Waterloo Black Hawks

The Waterloo Black Hawks are a Tier 1 junior ice hockey team playing in the East Division of the United States Hockey League (USHL). The Black Hawks' home ice is the Young Arena located in Waterloo, Iowa.
==Early history==
The Waterloo Black Hawks began as a semi-professional team in the USHL in 1962, the league having started only a season before. The team's home ice was the McElroy Auditorium. The team started strong, winning the USHL championship every season from 1964 to 1968. After the 1968-69 season, the Black Hawks went on a one-year hiatus to become the Minnesota North Stars' top farm team, the Iowa Stars. The team finished 35-26-11 in 1969-70, one point behind league champion Omaha (whom the Stars would later lose to in the Central Professional Hockey League final series). The Stars reverted back to the Black Hawks and the USHL the very next year, amid financial losses topping $150,000 and a Stars move to Cleveland.
==Early junior history==
After another decade of success in the 1970s, including more league titles in 1975, '78, and '79, the Black Hawks reverted to junior hockey with the rest of the USHL in 1979. They immediately won the Southern Division title in 1979-80 before head coach Jack Barzee moved the team to Dubuque the next season, becoming the Fighting Saints in the process. Waterloo was not without a team for long, however, as the USHL champion Hennepin Nordiques opted to move the team to Waterloo before the 1980-81 campaign.
The new Black Hawks, unlike the Black Hawks of old, struggled. From 1980 to 1992, when new head coach Scott Mikesch stepped behind the bench, the team went through eight different head coaches. Five of them coached between 1980 and 1982. After the team's Southern Division title in 1980, the Black Hawks would not celebrate a winning season again until 1993-94, winning 20 games (in a 48-game season) only four times during that span.
==The 1990s==
Despite bad records and a decaying arena, the Black Hawks managed to turn out several future NHLers in the early 1990s. Twin star forwards Chris Ferraro and Peter Ferraro came over in 1991 from Dubuque and scored a combined 200 points in the 1991-92 season, and just two seasons later, Jason Blake notched 50 goals and 50 assists, the first 50-goal, 50-assist player in the USHL since Thunder Bay's Terry Menard seven years prior.
In 1995, the Black Hawks moved out of the old McElroy Auditorium into the brand-new Young Arena in downtown Waterloo. With that move and new owner Butch Johnson's purchase of the team almost simultaneously, things began to look up for the Black Hawks. Unfortunately, the records did not improve, and the team failed to finish above .500 again until 1999-2000. New head coach Scott Pionk brought a glimmer of hope to the Cedar Valley in 1997-98 with a 25-29-2 record, but a 16-37-3 record the next season led to his departure. Scott Koberinski's 28-26-4 record in 1999-2000, followed by a 25-29-2 record the next year, brought even higher hopes, but a 21-38-2 record led to yet another coaching change.
==Recent success==
New coach P.K. O'Handley brought immediate changes to the Black Hawks landscape in 2002-03, hauling in Waterloo's first division championship in 23 years with a 38-17-5 record and finishing only two points behind the Lincoln Stars in the Anderson Cup race. The next season brought the Hawks' first USHL Clark Cup championship ever (referenced below), and the first league title of any kind since 1979, despite finishing 4th in the Eastern Division. Once again, O'Handley's leadership brought a title in 2007, this time the Anderson Cup, the first-ever regular season title for the Black Hawks in the junior era. The Black Hawks also found themselves one game away from winning the 2007 Clark Cup, before they were downed 3-0 by the Sioux Falls Stampede in the championship game, and they found themselves in the same state in the 2008 Clark Cup Finals, losing 4-3 to the Omaha Lancers in overtime in the final game of the series. Since the 1993-94 season, the Black Hawks have sent 103 players to the college ranks and have sent 73 alumni to the pro ranks in their 28-year junior history, including 8 current NHL players.
Under the leadership of O'Handley and General Manager of Business Operations Doug Miller, the Black Hawks won the USHL Organization of the Year award for the 2002-03, 2004-05, and 2006-07 seasons. The USHL said of the Black Hawks in 2007, "Once a franchise in a state of disarray, the Waterloo Black Hawks are now among the teams that sets the standard for how a team should be run." O'Handley also won Coach of the Year honors for the 2002-03 and 2006-07 seasons and the General Manager of Year award for the 2002-03 season.
