Roller Hockey International
 |
|
| Sport | Inline hockey |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1992 |
| Founder |
Dennis Murphy Ralph Backstrom Larry King |
| Inaugural season | 1993 |
| Ceased | 2001 |
| Countries | United States Canada |
| Last champion(s) |
St. Louis Vipers |
| Most titles | Anaheim Bullfrogs (2) |
Roller Hockey International was a professional inline hockey league that operated in North America from 1993 to 1999. It was the first major professional league for inline hockey.
League president Dennis Murphy had been involved in the establishment of the American Basketball Association, World Hockey Association and World Team Tennis. RHI hoped to capitalize on the inline skating boom of the early 1990s. Key parts of its success were its stance on no guaranteed contracts, instead teams would all split prize money.
Teams were generally made up of minor league ice hockey players playing on inline skates during the summer months between ice seasons. RHI was also known for its unstable franchises and instability in the league's front office itself.
Ultimately, after five seasons of play and a fading in the inline skating boom, RHI folded in 1998 with two of its franchises joining Major League Roller Hockey: the Buffalo Wings and its premier club, the Anaheim Bullfrogs. After folding there was a movement to revamp and come back the following year as Major League Hockey, but it never came to fruition. RHI was revived in 1999, with a 10-team roster that included five holdovers that had played in RHI in 1997: the Anaheim Bullfrogs, Buffalo Wings, Minnesota Blue Ox, San Jose Rhinos and St. Louis Vipers.
The league cancelled the 2000 season and the league finally folded operations in 2001 when their sites were limited to arenas in California.
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