1995 Buffalo Blizzard Media Guide from the National Professional Soccer League

Buffalo Blizzard

National Professional Soccer League (1992-2001)

Tombstone

Born: June 1992 – NPSL expansion franchise
Folded: August 15, 2001

First Game: November 6, 1992 (W 15-7 vs. Denver Thunder)
Last Game: April 13, 2001 (L 18-13 @ Baltimore Blast)

NPSL Championships: None

Arenas

1992-1996: Buffalo Memorial Auditorium (16,325)11993-94 Buffalo Blizzard Media Guide
Opened: 1940
Demolished: 2009

1996-2001Marine Midland Arena (18,500)21999-00 Buffalo Blizzard Media Guide
Opened: 1996

Branding

Team Colors: Blue, Purple, Black & White31993-94 Buffalo Blizzard Media Guide

Radio (1992-93): WXBX AM 1400
Broadcaster (1992-93): Clip Smith

Mascot: Spyke (the Dog)

Dance Team: The Storm

Ownership

Attendance

Fun While It Lasted has put together a partial chart of Buffalo Blizzard attendance, but we are still missing several seasons of team and league attendance data.

Tilting your mobile device may offer better viewing.

Source: 1999-00 St. Louis Ambush & Buffalo Blizzard Media Guides

 

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Background

The Buffalo Blizzard were a long-running indoor soccer franchise that enjoyed a degree of popularity in Western New York during the early 1990’s.  The team started in 1992 with a strong managerial pedigree.  The original owners included brothers Seymour & Northrup Knox, then owners of the NHL’s Buffalo Sabres, as well as Bob and Melinda Rich, the owners of the city’s wildly popular minor league baseball club, the Buffalo Bisons.

The Knox/Rich soccer group became the subject of a heated competition between America’s two indoor leagues, the Major Indoor Soccer League and the National Professional Soccer League.  The MISL was older, played in bigger cities and had better talent.  Buffalo also had a previous history with the MISL – the city’s previous indoor club, the Buffalo Stallions, played in the league from 1979 to 1984. But by the early 1990’s the MISL was frail, shrinking and wracked by labor unrest.  The upstart NPSL, formed in 1984, was expanding into a nationwide air travel league after spending much of the 1980’s as a Midwestern bus circuit.  The Blizzard ultimately chose to join the NPSL, a decision that hastened the demise of the 14-year old MISL in July of 1992.

Trevor Dawkins Buffalo Blizzard

Rivalry with Cleveland Crunch

The Blizzard’s finest season came during the expansion year of 1992-93.  The team posted an all-time best mark of 23-17 under Head Coach Trevor Dawkins, but lost in the quarterfinals of the NPSL playoffs to the Cleveland Crunch.  Just about every Blizzard season to follow more or less followed the same plot.   The team had only two losing seasons in nine years, but never won a playoff series.  The Crunch eliminated the Blizzard in the first round four consecutive years from 1993 to 1996.

Key Players

Key players for the Blizz included local brothers Randy Pikuzinski and Rudy Pikuzinski.  Randy was the only Blizzard player to play all nine seasons for the club.  Rudy played eight years, missing only the club’s final season in the winter of 2000-01.   U.S. National Team goalkeeper and captain Tony Meola, one of the best known soccer players in the country at the time, appeared in a dozen games for the Blizzard during the 1994-95 season.  But Meola would leave the team before the playoffs after getting cast in an off-Broadway play.

The Blizzard played at The Aud for their first four seasons until that building closed in 1996.  Then they moved into the brand new Marine Midland Arena in 1996.  The move into the new arena coincided with a sale of the team in August 1996.  Team President John Bellanti, a long-time local soccer booster who also served as a top exec for the MISL’s Stallions in the early 80’s, purchased the club from the Knox family.

Ralph Black and Jamie Swanner on the cover of a 1994 Buffalo Blizzard indoor soccer program

Decline & Closure

Bellanti kept the Stallions going for another five seasons.  But interest in the team waned as the population of Buffalo shrank and the sport of indoor soccer ceded ground to a resurgence of the outdoor game. The city’s crowded sports landscape was another challenge. The Blizzard faced competition from both the Sabres and the Buffalo Bandits box lacrosse team for ticket sales and sponsorships.

The National Professional Soccer League re-organized and re-branded itself in the summer of 2001, adopting the now-nostalgic “Major Indoor Soccer League” name.  During this time, Bellanti acknowledged that the team had lost money for nine straight years. He decided to fold the club in August 2001.

 

Buffalo Blizzard Shop

 

 

 

Buffalo Blizzard Video

The Blizzard host the Cleveland Crunch at the Aud in the 1996 NPSL playoffs.

 

In Memoriam

Blizzard co-founder Seymour Knox passed away after a bout with cancer on May 22, 1996 at age 70. Buffalo News obituary.

Carlos Salguero, a former Buffalo Stallions player who served as Head Coach of the Blizzard during the 1997-98 season, died on cancer in December 2006 at the age of 51.

Paul Kitson, the Blizzard’s final Head Coach from 1999-2001, died of a heart attack on August 25, 2005 at age 49.

 

Links

National Professional Soccer League Media Guides

National Professional Soccer League Programs 1990-2001

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Comments

5 Responses

  1. Hello, I am Carlos Salguero’s son, my name is same as my father Carlos Salguero. Is there any videos or pictures from the Buffalo Blizzard days when he was a coach and or played for the Stallions?

    1. Hi Carlos,

      I haven’t seen anything of your father from that era. The best places to look would be to periodically check YouTube to see if anyone has posted some television broadcast footage from that season (or seasons), or to look on e-Bay for game programs from those years. Sorry I can’t be more helpful.

      Drew

    2. Hi Carlos! I was a huge soccer fan when your dad played for the Stallions. I will try to find my photos for you!

  2. I worked for rich entertainment group in 1992, at pilot field, when the Buffalo blizzard apparel was announced. The employees wore the apparel and we were featured in the sports section of the Buffalo news. How can I go about getting a copy of that article, or photo? I would like to show my grandkids.

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