Editor’s note: Rumors that the Houston Aeros are leaving for Iowa starting taking more finality this week after reports out of Minnesota. I asked my friend Alex Stivers, a Huntsville native, who grew up watching and loving hockey with the Aeros and now works with the Texas Stars, to write a little about the team leaving Houston. The following is his story.

My first trip into the big city by myself was to go see a hockey game.

Sixteen years old, a licensed driver for just over a month, and running on adrenaline after my parents reluctantly allowed me to make the 77-mile journey to Houston, I stood outside the Compaq Center well before the doors were scheduled to open, joined by dozens of fans wearing their hockey sweaters on a hot Southeast Texas spring afternoon. I would make this pilgrimage many times again, because the Houston Aeros were more than just a minor league hockey team. It was an escape from the norm, and watching this team full of gritty veterans and young, pesky unknowns showed me the beauty of the game, and forged my love for hockey.

Growing up in Huntsville, behind the pine curtain of East Texas, high school football was king, and hockey was nonexistent. The only knowledge people had of the sport involved the “Miracle on Ice” at the 1980 Lake Placid Olympics, or a recent Disney release called ‘The Mighty Ducks’. My first exposure to hockey came when our home had cable TV installed for the first time, and I turned the channel to ESPN to see the Montreal Canadiens beat the Los Angeles Kings in Game 5 of the 1993 Stanley Cup Finals. I was 12 years old and instantly intrigued.

As if it was written in the stars, the following year’s events strengthened my obsession for the game. A NHL team landed in Dallas. Expanded cable TV service brought ESPN2 into the home, along with more hockey games, John Buccigross and his NHL 2Night program. And then word came out of Houston – a pro hockey team called the Aeros would start playing in The Summit. Named after the former World Hockey Association team, this newly formed International Hockey League franchise unveiled the mightiest of logos – a snarling bomber flying out of a puck crowned by an aviation-themed word mark.

By the middle of the Aeros’ inaugural season, I saw my first live hockey game, and you couldn’t get me there early enough. Watching the team skate out onto the ice for warm-ups and start firing pucks off the posts to the tune of Republica’s ‘Ready to Go’ would be forever burned into my memory. It was also the time I was introduced to the mascot, Chilly – a 6-foot anthropomorphic dog which was based on the German Shepherd dogs that guarded the bomber planes on Air Force bases. And it was the game where I first spent an insane amount of allowance money on a replica jersey.

Over the next several years hockey would become my identity. I learned to play the game in an adult “B” league at an inline hockey arena 40 miles from home. Classmates in high school would see me as “that weird hockey guy” who would sneak off to Houston to watch the Aeros. I was viewed as an oddity just from showcasing my knowledge of every NHL and IHL team and the cities they played in. I would also have debates with teachers when they asked me to tuck my Aeros jersey into my pants.

During the 1998-99 season, my trips down to the Compaq Center became more frequent, joining the friends I had made at the games as we watched Houston legends Mike Yeo, Brian Wiseman, Mark Freer, and Frederic Chabot play. The Aeros enjoyed a 54-win season on their way to an IHL Championship by beating the Orlando Solar Bears in the Finals. That playoff run would inspire me even more to try out for club hockey in college the following autumn, where I would meet even more devoted Aeros fans and be introduced to the concept of a “hockey family” for the first time.

Meanwhile, the Aeros did a commendable job in not only getting people out to see hockey games, but also in cultivating their fan base. The organization went on to manage two large ice hockey rink facilities in the Sugar Land and Willowbrook neighborhoods called Aerodromes, which housed hockey programs of all ages and skill levels, including the Houston area’s first high school ice hockey leagues. The Aeros’ “Street Team” was active nearly every weekend, holding events to promote the team and the sport itself. Many kids who currently play hockey in the Houston area likely held their first hockey stick at a street hockey demonstration put on by the Aeros’ events staff. Their giant, inflatable shooting target was patched up so many times from being transported around Houston so much. Houston’s in-game operations staff injected several new elements into the game experience since the first games in 1994, from the AeroDynamics and Sonic Boom spirit squads, to Chilly’s famous victory dance party on center ice following a win at home. One season, the team partnered up with a local Houston microbrewery called Two Rows, and held a contest to name a new beer in honor of the Aeros. The winning submission was called ‘Flaps Down Ale’.

The Aeros faced challenges, as well, even from its own fan base. After winning the American Hockey League Championship in 2003, the team decided it needed a new look, and unveiled a very basic logo of a fighter jet and block lettering. Houston ditched its detailed, colorful bomber for what some fans said was a simpler, easier to produce two-color (blue/white) brand. The fans dubbed the new look “Team Clipart”. A few years later, Houston brought back the bomber.

A few marketing decisions from the Aeros’ front office also left fans scratching their heads. Most notably the team’s efforts to bring in more fans by branding one season with the tagline: “Houston Aeros Hockey: It’s Like Football – On Ice!” Then there was the time it seemed like the team’s marketing department was phoning it in, rolling out the slogan: “Houston Aeros Hockey: Be A Fan!” Many fans voiced their frustrations with the team – along with frustrations with opponents – on a notorious fan message board appropriately named “Instigator Alley”.

Yet, despite the challenges, not getting the press it deserved and being overshadowed by the larger Houston franchises, the Aeros survived, which is why it pains me to see that after 19 years the Aeros will be leaving Houston as a result of an expiring lease agreement. This news is a devastating blow to the hockey landscape in Texas. For the Texas Stars, this means the loss of a tough but respected rival and 6 fewer games inside the Lone Star State. But to all hockey fans in Texas, this means the end of one of the most successful and enduring franchises ever, with some of the greatest and most loyal fans.

The Houston Aeros will always be the source of my passion for hockey. They helped me discover the sport. I learned the game from watching them skate. I enjoyed wearing the bomber on my chest while watching them win two championships, and through the team I met some of my closest friends.

It was a great run, Houston. Thank you for everything.

Do you have a memory or story about the Houston Aeros? Let us know in the comments.