Southern Hockey League [1995-1996] history and statistics

The Southern Hockey League was a minor professional hockey league that was based in the southern USA. It operated for just one season, in 1995-96.

The SHL was originally formed around the cities of Savannah, Georgia; Florence, South Carolina; Macon, Georgia; Huntsville, Alabama; and Winston-Salem, North Carolina. It then attracted the attention of two teams which had been playing in the Sunshine Hockey League - the Jacksonville Bullets and the Daytona Beach Sun Devils. A third Sunshine League team, the West Palm Beach Blaze, later joined the new league, and the Lakeland Ice Warriors finally joined the party, but only after gaining new owners and a new nickname, the Prowlers. Daytona Beach renamed itself the Breakers, and West Palm Beach renamed itself the Barracudas, also after being sold to new owners.

By the time the league started, the Huntsville Channel Cats and the Winston-Salem Mammoths were the only new teams to join with the ex-Sunshine cities. The league ... [Click for more]opened with six teams.

The SHL immediately faced tough competition in one of its cities; the Jacksonville Bullets, the only team to retain its name from its Sunshine League days, was put into a competetive situation when the Louisville Icehawks relocated to Jacksonville to become the Lizard Kings. This cut into the Bullets' attendence significantly.

All six teams finished the season, and the Huntsville Channel Cats took home the league championship, defeating the Winston-Salem Mammoths 4 games to 1.

The SHL was scheduled to expand for the 1996-97 season by adding the Macon (Georgia) Whoopee and the Columbus (Georgia) Cottonmouths. However, the Jacksonville Bullets, Lakeland Prowlers, and Daytona Breakers all folded during the summer of 1996, leaving just five committed teams. Macon and Columbus declared that they would not join a league with less than six teams. As the league struggled to find a sixth city to join, the West Palm Beach Barracudas also folded and the league suspended operations.

The Hunstville Channel Cats, Macon Whoopee, and Columbus Cottonmouths teams joined the Central Hockey League for the 1996-97 season as expansion franchises in that league.