==Rivalries==
The Black Hawks have had some memorable rivalries with other USHL teams, most notably the current "Corridor Cup" rivalry with the Cedar Rapids RoughRiders. Other rivalries include a former rivalry with the old Dubuque Fighting Saints (which were the Black Hawks prior to 1980), a rivalry with the Sioux City Musketeers (the only teams left from the 1979 USHL transformation; the Des Moines Buccaneers were added to the league a year later), and the Buccaneers themselves (because of the rich hockey heritage both teams share, and because travel between the two cities has been streamlined with four-lane retrofits of U.S. Highway 20 and Iowa Highway 330. During the 1990s, the Black Hawks - Buccaneers rivalry was not nearly as active as it is now, due to the Buccaneers' usual stance at the top of the league and the Black Hawks' perennial place in the USHL's basement. Since the Buccaneers' fall from domination at the end of the 1990s and the Black Hawks' recent rise, the teams have found themselves on much more equal footing lately, and the rivalry is as alive as ever.
==Season-by-season record==
===Senior/Professional Years===
Note: GP = Games Played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against, Pts = Points
Season 	GP 	W 	L 	T 	GF 	GA 	Pts 	Finish 	Playoffs 	 	
Waterloo Black Hawks	Waterloo Black Hawks	Waterloo Black Hawks	Waterloo Black Hawks	Waterloo Black Hawks	Waterloo Black Hawks	Waterloo Black Hawks	Waterloo Black Hawks	Waterloo Black Hawks	Waterloo Black Hawks	Waterloo Black Hawks	Waterloo Black Hawks
1962-63 	32 	16 	16 	0 	147 	156 	32 	3rd overall 	Lost Semifinals 	 	
1963-64 	30 	19 	11 	0 	156 	126 	38 	1st overall 	Won Championship 	 	
1964-65 	28 	17 	11 	0 	129 	110 	34 	1st overall 	Won Championship 	 	
1965-66 	30 	21 	9 	0 	182 	132 	42 	1st overall 	Won Championship 	 	
1966-67 	32 	17 	14 	1 	128 	117 	35 	1st overall 	Won Championship 	 	
1967-68 	34 	27 	6 	1 	190 	105 	55 	1st overall 	Won Championship 	 	
1968-69 	38 	20 	16 	2 	- 	- 	42 	3rd overall 	 	 	
Iowa Stars (CHL) 	Iowa Stars (CHL) 	Iowa Stars (CHL) 	Iowa Stars (CHL) 	Iowa Stars (CHL) 	Iowa Stars (CHL) 	Iowa Stars (CHL) 	Iowa Stars (CHL) 	Iowa Stars (CHL) 	Iowa Stars (CHL) 	Iowa Stars (CHL) 	Iowa Stars (CHL)
1969-70 	72 	35 	26 	11 	252 	232 	81 	2nd overall 	Lost Final 	 	
Waterloo Black Hawks	Waterloo Black Hawks	Waterloo Black Hawks	Waterloo Black Hawks	Waterloo Black Hawks	Waterloo Black Hawks	Waterloo Black Hawks	Waterloo Black Hawks	Waterloo Black Hawks	Waterloo Black Hawks	Waterloo Black Hawks	Waterloo Black Hawks
1970-71 	40 	19 	19 	2 	187 	180 	40 	2nd overall 	 	 	
1971-72 	32 	15 	17 	0 	130 	136 	30 	2nd overall 	 	 	
1972-73 	42 	23 	18 	1 	217 	189 	47 	3rd Southern 	Did not qualify 	 	
1973-74 	48 	29 	18 	1 	236 	183 	59 	2nd Southern 	 	 	
1974-75 	48 	30 	15 	3 	221 	165 	63 	1st Southern 	Won Championship 	 	
1975-76 	48 	30 	18 	0 	242 	184 	60 	2nd Southern 	Lost first round 	 	
1976-77 	48 	20 	28 	0 	216 	279 	40 	3rd Southern 	Did not Qualify 	 	
1977-78 	51 	34 	17 	0 	267 	198 	68 	1st US 	Won Championship 	 	
1978-79 	51 	39 	12 	0 	304 	182 	66 	1st Central 	Won Championship 	 	
===Junior Years===
