Baltimore Bandits
Shop retro Baltimore Bandits tees, hoodies, crewnecks, hats, jerseys and more. Created to fill the gap left by the Skipjacks, the Bandits played mostly weeknight games at Baltimore Arena and knocked off the Hershey Bears in overtime of a deciding Game Five in their first playoff series. Celebrate this Baltimore hockey club by browsing all of our Bandits gear, then read the team history below. Vintage Ice Hockey is a small American business that keeps the designs and history of forgotten hockey clubs alive.
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Baltimore Bandits History
Baltimore was a very successful hockey city for many years with the Clippers and Skipjacks calling the city home from the 1940s through the early 1990s. When the Skipjacks left in 1993, the Bandits were created to fill the large hockey-sized hole in Baltimore. Unfortunately, the Bandits were not able to find the success that the city's two previous teams did. They got off to a bad start when they couldn't secure weekend dates at Baltimore Arena due to the indoor soccer team that played there, so they played mostly during the week and had a tough time attracting fans. After only half a season, the team's original owners checked out and sold the team.ย
On the ice, the Bandits were alright. Theyย were 33-36-9-2 in 1995-96 and would knock off the Hershey Bears in the first round of the playoffs, winning in overtime in the deciding Game Five. In their second season, their new owner played the "ask for a new arena" card with didn't work. The Bandits would be sold and moved to Cincinnati after only two seasons in Maryland. More than two decades later the Baltimore Arena (now Royal Farms Arena) is still standing but it has been without a hockey tenant ever since.ย
