About the Spokane Chiefs
When the Chiefs score at home they play a tarantella song over the PA while fans all stand and clap to the beat. It's a small, classic touch that one sportswriter (no doubt tired of hearing AC/DC pumped into underwhelmed stadiums) has called "the best celebratory tradition in junior hockey."
Over the years the fans have heard a lot of that tarantella song. The Chiefs play in the Western Hockey League, a famously brawling onetime "outlaw league" based in Western Canada and the Pacific Northwest, which is one of three leagues making up the Canadian Hockey League. Spokane is one of five U.S. teams in the WHL. In 1991 and 2008, the Chiefs won the WHL title and the Memorial Cup, which goes to the best major junior hockey team in the CHL. In the 2008 semifinals, the Chiefs and their rival, the Tri-City Americans, played an epic series, with five of the seven games going into overtime and three ending in double overtime. In the finals, the Chiefs swept the Lethbridge Hurricanes, outscoring them 15-5 in four games.
As of 2018, some 60 former Chiefs have gone on to play in the NHL, including recent all-stars Tyler Johnson and Michael Grabner. In 2016, the team retired its first jersey, Ray Whitney's No. 14. In the Chiefs' 1990-91 season, Whitney (nicknamed "The Wizard" for his talents with the puck) put up a franchise record of 185 points, 67 goals and 118 assists. After helping the Chiefs win a Memorial Cup in 1991, Whitney graduated to the NHL, eventually winning a Stanley Cup in 2006 as a member of the Carolina Hurricanes.
The Chiefs play in Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena, which opened in 1995. It's a multi-use stadium that has also hosted basketball, arena football, figure skating and bull-riding events.
