It's Rabbit Time!

In the world of minor-professional sports, there are more weird names than traditional ones. In baseball, for example, you can catch a game with the Amarillo Sod Poodles, the Montgomery Biscuits, or the Sugar Land Space Cowboys playing, and non one would question you for the decision you made that seem somehwat out of the ordinary for a weekend outing. There's an element of fun in these names, but there's also some historical context if you start peeling back the layers. This seems to happen in hockey quite a bit where teams like the Orlando Solar Bears, the Newfoundland Growlers, and the Savannah Ghost Pirates exist despite those names sounding more like teams from a children's book than a professional hockey team in real life. Today, we'll examine a team that does exist despite its silly name and bunny ears!

The franchise that the Swamp Rabbits are has been around for while. They were the original Johnstown Chiefs in the All-American Hockey League in 1987-88. The following year saw the Chiefs join the East Coast Hockey League where they would remain until 2010. The ECHL team struggled for a number of years as the owners consistently lost money and couldn't find investors or buyers for the club. Neil Smith, the Chiefs' majority owner, played coy for a year as questions mounted about the team possibly moving, but it was confirmed that Greenville, South Carolina was the destination for the club following the 2009-10 ECHL season.

The ECHL's Greenville Road Warriors, as they were rebranded in 2010, saw the squad play incredible hockey as they became just the second team in ECHL to win a regular-season conference titel after its founding or relocation on the strength of a 46–22–4 record and nine players who scored 40-or-more points that year. They'd enter the Kelly Cup Playoffs as the top-seeded team in the Eastern Conference, and they'd have little trouble in defeating Elmira in four games in the best-of-five opening round. The series against the Wheeling Nailers proved tougher as the Road Warriors went down 3-1 in the best-of-seven only to foce a Game Seven which they'd lose in overtime to end their season. Wes Cunningham, pictured above, was named to the All-ECHL First Team in the team's inaugural campaign in South Carolina.

; 2011-12 saw the Road Warriors slip to fourth-place in the Eastern Conference before running into the fifth-place Florida Everblades who had been on a tear in the late part of the ECHL season, winning eight of ten games coming into the playoffs. Greenville played well, but they simply couldn't solve the Everblades as they continued their strong play throughout the playoffs to capture the Kelly Cup! Greenville's Justin Bowers was naed to the All-ECHL Second Team this season as the Road Warriors looked to regroup in 2012-13.

During the 2012 playoffs, it was announced that the Road Warriors had been sold to Fred Festa's Chestnut Street Sports LLC. Despite new ownership and an infusion of cash, a late-season stretch of poor play dropped Greenville into eighth-place in the Eastern Conference. They would square off against the powerful Reading Royals in the opening best-of-seven round of the playoffs, and Reading would shutout Greenville in four of the five games they played to end Greenville's season early again. In a weird twist, Reading would go on to win the Kelly Cup that season, marking the second-straight season that Greenville's opening-round opponent had gone on to win the ECHL championship.

The 2013-14 season saw a horrible start to the campaign offset by a 16-4-0 run to close out the season, leaving Greenville in seventh-place in the Eastern Conference. They'd meet the Kalamazoo Wings in the first round, and pull off the massive upset as they bounced the Wings in a 4-2 series win that saw Greenville win a three-overtime Game Three that lasted four hours and 21 minutes - their longest game in franchise history! They'd meet Wheeling next aftee the Nailers upset the South Carolina Stingrays in their series, and Greenville would send the sixth-seeded Nailers home in six games as well. Reaching the Eastern Conference Final for the first time, they'd eventually fall to the fifth-seeded Cincinnati Cyclones in six games. If you're doing the math, all four top seeds in the Eastern Conference were upset in the opening round!

2014-15 was the least successful season of any played in Greenville as the Road Warriors missed the playoffs for the first time. This prompted a handful of changes within the organization including one that would change the organization's look for the foreseeable future!

On August 26, 2015, team owner Fred Festa announced that the ECHL team would be rebranded as the Greenville Swamp Rabbits! As much as that name seems quite silly, there's a historic tie to the Greenville area as "Swamp Rabbit" was a local name of the Greenville and Northern Railway that began operations in 1920. After the railroad was abandoned in 2005, the railway path was turned into a 19.9-mile (32km) walking trail and named as the "Swamp Rabbit Trail". And just to add a little Leporidae magic to the name, a swamp rabbit, also called a "cane-cutter", is a large cottontail rabbit species that lives in and around swamps and wetlands in the southern US states!

Armed with a new identity, the Swamp Rabbits took to the ice to get back to their playoff ways in 2015-16, but things didn't go so well in their new threads. Finishing the season dead last in the South Division, the Swamp Rabbits missed the playoffs for the second-straight season.

Things would return to normal in 2016-17 as far as Greenville fans were concerned as the Swamp Rabbits played good hockey and finished in second-place in the South Division. That led to a first-round matchup with the South Carolina Stingrays, but the Stingrays had the Swamp Rabbits' number as they downed Greenville 4-2 in that series, marking the third time since moving to Greenville that the franchise was eliminated in the opening round of the Kelly Cup Playoffs.

The 2017-18 season was another poor season in terms of wins and losses as Greenville finished last in the Eastern Conference. As far as I can tell, owner Fred Festa sold the franchise in a move unrelated to wins and losses to a group that saw called South Carolina Pro Hockey, LLC led by former Rochester Americans owner Fred Donner. It also marked the end of the NHL affiliation the team had with the New York Rangers as the team looked to find a new affiliate with the Rangers aligning themselves with the Maine Mariners.

2018-19 saw the team, under new ownership and independent of NHL and AHL help, struggling on the ice as they finished at the bottom of the league once more, tied for the least amount of points with the Allen Americans. For the third time in four seasons, there would be no post-season played in Greenville, and one had to wonder if they were going to turn things around in South Carolina.

The 2019-20 season was a washout thanks to the pandemic as no ECHL team completed the season despite Greenville sitting in third-place in the South Division at the time of the league's stoppage. They'd return in 2020-21 with some vengeance as the Swamp Rabbits finished second in the Eastern Conference with a 38-19-15 record. That earned them a bye in the opening round before they met the Indy Fuel in their best-of-five series. Greenville played well, winning three times in four games to dispatch the Fuel, advancing to the Eastern Conference Final where they met the South Carolina Stingrays in an all-South Carolina playoff series! The Stingrays, though, would be too much for the Swamp Rabbits as they were eliminated in four games in the best-of-five series, but the solid playoff run gave everyone hope for the 2021-22 season!

With 70 games in the books today, the Greenville Swamp Rabbits sit in sixth-place in the Eastern Conference at 33-27-10, but are being pursued by Orlando, Worcester, and Maine for playoff spots. Liam Pecararo leads the team with 23 goals and 50 points while veteran defender Bryce Reddick sits third in defenceman scoring on the team with 16 points, five back of Johnny Coughlin. If the season were end today, their first-round matchup would be the Florida Everblades in what would be a very entertaining matchup!

For a franchise that most chuckled at when it came to their name, the Swamp Rabbits have an interesting history! Their affiliation with the Carolina Hurricanes is showing some teeth as they bounce back into Kelly Cup Playoffs contention, and that's good news for Greenville fans! Here's hoping we see the Swamp Rabbits go on a bit of a run this season and take a shot at bringing home the first Kelly Cup to Greenville, South Carolina!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!