The Intercollegiate Hockey Association was a loose collection of ice hockey programs from schools in the Northeastern United States. Each college involved would play every other team at least once during the season, and the team with the best record would be declared the champion. As this was the only championship for college hockey at the time, the victor served as the de facto National Champion. The IHA was called both the Intercollegiate Hockey Association and the Intercollegiate Hockey League during its existence. It is referred to here as the IHA to distinguish from the later Intercollegiate Hockey League. Although all of the IHA member colleges later became members of the Ivy League, there was never a time when they were all in the IHA at once.
History The IHA began in February 1898 while the season was in progress. Brown, Columbia, University of Pennsylvania, and Yale agreed to form the league after some of their intercollegiate games had already been played. However, all of the matches played that season were counted for the inaugural championship (even those played prior to the founding of the IHA). Brown was the initial victor, finishing with an undefeated record against the other three teams.
The 1899 season featured the same four teams. All of the games were played at three rinks, the St. Nicholas Rink in Manhattan, Clermont Avenue Rink in Brooklyn, and in Philadelphia at the West Park Ice Palace.
After the first full season of play, the league started holding a championship series at the end of the season for the two best teams. Yale won the first three series. The series was eventually reduced to a single game before being abandoned altogether after 1904. In the 1904–05 season, the league champion returned to being the team with the best record against IHA opponents.
The IHA expanded to include other future Ivy League schools like Harvard and Princeton, then welcomed Dartmouth after Brown suspended its program in 1906. At the same meeting where Dartmouth was admitted, the committee also banned freshmen from participating on varsity teams. Cornell joined the league a few years later.
In 1911, restrictions imposed by Harvard faculty forced the college to resign from the league. The following year, both Columbia and Yale left, dropping membership back to just three teams. The league continued until the end of the year before disbanding.
Members
Institution Nickname Location Founded Tenure Fate Current conference Bears Providence, Rhode Island 1764 1898–1906 Program Suspended ECAC Hockey Lions New York, New York 1754 1898–1912 Independent Program Suspended Big Red Ithaca, New York 1865 1909–1913 Independent ECAC Hockey none † Hanover, New Hampshire 1769 1906–1913 Independent ECAC Hockey Crimson Boston, Massachusetts 1636 1901–1911 Independent ECAC Hockey Quakers Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 1740 1898–1899, 1900–1901Program Suspended Tigers Princeton, New Jersey 1746 1900–1913 Intercollegiate Hockey League ECAC Hockey Bulldogs New Haven, Connecticut 1701 1898–1912 Intercollegiate Hockey League ECAC Hockey † Dartmouth's athletic teams did not possess a moniker until the 1920s.
Membership timeline
See also Intercollegiate Hockey League Pentagonal League
References