| Full name | Iserlohn Roosters |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1959 |
| Based In | Iserlohn |
| Arena | Eissporthalle Iserlohn (Capacity: 4976) |
| League | Deutsche Eishockey Liga |
| Team Colors | |
| GM | Karsten Mende |
| Head Coach | Doug Masson |
| Captain | Robert Hock |
| Website | Iserlohn Roosters.de |
The Iserlohn Roosters are a professional ice hockey team based in Iserlohn, North-Rhine-Westphalia. They are members of the Deutsche Eishockey Liga since 2000 and play their home games at the Eissporthalle Iserlohn which is also known as Eissporthalle am Seilersee. Playing nine years in the DEL the team made the playoffs once. The Roosters are widely regarded for their fans and having one of the best atmospheres at home games in Europe despite having just a capacity for 4967 spectators.
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The history of ice hockey in Iserlohn began in the neighbouring town of Hemer. In a district of Hemer called Deilinghofen were deployed Canadian soldiers. They came to the town after the end of the Korean War in 1953 and soon built an arena - first without a roof. The teenagers in Deilinhofen were interested in this strange kind of sport and wanted to play it, too. They played on streets or frozen ponds and were allowed to play in the arena in 1957 for the first time. Recognizing the joy of the teenagers they got first changing coaches, later with Charles McCuaig a steady trainer. After a long preparation time the first game against a Canadian youth team from Soest was on 8 March 1958 in front of 120 people. Deilinghofen played well, but lost 2-6. The equipment was borrowed by the soldiers. After that game, the matches were more steady and with more bystanders, so the arena had to get a roof in 1958.
The next goal was reached on 28 February 1959. The EC Deilinghofen was founded in a small tavern. At that time there were only 49 hockey clubs in Germany, only 8 in North-Rhine-Westphalia. In 1959 a team from Deilinghofen started in a junior league and reached the second place. A year later they took part in the German championship and reached place five. In the second season 1960–61 they became first in North Rhine-Westphalia, and the second best team in the country. They only lost against EV Füssen. When they came back to Hemer, thousands of fans celebrated the team and coach Charles McCuaig. The famous newspaper Die Welt wrote a large article about The Canadians from Sauerland. Five ECD players were nominated for the German national team.
Because the players got too old, the team played in a regular league in the 1961–62 season. With Victor Leury as new coach. Deilinghofen lost only one point that season in a scandalous game in Hanover. Later newspapers wrote about a "Schlacht vom Pferdeturm" (Battle of Pferdeturm, Pferdeturm is the name of Hanover's arena). After this match the teams and fans of Deilinghofen and RESG Hannover were arch-enemies for decades. In this season and in two after this Deilinghofen became champion of the north of Germany, but they lost games against the champions of the south and so missed the moving up. In the 1964–65 season they were called "Unaufsteigbar" (not able to moving up). The local brewery and a new mode helped the team to move up to the Oberliga.
But the first Oberliga season was not as successful as the years before, so fewer people than before came to watch. In this season the team had three different coaches and in the next season 1965–66, a German became head coach for the first time: Horst Kubik. In the following years the Aufstiegsrunde (something like playoffs) were reached, but from a financial standpoint the season was bad.
In 1971 the Canadian soldiers were disengaged and the new British soldiers were not interested in the arena, so the team had to search for a new one. Local politics wanted to have an arena in Iserlohn. After the agreement of Iserlohn's town council the Eissporthalle am Seilersee was built by a company from Krefeld near the border to Hemer. In the 1976–77 season Deilinghofen was two places behind Kaufbeuren in the new Zweite Bundesliga. But Kaufbeuren waived the promotion and the ECD got the chance to play in Germany's best hockey league for the first time, 6,776 days after its foundation. In the first season Deilinghofen got only 16 points, but stayed with luck in the Bundesliga.
In 1980 the club was renamed ECD Iserlohn, because the arena was there for years. In the following season the team was relegated for the first time in its history. Two years later it moved up again. And the next years were the best and most successful seasons in the club's history. In 1986 the ECD reached the semi-final in the playoffs with stars like Jaroslav Pouzar and Martti Jarkko. These two players are fondly remembered by many fans today. But these players also cost a lot. The president Heinz Weifenbach looked for help in Libya, where Muammar al-Gaddafi agreed to pay money if the team advertised his "Green Book".[1] On 4 December 1987 they did. It was one of the biggest scandals in the history of hockey. A few days later the ECD Iserlohn was strapped.
The next season the ECD Sauerland was founded. They started playing in the Oberliga, although Weifenbach wanted to begin in the Bundesliga. The club had the same, big financial problems as its predecessors. The 1991–92 season was a catastrophe, so the fans were frightened to miss the license. The ECD got the license, but went bankrupt a few days after the end of season.
Only one day later, on 9 April 1994, the ECD Sauerland Iserlohn Penguins was founded, but the pewee players didn't contract in, so the club hadn't a chance to survive.
