Professional Ice Hockey in Alabama
Since gaining its first hockey team in 1976, Alabama has seen the rise and fall of several professional teams. Compared to other states, ice hockey as a popular spectator sport in Alabama has often been marked by low public knowledge, engagement, and interest. Amid these difficulties, however, the sport has stayed alive, and the state’s current minor league teams, the Huntsville Havoc and the Birmingham Bulls, have been successful in recent years.
Ice Hockey Arrives in Birmingham
Professional ice hockey in Alabama began when John Bassett, owner of the Toronto Toros in the World Hockey Association (WHA) major league, moved the Toros to Birmingham, Jefferson County, and into the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex. Bassett renamed them the “Bulls” for the 1976-77 season following the Toros’ worst season in its short history. This first iteration of the Birmingham Bulls never had a winning season in three years and had only one playoff appearance but featured future Hockey Hall-of-Famers Frank Mahovlich and Michel Goulet. Bassett also put the team on the map for embracing the league’s youth movement as the WHA sought to compete with the expanding National Hockey League (NHL). Although both the WHA and NHL prohibited teams from signing players who were under 20 years old, Bassett signed multiple 18-year-olds to the Bulls’ roster, with WHA approval.
The team, called the “Baby Bulls” by many fans, finished last in WHA rankings in the 1978-79 season, the last season for the team and the WHA. Despite the Bulls’ lack of success, head coach John Brophy was named the WHA’s Coach of the Year for coaching the league’s youngest players to be somewhat competitive. Following this season, the NHL and WHA merged, leading to the Bulls being dropped from the league. No other major league professional team has been established in the state since then. Bassett stepped away from his role as Brophy helped the team transition to the Central Hockey League (CHL), a minor professional league. The team lost in the first round of the playoffs during its first season. Midway through the 1980-81 season, the team was forced to disband due to financial struggles and lack of ownership support.
Minor League Teams in Birmingham, Huntsville, and Mobile
Despite the Bulls disbanding, the CHL awarded another team, the South Stars, to Birmingham in 1982 as the farm team for the Minnesota North Stars (present-day Dallas Stars). The South Stars faced financial troubles and low attendance but made their way to the Adams Cup, the CHL championship, during the 1982-83 season, losing Game 7 to the Indianapolis Checkers. However, the Minnesota North Stars dropped the South Stars following the Adams Cup loss. Then, the owners could not secure funds to rebrand the team as the second rendition of the Birmingham Bulls within the Atlantic Coast Hockey League (ACHL). Accordingly, the ACHL disbanded the Bulls just five games into the 1983-84 season.
Eight years passed before another minor league team launched in Alabama. In 1992, sports executive Art Clarkson, who had recently established the Birmingham Barons minor league baseball team, made a deal with the Cincinnati Cyclones of the East Coast Hockey League (ECHL) to rebrand and move the team as the third rendition of the Birmingham Bulls. Under Clarkson’s leadership, the Bulls had three playoff runs and much higher attendance than before. However, Clarkson stepped away from his role before the 1997-98 season, leading to the team’s slow decline. In the 2000-01 season, the Bulls’ last in the ECHL, the team missed the playoffs and recorded its lowest seasonal home attendance throughout its nine seasons. As a result, the Bulls folded and rebranded once again, this time as the Atlantic City Boardwalk Bullies, and were moved to the New Jersey resort town.
Meanwhile, ice hockey had been gaining momentum in Huntsville, Madison County, and Mobile, Mobile County, which attracted their own professional teams. Huntsville’s first team, the Huntsville Blast, joined the Bulls in the ECHL at the start of the 1993-94 season but lasted only one season. The team, playing at the Von Braun Center, saw much lower attendance than the Bulls, won only 20 of its 68 regular-season games, and was a first-round exit in the playoffs, falling to the Birmingham Bulls. After the season, David Elmore, another sports executive who owned numerous minor league baseball and hockey franchises, bought the struggling Blast franchise, renamed it the Tallahassee Tiger Sharks, and moved the team to Florida’s capital city.
The following season, the Mobile Mysticks, a farm team for the NHL Philadelphia Flyers, replaced the Blast as Alabama’s representative in the ECHL. The team, whose colors were purple, green, and gold in homage to the city’s Mardi Gras roots, played in the Mobile Civic Center. The Mysticks were coached by former NHL player Ed Johnstone for two seasons and even had some players make it to the NHL, but the team never advanced past the second round of the playoffs in their seven-year history and folded after the 2001-02 season.
Despite the Blast’s lack of success, Huntsville soon welcomed another minor league team, the Huntsville Channel Cats, in 1995. The Channel Cats played their first season in the new Southern Hockey League (SHL). Despite entering the playoffs with a losing record, the team won the SHL championship against the Winston-Salem Mammoths. After the 1995-96 season, though, the SHL folded, prompting the Channel Cats to join the Central Hockey League (CHL). In their four seasons in the CHL, the Channel Cats saw arguably the greatest run of Alabama’s minor league ice hockey teams at the time. The team maintained a winning record and made the playoffs during each of its four seasons and even won the CHL championship in 1999.
After new ownership enacted a brief and unsuccessful rebrand from the Channel Cats to the Huntsville Tornado in the 2000-01 season, the team experienced a notable dip in performance and attendance, leading to the team taking a hiatus for two years. The team returned as the Channel Cats within the newly formed South East Hockey League (SEHL) in the 2003-04 season. The Channel Cats regained some attendance numbers and won the league’s first and only championship in 2004. The SEHL folded after the season, and so did the Channel Cats.
Active Alabama Minor League Teams
However, Huntsville’s presence in minor league ice hockey soon gained stability with the arrival of the Huntsville Havoc to the Southern Professional Hockey League (present-day SPHL) in 2004. With former Channel Cats coach John Gibson and multiple players, including star forward James Patterson, returning for the Havoc’s first season, the Havoc managed to make the playoffs in four out of their first five years. But not until the 2009-10 season did the Havoc show promise in the SPHL. Under new coach Randy Murphy and with a revitalized roster, the Havoc prevailed over the Mississippi Surge in the finals to win their first President’s Cup. This season proved to be the team’s most successful to date.
When Murphy resigned toward the end of the 2011-12 season, star forward Glenn Detulleo took over as head coach and led the Havoc as heavy underdogs to the second round of the playoffs. In 2012-13, Detulleo’s first full season as head coach, the Havoc again reached the finals, where they fell to the Pensacola Ice Flyers. In the 2017-18 season, the Havoc triumphed over the Peoria Rivermen and won their second President’s Cup.
The 2017-18 season also saw another major step for ice hockey in Alabama as Art Clarkson once again brought the Birmingham Bulls back to minor league hockey, this time as an expansion team in the SPHL. The Bulls did not make the playoffs in their first season but in their second season advanced to the finals where they met the Huntsville Havoc, fresh off their championship win the year prior. The Havoc ultimately prevailed, securing the team’s second consecutive President’s Cup. Since this series, neither team has won another President’s Cup, but both have remained highly competitive within the SPHL and continue to represent Alabama in the sport.
