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  hey started playing professional hockey in Austin, Texas in 1996. Performing in an arena built for livestock shows and rodeos, a new kind of cowboy rode into town that year, ready to lace up his skates and glide around with his
teammates as the pioneers of a new frontier.
Some are former National Hockey League players finishing out their careers.
Most are guys who never quite made it to the NHL. And a very few are
promising young kids who dream of leaving behind the dank, musty locker rooms
of the WPHL for their chance in Montreal, Detroit, or New York. But all of
them have one thing in common: they just want to play hockey. It is in their
blood.
They are willing to endure the long bus rides, from Austin to Amarillo
to Albuquerque to Tupelo. They play in buildings without air conditioning,
where the ice is just cold enough to stay frozen and where there might be
enough hot water to take a shower after the game. And they do it all for
the league's minimum salary of $300 a week - just to play the only game
they've ever really known and loved.
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When the Western Professional Hockey League began in 1996, the original six
teams (that number has since more than doubled) were faced with the daunting
prospect of introducing hockey to potential fans who thought that icing only
came in chocolate or vanilla.
The solution turned out to be simple. Blast some rock-and- roll over the
loudspeakers. Create an atmosphere more akin to the World Wrestling
Federation and turn a blind eye (sometimes two, it seemed) to the fights.
It was what they came to see, after all. It didn't matter that the quality of the game was a far cry from that of the NHL - the fans loved every minute of it.
And it gave the boys the chance to keep on playing hockey.
- Darren Carroll
Austin, Texas
June, 1999
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