This largely forgotten roller-blade hockey promotion appeared on the Buffalo sports scene in the summer of 1994 and claimed one of the city’s more obscure championships. Under the direction of head coach Chris McSorley, the expansion Buffalo Stampede won the Murphy Cup championship of the 24-team Roller Hockey International during their debut season in 1994. The Stampede fold after completing a second and final season in 1995.
American Hockey League (1940-1970) Born: 1940 Folded: 1970 First Game: November 3, 1940 (L 4-2 vs. Cleveland Barons) Last Game: May 13, 1970 (W 6-2 @ Springfield
The Buffalo Blizzard were a long-running indoor soccer franchise that enjoyed a degree of popularity in Western New York during the early 1990’s. The Blizzard’s finest season came during the expansion year of 1992-93. The team posted an all-time best mark of 23-17 but lost in the playoff quarterfinals to the Cleveland Crunch. Just about every Blizzard season to follow more or less followed the same plot. The team had only two losing seasons in nine years, but never won a playoff series. The Crunch eliminated the Blizzard in the first round four times.
The Toronto-Buffalo Royals were one 16 original franchises in World Team Tennis (1974-1978) in the summer of 1974. The Royals’ star attraction was player-coach Tom Okker of the Netherlands, the 1968 U.S. Open finalist and a Top Ten-ranked singles player throughout the late Sixties and early Seventies. Other members of the Royals’ six-person co-ed roster included Mike Estep, Jan O’Neill, Wendy Overton and Laura Rossouw. The Royals, who split their home matches between Buffalo Memorial Auditorium and Toronto’s CNE Coliseum, disbanded after the 1974 season.
Buffalo’s original indoor soccer team, the Stallions of the Major Indoor Soccer League, patrolled the floor of the Aud from 1979 to 1984. The Stallions initially drew strong crowds in the early 1980’s, but the novelty waned after a couple of seasons and the debt-ridden club disbanded in the summer of 1984.
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