ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, October 13, 1996 TAG: 9610150008
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: COMPILED BY STAFF WRITER RALPH BERRIER JR.
Oct. 24, 1967 Salem Rebels play the first professional hockey game in Roanoke Valley history and beat Jacksonville 3-1 before 2,000 fans at the brand new Salem-Roanoke Valley Civic Center.
1968 Rebels finish first season with a league-worst 11-53-8 record.
1969 Colin Kilburn named Rebels coach and leads team to first playoff appearance.
Nov. 20, 1970 Kilburn inserts himself as goalie and helps Rebels beat Jacksonville 6-4.
1973 Roanoke Valley Rebels win Eastern League regular-season championship, but are bounced in playoffs.
April 6, 1974 Roanoke Valley Rebels win Southern League title by beating Charlotte four games to one, including a 3-2 win in the seventh and deciding game. Two years later, financial problems would cause the team to fold.
1976-1980 No hockey
Oct. 11, 1980 Utica (N.Y.) Mohawks of Eastern League re-locate to Salem and become Salem Raiders.
Nov. 12, 1982 Vinton oil baron Henry Brabham buys Raiders from Donald ``Whitey'' and Danny Taylor, who had taken over the team the previous January when it was ready to fold. Brabham, who had been a part-owner of previous Roanoke Valley Rebels teams, would become the major figure in Roanoke Valley hockey for the rest of the decade.
1980-83 The Raiders brawl their way through the Eastern and Atlantic Coast Leagues, where fights are commonplace. Some fights spread to the Salem Civic Center stands, where fans brawl with opposing players.
March 16, 1983 Six Carolina Thunderbirds players are charged with disorderly conduct after a Virginia Raiders fan is beaten during the ACHL playoffs. Newspaper editorials decry hockey games as unsafe for families.
May, 1983 Salem mayor Jim Taliaferro proclaims hockey is a ``black eye for the whole community.'' A rift forms between city officials and Brabham, who offers to buy the Salem Civic Center for $1 million. After failing to negotiate a lease, Brabham folds the team.
Dec. 15, 1983 Professional hockey is resurrected in Salem when the ACHL asks Brabham to take over the debt-ridden Nashville (Tenn.) Stars. Brabham, owner of the Lancer gas station/market chain, changes the franchise name to Virginia Lancers. The team has no uniforms, however, and has to wear the old Salem Raiders jerseys.
1984 Brabham breaks ground on the LancerLot sports complex in Vinton.
Nov. 29, 1984 The Virginia Lancers play their first game in the $3.2 million LancerLot and beat Pine Bridge 5-3 before 1,548 fans.
April 10, 1987 Lancers win ACHL championship. The league folds that summer.
1987-88 Brabham revives hockey again by getting the Lancers into the All-American Hockey League, a loop that includes teams from Troy, Ohio; Danville, Ill.; and three Michigan teams. Despite a 33-3 start, the team barely averages 1,000 fans per game at the LancerLot. The Lancers win the regular-season title, then the league folds.
Summer, 1988 Brabham leads the charge to form the East Coast Hockey League, which begins with teams in Erie, Pa.; Johnstown, Pa.; Knoxville, Tenn.; Winston-Salem, N.C.; and Vinton.
1988-93 As the ECHL becomes more stable, Roanoke Valley hockey struggles. Richard Geery buys the team in 1989, Larry Revo buys it in 1992. The team changes its name to the Roanoke Valley Rebels in 1991 and in 1992 to the Roanoke Valley Rampage, which later would be preceded by the phrase ``ill-fated.''
1992-93 The ill-fated Roanoke Valley Rampage skates to a 14-49-1 record, the worst in ECHL history.
March 13, 1993 The Rampage's home season ends fittingly, as the LancerLot roof collpases beneath a 16-inch snowfall during the team's home finale. Players and the 63 fans on hand during a blizzard are evacuated before approximately three-quarters of the roof collpases. A few days later, Revo announces he is moving the team to Huntsville, Ala. It is believed to signal the end of professional hockey in the Roanoke Valley.
March 19, 1993 A group led by former Roanoke Valley Rebel Pierre Paiement and trucking magnate John Gagnon announces it wants to put an ECHL team in the Roanoke Civic Center.
May 6, 1993 Following its last-minute sales pitch and some late arm-twisting of other ECHL owners by Brabham, the Roanoke group is awarded a franchise along with the warning ``this is Roanoke's last chance.''
1993-96 The Roanoke Express becomes a rousing success, setting Roanoke Valley hockey attendance records in each of its three seasons. Under the leadership of coach Frank Anzalone, the team makes three consecutive playoff appearances. In 1995-96, the Express averages 5,679 fans per game at the Roanoke Civic Center.
April 19, 1996 Gagnon and Paiement are dismissed as club officers by minority owners who are displeased the two are setting up an ECHL expansion franchise in Biloxi, Miss. Richard Macher is named president and Joe Steffen vice president, although Paiement stays on as general manager. Gagnon remains the team's major shareholder.
LENGTH: Long : 130 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: 1. Henry Brabham holds the Payne Trophy after theby CNBRoanoke Valley Rebels won the ACHL title in 1987.
2. The Rebels logo was worn by players in Salem, Roanoke and Vinton
from the 1970s to the 90s. color
3. The Roanoke Valley Rebels beat Jacksonville 3-1 in the valley's
first hockey game Oct. 24, 1967, at the Salem-Roanoke Valley Civic
Center.
4. Virginia's Tom Diedrich (center) celebrates with Surge Roberge
(left) and Cory Goddard after the Lancers won the 1987 Atlantic
Coast Hockey League championship.
5. Ray Woit (left) and Danny Sullivan were two stars of the
early-1970s Rebels teams that were so popular with Roanoke Valley
fans.
6. Colin Kilburn was a coach and general manager of the Rebels
during their glory days in the '70s. He even played goalie once.