Hockey 1900-1909

• The American Amateur Hockey League (AAHL)• Teams based in the New York City area• 1st amateur league in the US in 1896• Through the 1900s, the New York Crescent

Athletic Club, based in Brooklyn, dominated the league, winning 8 championships from 1900 -1910

Hockey 1900-1909

• Teams were New York–based, (BUT the talent came from Canada)

• Minnesota, a hotbed of hockey, formed the Twin City League in 1902–1903 (teams from the Minneapolis and St. Paul area)

• Amateur leagues existed for short periods in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Washington D.C., Chicago, and Baltimore as well

• Outside of city or regionally based teams, colleges took up the sport and developed rivalries that grew in the 1900s

Hockey 1900-1909

• Winter of 1900, the 5 team Intercollegiate Hockey League (Yale, Columbia, Princeton, Brown, and Harvard)

• Harvard supplanted Yale as the dominant team• Harvard wins 4 straight Harvard league titles

(until Princeton broke the streak in the 1906–7 season) • Princeton finished off the decade with its 2nd

championship in the 1909–10 season• Hobey Baker, who entered Princeton in 1910, would be

the impetus for their success into the next decade

Hockey 1900-1909• Hobart Baker, from Wissahickon, Pennsylvania• Baker of Wissahickon (PA) began career in 1906• Went to the prestigious St. Paul's School in New

Hampshire. • Baker's amazing stick work led to the only defeat

that Princeton's Tigers would face that season • The skills he developed, both at St. Paul's and during

practice at Princeton, would set the stage for his emergence in the 1910s as one of the greatest hockey players of all time.

Hockey 1900-1909

• Dartmouth College entered competition in the 1905–1906 season

• Dartmouth (1908–1909) had a remarkable year finishing 2nd in the intercollegiate league to Harvard(They also went the entire season without registering a single penalty)

• Hockey, like football, had begun to struggle with images of brutality and violence

• In 1907 the sport's 1st official fatality occurred. Players began to suffer injuries such as broken limbs, having their faces sliced open by skate blades, and their heads opened up by violent stick play

Hockey 1900-1909

• The media, already alerted to the violence in college football, focused on the violent acts and began to question if hockey would become just another example of unregulated brutality in sport

• Dartmouth's penalty-free season and relative success on the ice provided hope that hockey need not be relegated to a game of senseless violence

Hockey 1900-1909• Professional hockey’s US debut was in 1903 starring the Portage Lakers• On that first team, 4 out of the 8 players were doctors • “Doc” Gibson was the leading scorer for the Lakers. Their 1902–3 team

picture, which included “Paddy” the mascot dog, referred to the team as the champions of the United States.

• Season Record 13-0-1 • Scored 132 goals • Gave up only 26 goals• In the playoffs, they tied the

Pittsburgh Bankers 0-0 in the 1st

game before finally defeating them inthe 2nd contest 1-0 to win the U.S.Championship

Hockey 1900-1909• The Portage Lakers were the 1st professional hockey

team in 1903–1904 and they LOST only 2 of their 26 games, including the playoffs

• Their only regular-season loss came at the hands of American Soo 7-6

• In the U.S. playoffs, they lost to the Pittsburgh Victorias 5-2

• After their repeat victory as U.S. Champions, the Lakers hosted Canada's best team, the Montreal Wanderers at the Amphidrome in Houghton

• Over 5,000 fans watched as Portage defeated Montreal by scores of 8-4 and 9-2 to claim the title of world champions

• An integral part of the Lakers' success was the acquisition of Joe Linder

Hockey 1900-1909

Hockey 1900-1909

• A local high school star in not only hockey, but also in football and basketball, Linder became the key playmaker for Portage

• Linder, the 1st great American-born hockey player, was inducted into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame in 1975 joining his teammate “Doc” Gibson, a charter member of the Hall in 1973

Hockey 1900-1909• In 1904–1905, Portage joined 3 other clubs to form

the International Hockey League (IHL) • The IHL attracted many of the best Canadian players• IHL teams primarily came from the Upper Peninsula

region of Michigan but also included a team from Sault St. Marie (Canada)(allowing the founders to legitimately claim international status)

• In 1905–1906, a Pittsburgh franchise from the former Western Pennsylvania Hockey League joined the IHL

• Houghton-Portage Lakers played in the Amphidrome on Portage Lake

Hockey 1900-1909• Calumet's home ice was in the Palestra• Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan (aka American Soo) competed at

their local curling rink named the Ridge Street Ice-A-Torium• Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario's (Canadian Soo) home ice was at

the local curling rink• Pittsburgh found a home in the Duquesne Gardens• Unfortunately, Portage would be the only IHL team to win the

championship• The league operated for only 3 seasons and folded when

competition from professional leagues in Canada lured away the top Canadian players

Hockey 1900-1909

• As a professional league, the IHL could not compete for the Stanley Cup

• Portage, however, issued challenges after both the 1905 and 1906 seasons to the Stanley Cup Board of Directors in an effort to be able to play the Ottawa Silver Seven in a championship series

(Both times they were turned down)• Professional teams were not allowed to compete for the Cup

until after the formation of Canadian professional leagues in 1908

• As a result of the Stanley Cup being given in 1908 to professional teams, a new cup for amateur clubs was established that same year by Sir H. Montague Allan to replace the Stanley Cup

Hockey 1900-1909• Hockey at the amateur, semiprofessional, and

professional levels struggled in the 1900s • Leagues started, had limited success, and then

folded with regularity• None could sustain continued growth to

catapult the sport into the national consciousness into the next decade

Hockey 1900-1909

• The collegiate game had a little more stability • Regardless of the organizational struggles,

hockey developed some incredible players during this period who would go on to earn Hall of Fame recognition and become idols of the game