Category: Central Hockey League 1963

Birmingham Bulls WHA

Birmingham Bulls (1976-1981)

May 16, 2014

The Birmingham Bulls of the World Hockey Association were one of the first major pro hockey teams to make their home in the Deep South, sharing that distinction with the slightly older Atlanta Flames of the National Hockey League. The Bulls never posted a winning record and made the playoffs only once in three WHA seasons. But the team did make news for its controversial “Baby Bulls” youth movement that saw the team sign a parade of teenage stars from the junior ranks who would later go on to NHL stardom, including Ken Linseman, Michel Goulet, Rick Vaive, Pat Riggin and others. Read more…

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1982-83 Colorado Flames program from the Central Hockey League

Colorado Flames

November 2, 2013

Denver lost its NHL hockey team when the Colorado Rockies were sold and shipped east to become the New Jersey Devils in May of 1982.  Two months later, Denver car dealer Douglas Spedding stepped into the pro hockey void, entering the Colorado Flames expansion team into the minor Central Hockey League.  The Flames would serve as a farm club for the NHL’s Calgary Flames. They would play at McNichols Arena, the same building just abandoned by the Rockies.

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1981 Cincinnati Tigers program from the Central Hockey League

Cincinnati Tigers

July 23, 2013

The Cincinnati Tigers were a very strong farm club of the NHL’s Toronto Maple Leafs in the winter of 1981-82. Despite the Tigers’ winning ways, Cincinnati was a graveyard for pro hockey teams and attendance was meager. The Leafs shut down the Tigers in May of 1982 after the club’s first and only season ended.  The Tigers became the third pro hockey team to fail at Riverfront Coliseum in just the past three years, following two different incarnations of the Cincinnati Stingers, which both bit the dust in 1979.

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1977 Dallas Black Hawks program from the Central Hockey League

Dallas Black Hawks

July 5, 2013

The Dallas Black Hawks were a minor league hockey club that at Fair Park Coliseum from 1967 to 1982.  The Black Hawks were a powerhouse in the Central Hockey League, appearing in the Adams Cup finals in ten of their fifteen seasons.  They won the championship in 1969, 1972, 1974 and 1979. From 1967 through 1978, Dallas served as a farm club of the NHL’s Chicago Black Hawks. After Chicago severed the relationship in 1978, Dallas’ CHL entry retained the Black Hawks identity for four more seasons while serving other NHL parent clubs. The Black Hawks disbanded in 1982.

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1978 Cincinnati Stingers Program from the World Hockey Association

Cincinnati Stingers

August 4, 2012

World Hockey Association (1975-1979) Central Hockey League (1979) Born: May 6, 1973 – WHA expansion franchise Folded: December 18, 1979 First Game: October 11, 1975

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