Note: GP = Games Played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, OL = Overtime Losses, SL = Shootout Losses, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against, Pts = Points
Season 	GP 	W 	L 	T 	OL 	SL 	GF 	GA 	Pts 	Finish 	Playoffs
Original Junior Franchise (became Dubuque Fighting Saints)	Original Junior Franchise (became Dubuque Fighting Saints)	Original Junior Franchise (became Dubuque Fighting Saints)	Original Junior Franchise (became Dubuque Fighting Saints)	Original Junior Franchise (became Dubuque Fighting Saints)	Original Junior Franchise (became Dubuque Fighting Saints)	Original Junior Franchise (became Dubuque Fighting Saints)	Original Junior Franchise (became Dubuque Fighting Saints)	Original Junior Franchise (became Dubuque Fighting Saints)	Original Junior Franchise (became Dubuque Fighting Saints)	Original Junior Franchise (became Dubuque Fighting Saints)	Original Junior Franchise (became Dubuque Fighting Saints)
1979-80 	48 	27 	19 	2 	- 	- 	270 	235 	56 	1st of 3 Southern 	
Current franchise (previous Hennepin Nordiques franchise) 	Current franchise (previous Hennepin Nordiques franchise) 	Current franchise (previous Hennepin Nordiques franchise) 	Current franchise (previous Hennepin Nordiques franchise) 	Current franchise (previous Hennepin Nordiques franchise) 	Current franchise (previous Hennepin Nordiques franchise) 	Current franchise (previous Hennepin Nordiques franchise) 	Current franchise (previous Hennepin Nordiques franchise) 	Current franchise (previous Hennepin Nordiques franchise) 	Current franchise (previous Hennepin Nordiques franchise) 	Current franchise (previous Hennepin Nordiques franchise) 	Current franchise (previous Hennepin Nordiques franchise)
1980-81 	48 	16 	32 	0 	- 	- 	220 	311 	32 	3rd of 4 Southern 	
1981-82 	48 	11 	36 	1 	- 	- 	179 	290 	23 	7th of 7 overall 	
1982-83 	48 	6 	42 	0 	- 	- 	189 	336 	12 	7th of 7 overall 	
1983-84 	48 	11 	33 	1 	3 	- 	199 	307 	26 	7th of 8 overall 	
1984-85 	48 	21 	24 	0 	3 	- 	260 	278 	45 	6th of 10 overall 	
1985-86 	48 	16 	30 	1 	1 	- 	223 	304 	34 	7th of 10 overall 	
1986-87 	48 	23 	19 	0 	6 	- 	259 	266 	52 	4th of 10 overall 	
1987-88 	48 	20 	24 	3 	1 	- 	237 	269 	44 	8th of 10 overall 	
1988-89 	48 	9 	37 	0 	2 	- 	169 	338 	20 	9th of 10 overall 	
1989-90 	48 	7 	36 	3 	2 	- 	181 	314 	19 	9th of 10 overall 	
1990-91 	48 	17 	29 	2 	0 	- 	162 	234 	40 	9th of 10 overall 	
1991-92 	48 	21 	25 	2 	0 	- 	253 	286 	46 	6th of 10 overall 	
1992-93 	48 	17 	24 	3 	4 	- 	155 	205 	41 	7th of 10 overall 	
1993-94 	54 	33 	15 	0 	2 	- 	214 	152 	68 	2nd of 10 overall 	
1994-95 	48 	14 	27 	2 	5 	- 	161 	205 	35 	9th of 11 overall 	
1995-96 	46 	21 	19 	2 	4 	- 	157 	176 	48 	6th of 11 overall 	
1996-97 	56 	16 	34 	- 	4 	- 	182 	273 	36 	5th of 6 South 	Did not qualify
1997-98 	56 	29 	25 	- 	0 	2 	159 	200 	52 	5th of 6 South 	Lost quarterfinals 1-4 (North Iowa Huskies)
1998-99 	56 	16 	37 	- 	3 	0 	167 	245 	35 	4th of 4 East 	Did not qualify
1999-00 	58 	28 	26 	- 	0 	4 	186 	213 	60 	3rd of 7 East 	Lost Quarterfinals 1-3 (Green Bay Gamblers)
2000-01 	56 	25 	29 	- 	2 	0 	189 	210 	52 	3rd of 6 East 	Did not qualify
2001-02 	61 	21 	38 	- 	2 	0 	138 	220 	44 	5th of 6 East 	Did not qualify
