Central Texas Stampede
Encyclopedia
Minor league
Minor leagues are professional sports leagues which are not regarded as the premier leagues in those sports. Minor league teams tend to play in smaller, less elaborate venues, often competing in smaller cities. This term is used in North America with regard to several organizations competing in...
professional ice hockey
Ice hockey
Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...
team which was located in Belton, Texas
Belton, Texas
Belton is a city in Bell County, Texas, United States. The population was 14,623 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Bell County.Belton is part of the Killeen – Temple – Fort Hood metropolitan area.-Geography:...
. They played in the Western Professional Hockey League
Western Professional Hockey League
The Western Professional Hockey League is a defunct minor professional ice hockey league.It operated in the United States from 1996 to 2001, with teams in the southern United States, mainly Texas. The league started with six teams in the 1996-1997 season and grew to 18 teams in 1999-2000...
for five seasons, from 1996 to 2001. The team folded during the fifth season of its operation. The team played its home games at the Bell County Expo Center
Bell County Expo Center
The Bell County Expo Center is a 6,559-seat multi-purpose arena, in Belton, Texas. It was formerly the home of the Texas Bullets , the CenTex Barracudas and the Central Texas Stampede .It is the home of the Texas Rodeo Cowboy Hall of Fame....
.
History
The Central Texas Stampede were one of the "original six" teams of the now defunct Western Professional Hockey League. On October 15, 1996 the Stampede defeated the Waco Wizards 5-4 in the first ever WPHL contest.The Stampede had four head coaches during its five year run in the WPHL. The team's first coach was former NHL
National Hockey League
The National Hockey League is an unincorporated not-for-profit association which operates a major professional ice hockey league of 30 franchised member clubs, of which 7 are currently located in Canada and 23 in the United States...
player Bob Bourne
Bob Bourne
Robert Glen Bourne is a retired professional ice hockey centre who played for the New York Islanders and the Los Angeles Kings of the NHL between 1974 and 1988.-Playing career:...
, who led the team to a 35-27-2 record for 72 points in the 1996-97 season. For the 1997-98 season the team was coached by former NHLer Lee Norwood
Lee Norwood
Lee Charles Norwood is a retired American ice hockey player. Although Norwood was born in California, he grew up in Trenton, Michigan....
, who led the team to a 40-23-6 record for 86 points. The 1998-99 season was coached by Glen Williamson (who was previously an NHL assistant coach with the Winnipeg Jets,. He coached the team to season record of 33-24-12 for 78 points.
The team's final two seasons were coached by Todd Lalonde. Although Lalonde has no NHL experience, in his first year as head coach he was able to lead the team to their best ever record of 50-17-3. Their 103 points put the team at the top the league's standings at the end of the 1999-2000 regular season.
Despite the relative success of the team, the location of the Expo center and a small population base caused the team struggled throughout their history to maintain a solid attendance figure on on night during the last season, the paid attendance was less than 900 with less than 300 people in actual attendance. The management struggled and fell far behind on pay their expenses. On January 6, 20001, the Central Texas Stampede played its last game. The team had played only 38 games before folding midway through the 2000-01 season.
The WPHL was taken over by the Central Hockey League after the 2000-01 season.
Post-WPHL history
The market was subsequently home to:- Central Texas Blackhawks (2002–2003) AWHLAWHLThe America West Hockey League was a junior ice hockey league. The AWHL was formed in 1992 to offer junior ice hockey to the Rocky Mountain region of USA Hockey. It originally was called the American Frontier Hockey League , and the name change to AWHL came in 1998...
- Central Texas Blackhawks (2003–2004) NAHL
- Central Texas Marshals (2004–2005) NAHL