Roller Hockey International

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For the airport in Wisconsin see Rhinelander-Oneida County Airport
Roller Hockey International
Sport Inline hockey
Founded 1993
Country(ies) Flag of the United States United States
Flag of Canada Canada
Ceased 2001
Most championship(s) 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.

RHI hoped to capitalize on the inline skating boom of the early 1990's, but lost steam as the fad died down. 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, 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, but cancelled the 2000 season and the league finally folded operations in 2001 when their sites were limited to arenas in California.

Contents

[edit] Rules

The rules in the RHI were similar to but not identical to those of the National Hockey League at the time, but seemed to try to appeal to the younger extreme sport generation; the RHI had four players and a goalie at a time on the playing surface opposed to the NHL's five and a goalie; the penalty times on average were about 1/4 less than the NHL's; there were no blue lines; the puck itself was smaller, a 3 1/2 oz. piece of red plastic; there were four 12 minute quarters opposed to the NHL's three 20 minute periods; a tie score at the end of regulation time would go straight to a shootout instead of a five minute extra period before a shootout; and the average number of goals scored per game was 16.7 to the NHL's 7.

[edit] Teams

Note: RHI 1993-97, Major League Roller Hockey 1998, revived RHI 1999-2000 and California Roller Hockey League 2001, folded before 2002 season.

Note: The Palm Desert Silver-Cats (1995) and later in Ontario, California (1997) were a semi-pro team that played exhibition games with the Blades and Bullfrogs of the RHI league.

[edit] Murphy Cup Championship Winners

[edit] History

See also: List of RHI seasons

[edit] Licensing

The league inspired at least one video game, Super Nintendo's RHI Roller Hockey '95, although the game was never released.

[edit] NHL Alumni

[edit] External links