The First Canpro League (1926-1929)
The initial meeting to organize a new league was held on June 27, 1926 in Hamilton, Ontario. The governing body for amateur hockey in Ontario, the Ontario Hockey Association, had been cracking down on teams that induced players to move from other areas in violation of the league's residency requirements. In mid-June, the OHA refused to certify over 20 players who had changed residences. Windsor alone had eight players who were denied OHA certification.
In response, and also driven by the recent expansion of professional hockey in North America, seven OHA senior teams met to discuss forming a minor professional league that would be affiliated with the National Hockey League. Brantford and Toronto were at the initial meeting, but had to bow out, and the remaining five teams became the inaugural members of the CPHL: Hamilton, London, Niagara Falls, Stratford and Windsor. Charles King of Windsor was made league president on August 4 and served in that role for all three seasons the CPHL operated.
After the 1927-28 season, all the players on the Hamilton Tigers were purchased by the new Buffalo Bisons (a team based in Fort Erie), and an entirely new team played in Hamilton. Teddy Oke's Kitchener Millionaires moved to Toronto to take the place of the Toronto Ravinas which disbanded in 1928. Oke sold the franchise rights to Kitchener to a new owner, who created the Kitchener Flying Dutchmen. The team included players from the Millionaires that did not move to Toronto.
The league championship in 1929 was a cross-border matchup between the Windsor Bulldogs and the Detroit Olympics, with Windsor winning the championship. Five of the eight teams had lost money during the season, including all the Canadian teams except the Bulldogs. Before the 1929 playoffs were over, it was rumoured that the league would be replaced by an international league the following season and that a lower-level minor league would be created in Ontario.
The league held its annual meeting in September 1929, re-elected King as president, and renamed itself the International Hockey League. The only change in the lineup was that the Kitchener franchise was transferred to Cleveland, Ohio, with the Kitchener players reassigned to Toronto and Toronto's players sent to Cleveland.
Read more about this topic: Canadian Professional Hockey League
Famous quotes containing the word league:
“I am not impressed by the Ivy League establishments. Of course they graduate the best—it’s all they’ll take, leaving to others the problem of educating the country. They will give you an education the way the banks will give you money—provided you can prove to their satisfaction that you don’t need it.”
—Peter De Vries (b. 1910)