The Knoxville Ice Bears hit the ice for another exciting season in the Southern Professional Hockey League. The Knoxville Ice Bears play out of the General James White Memorial Civic Auditorium and Coliseum (usually shortened to Knoxville Civic Coliseum), which opened in 1961 and has a capacity of 5,937. Coach Jeff Carr replaced Mike Craigen before the beginning of the 2017-18 season. The Ice Bears are one of five teams playing in the SPHL, including the Birmingham Bulls, the Huntsville Havoc, the Macon Mayhem and the Pensacola Ice Flyers.

History of the Knoxville Ice Bears

The Marble City has had a decades-long love affair with hockey, with the Knoxville Knights playing in the Eastern Hockey League from 1961 to 1968, and the Knoxville Cherokees of the East Coast Hockey League from 1988 to 1997. Mike Murray was the Cherokees’ all-time leader in points, goals and assists before becoming the Ice Bears’ general manager in 2006. The Knoxville Speed of the United Hockey League played from 1999 until 2002, after which the Ice Bears were founded as a charter member of the Atlantic Coast Hockey League. After one season, the ACHL split into the SEHL (of which the Ice Bears were a member) and WHA 2, with the surviving teams from each league rejoining for the 2004-05 season as the Southern Professional Hockey League.

The Knoxville Ice Bears have been the most successful franchise by far in the SPHL, winning President’s Cup championships in 2006, 2008, 2009 and 2015, and William B. Coffey trophies as the team with the best regular-season record in 2005, 2006, 2008 and 2009. UFC fighter Scott “Hot Sauce” Holtzman, who hails from Knoxville, played two games with the Ice Bears in the 2007-08 season, before pursuing a career in mixed martial arts.