Hershey Bears

Hershey Bears

The Hershey Bears Hockey Club is a professional ice hockey team playing in the American Hockey League, and is the top affiliate of the NHL Washington Capitals. The hockey club is based in the unincorporated town of Hershey, Pennsylvania, located within Derry Township some 14 miles east of the state's capital of Harrisburg. Since the 2002-03 season the Bears' home games have been played at the Giant Center located just west of Hersheypark Arena, the club's previous home in both the EAHL (1936–1938) and I-AHL/AHL (1936–2002). The Bears won their AHL record eleventh and most recent Calder Cup title over the Texas Stars in 2010.

Hershey is the longest continuously operating member club in the AHL having received its franchise in June, 1938, and played its 5,000th regular season league game on December 20, 2006. Founded as the Hershey B'ars in the Tri-State Hockey League in 1932, the hockey club is also the seventh-oldest continuously operating professional ice hockey organization in North America after the Original Six teams of the National Hockey League which each began operations in their current cities in either the National Hockey Association (1909-1917) or NHL between 1909 and 1926. The Hershey Bears Hockey Club is owned and operated by the Hershey Entertainment and Resorts Company (HERCO), formerly known as Hershey Estates, an entity wholly owned and administered by the Hershey Trust Company.