Until the 1990s, hockey teams in the South were few and far between. The heat prevalent in the southern states did not exactly lend itself to ice-based sports, leading locals to favor warm-weather sports such as baseball and football. However, the National Hockey League’s (NHL’s) expansion teams began to gradually make their way further south throughout the 1990s, spreading a new interest in the sport. In 1993, the expansion reached Texas when the Minnesota North Stars moved to Dallas, becoming the beloved Dallas Stars.

With these new NHL teams came their minor league counterparts. The majority of these new minor league teams belonged to the Western Professional Hockey League (WPHL), which operated from 1996-2001 and stretched from New Mexico to Mississippi. In 1996, Waco became home to one of Texas’ five (soon to become eleven) WPHL teams, the Wizards. The Waco Wizards played in the WPHL’s first ever game on October 16, 1996, against the Central Texas Stampede from Belton. The game resulted in an unfortunate 5-4 loss for Waco.

The Wizards played their home games in Waco’s Heart of Texas Coliseum, now called the Extraco Events Center. Their first home game exemplified both the struggles and the vibrancy of minor league play in the South. Waco’s humidity caused a thick fog to gather over the ice, and the Wizards’ administration had to send for dehumidifiers from Dallas to dry out the building. They were able to clear some of the fog, but the glass around the rink remained foggy throughout the game, blocking the enthusiastic but somewhat confused fans. On top of that, a creative and well-intentioned mascot stunt went awry. During the pre-game ceremonies, the Waco mascot was lowered from the Coliseum’s ceiling in full Wizard costume. Unfortunately, the bulky costume got in the way of the mascot attempting to release himself from the straps after the stunt, resulting in him hanging for a while over the ice.

In their first season, the Wizards averaged 3,161 fans in attendance (about one third of the Coliseum’s capacity) and finished with a 30-34 record. The team experienced a sophomore slump the next year, averaging 2,048 fans in attendance each game and finishing 18-51, a WPHL record for a team’s worst season. However, new head coach Todd Lalonde turned the team around in its third season and brought the Wizards to the playoffs after achieving the Wizards’ first ever winning record with 40 wins and 29 losses. Despite the Wizards’ success, attendance stayed low, with an average of 2,137 fans a game.

In their three and a half seasons, the Wizards replaced their manager four times and never had a player advance to the National Hockey League (NHL). Their overall record came to 99 wins and 114 losses. During the first three seasons of operation, the team reportedly lost three million dollars. In 1999, the Wizard’s owner, Ohio businessman Joe Milano, sold the team to Rick Dames, a radio station owner from Corpus Christi. Dames in turn partnered with baseball executives Stu and Sue Kehoe in an attempt to revitalize the dying franchise. Their attempts were unsuccessful, and when they were unable to make their lease payment to the Coliseum, the team folded after only having played 27 games in the 1999-2000 season. The Wizards went out the same way they began: with a loss, this time to the Corpus Christi IceRays.

The WPHL lasted another year after the Wizards folded before merging with the Central Hockey League, which in turn lasted until 2013. The WPHL saw a resurrection in 2024, when a group of minor league teams in California came together to revive the once-beloved league. Although the Wizards only existed for a few years, they sparked a love for hockey in the people of Waco.

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Waco and baseball went hand in glove for over five decades. The famous Katy Park (pinned on map below) was home to multiple minor league teams starting in 1899, one of the most famous being the Waco Pirates. The Pirates brought in two championship titles during their tenure at Katy Park, and they also made their mark on the minds and hearts of the Waco community.

The Waco Dons kicked off a new episode of Minor League Baseball in 1947. The team joined the Class B Big State League, similar to today’s Double-A minor league. The new team was most famous for its one-legged pitcher, Monty Stratton. Though Stratton had lost his leg in a hunting accident, he did not let that stop his baseball career. He famously threw a shutout in 1947 against the Paris Red Peppers. Stratton would even bat and run the bases, with the batboy keeping track of his wooden leg when he was not using it.

