Division Eastern Founded 1992 | Colors Orange, Black, Purple Owner(s) Terrence Pegula | |
Location Buffalo, New York, United States | ||
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The Buffalo Bandits are a professional Box lacrosse team in the National Lacrosse League (NLL)'s Eastern Division. They play at the KeyBank Center in Buffalo, New York. The Bandits played in the Major Indoor Lacrosse League from 1992 to 1997, until the MILL turned into the NLL in 1998.
Contents
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- History
- NLL Hall of Fame members
- Single game record holders
- Season record holders
- All time record holders
- NLL All Star Game
- All time record
- All time team by team records
- All time team by team playoff records
- NLL Entry Draft
- NLL Dispersal Draft
- NLL Expansion Draft
- Retired numbers
- Game broadcasts
- References
The Bandits are owned by Hockey Western New York LLC, a division of Pegula Sports and Entertainment led by Terry Pegula who also owns the Buffalo Sabres and the Buffalo Bills.
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History
The Bandits played their first season in 1992. They played home games at Buffalo Memorial Auditorium sharing with the Buffalo Sabres until its closure in 1996.
The Bandits became the first expansion franchise in MILL/NLL history to win a championship in its first season. The Bandits repeated as champions in their second season (compiling the league's only perfect season to date that year), lost the Championship game their third season and captured their third Championship in 1996, their fifth season. It was not until 1999, their eighth season, that the Bandits did not make the playoffs.
Since their 1996 Championship-winning season, the Bandits returned to the NLL Championship game on three separate occasions (1997, 2004, 2006) only to lose each time (including twice at home). It wouldn't be until 2008 that the Bandits would win their elusive fourth Championship, a 14-13 triumph over Portland.
As of 2016, Buffalo is the longest tenured team in the NLL, in terms of continuous years in their home city, at 25 seasons. (They are not the longest tenured franchise; the New England Black Wolves operate on the franchise of the Philadelphia Wings and the Colorado Mammoth were originally the Baltimore Thunder with previous stops as the Pittsburgh Crossefire in 2000 and Washington Power in 2001 & 2002.)
NLL Hall of Fame members
Single-game record holders
Season record holders
All-time record holders
NLL All-Star Game
* - voted as starter
All-time record
All-time team-by-team records
(active NLL franchises only)
All-time team-by-team playoff records
defunct franchises in italics
NLL Entry Draft
First Round Selections
NLL Dispersal Draft
NLL Expansion Draft
Retired numbers
The Bandits have four retired numbers, three of which are represented at the Arena in the rafters with the Championship banners.
34 Thomas Gardner, western New York youth lacrosse organizer, number retired March 20, 1999
43 Darris Kilgour, F, 1992–1999, number retired March 25, 2001
16 Rich Kilgour, D, number retired April 16, 2011
11 John Tavares, F, number retired March 11, 2016
Equipment Manager- John Craig, February 2, 2012 (retired by the Bandits and given a ceremony)
Game broadcasts
Buffalo Bandits games can be heard on WWKB-AM 1520 out of Buffalo, with a simulcast on WGWE-FM 105.9, the Seneca nation's radio station in Little Valley. John Gurtler, former play-by-play man for the Buffalo Sabres, handles announcing duties, while former Bandit Randy Mearns handles color commentary. Home games are streamed live on NLL.com.