Photo by: Garrett Duty
The year was 1992, and Oklahoma City was looking for a winner to throw their support behind. The Switzer dynasty had just come crumbling down to earth with the NCAA imposing the proverbial “death penalty” on the OU Sooner football program. The Oklahoma State Cowboys were coming off of a 0-10-1 season, and things weren’t looking up any time soon. Oklahomans desperately needed a team to rally behind. Enter the Oklahoma City Blazers, a member of the newly founded Central Hockey League.
The Blazers would go on to become a staple of the Oklahoma City community, through both their involvement in the community and their great successes on the ice. They won seven consecutive regular season division championships spanning from 1996 to 2003, and CHL championships in 1996 and 2001. The attendance figures for the team rivaled that of some NHL franchises.
Despite completing the unlikely task of converting the football-crazed Oklahomans into hockey fans, the team was declared financially unable to continue operations in 2009, and had to close up shop. After 17 years of success Oklahoma City’s beloved team was gone.
Enter the American Hockey League, the direct feeder league, designed for grooming the NHL’s budding stars. Oklahoma City was selected as the host city for the team that would become the Barons in February, followed by a whirlwind of selecting players, staff and coaches. The first players, Colin McDonald and Jake Taylor, were announced in early July along with the head coach Todd Nelson. With the season starting in early October, the organization had only a few short months to get their feet beneath them and begin progress.
Since their inception, the Barons have been faced with the seemingly impossible task of turning Oklahoma City from a Blazers town into a Barons town.
The reception has been warmer than some might have anticipated though. Barons defenseman Jake Taylor said, “(The fan support) has been great. Opening night we had over 10 thousand, which was awesome.”
Taylor also had glowing reviews for the community surrounding the Barons. “The response around town has been really welcoming. Everything that we’ve seen has been very positive,” Taylor said.
Regardless of the positives, there will always be some negatives. Most of the negative feelings towards the Barons come from the staunch supporters of the Blazers that simply cannot accept that their team is gone. But the new generation of Oklahoma City hockey has one major factor on their side when it comes to winning over the hearts of the people: talent.
“I think we have a really good product on the ice. You’re having guys that are coming in here like the top draft pick of their organizations, but just as cool is you’re having other teams with the same kind of players coming in. So the quality on both sides is real high,” Director of Ticket Sales Bob Flannery said.
Director of Communications and Public Relations, Josh Evans is also certain that the new team brings an exciting brand of play previously unseen.
“Within 30 seconds you’ll be able to see a difference. That is not to downgrade the play that was here before, it’s just to say how much better this is,” Evans said.
The talent of this brand new franchise has propelled them to fourth place overall in the highly competitive Western Conference, and third place in their division. The Barons are working hard both on and off the ice to win over the affection of the community and to become yet another successful Oklahoma City sports franchise, but only time will tell whether the Barons flourish or flounder.
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