Ohio Hockey Apparel

Twenty defunct Ohio hockey teams from Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, and Toledo, plus two arenas, on shirts, hoodies, hats, and jerseys you will not find anywhere else.

Ohio is minor league hockey's home state whether or not it gets credit for it. The International Hockey League's first dynasty played in Cincinnati, its longest-running franchise in Toledo, and its best-attended team of the 1990s in Cleveland. The WHA came through Cleveland and Cincinnati, and Columbus had five different pro teams before the Blue Jackets. Every one of these teams is gone now. This is where they live on.

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Arctic Xpress Cincinnati Gardens Cincinnati Mohawks Cincinnati Stingers™ Cincinnati Swords Cincinnati Tigers Cleveland Arena Cleveland Crusaders Cleveland Lumberjacks Columbus Checkers Columbus Chill Columbus Golden Seals Columbus Mad Cows Columbus Owls™ Columbus Stars Dayton Gems Dayton Owls Toledo Blades Toledo Buckeyes Toledo Goaldiggers Toledo Hornets Toledo Mercurys

Ohio hockey history

Cincinnati. The Cincinnati Gardens opened in 1949 and within a few years housed the best team the International Hockey League has ever had: the Cincinnati Mohawks won five straight Turner Cups from 1953 to 1957, a streak no IHL team ever matched. The Cincinnati Swords brought the AHL to the Gardens in the early 1970s as the Buffalo Sabres' farm club. Then came the big league. The Cincinnati Stingers joined the World Hockey Association in 1975, played four seasons at the new Riverfront Coliseum, and gave teenage Mark Messier and Mike Gartner their first pro ice; when the WHA merged into the NHL in 1979 the Stingers were bought out rather than admitted. The Cincinnati Tigers had one Central Hockey League season in 1981–82 before the Gardens went quiet again.

Cleveland. The old Cleveland Arena on Euclid Avenue was home ice from 1937 until it was torn down in the late 1970s, and for most of that time the tenant was the AHL's Cleveland Barons. The WHA's Cleveland Crusaders opened there in 1972 before moving out to the new Richfield Coliseum, and left town in 1976 when the NHL Barons arrived. After the NHL experiment failed, the IHL's Cleveland Lumberjacks played nine seasons at the Richfield and then downtown from 1992 to 2001, drawing some of the biggest crowds in the minor leagues.

Columbus. Before the Blue Jackets, Columbus was a minor league town with a short attention span: the Checkers, Golden Seals, Owls, and Stars each had a turn in the IHL between the mid-1960s and the late 1970s, mostly at the Fairgrounds Coliseum. The Columbus Chill of the ECHL, from 1991 to 1999, were the ones who made it stick, with a marketing campaign that became a case study and attendance that helped convince the NHL the city was ready.

Dayton and Toledo. The Dayton Gems were an IHL fixture at Hara Arena from 1964 to 1977 and won two Turner Cups; the Dayton Owls followed briefly at the end of the decade. Toledo is the IHL's longest-running city. The Toledo Mercurys started in the league's earliest years and won multiple Turner Cups in the 1950s, and the franchise ran on through the Blades, the Hornets, and the Toledo Goaldiggers, who won four Turner Cups between 1975 and 1983 and were the IHL's model small-market club. The Toledo Buckeyes are the oldest name on the page.

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