The Tennessee Valley Vipers was the name used by a pair of Huntsville, Alabama-based Arena Football franchises that played ten seasons between 2000 and 2010. The team was known as the Alabama Vipers during their final season. In their finest hour, the Vipers won the 2008 Arena Cup as champions of Arena Football 2, after the team’s barely used back-up quarterback Tony Colsten engineered a shocking road upset of the league’s best team.
This short-lived Arena Football team played just one last place season at the Laredo Entertainment Center during the spring & summer of 2004 before disbanding. The team finished its only season with a 3-13 record. The team’s lone highlight was the play of Defensive Specialist Traco Rachal who earned Arena Football 2’s Defensive Player of the Year Award. The Law were owned and operated by the then-popular local minor league hockey franchise, the Laredo Bucks.
The Madison Monsters were a minor league hockey promotion that played four seasons at the Dane County Coliseum in Wisconsin’s state capital. The team formed as an expansion franchise in the Colonial Hockey League in 1995. The CoHL changed its name to the United Hockey League in 1997. The colorfully attired Monsters sported an ultra-90’s palette of teal and purple and also incorporated pinstripes into their garish hockey sweaters. After the 1998-99 season, the Monsters moved away to Knoxville, Tennessee. A new United Hockey League expansion franchise, the Madison Kodiaks, immediately replaced the Monsters but folded after just one season in 2000.
The Memphis RiverKings were a long-running minor league hockey promotion that played from 1992 through 2007 in the Central Hockey League. The RiverKings played in Memphis proper at the Mid-South Coliseum from 1992 through 2000 before relocating to the new DeSoto Civic Center in Southaven, Mississippi for the 2000-01 season. After moving to Mississippi, the RiverKings won back-to-back Miron Cup CHL championships in 2002 and 2003. The franchise changed its name to the Mississippi RiverKings in 2007 and went out of business in 2018.
It’s time for a spring cleaning of the Fun While It Lasted archives. Now through May 15th, every item in our e-Bay store priced $15 or over is marked down 30%. Everything priced $15.00 or lower is 15% off. This is the biggest sale we have ever offered, covering more than 1,000 vintage items including programs & media guides, photos, balls, uniforms and other rare memorabilia. Open article for store link!
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