Stratton’s Dons were quickly picked up by the Pittsburgh Pirates franchise thanks to Katy Park owner A. H. Kirksey. The club struggled financially from the outset in 1947, so they joined the Pirates’ fold in 1948. The new name and patronage brought success, with the Pirates winning the Big State Championship that year. Though the team started strong, they would soon settle into a pattern of mixed records, not usually making the playoffs.

The years 1952 and 1953 were no kinder to the team. After a respectable but lacking season in 1951, the Pirates lost game after game. Their final record stood at 29-118. To make a dastardly record all the worse, the next year the Pirates lost everything. The May 1953 tornado that ripped through downtown destroyed Katy Park and almost took the lives of general manager C. L. “Buster” Chatham and business manager Jack Berger Jr. The two men were near the ballpark planning for the game that night against the Greenville Majors when the twister touched down, and they took refuge under a locomotive. Ironically, Chatham had always resented the trains for passing so closely to Katy Park and drowning out the announcers, but on that day a train saved his life. The club received invitations from Kilgore, Bryan, and Brenham, but the Pirates chose to move to Longview, Texas, to finish out their season. They played their first game May 28, 1953, against the Temple Eagles at Legion Field. Though they were rechristened the Longview Pirates and played sixty games in their new adopted city, they would soon be the Waco Pirates once again.

It was A. H. Kirksey who stepped up and pledged to rebuild Katy Park. Along with team President Jack Kultgen, a three-year lease was signed to bring the Pirates back to Waco. With the team’s return to Waco came new manager Jack Paepke and new players, ones who would prove to change the team’s fortune: Roman Mejias, Jack Falls, Ron Sheetz, Dick Hoffman, and Don Kildoo. The Pirates graced Katy Park in a Big State game once more against the Harlingen Capitols on April 16, 1954. Jack Falls started the game strong with a home run, the first in the rebuilt park, and the Pirates took the win 7-0. The season progressed well from there, with the Pirates almost sitting in first place in the league by May. Paepke, who would also play for the team when needed, then broke his thumb in a game on May 6 and the roster had to be reshuffled. Roster changes would continue throughout the season. By the beginning of June the Pirates were sitting at a comfortable 33-18 record.

June also brought the beginning of the most famous moment in Waco Pirates history. Outfielder Roman Mejias (batting average .237) hit a single and a triple in a June 6 game in Galveston, and this was the beginning of an incredible hitting streak. Over the next three weeks Mejias batted a .488, and his streak was just getting started. When the streak reached 37 games in July, Mejias gained national recognition and The Sporting News wrote an article about the Waco player. Even when the Pirates would lose, Mejias managed to get at least one hit during the game. Soon he was closing in on Joe DiMaggio’s record for the second-longest hitting streak in minor league history, Mejias at 55 and DiMaggio at 56. Unfortunately, that is where Mejias’s streak would end, and DiMaggio would keep his record. Mejias, though coming up to bat four times, failed to get an on-base hit against the Pioneers on August 2. His streak stats stood at .419, 19 doubles, 5 triples, and 7 home runs. The end of the streak did not spell the end of the 1954 Pirates’ success, however, and the team went on to win the Big State League Championship. It was an exhilarating and unexpected 105-42 season for the team and Waco was abuzz with baseball fever.

Despite the great success of the 1954 season, the Pirates would only play two more years in Waco. The reason was a surprisingly rapid decline in interest in Minor League Baseball. Waco residents have blamed the decline on various things, such as the rise of Little League and the explosion of television, but either way the Pirates came to the end of their tenure after the 1956 season. The Big State League itself folded the following year.

Though Minor League Baseball did not last forever in Waco, it had a tremendous impact on the town. Thousands of Waco residents hold fond memories of nights spent at Katy Park watching the games. As former Pirates batboy T. R. Taylor said “If the lights were on at Katy Park, my parents always knew where they could find me.” That was true of many Waco baseball fans in the mid-twentieth century.

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