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Old Team Tuesday is a weekly feature taking a look at former teams that have gone by the wayside. After a two-week hiatus, we return this week to close out a two-part series examining the history of professional roller hockey in Buffalo . ********************************************** After financial ruin laid waste to the Buffalo Stampede during the 1995 RHI season, Buffalo was left without a professional roller hockey team. The absence of a team meant Memorial Auditorium would close its doors for good in the spring, rather than in late summer when the roller hockey season would come to a close. Instability in pro roller hockey continued to be a problem, with teams folding and relocating at a frenetic pace. After playing for two years in Phoenix, the Cobras relocated to Glens Falls, New York for the 1996 season. The move failed to turn around the fortunes of the franchise, so they uprooted themselves yet again and signed a one-year agreement to play at the new Marine Midl...

Old Team Tuesday is a weekly feature taking a look at former teams that have gone by the wayside. This week’s edition is the first in a two-part series examining the history of professional roller hockey in Buffalo . ********************************************** Looking to capitalize on the inline skating fad that was seemingly ubiquitous in the early 1990s, sports pioneer Dennis Murphy ventured into virtually unchartered territory when he established Roller Hockey International in 1991. Unlike his previous forays with the American Basketball Association or World Hockey Association, there was no established league to contend with in the sport, and unlike his other former project, World Team Tennis, there was no professional organization of any kind related to roller hockey. Roller Hockey International made its debut in the spring of 1993, placing 12 franchises in cities all over North America. After the Anaheim Bullfrogs defeated the Oakland Skates to win the inaugural Mu...