Check out the formatting tips on the right for help formatting and making links.

Use the template below:

http://www.windsorspitfires.com/ Official Site

History of the Spitfires

The Original Spitfires in the Ontario Hockey Association played Junior A hockey from 1945 to 1953. During this period the Spitfires reached the league finals twice, and featured four future Hockey Hall of Fame players. Prior to 1945 the club played several years at the Junior B level.

The modern Windsor Spitfires started as a Junior A team which played in the Southern Ontario Junior A Hockey League from 1971-1975. The team was known as the "Windsor Bulldogs" from 1973-75. The Spitfires were granted entry into the OMJHL (later known as the OHL) as an expansion franchise for the 1975-76 OMJHL season, after a 22 year hiatus.

The "Spits" as they are commonly known, won their first Emms division title in 1980 and reached the OHL finals, but lost to the Peterborough Petes. Ernie Godden set an all-time OHL record in 1980-81 scoring 87 goals. In 1984 Peter Karmanos, the founder and CEO of Compuware, bought the team and renamed them the Windsor Compuware Spitfires.

In a well executed four-year plan, Windsor won the J. Ross Robertson Cup in 1987-88, defeating the Peterborough Petes for the OHL championship. The Compuware Spitfires won 35 of their last 36 games played, including being the first team to be undefeated in the OHL playoffs. Windsor also won 54 games and lost none, when leading after two periods. The Spitfires played in the 1988 Memorial Cup hosted in Chicoutimi, Quebec. Windsor lost in the championship game to the Medicine Hat Tigers.

Karmanos sold the team to local construction magnate Steve Riolo after the 1988-89 season, and the team reverted back the Windsor Spitfires name and adopted their modern logo.

As of October 18, 2005, Head Coach Moe Mantha was handed a 40 game suspension and later terminated without pay, for a hazing incident that occurred aboard a bus after a preseason versus the London Knights. An altercation involving players Steve Downie and Akim Aliu, in which Aliu lost four teeth, led to public exposure of the compulsive hazing within the Spitfires organization. Downie has since been traded to the Peterborough Petes, and Aliu has been traded to the Sudbury Wolves.

On Thursday April 6, 2006, the Ontario Hockey League Board of Governors announced the approval of a new ownership group for the Windsor Spitfires. The group of Bob Boughner, Warren Rychel and Peter Dobrich will take over the team. All three men have history in Windsor with OHL hockey, and look forward to building a championship team and moving into a new arena in the near future. Boughner will assume the roles of President and CEO of the Spitfires, Rychel will be director player development, and Dobrich its new business manager