Thunder Bay Thunder Cats

The Thunder Bay Thunder Cats were founded in 1991 as the Thunder Bay Thunder Hawks, an original member of the Colonial Hockey League (CoHL), and played at Fort William Gardens. The Thunder Hawks arrived the season after the Thunder Bay Twins left senior hockey, in the Twins' building, with the Twins' head coach Bill McDonald and assistant coach John Adams behind the bench and ten players from the Twins' final roster on the ice. The Thunder Hawks went 26-28-6 in the five-team league's first season and won the Colonial Cup. In 1993, the team was renamed the Thunder Bay Senators to reflect an affiliation with the National Hockey League's Ottawa Senators. The Senators took the CoHL regular season title in 1993-94 and 1994-95 and won the league playoff championship in both of those seasons.

The club became the Thunder Bay Thunder Cats in 1996, and the Colonial Hockey League changed its name to the United Hockey League for the 1997-98 season. Over three seasons the Thunder Cats went 132-69-21 across 222 games. The Thunder Cats made the playoffs in each of their three seasons, but failed to progress past the second round. After eight seasons in Thunder Bay the franchise was sold and moved across the border to Rockford, Illinois.