The Columbus Checkers were a minor league

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 in the International Hockey League from 1966 to 1970, and the first professional hockey team in Columbus, Ohio

Columbus, Ohio

Columbus is the capital of and the largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio. The broader metropolitan area encompasses several counties and is the third largest in Ohio behind those of Cleveland and Cincinnati. Columbus is the third largest city in the American Midwest, and the fifteenth largest city...

.

Their first game was against the Chicago Blackhawks

Chicago Blackhawks

The Chicago Blackhawks are a professional ice hockey team based in Chicago, Illinois. They are members of the Central Division of the Western Conference of the National Hockey League . They have won four Stanley Cup championships since their founding in 1926, most recently coming in 2009-10...

 of the National Hockey League

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...

 on October 12, 1966 at the Ohio Expo Fairgrounds Coliseum.

The team was originally coached by Moe Bartoli, however after the 1967–68 season, Bartoli was involved in a dispute with the teams owners, and left. Jack Turner took over as the team's Head Coach at the start of the 1968 season.

The Columbus Checkers became defunct in the spring of 1970 due to low attendance.

Season-by-season results

Season	Games	Won	Lost	Tied	Points	Goals for	Goals against
1966–67	72	23	48	1	47	294	373
1967–68	72	32	30	10	74	312	300
1968–69	72	36	37	9	61	286	333
1969–70	72	24	36	12	60	287	307