The Aviators were a messy, Texas pro hockey outfit that stumbled through one-and-a-half-seasons in the low-level Western Professional Hockey League in 1998 and 1999. A promising debut season on the ice culminated in a divisional title. But the Aviators’ multiple ownership fiascos ultimately sunk the club midway through its second campaign.
The Mobile Seagulls were a short-lived indoor football promotion that played parts of two summer seasons in the coastal Alabama city in 2000 and 2001. The Gulls played in the Indoor Professional Football League (IPFL) in 2000 and moved to the National Indoor Football League (NIFL) in 2001. The team disbanded midway through its second season in July 2002.
The Central Texas Stampede were a minor professional hockey team out of Belton that played four full seasons and part of a fifth between 1996 and 2001. Consistently strong on the ice, the Stampede never had a losing season or failed to make the Western Professional Hockey League during their four full seasons of competition. But the team was undone by ownership instability and disbanded in midway through its fifth season of play in January 2001.
The Santa Barbara Spikers were a co-ed professional volleyball promotion that won the championship of the International Volleyball Association (IVA) during the summer of 1978. The Spikers were the only IVA franchise to compete in all six seasons of the league’s existence from the league’s debut in 1975 until its collapse in 1980.
The Trenton Lightning were an indoor football team that managed to play just six games during April and May of 2001. The team, coached by former Denver Broncos running back Vaughn Hebron, lost all six of its contests before financial scandals caused the team to disband. Later investigations revealed that Lightning founder Philip Subhan, an American Express Financial Advisor, funded the team with money embezzled from his clients. He was sentenced to 13 years in prison in 2004.
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