Jacksonville Bullets

Sunshine Hockey League (1992-1995)
Southern Hockey League (1995-1996)

Background

The Jacksonville Bullets were a low-level minor league hockey team that began play in 1992-93 as an founding member of the 5-team, all-Florida Sunshine Hockey League. The formation of the Bullets marked the return of pro hockey to Jacksonville for the first time since the American Hockey League’s short-lived Jacksonville Barons left town in 1974.

The quality of play, however, was nothing remotely like the calibre of play in the AHL. With the exception of NHL veteran player coaches Lou Franceshetti (1992-1993) and Doug Keans (1993-1995), who both suited up on occasion for the club, no Bullets players ever skated in the NHL.  Absurd scores were not uncommon.  The Bullets final game in March 1996 was a 19-11 home loss, one of four games that season when the Bullets allowed 10 or more goals.

The Sunshine Hockey League lasted for three seasons. In a strangely precise streak of postseason futility, the Bullets made it to the SuHL championship series in all three of those seasons before losing to the West Palm Beach Blaze in a three-game sweep each time.

Joe Musa (Bullets ’92-’95) was the club’s all-time leading scorer (106 goals, 139 assists).

The End

Competition came to the Jacksonville ice hockey scene in 1995 with the arrival of the Jacksonville Lizard Kings of the East Coast Hockey League. The ECHL operated with larger budgets and superior competition to the Sunshine League and it’s successor the Southern Hockey League (1995-1996) and it wasn’t a fair fight.  After one winter of head-to-head competition with the Lizard Kings, the Bullets quietly folded in 1996.

Links

Sunshine Hockey League Programs

Southern Hockey League Programs

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