Roller Hockey International (1995-1996)
Tombstone
Born: March 20, 1995 – The Atlanta Fire Ants relocate to Oklahoma City
Suspended Operations: February 1997 – The Coyotes go on hiatus and later move to Las Vegas
First Game: June 3, 1995 (W 8-3 vs. Phoenix Cobras)
Last Game: August 10, 1996 (W 6-5 vs. San Diego Barracudas @ Tulsa, Oklahoma)
Murphy Cup Championships: None
Arena
1995-1996: Myriad Convention Center (13,398)
Opened: 1972
1996: Tulsa Convention Center
Opened: 1964
Marketing
Team Colors: Red, Black & Gold
Ownership
Owners:
- 1995: Irv Munn and Ed Butowsky, et al.
- 1996: John O’Shea & Don Smith
Background
The Oklahoma Coyotes played two seasons of summer Roller Hockey at the Myriad Convention Center. The franchise began life in Georgia in 1994 as the Atlanta Fire Ants expansion team in Roller Hockey International, but left after one season of disappointing attendance in that city’s Omni Coliseum. The new investors, Southwest Roller Hockey of Dallas, hoped to capitalize on the massive popularity at the time of the Oklahoma City Blazers ice hockey team. During the mid-1990’s the Blazers were one of the biggest box office draws in all of minor league hockey.
Failure & Move To Las Vegas
The success of the Blazers failed to rub off. In December 1996, local investor Don Smith gave up his interest in the team, leaving no real connection to the city. The team claimed it couldn’t get decent dates for the summer of 1997 at the Myriad and explored moving permanently to Billy Balloo’s, a recreational roller hockey arena that already served as the Coyote’s practice facility. When that move failed, the Coyotes withdrew from Roller Hockey International in February 1997 to re-group and attempt to return to play in 1998. In December 1997, the Coyotes moved their operations to Las Vegas.
RHI itself shut down in late 1997 to re-organize and did not play in 1998. The league made a comeback attempt in 1999 and long-time Coyotes owner John O’Shea took the team out of mothballs after a two-and-a-half year absence. The Las Vegas Coyotes played one final campaign at a 1,500-seat arena in Nevada before Roller Hockey International went out of business for good in 2000.
Down on the floor, the Coyotes failed to make the playoffs in either of their seasons in Oklahoma. Winger Doug Lawrence was a bright spot in 1995, leading RHI in total scoring (23 goals, 68 assists).
Roller Hockey International Shop
Links
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One Response
I ran the Coyotes’ website and the piece on them misses the overwhelming reason for their failure – the Murrah Bombing. Sure the front office was understaffed and weak, but all in all it wasn’t any worse than that of the Blazers, whose success was largely a matter of dumb luck and, as it turns out, largely a function of way too many free seats (as evidenced by the later lawsuit between Funk and Chen).
But about six or seven weeks after the relocation was announced the Murrah was hit, and for the next couple of years the entire metro was in a mass funk. The Coyotes had plenty of Blazers as well as other CHL notables to be popular, but that first summer no one wanted to do much of anything (including criminals, it’s amazing how crime virtually disappeared for over a year). The second season the team played two of their home games in Tulsa in an effort to generate more interest, but it didn’t matter… the team was unable to capitalize from the start.
I need to double check some of my old records, but I think the owners you mention are from the season season. The first year the team was owned by some Dallas guys – Bruce Lewin was one, and I want to say Irv Munn was another name. Then the Avalon Resources (they make/run prisons) guys came in for the next season. At some point in there a shareholder plan was floated among the fans – I think I may still have an investors prospectus.
Anyway, as with most of these ownership catastrophes there’s lots more interesting stories just under the surface.
Marc