1998-1999 Season

The WPHL had doubled almost overnight, spilling out of Texas into Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. The road trips got longer, the schedule got deeper, and the soft wins of the early years were gone.

This was the year the Stampede had to grind for everything. Glen Williamson — the first Stampede coach who had never played in the NHL — took over a team nobody underestimated anymore and pulled 78 points out of it the hard way. The 12 ties were the most the franchise ever played; the 286 goals were the most it ever scored. Gerald Tallaire carried the offense, night after night after night.

There were no banners and no individual trophies at the end of it — just a third straight trip to the playoffs, in a league that had become twice as hard to survive. It was not the loudest season the Stampede played. It may have been the one that proved the most.