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24-581: The Screaming Eagles franchise was the second attempt at a professional hockey team for the South Florida market, since the folding of the original Tropical Hockey League in 1939. The first came two years prior; Seymour H. Knox III , Northrup R. Knox and Robert O. Swados , the owners of the Buffalo Sabres , were awarded an American Hockey League franchise in 1970. The Knox-Swados consortium intended on placing their AHL team in South Florida;

48-673: A Havana team (albeit one playing in the United States) was designed to attract in particular Cuban Americans to the sport. Before the inaugural season had even started, the league was considering expanding to Jacksonville and even the Bahamas . Because it was not affiliated with the Amateur Hockey Association of the United States , founded the year before as a new governing body for ice hockey in

72-714: A cultural center for the Miami area. Like the rest of the planned community , the Coliseum was built in the Mediterranean Revival style . Heavily in debt after the collapse of Florida's land boom , Merrick sold the Coliseum to the City of Coral Gables in 1927, before it was completed. In 1938, the Coliseum was rebuilt into an ice rink and rechristened the Metropolitan Ice Palace . Inspired by

96-802: A home rink. The Tropical Hockey League experiment did little to popularize hockey in the South. After 1941, there would be no further attempt to establish professional hockey in the region until 1956, when the Eastern Hockey League placed the Charlotte Clippers , later the Charlotte Checkers, in Charlotte, North Carolina . Florida did not get another hockey team until the Jacksonville Rockets joined

120-482: A solution to the arena problem, WHA president Gary Davidson canceled the franchise on April 28, 1972. In June 1972, Bernard Brown and James Cooper were granted the rights to the Miami Screaming Eagles along with the players (namely Bernie Parent) that were under contract with the team, from Herb Martin. Brown and Cooper then relocated the franchise to Philadelphia (where Parent had previously played for

144-786: The Boston Bruins and Toronto St. Pats , while the Clippers hired Harold "Bullet Joe" Simpson , former manager of the National Hockey League 's New York Americans and future Hockey Hall of Famer . The Clippers also signed defensemen Bob Dill , who would go on to play with the New York Rangers , and Frank Mailley , who played one game for the Montreal Canadiens . The league's inaugural game, billed as "the first hockey game ever staged in

168-826: The Southern United States . Its founders hoped to take advantage of the large population of " snowbirds " from Eastern Canada who wintered in south Florida. The league consisted of four teams, all of which played at the Miami Coliseum (renamed the Metropolitan Ice Palace) in Coral Gables . The Miami Clippers, Miami Beach Pirates, the Coral Gables Seminoles, and the Havana Tropicals. The inclusion of

192-724: The AHL refused to allow a team to play in a market that distant (the AHL had no teams south of Virginia at the time). The proposed team was instead placed in Cincinnati, Ohio and named the Cincinnati Swords . Businessman Herb Martin bought a franchise in the WHA in 1972. The Screaming Eagles made a splash immediately by signing Bernie Parent from the Toronto Maple Leafs —the first National Hockey League star inked by

216-775: The EHL in 1964. From 1992 to 1995 there was another minor hockey league based in Florida, the Sunshine Hockey League . Major league hockey did not expand into the South until the 1970s, with the NHL's Atlanta Flames and the World Hockey Association 's Houston Aeros (both in 1972). The WHA had also attempted to place another team in Miami, the Screaming Eagles , but the plan fell apart due to

240-508: The Miami area, including college students and Army, Navy, and Air Corps servicemen. The 1941 Clippers featured a former NHLer in Bill Regan , as well as the son of Stanley Cup -winning goaltender Hap Holmes . Though records are unclear, it appears that this league folded around September 1941, after the city of Coral Gables "took away" the Coliseum from the THL—thus depriving the league of

264-734: The NHL Flyers, and would again) and renamed the team the Blazers . Two decades later, South Florida was awarded the National Hockey League 's Florida Panthers franchise. Although they never iced a team, replicas of the projected Screaming Eagles jersey continue to sell along with those of actual WHA teams. Tropical Hockey League The Tropical Hockey League (THL) was a short-lived ice hockey minor league in Miami, Florida . The initial league had four teams, all based in Miami , and lasted for only one season, 1938–39, before folding; it

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288-519: The South", was played between the Clippers and Pirates on December 10, 1938. It was preceded by demonstrations of the sport by the players and featured a mambo concert after the second period. The game ended with a fight following a 3–2 victory by the Clippers. The Tropical Hockey League made it through a 15-game season in 1938–39, with the Seminoles being crowned regular season champions. Goodman's Seminoles went on to play an "All-Star Game" against

