Tag: Cobo Arena

Detroit Motor City Mustangs Roller Hockey International

Detroit Motor City Mustangs

The Motor City Mustangs were a pro roller hockey promotion that played one season at Cobo Arena in the summer of 1995. Detroit Red Wings star Shawn Burr owned the club, possibly along with Red Wings teammate Dino Ciccarelli, who was cagey at best about his participation in the adventure. Tony Szabo, a veteran of Northern Michigan University’s 1991 NCAA ice hockey national championship team, scored 50 goals for the Mustangs and was named Roller Hockey International’s 1995 Player of the Year. But the Mustangs were a flop at the box office and went out of business after just one season.

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Illustration of Pato Margetic on the cover of a 1995 Detroit Rockers program from the National Professional Soccer League

Detroit Rockers

The Detroit Rockers were an indoor soccer team that earned a modest following in the Motor City during the 1990’s.  The Rockers won the championship of the National Professional Soccer League during their second season in the winter of 1991-92. Fan favorites included forward Andy Chapman, player-coach Pato Margetic, forward Drago Dumbovic, and long-time goalkeeper Bryan Finnerty.

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Michigan Stags World Hockey Association

Michigan Stags

The Michigan Stags were a brief and doomed attempt by the rebel World Hockey Association (1972-1979) to challenge the NHL’s Detroit Red Wings head-to-head during the winter of 1974-75. The NHL club was ripe for a challenge, as they were mired in the depths of the “Dead Wings” era. But the Stags’ local owners did not possess the financial fortitude to take on the Red Wings, even in their weakened state. The Stags, who played at 10,000-seat Cobo Arena, threw in the towel after only 43 games and absconded to Baltimore in the middle of the 1974-75 WHA season. The combined Stags/Baltimore Blades team finished the year with a dreadful 21-53-4 last place finish and promptly went out of business.

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Detroit Spirits Continental Basketball Association

Detroit Spirits

The Detroit Spirits were a minor league basketball franchise that toiled in the shadow of the NBA’s Detroit Pistons for five seasons during the mid-1980’s. The Spirits served up a chaotic blend of triumph, tribulation and low comedy that could have launched a thousand Hollywood screenplays. The team won a league championship, signed notorious NBA burnout Marvin “Bad News Barnes”, and fell victim to a bizarre scheme that saw enterprising state prison inmates bill $19,000 in long distance phone calls to the team’s account. And that was just the Spirits’ first season…

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Rosie Casals publicity photo from the 1974 Detroit Loves of World Team Tennis

Detroit Loves

World Team Tennis (1974) Born: 1973 – WTT founding franchise Moved: November 1974 (Indiana Loves) First Game: May 9, 1974 (W 28-19 vs. Toronto-Buffalo Royals)

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