The International Hockey League was a professional hockey league operating in Canada and the United States from 1929 to 1936. It is one of two direct ancestors of the

American Hockey League The American Hockey League (AHL) is a professional ice hockey league based in the United States and Canada that serves as the primary Minor league#Ice hockey, developmental league for the National Hockey League (NHL). Since the 2010–11 AHL se ...

. It was formed when the Canadian Professional Hockey League split into two leagues. The larger teams formed the IHL, which was one step below the

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

. The smaller teams kept the CPHL name, and served as a farm system for the IHL for one season. Three teams folded and two others merged after the 1935–36 season, leaving the IHL with only four teams—the minimum required for the league to be viable. The remaining teams joined with the

Canadian-American Hockey League Canadian Americans is a term that can be applied to American citizens whose ancestry is wholly or partly Canadian, or citizens of either country that hold dual citizenship. The term ''Canadian'' can mean a nationality or an ethnicity. Canadian ...

, which had also been cut down to four teams, to form a "circuit of mutual convenience" called the "International-American Hockey League." The two leagues played an interlocking schedule for the next two years, with the IHL serving as the IAHL's Western Division and the Can-Am serving as its Eastern Division. The

Buffalo Bisons The Buffalo Bisons (known colloquially as the Herd) are a Minor League Baseball team of the International League and the Triple-A affiliate of the Toronto Blue Jays. Located in Buffalo, New York, the team plays their home games at Sahlen ...

, a charter IHL member, suspended operations due to an arena collapse and subsequent financial problems after only 11 games, and the IAHL played as a seven-team unit for the rest of the season and all of the 1938–39 season. At a meeting held in New York City on June 28, 1938, the two leagues formally merged into a unified league operating under the IAHL name. The Eastern Amateur Hockey League's

Hershey Bears The Hershey Bears are a professional ice hockey team based in Hershey, Pennsylvania, a town located 14 miles east of the state capital of Harrisburg Harrisburg is the capital city of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the c ...

were added as an expansion team, replacing the Bisons."HERSHEY IN HOCKEY LEAGUE Admitted to Circuit as American-International Loops Unite" ''The Philadelphia Record'', June 29, 1938 The IAHL changed its name to the American Hockey League in 1940.

Teams

References

External links

International Hockey League (1929-1936)
at

HockeyDB HockeyDB, originally known as the Internet Hockey Database, is a Canadian-American website dedicated to the specialization of statistics behind the game of ice hockey. It is one of the largest repository of hockey data on the internet, gatherin ...

International Hockey League (1929-1936)
at hockeyleaguehistory.com

at ottawavalleyonline.com {{DEFAULTSORT:International Hockey League (1929-1936) Defunct ice hockey leagues in the United States Defunct ice hockey leagues in Canada Sports leagues established in 1929 Sports leagues disestablished in 1936

Teams

See also

References

External links