The St. Louis Vipers are a professional roller hockey team based in

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, whic ...

History

The original team was a part of the now-defunct Roller Hockey International League. They played their home games in the former St. Louis Arena, but moved to the

Kiel Center Kiel () is the capital and most populous city in the northern German state of Schleswig-Holstein, with a population of 246,243 (2021). Kiel lies approximately north of Hamburg. Due to its geographic location in the southeast of the Jutland pe ...

in 1995. The ownership of the club was led by former

NHL The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

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Bernie Federko Bernard Allan Federko (born May 12, 1956) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey centre of Ukrainian ancestry who played fourteen seasons in the National Hockey League from 1976 through 1990. Playing career Federko began playing hockey at ...

, who also served as the head coach. Over their six-year existence in the 90s, the St. Louis Vipers had a total home attendance of 332,412 in 71 home games, an average of 4,682 per game. The largest home crowd in Vipers history was the final regular season home game in 1997 with an announced attendance of over 14,000 against the

New Jersey Rockin' Rollers The New Jersey Rockin' Rollers were a professional roller hockey team based in East Rutherford, New Jersey, United States that played in Roller Hockey International. Club formation Roller hockey in the Garden State almost never happened, as the ...

. They were the Murphy Cup champions in 1999, the final year of the RHI's existence. The last official sporting event played at the St. Louis Arena was on August 16, 1994 versus the

Tampa Bay Tritons The Tampa Bay Tritons were a professional roller hockey team based in Tampa, Florida, United States that played in Roller Hockey International for one season. Mark Messier Mark John Douglas Messier (; born January 18, 1961) is a Canadian fo ...

in front of 11,146, the second largest Vipers home crowd. The St. Louis Vipers hosted the 1995 RHI All-Star Game on July 15, 1995 in front of 9,166 at Kiel Center. The East beat the West with a score of 14-12. Ed Anderson of the East was the game's MVP.

Vipers 2.0

A press conference was held on June 4, 2019 at

Family Arena The Family Arena is a multi-purpose arena in St. Charles, Missouri, built in 1999. The arena seats 9,643 for hockey, 9,755 for football, 10,467 for basketball, 6,339 for half-house concerts and up to 11,522 for end-stage concerts. In addition ...

in St. Charles, MO announcing the return of the St. Louis Vipers. The

National Roller Hockey League The National Roller Hockey League (NRHL) is an inline hockey league based in the United States. The league was established in 2014, and played two seasons from 2015–2016 before going on hiatus for three years, and then announcing a return in ...

announced the team along with the Vipers head coach,

Perry Turnbull Perry John Turnbull (born March 9, 1959) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player who played 608 career games for the St. Louis Blues, Montreal Canadiens and Winnipeg Jets. Turnbull's son is Travis Turnbull Travis John Turnbull ( ...

. Turnbull played in 608

games and had 351 career points. He also coached the St. Louis Vipers of the RHI from 1993-99 seasons. The league canceled their 2020 season due to COVID but had a 2021 plan in place. As of May 2021, the NRHL has made no public comments since early 2020 regarding any attempted comeback and any information on the league has not been answered on any of their social media outlets regarding a season or any refunds to any season tickets holders stuck who paid up front.

Yearly records

Team records

References

External links

St. Louis Vipers website
Defunct sports teams in Missouri Roller Hockey International teams

Vipers The Viperidae (vipers) are a family of snakes found in most parts of the world, except for Antarctica, Australia, Hawaii, Madagascar, and various other isolated islands. They are venomous and have long (relative to non-vipers), hinged fangs th ...

Sports clubs established in 1993 Sports clubs disestablished in 1999 1993 establishments in Missouri 1999 disestablishments in Missouri {{StLouis-sport-stub