MOLINE, Ill. — Editor's note: This is part of a series looking back at stories from the WQAD archives.
Nearly 27 years ago, a choir of quacks could be heard on the corner of 12th Street and River Drive. The duck calls signaled the beginning of a new era of hockey in town: the Quad City Mallards.
The first professional team to take the ice in the Quad Cities area made its home debut on Oct. 25, 1995, in front of a home crowd of 7,428 in attendance at The MARK of the Quad Cities, now known as the TaxSlayer Center.
Thousands of locals flocked to the arena where duck calling devices were handed out, though some may have brought their own, to cheer on the Mallards for their inaugural 1995-96 season in the Colonial Hockey League.
Many of the fans in attendance had never been to a hockey game before.
"Oh I love it. This is my first hockey game, so I'm excited about it," a fan said.
"I think it's great. Finally some hockey in the QC," another added.
On the ice, fans were treated to an action-packed home debut.
A total of 10 goals were scored, and a fight broke out with 13 seconds left in the third period. The brawl near the boards caused a pile of players and a referee to fall through an open gate, crashing down into the stands. Luckily, a News 8 camera man was there to capture it all on film.
Unfortunately for the Mallards, they came out on the wrong end of a 7-3 loss to the Muskegon Fury that night. That marked the fourth loss in the first five games for the Mallards that season. They'd go on to finish in last place and post a 30-39-5 record before getting swept in the first round of the playoffs.
But the losses didn't dampen the feelings around the first pro hockey team in the Quad Cities, and it didn't even take long before the Mallards would start to win, which they did — a lot.
In the following season, the Mallards won their first Colonial Championship after defeating the Flint Generals in Game 6 of a best-of-7 series. They raised the Colonial Cup again after transitioning to the United Hockey League in 1997-98, once again defeating their Flint rivals.
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The back-to-back championship victories was the start of five-straight finals appearances from 1997-2001. A third title was won during the 2000-01 campaign after the Mallards took care of the Asheville Smoke in five games.
After that first losing season, the Mallards never finished with a record below .500 during their time in the Quad Cities. Despite being successful, the team ceased operations following the 2006-07 season after the Calgary Flames (NHL) announced their AHL affiliate was relocating to Moline.
Thus, the Quad City Flames was born.
And then that flame went out after two seasons, and Calgary moved its AHL team out of the QCA to British Columbia. The Mallards returned to the Quad Cities from 2009-2018 for nine seasons before owner Jordan Melville sold the team.
But it didn't take long for a new hockey team to come into town: the Quad City Storm.
A member of the Southern Professional Hockey League, the Storm are currently in fourth place with a record of 26-11-4 (60 points) this season.
The name might be different and there aren't nearly as many quacks heard in the TaxSlayer Center these days, but the QC faithful still know how to show out for hockey in the Quad Cities.