Hockey Programs

1997-98 Regular Season Lumber Kings vs. Brantford Smoke Lumber Kings vs. Port Huron Border Cats Lumber Kings vs. BC Icemen      The Saginaw Lumber Kings were coming off a miserable 1996-97 season on the ice and at the box office. The team finished next-to-last in the Colonial Hockey League with a 21-48-5 record and saw their attendance drop to 2,062 per game (fourth lowest in the league). The Lumber Kings were also the first team in the Saginaw-Flint hockey rivalry to be swept in a season series, dropping all 13 games to the Flint Generals. Despite this, John Blum returned as Head Coach/GM, and added ex-Gears forward Warren Holmes as an assistant. Home games were still played at 4,727-seat Wendler Arena (once again, no ice-level seats).      The Lumber Kings weren't much better in 1997-98. After starting off 9-14-0, Blum was fired and replaced by Warren Holmes. Didn't really matter, as Saginaw finished dead last in the United Hockey League (UHL), with a 23-...

1996-97 Regular Season Lumber Kings vs. Quad City Mallards       The Saginaw Lumber Kings, in fact all three versions of the UHL's run in Saginaw, represent the "Dark Ages of Hockey" in the Tri-Cities. Poor attendance, mediocre-at-best teams, and ownership instability plagued Saginaw during the mid-late 1990s. The franchise, arriving from Chatham, Ontario, in the summer of 1994, went through four ownership changes (and one takeover by the league) and three rebrands before moving away in December 1999.      The Saginaw Wheels were purchased from the Colonial Hockey League by 26-year old physician Dr. Muhanad Jondy, a colleague of Flint Generals owner Dr. Khaled Shukairy. A name-the-team contest was held during the summer, and "Saginaw Lumber Kings" was chosen, to represent the region's lumbering tradition. Team colors were wineberry, gold, black and white, and the jerseys were modeled after the Colorado Avalanche. Home games were played at 4,727-seat Wendler...

     After the Hawks folded, Saginaw was without hockey yet again. This time, the drought would last five years. Cities like Saginaw, Flint, Toledo and Muskegon were eventually too small to compete financially in the IHL, which had grown from Midwest bus league in the 1970s to having teams in Salt Lake City, Denver and Phoenix by the end of the 1980s. An OHL exhibition game was held in Saginaw, but nothing would come of it. When hockey returned to town, it would be in the form of a lower-level minor league, the Colonial League. To say the least, Saginaw's 4-1/2 year run in this league was a roller coaster. 1992-93 Inaugural Game--Wheels vs. Flint      Saginaw's third hockey franchise began in Chatham, Ontario, in 1992. The team was called "Chatham Wheels", named after the Wheels Inn in Chatham. The Wheels played in Chatham Memorial Arena, a building that was once home to an IHL team in the early 1960s and various amateur teams, but was the ...