Rochester Mustangs | |
---|---|
City | Rochester, Minnesota |
League | United States Hockey League |
Division | North |
Founded | 1974 |
Home arena | Rochester Recreation Center |
Colors | Yellow, white, and black |
Affiliate | Rochester Mustangs |
Franchise history | |
1974–1985 | Austin Mavericks |
1985–2002 | Rochester Mustangs |
The Rochester Mustangs were an American junior A ice hockey team that was located in Rochester, Minnesota. The Mustangs were in existence from 1986 to 2002. Prior to 1986, the organization was located in Austin, Minnesota, and was known as the Austin Mavericks. The Mavericks played from 1974 until 1977 in the Midwest Junior Hockey League, before moving to the United States Hockey League in 1978. The Mustangs played their home games in the Rochester Recreation Center, which seated approximately 2,500. The Recreation Center was home to the Mustangs for 17 years. The team ceased operations at the end of the 2001–02 season because of poor attendance numbers and an old arena. The Mustangs won the American National Junior "A" championship in 1987, 1988, and 1998.
After ceasing operations, the dormant franchise appears to have changed hands on a number of occasions until it was purchased by the ownership of the Danville Wings, the Mervis family. The Mervis family had purchased the franchise to use as a new USHL team on the University of Illinois campus in Champaign, Illinois, and the family sold the Wings to Paul Skjodt. Skjodt relocated that team to create the Indiana Ice in 2004. The Mervis family focused on starting the Champaign team, [1] however, the new proposed arena project never took off and the family began to look elsewhere such as La Crosse, Wisconsin, Battle Creek, Michigan, and Louisville, Kentucky. [2] The franchise was eventually reactivated as an expansion team in 2010 as the Muskegon Lumberjacks.
The International Hockey League (IHL) was a minor professional ice hockey league in the United States and Canada that operated from 1945 to 2001. The IHL served as the National Hockey League's alternate farm system to the American Hockey League (AHL). After 56 years of operation, financial instability led to the league's demise. Six of the surviving seven teams merged into the AHL in 2001.
The Central Hockey League (CHL) was a North American mid-level minor professional ice hockey league which operated from 1992 until 2014. It was founded by Ray Miron and Bill Levins and later sold to Global Entertainment Corporation, which operated the league from 2000 to 2013, at which point it was purchased by the individual franchise owners. As of the end of its final season in 2014, three of the 30 National Hockey League teams had affiliations with the CHL: the Dallas Stars, Minnesota Wild, and Tampa Bay Lightning.
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The Rochester Grizzlies are a Tier III junior ice hockey team in the North American 3 Hockey League (NA3HL). The team plays their home games at the 2,600-seat Rochester Recreation Center, located in Rochester, Minnesota. The team typically plays more than 45 regular season games, in addition to showcase and postseason games.
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