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Gulf Coast Hockey League is an article about the now defunct professional minor ice hockey league that began forming in Texas, Arkansas and Louisiana in 1999. The driving force behind the new league was the ownership of the Texarkana Bandits (formerly the Texarkana Border Bandits). Other teams involved in the early stages of the league's formation include: The Dallas Sabres, The Houston Blast, The Little Rock Wildcats, The Monroe Moccasins, The Belton Stampede and The Austin Ice Bats.
The league finally launched their first season in 2000-2001 with four teams originally scheduled: Texarkana Bandits, Dallas Sabres, Houston Blast and Little Rock Wildcats. Weeks before the first game was scheduled, the Managing Partner of the Little Rock team, Jim Cashman, announced that the events of 9-11 had forced his financial partner to withdraw support and he surrendered his franchise and players to the league. The remaining three teams completed a full season, with many exhibition games held against non-GCHL teams to fill the dates left open by Little Rock's demise.
While the early part of the season was considered an overall success to most involved including the fans numbering into several thousand for some games, facility and ownership issues in Dallas, player issues in Houston, and a major allegation of interference with other franchise players and operations by Texarkana led to a tenuous second half of the season. The latter allegations culminated in an official hearing by the league and a fine paid by the Texarkana ownership in retribution to the Dallas owner who agreed to sell the team to a third-party.
The eventual champions of the first and only complete GCHL season were the Dallas Sabres, who defeated the arch-rival Texarkana Bandits 3-2 in a five game series. The Internet Hockey Database lists the 4 original teams, but does not show game, player, standings or final result stats. The logos for the three teams that actually played that season are available online at a number of sites, and some game pucks are still available for purchase. The GCHL website has long since been offline and the game stats and rosters may need to be manually reconstructed, if possible.
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