Miami Manatees

Lore & Background

The Miami Manatees originally played home games at Miami Arena, but owner David Waronker had an out clause in the lease allowing relocation if average attendance fell below 1,500 after 20 of 32 home games. Attendance was well below that mark; one game against the Lakeland Loggerheads drew an estimated 250 fans. Waronker then sought to move the team to the RDV Sportsplex in Maitland, FL, but the players rejected that plan. The ownership then decided to play only away games, which the players disliked even more, leading several to leave for other teams, mostly in the South East Hockey League or ECHL squads. With the few remaining players, the Manatees played only 48 regular-season games but still qualified for the playoffs.

The team's play-by-play voice was Mark Fischel, with color analyst John Daley, who was also head coach of the Jr. Manatees ice hockey program. Games were carried on IRN.fm internet radio. The Manatees received limited newspaper coverage in the Miami Herald and the Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel.

In the playoffs, the league changed its format to allow the four best win percentages into the playoffs. The Manatees finished 4th in that metric with a .552 winning percentage (53 points in 48 games), edging out the 4th-place Orlando Seals (59 points in 57 games, .517). The Manatees won one game in the best-of-three series before losing to the Jacksonville Barracudas.

Reader's Guide

The Miami Manatees represent a brief, chaotic chapter in minor league hockey history. Their season was defined by extreme attendance problems—a clause in the lease allowed relocation if average attendance fell below 1,500, and actual crowds were far lower, with one game drawing only 250 fans. The owner's attempt to move to Maitland was rejected by players, leading to the unusual decision to play only road games. This caused a mass exodus of players, yet the remaining roster still managed to qualify for the playoffs under a last-minute format change that favored win percentage over total points. The team's playoff appearance, despite playing only 48 games and losing most of its roster, underscores the oddities of the WHA2's final season. After the season, the WHA2 teams formed the Southern Professional Hockey League; the Manatees were allowed to suspend operations for a year to find a new venue but failed, and the franchise folded. No minor league hockey has returned to Miami since.

Did You Know?

• The Manatees played only 48 regular-season games due to roster depletion after deciding to play only road games.
• One home game drew an estimated attendance of only 250 fans.
• The team qualified for the playoffs with a .552 winning percentage, edging out the Orlando Seals who had more points but a lower percentage.
• After the season, the franchise suspended operations for a year but folded after failing to find a suitable arena.

From One Typewriter to a Century-Old Legacy

In the autumn of 1914, two women who had first crossed paths as students at Pennsylvania State Normal School in Millersville, Pennsylvania, made a bold decision in Providence, Rhode Island. Gertrude I. Johnson and Mary T. Wales, both then teaching at the Bryant and Stratton business school, pooled their ambitions to launch a small business school of their own. Their operation began humbly—a single student, a single typewriter, and a modest space on Hope Street. The early curriculum was practical and focused: bookkeeping, typing, shorthand, English, and mathematics, open to both men and women at a time when such inclusivity was far from universal. As the school attracted more learners, it relocated to a larger site on Olney Street and eventually settled at 36 Exchange Street downtown, a move timed to accommodate the wave of soldiers returning from World War I who sought new careers. What started as a two-woman venture on a narrow street would, over the following century, evolve into a major private university.

A New Chapter: Sale, Downtown Expansion, and the Hospitality Bet

By the mid-1940s the original founders were aging and unwell, and in June 1947 they handed the reins to Edward Triangelo and Morris Gaebe, partners and former Navy shipmates who took on the roughly hundred-student school. Under their co-directorship the institution accelerated: national accreditation arrived in 1954, and junior-college status followed in 1960. In 1963 the school became a registered nonprofit, and Triangolo stepped into the role of first president. The 1960s and 1970s presented a unique opportunity in Providence: as hotels and department stores migrated to the suburbs, the college seized their downtown real estate, acquiring the former Crown Hotel in 1966 and, a decade later, both the Dreyfus Hotel and the Gladdings Department Store building. Gaebe, who led the institution from 1969 to 1989, made a controversial bet in 1972 by launching a hospitality program over boardroom skepticism. Enrollment in that program surged from 141 students in 1973 to 3,000 by 1983, and the culinary side became nationally celebrated. In 1988 the institution officially became a university.

Four Colleges, One Culinary Reputation

Although the institution was born as a business and hospitality school, its academic identity has broadened considerably. Instruction is now organized under four colleges: the John Hazen White College of Arts & Sciences, the College of Hospitality & Business, the College of Food Innovation & Technology, and the College of Health & Wellness. The university is widely recognized as the largest food-service educator globally, and a 2010 ranking by the American Universities Admissions Program placed it among the top three hospitality colleges in the country based on international reputation. Its business school ranks as the thirty-ninth largest in the United States. By 2016 the university reported sixteen thousand students and more than two thousand four hundred employees spread across four cities, with degree programs spanning business, culinary arts, nutrition, education, physician assistant studies, engineering, and design. Accreditation is granted by the New England Commission of Higher Education. By the fall of 2020, enrollment across all campuses stood at 7,357 students, reflecting both the institution's scale and the natural ebb and flow of a multi-campus private university.

Campuses, Wildcats, and a Shifting Footprint

The university's physical presence has been as dynamic as its academic one. In the Providence area, the original Downcity campus (opened 1914) houses business, hospitality, and technology programs, while the Harborside campus in Cranston, opened in 1985, anchors culinary and graduate studies. Together they span 176 acres and include ten residence halls, five dining venues, and the Wildcat Center. The Charlotte campus, announced in 2002 to consolidate the earlier Charleston and Norfolk sites, opened in 2004 on roughly fifteen acres in Uptown's Gateway Village district. In 2024, JWU announced a Charlotte expansion involving the sale of the 566-bed City View Towers and the conversion of an on-campus DoubleTree hotel into a new residence hall. Former locations in North Miami, Denver, Charleston, and Norfolk have all closed. Every campus fields teams called the Wildcats, competing in the NAIA, USCAA, or NCAA Division III. The costumed mascot Willie T. Wildcat, redesigned in 2013 by student Devon Tsinzo, replaced the earlier Griff the Griffin of the 1980s and 1990s, and is played by multiple students so the university can honor numerous event requests.