Tri-City Americans

Foundations

The Americans franchise began as a founding franchise of the league, beginning as the Calgary Buffaloes in 1966. The original team was renamed the "Centennials" after one season. In 1977, the franchise relocated to Montana and was known as the Billings Bighorns—part of an initial wave of American teams in the league. In 1982, the team moved again, this time to Nanaimo, British Columbia, where the team played for one season as the Nanaimo Islanders. The team then moved to New Westminster, BC, to become the second incarnation of the New Westminster Bruins.

In 1987, owner Ron Dixon proposed moving the team to the Tri-Cities area if local investors would put together enough money for a new arena; the proposal was endorsed, and the team moved to Kennewick and became known as the Americans in the fall of 1988. The move was seen as a gamble given the lack of hockey history in Tri-City area, but it paid off—within a few seasons, the team counted nearly 4,000 season ticket holders.

Tumultuous beginnings

The team's new arena in Kennewick, the Tri-Cities Coliseum, was not ready in time for the start of the team's first season in Washington, forcing the team to seek practice ice in Walla Walla and to play its first seventeen games on the road. The team's inaugural game was a 4–2 loss in Spokane against the Chiefs. The team finally debuted in their new home arena on November 20, 1988, defeating the Seattle Thunderbirds 4–3 in overtime in front of 6,000 spectators.

Led by stars Stu Barnes and goaltender Olaf Kolzig, the Americans were playoff contenders from the outset. The team gained widespread attention during their second season when they staged a one-game walk-out; Dixon hired Bill LaForge to manage the team, and when he stepped in for coach Rick Kozuback and allegedly levied verbal abuse at players and instructed them to injure their opponents, the players refused to play in their December 31, 1989 game against the Portland Winter Hawks. Dixon ultimately agreed that Kozuback would continue coaching the team, rather than LaForge. In that season's playoffs, during their first round series against the Thunderbirds, Kozuback and several players got into a physical altercation with fans, who had apparently been pouring beer onto the bench; Kozuback and two players were suspended, while Seattle was fined for its fans' actions.

Despite re-branding as the Americans, the team wore the New West Bruins' black-and-gold colors for the first two seasons in Kennewick, before Dixon finally paid for new uniforms in their red, white, and blue color scheme in 1990. The team found limited success in its first two decades, winning its first playoff series in 1995 over Spokane, but never advancing past the Division final.

Twenty-first century

Struggling on and off the ice, the team was nearly relocated to Chilliwack, British Columbia, in 2004. However, an ownership group including former players Kolzig and Barnes, along with Bob Tory and Dennis Loman, purchased the team and kept it in Kennewick. In 2021, Barnes would be named the team's head coach.

The Americans' had their most successful run in a five-season period from 2007–08 to 2011–12, when the team topped the U.S. Division four times. In 2007–08, led by goaltender Chet Pickard and coach-of-the-year Don Nachbaur, the team won the regular season title with a 52-win, 108-point season, before losing a seven-game conference final series against Spokane that featured a then-record five overtime games. The following season, at their annual New Year's Eve game against the Chiefs on December 31, 2008, the Americans set a team record for attendance with 6,042 attendees. In 2009–10, the Americans won their third straight division title and advanced to the championship series for the first time in history. They faced the Calgary Hitmen, losing the series in five games.