The Ice Dogs trace their origins to the San Diego Gulls, a team in the now-defunct International Hockey League (IHL), that began play in 1990. In 1995, the team moved north to become the Los Angeles Ice Dogs. Due to poor attendance at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena, the team was on the move again after just one season, this time to Long Beach, California, where it retained the "Ice Dogs" name and played at the Long Beach Sports Arena. During the team's time in the IHL, it was coached by John Van Boxmeer. The Ice Dogs lost the 1997 IHL Turner Cup finals 4-games-to-2 against the Detroit Vipers. The Ice Dogs were also the first professional sports franchise to ever broadcast their full season (1997–98) schedule on the internet at Broadcast dot com with Ted Sobel calling the play the play for all five of their IHL seasons in Long Beach.