[2] Despite being a Southern city that might be considered unfamiliar with a winter sport such as hockey, Huntsville was, beginning in the 1950s, and still is to date, home to a large number of Northern-born (and possibly some Canadian) civilian professionals working in the aerospace and defense industries, and officers and enlisted people in the U.S. Army, who desired a taste of home in their sports allegiances.
Even though a similar demographic in the Atlanta market failed to make an NHL team (the Flames) profitable in the 1970s (leading to its 1980 move to Calgary, Alberta), Huntsville proved to be a different case entirely in this regard.
[2] For the 1982-83 season, Doug Ross became head coach as the Chargers moved to the Central States Collegiate Hockey League.
[2] UAH hosted the club national championship tournament again in 1984, and the Chargers claimed a third straight title with wins over Miami University (3-1), Indiana (13-4), and Ohio (12-1).
UAH hosted the tournament a third time in 1985, but its bid for a fourth straight championship fell short with a 6-2 loss to North Dakota State.
In 1994, the Chargers hosted its first Division II national championship series, but lost to Bemidji State in overtime of a mini-game tiebreaker.
[2] After narrowly missing a chance at the title in 1995, the 1995-96 UAH team went undefeated (26-0-3) in the 1995-96 season and beat Bemidji State 7-1 and 3-0 at the Von Braun Center to claim its first NCAA championship in any sport.
1 seed Notre Dame to double overtime before losing 3-2 in Doug Ross's final game as head coach before retiring.
[2] In 2009, with the CHA's demise imminent following the announced departures of Niagara, Robert Morris, and Bemidji State, UAH applied for membership to the Central Collegiate Hockey Association.
[8] A week before the start of the 2012-13 season, UAH replaced Luongo and hired Kurt Kleinendorst to become the program's fifth head coach.
[9] On January 17, 2013, after months of discussions with conference officials and league member representatives, UAH formally applied to and was accepted to join the Western Collegiate Hockey Association.
[16] The program was once again indefinitely discontinued in May 2021 due to the team's lack of conference membership, which was a condition of a significant portion of the funds pledged the previous summer.