History
The first IIHL game was played in December 2003 at Polar Bear Arena in Harbor Springs, Michigan. It featured the Northern Michigan Predators and Lansing Ice Nuts (the Ice Nuts won 3-2). Former National Hockey League (NHL) star Craig Coxe was the coach for the Predators. He went on to manage the rink in Harbor Springs after the IIHL ended.
Another former NHL star, Darren Banks, was general manager and head coach of the Motor City Snipers and obtained a lease at the Michigan State Fairgrounds Coliseum. The team was owned by Kilbreath, but discontinued after a few games because of unpaid bills.
The Soo City Mavericks played out of the historic Pullar Center in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. Shane W. Kelley owned the team and was general manager and head coach. Jason Rapcewicz was his associate coach.
The Ohio Valley Ice Cats played out of Bird Arena in Athens, Ohio, on the campus of Ohio University. Their first general manager/head coach resigned after fewer than a dozen players showed up for training camp and the original ownership group from Florida never paid franchise fees or league fees. The league named a college student to help the team captain manage the Ice Cats while seeking a new owner. None was found.
The Lansing Ice Nuts played at Michigan State University's Munn Ice Arena. Because they operated a no-alcohol policy, they never drew more than 350 fans to a game, but the ban on drinking by players produced the IIHL's best club. General manager and head coach Chris Blaisius resigned after a New Year's Eve game after his and the players' payroll checks bounced and Kilbreath failed to pay bills with the rink and team hotel. The Ice Nuts were on a tally of 11-0 at the time.
Read more about this topic: International Independent Hockey League
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“There is a history in all men’s lives,
Figuring the natures of the times deceased,
The which observed, a man may prophesy,
With a near aim, of the main chance of things
As yet not come to life.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“The disadvantage of men not knowing the past is that they do not know the present. History is a hill or high point of vantage, from which alone men see the town in which they live or the age in which they are living.”
—Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)
“There is one great fact, characteristic of this our nineteenth century, a fact which no party dares deny. On the one hand, there have started into life industrial and scientific forces which no epoch of former human history had ever suspected. On the other hand, there exist symptoms of decay, far surpassing the horrors recorded of the latter times of the Roman empire. In our days everything seems pregnant with its contrary.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)