312-846: The United States, the THL struggled to recruit top-tier talent. W. G. Hardy , then-president of the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association (and future president of the IIHF ), warned Canadians against signing contracts with the Tropical Hockey League. Nevertheless, the THL's players, with just three exceptions, were all Canadians recruited from camps in Port Colborne, Ontario and Winnipeg, Manitoba . The Seminoles, having recruited much of their roster from Western Canada , developed an on-ice rivalry with

336-416: The best players from the other three teams, which the Seminoles lost 6-5. This, however, would be the last game played by the original THL. The league had failed to attract much interest from the community, in part due to its late start times, weak competition, and tendency for games to devolve into fighting . With its promoters losing money, the first hockey experiment in the southern United States folded at

360-405: The end of the season. The THL was briefly resurrected as a three-team amateur league in 1940. This iteration of the league was bankrolled by Burdines , Pan American , and Florida Power & Light , and featured the Clippers, Pirates, and Indians (the former Seminoles); Goodman and Simpson returned as coaches. Unlike the 1938-39 league, most of these rosters were made up of recruits from

384-512: The films of Sonja Henie , the arena's managers sought to host ice skating shows for Miami residents, as well as ice hockey games. The Ice Palace was home to all four teams of the Tropical Hockey League (THL), the first attempt at professional hockey in Florida (and in the South ). Though the THL was, at least initially, a moderate success, it had a turbulent lifespan and continually lost money for its promoters. Ultimately,

408-627: The first Florida-raised player in the NHL would be Brian Ferlin , who played for junior hockey in Jacksonville before debuting with the 2014–15 Bruins. Miami Coliseum The Miami Coliseum , also known as the Coral Gables Coliseum , was a multi-purpose arena located in Coral Gables, Florida . It was developed by George E. Merrick , the founder of Coral Gables and of the University of Miami , who sought to create

432-528: The league folded around September 1941. Shortly thereafter, the city filed a $ 42,500 suit and sought foreclosure against the Ice Palace's operators. With the onset of World War II , the Coliseum was leased to Embry–Riddle University to train military pilots. However, it was converted back into an ice rink in 1949. It would be the only indoor arena in Miami-Dade County until the 1950s when

456-520: The other three teams, which were predominantly eastern Canadian. One notable figure was Magnus "Mike" Goodman , a former member of the Winnipeg Falcons who won the gold medal in hockey for Canada in the 1920 Summer Olympics ; he served the Seminoles as player-coach. Other teams sought out similar talent for their manager positions; the Pirates signed Stan Jackson , a former winger for

480-674: The proposed arena. The county faulted Martin for ignoring a zoning ordinance which required at least one parking spot for every four seats in an arena. At a league meeting in Chicago, the WHA rejected Miami's $ 100,000 performance bond because the Eagles did not have a suitable arena. With the end of the Executive Square project, the Screaming Eagles had only two options for a temporary home, Miami Beach Convention Center or

504-618: The rebel league—and Boston Bruins standout Derek Sanderson . Martin developed a unique plan to build an arena within the walls of four office buildings to create what he called the Executive Square Arena. This new arena was to have been a showcase for the new league. The WHA had even planned to open their season in Miami on October 6, 1972 by hosting the Winnipeg Jets in the new arena. But the plans started to fall apart when Dade County officials halted construction of

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528-413: The then-new Hollywood Sportatorium . But Martin felt neither site was suitable even for temporary use. The Convention Center held only a few thousand for hockey. The Sportatorium had no air conditioning, no permanent seats, and a partially open roof. (Later, when the arena was fully enclosed and expanded, attempts were made to bring in another WHA franchise, but to no avail.) When Martin was unable to find

552-601: The unsuitability of existing arenas (including the Coliseum). The NHL finally expanded to Florida in the 1992–93 season, awarding an expansion franchise to the Tampa Bay Lightning ; hockey returned to Miami the following season with the establishment of the Florida Panthers . The NHL would not see a Florida-born player until Val James , who made his brief debut with the 1981–82 Buffalo Sabres ;

576-526: Was briefly resurrected in 1940 before folding for good the following year. Nicknamed the Grapefruit League , it was notable as the first attempt to establish professional hockey in Florida —or the Southern United States in general—though it ultimately had minimal impact on popularizing the sport in the region. The Tropical Hockey League was established as an attempt to introduce ice hockey to

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