TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) – Considering Florida’s recent success on the ice, it’s hard to imagine hockey as a foreign concept to the sunshine state. But three decades ago, the sport took Tallahassee by storm, giving the Capital City a team of its own and starting a feeding frenzy in the ECHL.
“I remember them saying we’ve got a hockey team coming and I was like ‘what?’ ‘What in the heck is hockey?’” said Sandra Golden, a former WCTV sports reporter.
In 1994, the puck dropped in Tallahassee for the first time. The relocating Huntsville Blast took a bite out of the Capital City to become the ECHL’s Tiger Sharks.
“Hockey,” said Greg Tish, a collector and former Tiger Sharks fan. “No clue about it. But ended up falling in love with it. It was something so unusual that worked here in Tallahassee. It was kind of magical.”
Home games were played at what was then the Leon County Civic Center. The rush was on to lay down ice, create a team identity, build a roster and even make a mascot, appropriately named Frenzy.
“This one here is the original,” said former Tiger Shark player Cory Paterson, pointing to the large shark head behind him. “In my opinion, this is maybe one of the most unique mascots in the history of sports.”
“It’s kind of unique when people say, ‘where are you from?’ ‘I’m from Tallahassee.’ People can’t believe they had ice there once upon a time,” said Terry Christensen, a former Tiger Sharks head coach.
The work was completed in time for the first faceoff on October 19, 1994. The Tiger Sharks beat the Birmingham Bulls. Jim Paradise scored the team’s first goal in their iconic first season jersey.
“Their colors only stayed those colors the first year. They switched from hot pink to red the first year,” said Tish, who own’s Paradise’s jersey from that first goal. “That’s the ultimate collectors item right there.”
Coach Christensen remembers year one as the best one, but like many new teams, it didn’t start that way.
“For much of the first half of the season we were way down in the standings,” he said. “But I liked the way our team was playing as we were getting closer to Christmas.”
As 1994 gave way to 1995, the Sharks began to pick up steam, bolstered by incoming talent, including the veteran Paterson.
“I was watching the team going ‘ugh, I don’t know about this team.’ But somehow they won and then they won again, and they won again. And I was like, ‘okay, there’s something to this team.”
As the Sharks winning percentage grew, so did their fanbase.
“The Tigers Sharks were Tallahassee, Florida’s team,” said Christensen.
Paterson remembered his first game after the trade to Tallahassee.
“My first game that I played was a Friday night home game and there were like 6,000 people in the stands already for warm up and I was like ‘what is going on with this place?’” Paterson said. “After warm up, we go in, come back out and at the start of the game we had 10,000, 10,500 [fans].”
“It was the hottest ticket in town,” said Golden, who covered the team from 1994-1997. “It really was.”
The Tiger Sharks are still remembered fondly by their fans.
“We would hurry up and get the kids homework done so we could rush to the game,” said Deborah Merritt, a Tiger Sharks season ticket holder.
“Doing the chicken dance was just always a good time,” said Fran Brooks, another season ticket holder.
“The atmosphere was one of the biggest things that I remember,” said Justin Highland, who was a kid when the team debuted.
It was also a crazy experience for team employees.
“I went home smelling like beer many, many nights,” said Andy Surratt, who was the visiting penalty box attendant.
The Tiger Sharks rode the energy from that first season to the ECHL semifinals. They lost in a winner-take-all game five. The team fell in the same round the next year and were defeated in the first round in the 1997 playoffs.
“Every year we got knocked out of the playoff that we were in it, we got knocked out by the eventual champion,” said Christensen.
That Tiger Sharks frenzy eventually ended. Fewer wins at the shark tank led to fewer fans and the team’s eventual relocation in 2001. But the memories have stayed in the Capital City.
“We think about them quite a bit,” said Merritt.
“I think you could talk to every other family and you ask them six degrees of the Tiger Sharks, and they will have a story about how someone they met, and a game that they went to meant so much to them,” said Golden.
The Tiger Sharks moved to Macon, GA in 2001 for one season. Then after another short stop over, the team found a permanent home as the Utah Grizzlies.
Today, 24 years after Tallahassee lost its hockey team, the Tiger Sharks story might have another chapter.
“I have been formulating a game plan, since [2001], all these years, to bring hockey back to Tallahassee,” said Paterson.
“To have a team back would be fantastic,” said Tish.
On Friday, June 20, WCTV will take a look at what needs to go right for a hockey team to succeed in Tallahassee again and if a Tiger Sharks return could actually happen.
More to come.
To keep up with the latest news as it develops, follow WCTV on Facebook, Instagram, Bluesky and X (Twitter).
Have a news tip or see an error that needs attention? Write to us here. Please include the article’s headline in your message.
Be the first to see all the biggest headlines by downloading the WCTV News app. Click here to get started.
Copyright 2025 WCTV. All rights reserved.