CHARLOTTE, NC – With a rich history of sport franchises for over one hundred years Charlotte, like every other large city, has had some failures. My research shows three football teams, two arena football teams, three basketball teams (one being a woman’s team), an ice hockey franchise, and finally a soccer club, all went to the wall.
The most interesting fact for me was the Charlotte Clippers ice hockey club which became the Charlotte Checkers. Here is their story.
Before the Charlotte Checkers ice hockey team came to town from Albany, New York, there was a Charlotte Checkers that played in the Eastern Hockey League and the Southern Hockey League. The team was formed in Baltimore and named the Clippers; they played at the Carlin Iceland facility until the building burned down in January, 1956.
The Baltimore Clippers were playing in the East Coast Hockey League at the time they had 12 games left in their season when the fire occurred. The team needed to finish the season, but where? Someone at the Baltimore club was smart enough to be aware that North Carolina did not have any ice hockey, so south they came to play five home games.
The games were played at the Charlotte Coliseum, now the Bojangles’ Coliseum, where a sell-out crowd welcomed the Clippers to Charlotte. Amazingly 3,000 fans had to be turned away from the first game. A total of 40,000 people saw the five games and hockey had made an impact on the Queen City.
The 1956 season saw the team relocate to Charlotte where they won the EHL Championship (Atlantic City Boardwalk Trophy), and the Walker Cup, which they won in consecutive seasons. In the four seasons as Charlotte Clippers the team played 256 games winning 143, losing 105, and tied eight for a .574 average.
In 1956-7, Coach Andy Brown took the team to a win in the EHL Championship. The following year Stan Warecki coached the Clippers to the finals, where they lost. In 1958-9 the team only earned 50 points and did not make the play-offs. The 1959-60 seasons saw the team reach the play-offs, and then lose in the first round.
In 1960, the franchise was renamed the Charlotte Checkers. They stayed in the EHL until 1972-3, when the league finished operations. During this period the Checkers won the EHL title twice, in 1971 and 1972. With the demise of the EHL Charlotte moved to the Southern Hockey League where they won the championship in 1975 and 1976. Unfortunately, the league folded in 1977, and with it the Charlotte Checkers.
The second coming of the Checkers happened in 1993. After 17 years without hockey Charlotte took to the ice once again. In 1995-6 the Checkers won the Kelly Cup, the ECHL Championship, which was the only title they have won in the 17 years since returning to minor league hockey.
For 12 years, the Checkers plied their trade at Bojangles Arena before moving to the Time Warner Cable Arena in 2005. The move proved a success with the team remaining there for the last seven years. The highest attendance was a crowd of 12,398 attending the game against the Florida Everblades on February 21, 2009. This beat the previous record of 11,237, when the Checkers lost to the Texas Wildcatters in February, 2007.
At the finish of the ECHL 2009-10 season, the Checkers gave up their membership to the ECHL to join the American Hockey League. The owner of the Checkers, Michael Kahn, bought the Albany River Rats, the AHL affiliate of the Carolina Hurricanes, and moved them to Charlotte for the start of the 2010-11 season.
The Charlotte Checkers have had some excellent hockey players through the years. Nick Vitucci who won the Riley Cup MVP in 1995-6. Vitucci who was from Welland, Ontario was conducted into the ECHL Hall of Fame in 2008. A journeyman goaltender he played for 15 different teams in the AHL, the IHL, the ECHL and the RHL. Vitucci now coaches the Toledo Walleye in the ECHL. Scott King won ECHL’s MVP and Leading Scorer title in 2000-1. Scott played 72 times for the Checkers scoring 101 points; he has played in seven different ice hockey leagues.
The current crop of Checkers players are on fire at present. We hope that they can bring home silverware to the Queen City.
Contact Eddie.Mitchell@ProHockeyNews.com
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