Edmonton Chimos - History

History

The Chimos were founded in 1973 following ads looking for women in the Edmonton area who wanted to play hockey. By the 1980s, they had become the dominant women's team in Alberta, capturing every Alberta provincial championship, except for one, from 1982-1997. Representing Alberta at the Esso Canadian national championships 16 times in their history, the Chimos have captured the National title four times: 1984, 1985, 1992 and 1997.

In 2001, the Chimos were approached to join the National Women's Hockey League, along with their provincial rival, the Calgary Oval X-Treme. They joined the league in 2002 with the Calgary Oval X-Treme and the Vancouver Griffins to form the NWHL's Western Division. The Griffins folded after only one season, leaving just the two Alberta teams. Consistently overmatched by their Calgary rivals, and lacking true competition in the NWHL as the West division did not fly east, the Alberta clubs broke away from the NWHL to help form the five team Western Women's Hockey League in 2004 before the two leagues were once again united under the NWHL banner in 2006. However, this was short lived as the NWHL and WWHL could not reach an agreement upon a playoff schedule. As a result, the merger was not consummated. With the collapse of the NWHL in the summer of 2007, the Western Women's Hockey League was once again a completely independent league. The goal of the new league is to promote women’s hockey in the west.