Western Professional Hockey League (1996-1999)
Tombstone
Born: 1996 – WPHL expansion franchise
Folded: December 15, 19991Smalling, Wes. “WPHL suspends operations of two clubs”. The New Mexican (Santa Fe, NM). December 16, 1999
First Game: October 16, 1996 (L 5-4 at Central Texas Stampede)
Last Game: December 12, 1999 (L 5-2 vs. Corpus Christi IceRays)
President’s Cup Championships: None
Arena
Heart O’ Texas Coliseum (5,254)21999-00 Western Professional Hockey League Official Guide & Record Book
Opened: 1953
Marketing
Team Colors: Purple, Red, Teal & Black31999-00 Western Professional Hockey League Official Guide & Record Book
Radio:
- 1999: KKTK (1460 AM)
Radio Broadcaster:
- 1999: David Hodges
Ownership
Owners:
- 1996-1999: Joseph Milano, Jr.
- 1999: Rick Dames, Stu Kehoe & Sue Kehoe
Attendance
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Source: 2004-05 Central Hockey League Guide & Record Book
Background
The Waco Wizards were a low-level minor league hockey club that played 3 seasons and part of a fourth in the Western Professional Hockey League during the late 1990’s.
Waco was one of six original cities in Texas and New Mexico that launched the WPHL in October 1996. The league gorged itself on expansion fees over the next several seasons, soon doubling and then tripling in size. By the start of the league’s fourth campaign in October 1999, the WPHL fielded 18 teams across Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico & Texas. Texas alone had 11 teams in the league that fall.
Through all of this, a number of ownership groups entered the league who lacked the experience or financial resources to properly operate their clubs. By season four, Waco was one of the WPHL’s biggest headaches.
On Ice
Waco finished out of playoff contention in each of their first two seasons, including a WPHL-worst 18-48-3 record in 1997-98.
The Wizards’ finest hour came during its third season, when the team executed a worst-to-first turnaround, winning the WPHL’s Central Division with a 40-22-7 mark under new Head Coach Todd Lalonde. They advanced the 2nd round (quarterfinals) of the playoffs before falling to the San Angelo Outlaws.
At that point, the Wizards’ financial problems short-circuited the team’s newfound progress. Original owner Joe Milano lost a reported $3 million during the team’s first three seasons (Surrey Leader 12/19/1999). He put the Wizards up for sale in the summer of 1999, casting the team’s future in to doubt. A Canadian minor league baseball executive named Stu Kehoe persuaded Corpus Christi radio station owner Rick Dames to purchase the club while installing Kehoe and his wife in the front office to turn the team around. Two months into the season, the Kehoes wrote a bad check for the Wizards’ rent payment to the Heart O’ Texas Coliseum, resigned and moved back to Canada. The WPHL revoked the Wizards franchise a few days later, folding the team in midseason.
Tony Cimellaro (Wizards ’98-’99) was the franchise’s all-time point scorer. (42 goals, 68 assists).
No Wizards player ever advanced to the NHL. Cimellaro (2 games with the Ottawa Senators in 1992-93) and David Struch (4 games with the Calgary Flames in 1993-94) were the only Wizards with prior NHL experience.
Waco Wizards Shop
Links
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