in 1996, the columbus cottonmouths started play in the central hockey league, joining the macon whoopee and nashville nighthawks as expansion entries that were originally slated to be in the southern hockey league before its demise in the summer of 1996. along with the memphis riverkings, an established chl franchise, and the huntsville channel cats, the shl champion in 1996 and the lone surviving franchise from that league, columbus and the other two expansion shl teams formed the new eastern division of the chl in the 1996–97 season. in 1998, the team won the chl championship, defeating the wichita thunder in a four-game sweep. the cottonmouths were in the chl playoffs each of their five seasons in the league, making it to the league finals in 2000 and 2001 before losing to the indianapolis ice and the oklahoma city blazers, respectively. in the summer of 2001, the chl merged with the western professional hockey league and geographic rivals in huntsville and macon were lost, leading the cottonmouths to seek and obtain entry into the east coast hockey league.