The Macon Whoopee was a professional

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

team that played from

1996 1996 was designated as: * International Year for the Eradication of Poverty Events January * January 8 – A Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...

until

2001 The year's most prominent event was the September 11 attacks against the United States by al-Qaeda, which Casualties of the September 11 attacks, killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror. The United States led a Participan ...

in the

Central Hockey League The Central Hockey League (CHL) was a North American mid-level minor professional ice hockey league which operated from 1992 until 2014. It was founded by Ray Miron and Bill Levins and later sold to Global Entertainment Corporation, which opera ...

(CHL). Located in

Macon, Georgia Macon ( ), officially Macon–Bibb County, is a consolidated city-county in Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia, United States. Situated near the Atlantic Seaboard fall line, fall line of the Ocmulgee River, it is southeast of Atlanta and near the ...

, the team played its home games at the

Macon Coliseum The Macon Coliseum is a multi-purpose arena in Macon, Georgia, United States. It is home to the Macon Mayhem, a minor-league hockey team in the SPHL. The Centerplex was home to the Macon Whoopee (ECHL), Macon Whoopee (CHL) and Macon Trax ice ...

History

A professional ice hockey team known as the Macon Whoopees, played in the Southern Hockey League during the 1973–74 season, but poor attendance led the team to disband mid-season. Hockey was not resurrected in Macon until 1996. The new team, known as the "Whoopee" (without the plural "s"), played in the Central Hockey League from 1996 to 2001. After several owners endured seasons of poor attendance and financial losses, the team went

bankrupt Bankruptcy is a legal process through which people or other entities who cannot repay debts to creditors may seek relief from some or all of their debts. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the de ...

in 2001. Hockey stayed in Macon for the 2001–02 season when the

Tallahassee Tiger Sharks The Tallahassee Tiger Sharks were a minor league professional ice hockey team that played in Tallahassee, Florida, from 1994 to 2001 as members of the East Coast Hockey League. The Tiger Sharks home rink was the Tallahassee-Leon County Civic Cent ...

of the

East Coast Hockey League The ECHL (formerly the East Coast Hockey League) is a minor professional ice hockey league based in Shrewsbury, New Jersey, with teams across the United States and Canada. Competitively, it is a tier below the American Hockey League (AHL). The ...

(ECHL) were relocated to Macon, Georgia, where they also became known as the Macon Whoopee, but they played just one season in Macon. Later efforts to continue professional hockey in Macon led to the formation of the

Macon Trax The Macon Trax were a minor-league professional ice hockey team based in Macon, Georgia. They played in the low minor league Atlantic Coast Hockey League (2002–03), World Hockey Association 2 (2003–04), and Southern Professional Hockey Leagu ...

, also now defunct. In 2015, the

Southern Professional Hockey League The SPHL (formerly the Southern Professional Hockey League) is a professional ice hockey independent minor league based in Huntersville, North Carolina, with teams located primarily in the southeastern United States as well as Illinois and Indian ...

added the Macon Mayhem as a relocation of the former Augusta RiverHawks.

Etymology

The name 'Whoopee' was a reference to a

sexual slang Sexual slang is a set of linguistics, linguistic terms and phrases used to refer to sexual organs, processes, and activities; they are generally considered colloquialism, colloquial rather than formal or medical, and some may be seen as impolite ...

, popularized by the

Gus Kahn Gustav Gerson Kahn (November 6, 1886October 8, 1941) was an American lyricist who contributed a number of songs to the Great American Songbook, including " Pretty Baby", " Ain't We Got Fun?", " Carolina in the Morning", " Toot, Toot, Tootsie (G ...

-penned tune "

Makin' Whoopee "Makin' Whoopee" is a song first popularized by Eddie Cantor in the 1928 musical ''Whoopee!''. Gus Kahn wrote the lyrics and Walter Donaldson composed the music for the song as well as for the entire musical. The title refers to celebrating a m ...

" and the TV

game show A game show (or gameshow) is a genre of broadcast viewing entertainment where contestants compete in a game for rewards. The shows are typically directed by a game show host, host, who explains the rules of the program as well as commentating a ...

The Newlywed Game ''The Newlywed Game'' is an American television game show. Newly married couples compete against each other in a series of revealing question rounds to determine how well the spouses know or do not know each other. The program, originally created ...

''. Facilitating the

double entendre A double entendre (plural double entendres) is a figure of speech or a particular way of wording that is devised to have a double meaning, one of which is typically obvious, and the other often conveys a message that would be too socially unacc ...

, the second team's mascot was the

whooping crane The whooping crane (''Grus americana'') is an endangered Crane (bird), crane species, native to North America, named for its "whooping" calls. Along with the sandhill crane (''Antigone canadensis''), it is one of only two crane species native to ...

, menaced by a

bee Bees are winged insects closely related to wasps and ants, known for their roles in pollination and, in the case of the best-known bee species, the western honey bee, for producing honey. Bees are a monophyletic lineage within the superfamil ...

("the birds and the bees").

References

1996 establishments in Georgia (U.S. state) 2001 disestablishments in Georgia (U.S. state) Defunct Central Hockey League teams Defunct ice hockey teams in the United States Defunct ice hockey teams in Georgia (U.S. state) Ice hockey clubs disestablished in 2001 Ice hockey clubs established in 1996 Sports in Macon, Georgia {{GeorgiaUS-sport-team-stub

History

Etymology

Further reading

References