Waco Wizards

Until the 1990s, hockey teams in the South were few and far between. The heat prevalent in the southern states did not exactly lend itself to ice-based sports, leading locals to favor warm-weather sports such as baseball and football. However, the National Hockey League’s (NHL’s) expansion teams began to gradually make their way further south throughout the 1990s, spreading a new interest in the sport. In 1993, the expansion reached Texas when the Minnesota North Stars moved to Dallas, becoming the beloved Dallas Stars.

With these new NHL teams came their minor league counterparts. The majority of these new minor league teams belonged to the Western Professional Hockey League (WPHL), which operated from 1996-2001 and stretched from New Mexico to Mississippi. In 1996, Waco became home to one of Texas’ five (soon to become eleven) WPHL teams, the Wizards. The Waco Wizards played in the WPHL’s first ever game on October 16, 1996, against the Central Texas Stampede from Belton. The game resulted in an unfortunate 5-4 loss for Waco.

The Wizards played their home games in Waco’s Heart of Texas Coliseum, now called the Extraco Events Center. Their first home game exemplified both the struggles and the vibrancy of minor league play in the South. Waco’s humidity caused a thick fog to gather over the ice, and the Wizards’ administration had to send for dehumidifiers from Dallas to dry out the building. They were able to clear some of the fog, but the glass around the rink remained foggy throughout the game, blocking the enthusiastic but somewhat confused fans. On top of that, a creative and well-intentioned mascot stunt went awry. During the pre-game ceremonies, the Waco mascot was lowered from the Coliseum’s ceiling in full Wizard costume. Unfortunately, the bulky costume got in the way of the mascot attempting to release himself from the straps after the stunt, resulting in him hanging for a while over the ice.

In their first season, the Wizards averaged 3,161 fans in attendance (about one third of the Coliseum’s capacity) and finished with a 30-34 record. The team experienced a sophomore slump the next year, averaging 2,048 fans in attendance each game and finishing 18-51, a WPHL record for a team’s worst season. However, new head coach Todd Lalonde turned the team around in its third season and brought the Wizards to the playoffs after achieving the Wizards’ first ever winning record with 40 wins and 29 losses. Despite the Wizards’ success, attendance stayed low, with an average of 2,137 fans a game.

In their three and a half seasons, the Wizards replaced their manager four times and never had a player advance to the National Hockey League (NHL). Their overall record came to 99 wins and 114 losses. During the first three seasons of operation, the team reportedly lost three million dollars. In 1999, the Wizard’s owner, Ohio businessman Joe Milano, sold the team to Rick Dames, a radio station owner from Corpus Christi. Dames in turn partnered with baseball executives Stu and Sue Kehoe in an attempt to revitalize the dying franchise. Their attempts were unsuccessful, and when they were unable to make their lease payment to the Coliseum, the team folded after only having played 27 games in the 1999-2000 season. The Wizards went out the same way they began: with a loss, this time to the Corpus Christi IceRays.

The WPHL lasted another year after the Wizards folded before merging with the Central Hockey League, which in turn lasted until 2013. The WPHL saw a resurrection in 2024, when a group of minor league teams in California came together to revive the once-beloved league. Although the Wizards only existed for a few years, they sparked a love for hockey in the people of Waco.