The Schenectady Chiefs were a professional ice hockey

Ice hockey

Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...

 team in Schenectady, New York

Schenectady, New York

Schenectady is a city in Schenectady County, New York, United States, of which it is the county seat. As of the 2010 census, the city had a population of 66,135...

. They were a member of the Atlantic Coast Hockey League

Atlantic Coast Hockey League

The Atlantic Coast Hockey League was a minor league hockey organization that operated between 1981 and 1987. The league was founded by Bill Coffey....

 from 1981 to 1982.

They played their home games in the Schenectady Civic Center

Schenectady Civic Center

Schenectady Civic Center is an indoor arena in Schenectady, New York. It hosted the Atlantic Coast Hockey League's Schenectady Chiefs in 1981. The arena held 2,500 people....

. The Schenectady Civic Center was unique in the sense that you had to enter the building through an adjacent drug store.

Prior History

The Chiefs were initially a member of the newly organized Intercontinental Major Hockey League (IMHL), a league founded by Lou Bodnar, a local mutual funds broker, and Bob Critelli, a local businessman. The IMHL was to consist of five teams, but with the unnamed Pittsfield team unready to field a team, this forced Bodnar and Critelli to suspend operations of the league.

ACHL

The Chiefs were admitted into the newly-created seven team Atlantic Coast Hockey League

Atlantic Coast Hockey League

The Atlantic Coast Hockey League was a minor league hockey organization that operated between 1981 and 1987. The league was founded by Bill Coffey....

 in September 1981. With the IMHL now indefinitely suspended, Critelli focused being the owner of the Chiefs and hired Pete Crawford as the team's coach and general manager. The Chiefs would play the first game in ACHL history, defeating the Cape Cod Buccaneers

Cape Cod Buccaneers

The Cape Cod Buccaneers were a professional ice hockey team based in Cape Cod, MA. They were an inaugural member of the Atlantic Coast Hockey League and were owned by WWE CEO Vince McMahon.-History:...

 5-2 on October 24, 1981 in front of a small crowd of 650 fans. The team was relatively successful on the ice, going 4-4 in its first eight games. However, Critelli had financial problems with the team. He could not produce the $15,000 performance bond, which was required by the league prior to the start of the season. The team suspended play and the league subsidized the Chiefs, primarily to help Critelli sell the team.

After an 8-2 loss against the Salem Raiders

Salem Raiders

The Salem Raiders were a former professional hockey team that played in the Eastern Hockey League during the 1979-80 season, and transferred to the Atlantic Coast Hockey League during the 1981-82 season....

 in front of 350 fans, officials decided to suspend the franchise again on November 11, 1981. The league attempted to move the franchise to Richmond

Richmond, Virginia

Richmond is the capital of the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the United States. It is an independent city and not part of any county. Richmond is the center of the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Greater Richmond area...

without success. After no local buyers were willing to take over the team, the league held a meeting on November 15, 1981 in which they voted to terminate the Chiefs effective on the 16th. With six of their nine games being played at the Schenectady Civic Center, the Chiefs averaged less than 400 fans a game.

Season-by-season results

Season	Games	Won	Lost	Tied	Points	GF	GA
1981-82	9	4	5	0	8	38	45