History | Discover Team History — Join the Legacy

Black-and-white photo of an old-fashioned CRT television set with control buttons on the front and a speaker grille on the lower right.

Interior view of a sports arena with a large electronic scoreboard displaying information and advertisements.

Group photo of the 1993 Oakland Skates hockey team at the Roller Hockey International Championships on an indoor rink with a scoreboard and banners in the background.

first season

It was July 1, 1993 at the Coliseum and the Oakland Skates hosted the LA Blades for the first ever Roller Hockey International game.

RHI teams were mostly made up of minor league ice hockey players looking to stay in shape, play competitive hockey and make a little money in the off-season. The Skates stars for the first season were Doug Lawrence (814 ECHL/CHL/WPHL games), Sylvain Naud (535 CHL/IHL/WPHL games), and Shaun Clouston (392 ECHL/CHL/IHL games).

The Skates donned blue and yellow uniforms with the first iteration of the logo–a skate (cousin of the sting ray) using its tail as a hockey stick over a very 90s paintbrush stroke.

We scored first. Hockey history. We also netted a hat trick that night. But Coliseum workers hadn’t hosted hockey before, so they attempted to track down and throw out the fans who threw their hats onto the playing surface.

We lost 11-9 that game and would go onto finish the inaugural season 5-9. The record was good enough to get us into the playoffs, though, and the Skates made a Cinderella run. We beat beat St. Louis and Calgary on our way to the finals, where we would ultimately lose the 3 game series to the undefeated Anaheim Bullfrogs.

seasons two, three & four

season two

The Skates made huge strides in the league’s second season in 1994. We introduced a new logo and the iconic teal and purple jerseys. We dramatically increased average attendance in the Colosseum from 2685 per game to 4444 per game. Our second-year star winger Sly Naud led the team in points (28 goals, 27 assists) and made the first RHI All Star game, scoring in the contest.

1994 season

1994 was the year RHI expanded the teams from 12 to 24 and jumped to a 22 game schedule. Many people point to the quick expansion as one of the reasons the RHI eventually folded a few years later.

The Skates finished the 1994 season with a 10-12 record, 2 points out of the playoff picture.

1995 season

The league dropped down to 19 teams in the 1995 season and the Skates finished 10-10-4.

We started the season with new acquisition Steve Chelios, but traded him down to San Diego after his 8 games in the teal and purple produced 2 goals, 8 assists and 65 penalty minutes.

We also brought in goaltender Erin Whitten from Pittsburgh. Often overshadowed by her Canadian rival Manon Rhéaume (who played for 3 RHI teams), Erin was the first woman goalie to get a win in professional ice hockey in 1993, when she and the Toledo Storm beat the Dayton Bombers in the ECHL. A silver medalist in 4 IIHF women’s tournaments, she was also USA Hockey’s Women’s Player of the Year in 1994. She stopped 5 of 7 shots in 11 minutes of relief during her time with the Skates.

The Skates lost in the first round of the playoffs to the Vancouver VooDoo. The San Jose Rhinos would defeat the VooDoo in the next round on the way to their championship.

the final season

In 1996 the RHI dropped down to 18 teams and the Skates had their best season yet, finishing 15-11-2.

First-round draft pick Kim Maier made an immediate impact, leading the team in scoring (32 goals) and notching a hat trick in the 1996 RHI All Star Game.

Third year goalie Mark Cavallin was voted MVP by the fans, finishing with a 10-6-2 record and winding up 5th in the league with a save percentage of .855. With 860 shots faced, Cavs saw the most action in the league by far this season, 164 more than the goalie who saw the second-most shots, Joe Bonvie in San Jose (.838%).

We matched up against Vancouver again in the first round of the playoffs and started off the 3 game series with a bang. Cavallin stopped 46 of 47 shots and we handed the VooDoo a 9-1 loss, the worst of their season. Vancouver tied up the series with a 5-2 win the next night, and finished us off with a 12-3 win in what would be the final Skates game on August 19, 1996.

A hockey player in a white and teal uniform with number 12, wearing a helmet and gloves, skating on an ice rink with a hockey stick in hand.

Hockey goalie in full gear, wearing a white jersey with teal and black accents, and a face mask, sitting in front of the hockey net.

the end of an era

The Oakland Coliseum arena went through major renovations in 1996 and the Skates explored playing the 1997 RHI season at the Henry J. Kaiser Arena, but ultimately decided Kaiser wasn’t a viable option. Moving to another city wasn’t an option, either., the ownership group was committed to Oakland.

The league granted us “Hiatus Status” as renovations were completed. The Skates expected to return to the RHI strong for the 1998 season, for which many fans reserved season tickets. In the meantime, we continued community outreach programs to grow the game in Oakland and kept the youth program The Junior Skates running.

But there would be no 1998 RHI season, for anyone. Two of the RHI teams, including the attendance-leading Anaheim Bullfrogs, jumped ship for the newly formed league: Major League Roller Hockey. MLRH lasted a year before folding due to financial problems and the RHI held a 1999 comeback season with 8 teams. But it was too late, the momentum and the mainstream coverage had dried up at this point.