The Iserlohner EC was founded on 20 April in the same year. The new committee wanted to avoid financial adventures. After one season the team moved up to the second best league. The following two years were more difficult, but new players during the season revived the club. In 1997 a new coach came to Iserlohn: Greg Poss. After three successful years, the club could move up again, because they bought the license of Starbulls Rosenheim. The arena in Deilinghofen was torn down in 1999, 40 years after the foundation of the ECD. Many people from Deilinghofen protested against this.
Iserlohner EC joined the Deutsche Eishockey Liga in 2000, and adopted the name Iserlohn Roosters. IEC founded a GmbH for the team which administrates the finances and the organisation. The GmbH was named the Iserlohn Roosters GmbH. All junior teams were still under the control of the IEC. The Roosters continually had the lowest budget of all DEL-teams and the media often referred them as an underdog. In their first two seasons the Roosters placed 15th and 12th.
In the 2002–03 season playoffs were again missed, failing just two points short, although the German champion of this year, the Krefeld Pinguine, were beaten 8-1 at the last day of play. For the next season Poss left the club and went on to coach the Nürnberg Ice Tigers, Iserlohn's named Dave Whistle as new coach but after only nine games Doug Mason was his successor. In the lockout season in 2004–05, Mike York and John-Michael Liles came to Iserlohn and helped to reach 11th place despite still the smallest budget in the league. York signed with Iserlohn after his old college friend Bryan Adams, who was the captain of the Roosters, talked to him. Brian Gionta also signed, but left without having played because his wife's pregnancy.
Twelve players left the club in the summer of 2005, but the Roosters were able to make some great activities on the transfer market, the biggest in signing former DEL-topscorer Brad Purdie and former NHL-player Mark Greig for two years. Nevertheless they got just the eleventh place again despite having the best powerplay in the league. In March 2006, Mason left Iserlohn for Kölner Haie and Geoff Ward came to Iserlohn to coach. After again finishing another season in eleventh place, Ward then left Iserlohn during the summer 2007 to be an assistant coach for the Boston Bruins of the NHL.
After defeating DEG Metro Stars 5:1 in the opening game of the season 2006-07 the Roosters had caught the first place for one week for the first time in their history. For the season 2007-08 the new coach of the Roosters was Rick Adduono. The Roosters improved the team with Norm Maracle, Bob Wren. After the fifth game they maintained a playoff rank and were able to keep it. Improved offense was due to Robert Hock and Michael Wolf starting to dominate the league as native players, breaking the dominance of North American players. Wolf was the top goal scorer and Hock became league top point scorer. The third man in their line was either Tyler Beechey, who was first signed on a try-out.contract, or Brad Tapper. Also the line with Jimmy Roy, Pat Kavanagh and Ryan Ready helped to unexpectedly reach the playoffs. But in the quarterfinals they were defeated by the Frankfurt Lions in game 7.
For the next season the Roosters signed former New York Islanders coach Steve Stirling. The team failed to continue the way they had the year before and Stirling was fired in February after the team fell out of playoff position. In the summer many players voiced critique to Stirlings and assistant coach, Ulrich Liebsch, became the new head coach. Many key players left the team. Due to the financial crisis the Roosters announce to look for young talented players and didn't focus on veterans for the 2009-10 season.
| Season | Games | Won | Lost | Tie | OTL | SOL | Points | Goals for |
Goals against |
Rank | Playoffs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000–01 | 60 | 23 | 31 | 0 | 6 | - | 68 | 152 | 189 | 15 | Did not qualify |
| 2001–02 | 60 | 23 | 28 | 0 | 9 | - | 74 | 154 | 183 | 12 | Did not qualify |
| 2002–03 | 52 | 25 | 19 | 8 | 0 | - | 75 | 142 | 132 | 9 | Did not qualify |
| 2003–04 | 52 | 19 | 26 | 0 | 7 | - | 59 | 137 | 169 | 12 | Did not qualify |
| 2004–05 | 52 | 21 | 26 | 0 | 5 | - | 64 | 138 | 156 | 11 | Did not qualify |
| 2005–06 | 52 | 21 | 26 | - | 0 | 5 | 65 | 166 | 178 | 11 | Did not qualify |
| 2006–07 | 52 | 24 | 24 | - | 1 | 3 | 70 | 148 | 163 | 11 | Did not qualify |
| 2007–08 | 56 | 33 | 18 | - | 4 | 1 | 96 | 208 | 196 | 5 | Lost in Quarterfinals |
| 2008–09 | 52 | 22 | 18 | - | 5 | 7 | 71 | 171 | 187 | 11 | Did not qualify |
| 2009–10 | 56 | 26 | 26 | - | 3 | 1 | 74 | 166 | 183 | 11 | Did not qualify |
| 2010–11 | 52 | 21 | 22 | - | 5 | 4 | 68 | 150 | 159 | 12 | Did not qualify |
Updated December 15, 2011.[2]
As at end of 2010–11 season.[3]
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