The Southern Hockey League was a minor professional hockey league that operated for four seasons, from 1973 to 1977. It was primarily based in the southeastern part of the United States. The founding teams were the Roanoke Valley Rebels, Charlotte Checkers, Greensboro Generals, Winston-Salem Polar Twins, Macon Whoopees, and Suncoast Suns.
There had been a growing rift between the northern and southern divisions of the EHL for several years. The southern teams were dissatisfied over regulations regarding the number of players that could dress per game (the EHL only dressed 13-14 skaters) and over other player regulations. In addition, to save on travel expenses in recent years the two divisions played each other only rarely during the regular season. In May of 1973, the entire southern division of the Eastern Hockey League withdrew membership from the EHL to form the SHL. The existing Roanoke Valley Rebels, Charlotte Checkers, Greensboro Generals, and Suncoast Suns were join... [Click for more]ed by two new teams, the Winston-Salem Polar Twins and the Macon Whoopees.
The Southern Hockey League established itself as a new professional hockey league for the 1973-74 season (the old EHL was technically considered amateur, although the players certainly were paid for their services). They planned to shed the image of a "fighting" league and positioned themselves as a development league for the fledgling WHA. The northern division of the EHL reorganized as the North American Hockey League.
The affiliation with the WHA was both positive and negative. Although there was a promise of better players, the teams could not solidify their rosters until just before the season started when the WHA assigned players to the minors. Mid-season callups decimated the SHL teams as well.
Financial trouble plagued the league. The Suncoast Suns were the first casualty, folding December 19, 1973. The league played on, but Macon was showing signs of trouble. The Whoopees forfeited a game against Charlotte January 17 when most of the players refused to dress because they weren't being paid. However, the Whoopees managed to regroup for one last month, then folded on February 15, 1974.
With only four teams remaining, the playoff race essentially ended -- all teams now made the playoffs. The league limped into the postseason, and regrouped for a second season with talks of expansion into more southern cities.
The 1974-75 season found the SHL with the remaining four members from its initial season (Charlotte, Greensboro, Winston-Salem, and Roanoke Valley) plus a expansion team, the Fayetteville Arsenal. However, there were problems in Fayetteville regarding the availability of ice and home dates, so the John Brophy-coached team wound up as the Hampton Gulls just as the season opened -- there were plenty of available dates at the Hampton Coliseum because the Virginia Wings of the AHL had shifted over to Norfolk.
All the teams managed to survive their financial losses and made it to the next season. Roanoke was the shakiest franchise -- they had no coach and no staff during the summer of 1975, but managed to regroup for the upcoming season. The veteran teams were joined by a newcomer: The Tidewater Sharks, who became possible when the Detroit Red Wings pulled their AHL franchise out of Norfolk. Again, the league saw no teams fold mid-season, however Roanoke Valley did not stick around for the 1976-77 campaign.
The 1976-77 season was to be the last for the SHL. Two new teams were admitted; Richmond entered with the Wildcats, abandoning the AHL since they were the only remaining city in the AHL's southern expansion, and Baltimore joined up with the SHL after the city's unstable relationships with both the AHL and the WHA.
The season was volatile, with constant raids by WHA parent teams and player movement due to the shaky financials of the teams. Tidewater was forced to dip into Tier II junior rosters to stock its team with enough players because of callups by the Calgary Cowboys. Greensboro relied on its coach, John Voss -- a goaltender by trade -- playing forward.
Richmond began the process of an ownership change in January 1976 but the new owners backed out. That spelled death for the struggling team. The players had already given up their pay in lieu of playing for gate receipts, and when they pushed their demand to be paid, the franchise folded on January 3, 1977. Greensboro folded on the same day, also a victim of revenue shortages.
Four days later, on January 7, the Tidewater Sharks, who had missed their player payroll the day before, announced they were closing up shop. The players had decided to go home instead of playing without pay. Within minutes of the Sharks' announcement, Winston-Salem owner Jim Crockett (of southern wrestling fame) announced that he too was pulling the Polar Twins out of the league.
The remaining 3 teams examined three courses of action; either fold altogether, play a round-robin tournament to determine a champion, or try to develop an interlocking schedule with either the North American Hockey League or the International Hockey League for the remainder of the season.
The teams played games among themselves while waiting for responses from the NAHL and IHL. On January 22, 1977, both the NAHL and IHL rejected the SHL's proposals for an interlocking schedule. The played a final week of games before deciding that a three-team league was not viable and that creating a fourth league-subsidized team in Roanoke would only intensify the finalcial losses.
On January 31, 1977, the final game of the SHL was played when the Charlotte Checkers hosted the Baltimore Clippers. The league remained open to hosting teams in 1977-78, but these plans never came to fruition.
Source: The Hockey News, Hampton Daily Press (Thanks to Ken Holden!)
Copyright 1998-2023 hockeyDB.com. All rights reserved.