Wheelers, Dealers, Pucks & Bucks: A Rocking History of Roller Hockey International

Who won the first professional sports championship for the city of Anaheim? Which Roller Hockey International team owner posed for Playboy? Which RHI team’s logo did Sports Illustrated describe as looking like “a malevolent vacuum-cleaner attachment?” Which coach won two championships for two different teams in RHI’s first two seasons? Why were fans nearly ejected from the Oakland Skates’ arena for celebrating a hat trick?

All those questions and more are answered in “Wheelers, Dealers, Pucks & Bucks: A Rocking History of Roller Hockey International.”

Author Richard Graham takes you behind the scenes to show how Dennis Murphy created Roller Hockey International, and why Murphy might be the most unlikely, least known and most influential visionary in North American professional sports history.

Despite his rather leprechaun-like stature, “Murph” had tall dreams, a gift of gab and the ability to bring together a diverse group of people to work toward a common goal. After seeing some children playing hockey on inline skates on a suburban street, Murphy was inspired to create a professional league that ran from 1993-1999 and which soared and then crashed much like the inline skating craze of the 1990s.