History of Hockey: Dixieland Edition

With NHL hockey coming soon to Las Vegas, this is a good opportunity to look at how hockey has flourished in a non-traditional market. Today, it is about what may very well become the future home of this writer, that being Nashville, TN.  Long before the Predators started play in 1998, they had a few iterations in lower level leagues, to greatly varying degrees of success.

Prior to both the Predators and the then-named Nashville Arena (now Bridgestone Arena), the hockey teams in Nashville played in the old Nashville Municipal Auditorium, which still stands today and hosts events. Hockey in Nashville dates back to 1962, when the Dixie Flyers hit the ice in the EHL. That franchise was the longest iteration of the pre-NHL days, as they lasted from 1962 until 1971. After that franchise folded, Nashville went without hockey for 10 years before the South Stars hit the ice with the CHL for the 1981-82 season. That franchise lasted just one season before going under. However, Nashville would resurrect the team name for the following season, this time, in the ACHL. They would last a season and a half before they picked up stakes to Salem, VA and became the Lancers, leaving Nashville without a team for five and a half years.

In 1989, the Knights entered the fray and played in the ECHL, back when it was the East Coast Hockey League. They had a seven year run and drew fairly well in their first four years. and notable players to have come through Nashville in that time included Harry York, Link Gaetz, and Glen Metropolit. After that franchise relocated to Pensacola after the 1995-96 season, Nashville had two different teams in the CHL in the Nighthawks for the 1996-97 season and the Ice Flyers in the 1997-98 season before the NHL came calling, and the Predators began play in 1998 in the newly built Nashville Arena (now known as Bridgestone Arena).

There you have it, the history of hockey in Nashville. While the early days have seen varying degrees of success on the ice, the roots of what would become the Predators and the city's hockey fascination were laid with those teams, and now coming off of a Stanley Cup Finals run, the future looks even brighter for hockey in Nashville.