallied over 100 points in 16 professional seasons, 14 of them consecutive. At the time of his retirement in 1999, he held 61 NHL records: 40 regular-season records, 15 playoff records, and six All-Star records. As of 2014, he still holds 60 NHL records. The Thompson River is the largest tributary of the Fraser River, flowing through the south-central portion of British Columbia, Canada. The Thompson River has two main branches, the South Thompson River and the North Thompson River. The river is home to several varieties of Pacific salmon and trout. The area's geological history was heavily influenced by glaciation, and the several large glacial lakes have filled the river valley over the last 12,000 years. Archaeological evidence shows human habitation in the watershed dating back to at least 8300 years. The Thompson was named by Fraser River explorer, Simon Fraser, in honour of his friend, Columbia Basin explorer David Thompson. Recreational use of the river includes whitewater rafting and angling. Market Square Arena was an indoor arena located in Indianapolis. Completed in 1974, at a cost of $23 million, it seated 16,530 for basketball and 15,993 for ice hockey. Seating capacity for concerts and other events was adjusted by the use of large curtains which sealed off the upper rows. Mark Douglas Messier (born January 18, 1961) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey center of the National Hockey League and former special assistant to the president and general manager of the New York Rangers. He played a quarter of a century in the NHL (19792004) with the Edmonton Oilers, New York Rangers, and Vancouver Canucks. He also played professionally with the World Hockey Association (WHA)'s Indianapolis Racers and Cincinnati Stingers. He was the last former WHA player to be active in professional hockey, and the last active player who had played in the NHL in the 1970s.
candidates: basketball hockey ice hockey rafting
answer: ice hockey