History
The UHL was originally formed in 1991 as the Colonial Hockey League and had teams in Brantford, Ontario; Detroit, Michigan; Flint, Michigan; St. Thomas, Ontario; and Thunder Bay, Ontario; the avowed goal of the league organizers was to fill the low-level niche in the Great Lakes area abandoned by the original International Hockey League as the latter league engaged in upmarket expansion. As time passed, the CoHL moved eastward, into places like the Adirondacks, Danbury, CT, Binghamton, NY, and Richmond, VA. During that expansion, the league was renamed United Hockey League in 1997, before changing names again to the International Hockey League in 2007.
The UHL's final name change was intended to evoke the original International Hockey League, which had ceased operations in 2001. The Fort Wayne Komets were a longstanding member of the original league. In addition, the new Kalamazoo Wings and Flint Generals franchises revived the names of the original Kalamazoo and Flint IHL teams.
On July 13, 2010, the league announced an agreement with the Central Hockey League, the effects of which saw five IHL teams - the Bloomington PrairieThunder, Dayton Gems, Evansville IceMen, Fort Wayne Komets and Quad City Mallards - absorbed into the CHL. The remaining two franchises from the league's last season that were not absorbed into the CHL, the Generals and the Icehawks, folded. the only original UHL franchise that played in the CHL was the Evansville IceMen and Fort Wayne Komets, (Icemen originally known as the Muskegon Lumberjacks)
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