History
The Bullets were founded in 1992 as one of the inaugural franchises of the Sunshine Hockey League, a tiny league with six teams mostly based in Florida. They were the first ice hockey team to be based in Jacksonville in nearly twenty years, since the Jacksonville Barons of the American Hockey League had folded in 1974. They played alternately at the Jacksonville Coliseum and Skate World, a skating rink on Jacksonville's Southside.
In 1993 GM Nick Durbano brought in former NHL goaltender Doug Keans as Head Coach and Assistant Coach David Baker. The team played above the .500 mark in its first season, and found themselves in the 1993 Sunshine Cup final under coach Doug Keans. In the final the Bullets lost to the powerhouse West Palm Beach Blaze. Though often successful on the ice the Bullets struggled with attendance and finances throughout their run. In 1994 they were bought by the owners of Skate World, one of whom was Bob Sabourin, who had been the coach of Jacksonville's first professional hockey team, the Jacksonville Rockets. The team filed for bankruptcy in 1995 under Sabourin. They remained in the league when its name was changed to the Southern Hockey League in 1995. However, their difficulties in attracting fans were exacerbated that year with the arrival of another hockey team, the Jacksonville Lizard Kings. The Lizard Kings played in the more formidable East Coast Hockey League and had a substantially more effective marketing campaign, and were able to lease the Coliseum for their games. The Bullets managed to survive through the season, but folded along with the league at the end of the 1995-96 season.
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