Pre-NIHA era, 1890-1925
Many people claim that ice hockey originated in Canada, while others argue it originated elsewhere. In 1880’s a group of collage students from the university of Toronto created a amateur hockey league after the sport became popular called the Toronto Hockey League (THL) which it grew from 6 teams to 18 teams by 1890, however there is a caveat with the success, in 1893, 6 teams in the Toronto area folded out of nowhere, many other try to claim players to build their own as powerhouse club, which lead to problems along the way with players being paid too much for not showing up to even a team played one game, then folded the next day so Paul Benjaman rose up to became the first lone president of the THL and decide to put a maximum pay rule on the owners of club that pay players way too much by disqualify them from playing in the playoffs. After adding more rules to the league, many other owners sought ways to generate revenue, leading them to relocate teams from the Toronto area to other parts of Ontario. One team from Mississauga was the first to move. They moved to Waterloo, Ontario and renamed themselves from the Mississauga Hockey Club to the Waterloo Engineers. As more teams left the Toronto area, the six remaining teams realized they wouldn’t survive. In 1895, they merged to form the Toronto Professional Hockey Club, later shortened to the Toronto Pros. And since then, the THL has kept it together as the new century arrived.
Meanwhile, along the maritime coast, several teams were formed, and in 1898, a new league, the Maritime Hockey Association (MHA), was established. A gentleman named William Alexander, who loved the game so much that he bought a trophy and presented it to the winner of the MHA, and the trophy is named the Alexander Cup. As the 1900s came around many teams were having a great times until in 1904 where the Truro Hawks a all-black hockey club forced to fold after their rink got turned into a railroad where many called that event the “white line” since then the MHA struggled to keep it afloat by 1907 the league ceased operation and the Quebec Professional Hockey Association (QPHA) was born featuring Fredericton Diamonds, Halifax Cyclones, Cape Breton Indians, and PEI Whales that was part of MHA, a long with some teams from Quebec, some used to be part of MHA but folded during the last part of the downfall most of the Quebec teams are new, the Montreal Or Rouge, Quebec City Owls, Drummondville Cardinals, Trois-Rivieres Mallards, Rimouski Otters, and Chicoutimi Redwoods. With the Alexander Cup in tow, the QPHA ran well throughout the 1900s and the 1910s.
After a visit in Ontario and saw some hockey games many businessmen took the idea and brought them to America and in the year 1910 the American Coast Hockey League started with the Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Buffalo, Erie, and Baltimore as years come by they would add more along with the New York Mad Hatters in 1915, in their second year into the ACHL they won their first championship as forth seed team and would win four more championships along the way until the 1920s where many teams couldn’t make ends meet at all to a point that the Mad Hatters have to look for a new league to be part of it in order to keep everything a float.
One day in 1924 Paul Benjaman decide to meet with Jonathon Laflamme the current president of the QPHA and Ben Millen the president of the ACHL in talks about a merger within the three leagues together as one in hope to get out of a bad debt that could put ice hockey to cease to exist, both Jonathon and Ben were not too fond of the idea but comes two businessmen Franklin Stanley and Rick Kitchen came in to part of the idea with one condition that they put their own teams as part of the new league, one in Chicago and one in Minnesota, with that both Jonathon and Ben took Paul’s offer. With that, they slowly picked out many teams that could be part of it. In 1924, they had 10 teams ready to go, but by 1925, half had folded, leaving only 5. The creation is sadly complete, with only five teams: the Toronto Pros, Montreal Or Rouge, New York Mad Hatters, Minnesota Nationals, and Chicago Lynx, as part of the league called the National Ice Hockey Association. The Alexander Cup will be the league’s ultimate prize. Many hope this league will not experience as many growing pains as the other three leagues.
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