Kansas City Pla-Mors

The Kansas City Pla-Mors took their name from the Pla-Mor, an amusement complex that real estate and construction developer Paul Fogel built in a former market building he purchased in 1925, which opened in late 1927 with a ballroom, bowling lanes and the Pla-Mor Ice Palace, with a seating capacity of 6,300. The team entered the American Hockey Association for the 1927-28 season and became Kansas City's first professional hockey team. Under head coach Bill Grant, the Pla-Mors missed the playoffs only once in six AHA seasons and won league championships in 1930 and 1933. After the second title the club was renamed the Greyhounds, and it later played as the Americans until World War II forced the league to suspend operations.

When the United States Hockey League was formed from the remnants of the AHA after the war, the Kansas City franchise was revived under its original Pla-Mors name. Coached by Elwyn "Doc" Romnes, the 1945-46 Pla-Mors went 35-17-4 and won the new league's first championship, and the team repeated as champions in 1946-47. Emile "The Cat" Francis, a goaltender who later spent decades as an NHL coach and general manager with the New York Rangers, St. Louis Blues and Hartford Whalers, played for the 1947-48 Pla-Mors. Vic Stasiuk, a left winger who went on to win three Stanley Cups with the Detroit Red Wings, turned pro with the Pla-Mors in 1948-49 and stayed in Kansas City into the following season before making his NHL debut with the Chicago Black Hawks in February 1950. Under Reg Hamilton, the Pla-Mors lost in the first round in both 1947-48 and 1948-49, and in 1949 the team was renamed the Mohawks. The arena hosted USHL hockey until the league folded in 1951, and the building, repurposed as a bowling operation in the 1950s and as a rock concert hall in 1970, was demolished in 1972.