Intercollegiate Hockey Association

The Intercollegiate Hockey Association was a loose collection of ice hockey programs from schools in the Northeastern United States. The colleges involved would schedule one another at least once during the season with and the team with the best record would be declared the champion. As this was the only championship for college hockey at the time, however unofficial the designation may have been, the victor served as the de facto National Champion. The IHA was called both the Intercollegiate Hockey Association and the Intercollegiate Hockey League during its existence. It's referred to here as the IHA to distinguish from the later Intercollegiate Hockey League.

Intercollegiate Hockey Association
Established1898
Dissolved1913
MembersBetween 3 and 6
Sports fielded
RegionNortheastern United States

History

The league began in February 1898 while the season was in progress.[1] Brown, Columbia and Yale agreed to form the league after some of their intercollegiate game had already been played but counted all of the matches played that season for the inaugural championship. Brown was the initial victor, finishing with an undefeated record between the three squads.

After the first full season of play the league started holding a championship series at the end of the season for the two best teams. Yale won the first three series. The series was eventually reduced to a single game before being abandoned altogether after 1904. Beginning with the 1904–05 season the league champion would simple be the team with the best record against conference opponents.

The league expended to include other future Ivy League schools like Harvard and Princeton[2] then welcomed Dartmouth after Brown suspended its program in 1906. At the same meeting where Dartmouth was admitted the committee also decided to disallow freshmen from participating on varsity squads.[3] Cornell joined the league a few years later and everything appeared to going well for the league.

In 1911 a new policy by the operators of the St. Nicholas Rink, the primary facility for league games, forced Harvard to resign from the league.[4] The following year both Columbia and Yale left for various reasons, dropping membership back to just three teams.[5] The league continued until the end of the year before disbanding.

Members
Institution Nickname Location Founded Tenure Fate Current conference
Brown University Bears Providence, Rhode Island 1764 1898–1906 Program Suspended ECAC Hockey
Columbia University Lions New York, New York 1754 1898–1912 Independent Program Suspended
Cornell University Big Red Ithaca, New York 1865 1909–1913 Independent ECAC Hockey
Dartmouth College none † Hanover, New Hampshire 1769 1906–1913 Independent ECAC Hockey
Harvard University Crimson Boston, Massachusetts 1636 1901–1911 Independent ECAC Hockey
University of Pennsylvania Quakers Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 1740 1898–1899, 1900–1901 Program Suspended
Princeton University Tigers Princeton, New Jersey 1746 1900–1913 Intercollegiate Hockey League ECAC Hockey
Yale University Bulldogs New Haven, Connecticut 1701 1898–1912 Intercollegiate Hockey League ECAC Hockey

† Dartmouth's athletic teams did not possess a moniker until the 1920's.

Membership timeline
Cornell Big Red men's ice hockeyDartmouth Big Green men's ice hockeyHarvard Crimson men's ice hockeyPrinceton Tigers men's ice hockeyPenn Quakers men's ice hockeyYale Bulldogs men's ice hockeyColumbia LionsBrown Bears men's ice hockey

See also

References
  1. "Columbia Daily Spectator, Volume XLI, Number 2". Columbia University. February 23, 1898. Retrieved February 2, 2020.
  2. "Columbia Daily Spectator, XLVIII, Number 52". Columbia University. December 1, 1904. Retrieved February 2, 2020.
  3. "Columbia Daily Spectator, Volume L, Number 55". Columbia University. December 3, 1906. Retrieved February 2, 2020.
  4. "Volume 36, Number 158". The Princeton Daily. January 12, 1912. Retrieved February 15, 2020.
  5. "Volume 37, Number 149". The Princeton Daily. December 16, 1912. Retrieved February 15, 2020.
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