2002-03 	60 	38 	17 	- 	1 	4 	221 	171 	81 	1st of 5 East 	Won Quarterfinals 3-1 (Des Moines Buccaneers)Lost Semifinals 0-3 (River City Lancers)
2003-04 	60 	30 	27 	- 	2 	1 	174 	162 	63 	4th of 6 East 	Won Quarterfinals 3-2 (Chicago Steel)Won Semifinals 3-0 (Danville Wings)Won Championship 3-1 (Tri-City Storm)
2004-05 	60 	29 	25 	- 	3 	3 	163 	168 	64 	2nd of 6 East 	Lost Quarterfinals 0-3 (Cedar Rapids RoughRiders)
2005-06 	60 	23 	30 	- 	5 	2 	177 	201 	53 	5th of 6 East 	Did not qualify
2006-07 	60 	39 	17 	- 	1 	3 	225 	157 	82 	1st of 6 East1st Overall 	Won first round 4-1 (Chicago Steel)Finished 3rd Quarterfinals 1-1Won Semifinal 1-0 (ot) (Des Moines Buccaneers)Lost championship game  0-3 (Sioux Falls Stampede)
2007-08 	60 	38 	17 	- 	1 	4 	183 	151 	81 	2nd of 6 East 	Won Quarterfinals 3-0 (Cedar Rapids RoughRiders)Won Semifinals 3-0 (Chicago Steel)Lost Final 2-3 (Omaha Lancers)
2008-09 	60 	37 	20 	- 	2 	1 	246 	198 	77 	4th of 6 East 	Lost Quarterfinals 0-3 (Green Bay Gamblers)
2009-10 	60 	31 	27 	- 	2 	0 	227 	221 	64 	4th of 6 East 	Lost Quarterfinals 0-3 (Green Bay Gamblers)
2010-11 	60 	24 	29 	- 	3 	4 	164 	183 	55 	6th of 8 Eastern 	Lost First Round 0-2 (Indiana Ice)
2011-12 	60 	35 	19 	- 	2 	4 	213 	189 	76 	3rd of 8 Western 	Won First Round 2-0 (Tri-City Storm)Won Quarterfinals 3-1 (Omaha Lancers)Won Semifinals 3-1 (Lincoln Stars)Lost Final 2-3 (Green Bay Gamblers)
2012-13 	64 	39 	21 	- 	2 	2 	273 	217 	82 	3rd of 8 Western 	Lost Quarterfinals 3-0 (Fargo Force)
2013-14 	60 	44 	11 	- 	1 	4 	240 	153 	93 	1st of 8 Western1st overall 	Won Quarterfinals 3-0 (Sioux Falls Stampede)Won Semifinals 3-1 (Sioux City Musketeers)Lost Final 2-3 (Indiana Ice)
2014-15 	60 	28 	26 	- 	2 	4 	191 	182 	62 	5th of 8 Western 	Did not qualify
2015-16 	60 	31 	24 	- 	2 	3 	198 	183 	67 	3rd of 8 Western 	Won Quarterfinals 3-1 (Lincoln Stars)Lost Semifinals 2-3 (Tri-City Storm)
2016-17 	60 	40 	16 	- 	2 	2 	210 	161 	84 	2nd of 8 Western 	Won Quarterfinals 3-0 (Fargo Force)Lost Semifinals 2-3 (Sioux City Musketeers)
2017-18 	60 	38 	14 	- 	6 	2 	199 	150 	84 	1st of 8 Western1st of 17 overall 	Won Conf. Semifinals 3-1 (Lincoln Stars)Lost Conf Final 1-4 (Fargo Force)
2018-19 	62 	39 	16 	- 	5 	2 	232 	173 	85 	2nd of 8 Western 	Lost Conf Semifinals 1-3 (Sioux Falls Stampede)
2019-20 	49 	33 	14 	- 	2 	0 	169 	129 	68 	1st of 8 Western 	Playoffs cancelled
2020-21 	53 	22 	30 	- 	1 	0 	165 	202 	.425 	7th Western 	Did not qualify
2021-22 	62 	28 	30 	- 	3 	1 	182 	197 	60 	6th Western 	Won Conf. Quarterfinals 1-2 (Lincoln Stars)Lost Conf Semifinals 1-2 (Sioux City Musketeers)
2022-23 	62 	40 	21 	- 	1 	0 	230 	181 	81 	2nd Western 	Lost Conf. Semifinals 1-2 (Lincoln Stars)
2023-24 	62 	35 	25 	- 	0 	2 	224 	205 	72 	3rd Western 	Lost Conf. Quarterifinals (Lincoln Stars)
==Former Black Hawks in pro hockey==
*J. T. Brown (ice hockey) (NHL)
*Jan-Mikael Juutilainen (SM-Liiga)
*Siim Liivik (SM-Liiga)
*Joe Pavelski (NHL), 2010 Olympic Silver Medalist
*Jason Blake (NHL)
*Mark Eaton (NHL)
*Andrew Alberts (NHL)
*Craig Smith (NHL)
*Eriah Hayes (NHL)
==Links==
* official website
Category:United States Hockey League team
Category:American ice hockey teams