Florida Rockets / Jacksonville Rockets
Order classic Florida Rockets tees and hoodies. The first pro hockey team based in Florida joined the EHL in 1964 at the Jacksonville Coliseum, split home games with St. Petersburg's Bayfront Arena, and wore three stars on the logo for a planned West Palm Beach stop. Celebrate the Sunshine State's first pro club by browsing all of our Rockets gear, then read the team history below. As a small business, we're proud to keep the names, logos and stories of hockey's lost teams in circulation.
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Florida Rockets / Jacksonville Rockets History
The Jacksonville Rockets, sometimes known as the Florida Rockets, were Florida's first professional hockey team. For the 1964-65 season, they joined the Eastern Hockey League (EHL) at the Jacksonville Coliseum.St. Petersburg was also interested in a hockey franchise at the time and played neutral site games with other EHL teams during the season. The Jacksonville Rockets played a portion of their games in St. Pete at the Bayfront Arena and changed their name to the Florida Rockets to represent the fact that they were a two-city club. They were also scheduled to play at West Palm Beach (thus the three stars on the emblem), but that did not happen. They never ended with a record above .500 in eight seasons, although they did qualify for the playoffs three times. They went bankrupt in the summer of 1972, a year before the EHL itself went under.
