The Sheffield Steelers are a professional ice hockey team located in Sheffield, England. They were formed in 1991 (see 1991 in sport) and play their home games at the Utilita Arena. They are currently a member of the Elite Ice Hockey League. The club’s main (title) sponsor is Sheffield Window Centre.
History
Sheffield Arena: home of the Steelers in 1997
Sheffield Arena: home of the Steelers twenty-five years later in 2022

Ice Hockey existed in amateur form in Sheffield, but the sport began its return to an era of arenas and stadium size crowds with the opening of the Sheffield Arena in 1991 and the creation of the Sheffield Steelers — the ice hockey team that was to occupy the new arena. The Sheffield Arena was built as part of the city’s facilities for the staging of the World Student Games, and is a sizeable stadium originally seating 8,500 and located close to the city centre.[1] Ronnie Wood and David Gardener-Brown were at the helm as the Marketing Director at the club and set about promoting ice hockey to a city raised on the footballing success of Sheffield United and Sheffield Wednesday. Wood had a specific target, seeking to attract children and families to the city’s new sporting Arena. They also began taking players to local football matches and together with mascots in an attempt to pull in football fans too. The Steelers’ announcer David Simms gave certain players nicknames in the 1991–92 season to help the crowd associate with the players such as ‘Rocket Ron Shudra, ‘Stormin’ Steve Nemeth and ‘Magic’ Mark Mackie.

The Steelers were named in honour of Sheffield’s industrial past, much like the American football team of the same name based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the sharing of nicknames is merely a coincidence. The American football team actually predates Sheffield’s team by 58 years and was already popular worldwide due to their dominance in the National Football League in the 1970s. Sheffield and Pittsburgh are considered sister cities.[2]

The Steelers have continued to fill the capacity of the Arena nearly every season since, including over 9,000 vs Nottingham on Boxing Day 2021. Sheffield began breaking several British ice hockey attendance records, and in March 1996 added an extra 1,200 seats to the Arena to meet the growing demand. The Manchester v Sheffield game in 1997 saw a UK record 17,245, such was the passion for the game at that time.[3]

On Sunday 3 December 2006, the Steelers played in their 1000th ever game.[4] The game was against the Basingstoke Bison at the Hallam FM Arena, for which special orange jerseys had been made for the match.[5] The Steelers lost the game 3–2[6] and the jerseys were all auctioned off at the game.

In the 2000–01 campaign the Steelers completed a Grand Slam, becoming only the second club to win the Autumn Cup, League, Challenge Cup and Playoff Titles in the same season. They retained the Play-off title the following season, the first team to achieve this in the Superleague era, beating Manchester Storm on penalties in the Play-Off final, held at the National Ice Centre in Nottingham in front of a full house.

David Matsos was appointed as coach for the 2006–07 season. He led the Steelers to a fourth-place finish in the league and a place in the Challenge Cup Finals.[7]

In 2007 team Owner Bob Phillips and his wife sold their other Elite League club the Cardiff Devils in order to concentrate on building the Steelers.[8] The club won that season’s Elite League Playoff Championship after beating the Coventry Blaze 2–0 in the final with goals from Johnathan Phillips and Dan Tessier. The Steelers were knocked out of the following season’s Knockout Cup and Challenge Cup early, but finished first in a league campaign that saw them lose just three times in regulation. They made this a double by beating Nottingham Panthers 2–0 in the Play-Off final. The Steelers season ended in the Quarter Finals of the Play-offs after being knocked out by the Cardiff Devils.

The 2010–11 season was preceded by a “walk-out” of Steelers management and office staff, after a vote of no confidence in Owner Bob Phillips. Phillips put the club up for sale, and in December 2010 Paul Ragan, the CEO and owner of the Cardiff Devils, finalised acquiring the rights to the Sheffield Steelers. The Steelers were at the top of the league for the majority of the season, battling it out with the Cardiff Devils, .and won the league after back-to-back victories against the Braehead Clan. The Steelers were tied on points with Cardiff but won the league having more regulation time wins. After several rounds of negotiations, Simon decided not to renew his contract, and Ryan Finnerty was installed as player/coach after. During that season Sheffield Steelers became the first EIHL team to win a medal in Europe after their appearance in the Continental Cup superfinal.

Tony Smith took over as sole owner in August 2011 after buying out Paul Ragan. The Steelers won the 2013–14 Play-Off final 3–2 against Belfast Giants.

From 2014 onwards any time that the Sheffield Steelers win a game the player dubbed Man of the Match does a fast lap around the ice with a pre-planned celebration at the end of their fast lap. This tradition was then called “the Eddy” named after the player who originated this tradition Cullen Eddy. Some sources say that this was originally a prank devised by players at the time Mark Thomas and Jason Hewitt who skated over to Eddy and told him that it was a 20 year tradition at the club to do a fast lap around the perimeter of the ice. The prank paid off and after that the Steelers incorporated this in their match night celebrations.

Source : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheffield_Steelers