The Denver Spurs started in the Western Hockey League in 1968. When that circuit folded, the joined the Central Hockey League in 1974. The following year, they joined the World Hockey Association, but moved to Ottawa halfway through the season.
The Colorado Rockies hockey team was a star-crossed organization that spent most of six winters in Denver seeking to move elsewhere. The Rockies began life in 1974 as the Kansas City Scouts, a poorly organized NHL expansion effort and wound-up in the swamplands of New Jersey six years later.
The Denver Dynamite own a (very) minor place in pro football history as the answer to a trivia question: What city claimed the first championship of Arena Football? The Dynamite won Arena Bowl I on August 1, 1987, concluding a brief 6-game regular season with a 45-16 demolition of the Pittsburgh Gladiators before 13,000 fans at the Pittsburgh Civic Arena.
The Colorado Xplosion were the Denver franchise in the women’s American Basketball League (ABL), which lasted for two-and-a-half seasons from 1996 to 1998. The team split its home games each season between the Denver Coliseum and McNichols Arena. Key players included top scorer Crystal Robinson and versatile 5′ 3″ guard Debbie Black. Competition from the NBA-backed Women’s National Basketball Association and the overall challenging marketplace for women’s professional sports ventures combined the drive the ABL out of business midway through its third season in December 1998.
The Denver Daredevils were a professional Roller Hockey International team that played at McNichols Arena during the summer of 1996. The team finished in last place during its debut season and went out of business not long afterwards.
*Like our new look? Next up: site speed. You can help with a tip for our Speed Fund today. Thank you!
