Jacksonville had a pretty large assortment of various minor league team ventures throughout the 1990s as the city looked to expand its sports portfolio following its successful campaign for an NFL franchise.
But none were quite as memorable as the Lizard Kings.
Ask just about anyone who grew up in Jax in the ‘90s and they’ll probably know about the Lizard Kings – mostly because of the team’s frequent television ads.
The franchise began play in 1990 as the Louisville Ice Hawks, an ECHL affiliate of the Chicago Blackhawks. Owner and minor league sports investor Horn Chen opted to move the team to Jacksonville in 1995, rebranding the team as the Lizard Kings.
The city already had a minor league hockey team, the Bullets of the Sunshine Hockey League, that split its time between the Jacksonville Coliseum and Jacksonville Ice and Sportsplex. But the Lizard Kings were able to differentiate themselves by signing a full-season lease at the Coliseum, playing all their games at the much larger, though aging, downtown facility.
By the end of the Lizard Kings’ first year in Jax, the Bullets had folded.
Things weren’t much better for the Lizard Kings, though. The team reportedly lost over $2 million in its first few years of operation. Chen sold the team in 1998 to The Berkman Group – Berkman is also a minor league investor and was one of the developers behind Berkman Plaza.
The team didn’t survive much longer, suspending operations in 2000 and never returning to play. Ownership blamed the outdated Coliseum, which would be torn down just a couple years later.
In five seasons, the team reached the final round of the playoffs once, managed three winning seasons, and cycled through five different head coaches.
Though the Lizard Kings were no more, Jax would get another shot at minor league hockey three years later with the Barricudas.
The city has now even returned to the ECHL with the Jacksonville Icemen, continuing the city’s decades-long relationship with minor league hockey.
