Miami Screaming Eagles

Miami Screaming Eagles
City	Miami, Florida
Franchise history
1972	Miami Screaming Eagles
1972–1973	Philadelphia Blazers
1973–1975	Vancouver Blazers
1975–1977	Calgary Cowboys

The Miami Screaming Eagles were a professional ice hockey team that had intended to play in Miami. The Screaming Eagles were charter members of the World Hockey Association, but never played a game in Miami due to the only available arena being unfit for use.

The Screaming Eagles franchise was the second attempt at a professional hockey team for the South Florida market. The first came two years prior; Seymour H. Knox III, Northrup R. Knox and Robert O. Swados, the owners of the Buffalo Sabres, were awarded an American Hockey League franchise in 1970. The Knox-Swados consortium intended on placing their AHL team in South Florida; the AHL refused to allow a team to play in a market that distant (the AHL had no teams south of Virginia at the time). The proposed team was instead placed in Cincinnati, Ohio and named the Cincinnati Swords.

Businessman Herb Martin bought a franchise in the WHA in 1972. The Screaming Eagles made a splash immediately by signing Bernie Parent from the Toronto Maple Leafs -- the first National Hockey League star inked by the rebel league -- and Boston Bruins standout Derek Sanderson. Martin developed a unique plan to build an arena within the walls of four office buildings to create what he called the Executive Square Arena. This new arena was to have been a showcase for the new league. The WHA had even planned to open their season in Miami on October 6, 1972 by hosting the Winnipeg Jets in the new arena. But the plans started to fall apart when construction of the proposed arena was halted. Dade County cited failure to comply with a zoning ordinance which requires one parking spot for every four seats in the arena. At a league meeting in Chicago, the WHA would not accept Miami's $100,000 performance bond because of the lack of a arena to open the season.

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