Pre-1930 American Hockey Timeline

[WhiteTiger]

In this thread I have attempted to put together a list of notable dates in American hockey up to 1930, using information from around the Internet and some other threads on here. If anyone has dates to add, post below and I'll edit this post to include them.

PRE-1930 AMERICAN HOCKEY TIMELINE
​

1835 - Bandy played in District of Columbia
1835 - Bandy played in Virginia
1843 - Shinney played in Indiana
1848 - Bandy played in Kentucky
1858 - Hockey played in Massachusetts
1859 - Shinny played in Connecticut
1860 - Shinney played in Pennsylvania
1860 - Hockey played in New York
1860 - Shinny prohibited by Brooklyn Skating Club
1866 - Shinney played in Ohio
1871 - Hockey played outdoors in Boston
1876 - Hockey played in Minnesota (note: I have never been able to find a contemporary source to confirm this)
1879 - Hockey played on Jamaica Pond between Harvard Freshmen and Jamaica Plain
1883 - Ice polo played in Minnesota
1884 - Hockey played in Iowa
1886 - International hockey tournament played at Burlington Winter Carnival
1886 - Yale students play outdoors on Lake Whitney
1887 - St. Paul Carnival Ice polo tournament begins in MN
1887 - Ice polo played in Milwaukee, WI
1887 - Ice polo played in Maine and New Jersey
1889 - Yale hockey team formed
1889 - Hockey game between Stoneham and Salem Hockey Club in Stoneham, MA
1891 - Ice polo played in Massachusetts
1893 - First hockey games played in Michigan and Wisconsin
1894 - First indoor, artificial rink opens in Baltimore, ice hockey games played at rink and league organized
1894 - Ice polo league organized in San Francisco
1894-95 - American ice polo team visits Canada and learns of ice hockey
1895 - Winnipeg plays in Minneapolis
1896 - First organized collegiate game - Yale v. John's Hopkins
1896 - Ice hockey tournament in St. Paul with Winnipeg team
1896 - Rink opens in Washington DC and hockey is played
1896-1918 - AAHL contested in New York City
1896-1909 - Western Pennsylvania League contested
1897 - Hockey played in Philadelphia and league organized
1898 - Intercollegiate Ice Hockey League formed
1899 - Hockey played in Chicago
1899 - Ice Palace opens in St. Louis and hockey is played
1900 - League formed in Buffalo
1900 - Ice hockey replaces ice polo in Massachusetts
1900 - Ice polo played in Spokane
1901 - Hockey played in Cleveland
1902 - First State Championship played in Minnesota and Twin City Amateur League organized
1904-1906 - International Professional League (teams from MI, PA, and Canada) contested
1905 - Hockey played in Norfolk, VA and Wheeling, WV
1906 - Hockey played in Spokane, which sent team to BC Winter Carnival
1909 - League held in Montana
1910 - League formed in Boston
1914 - Portland Rosebuds join PCHA
1914-1922 - Mac Naughton Cup played (Midwest and Canada)
1916 - First ice hockey games played in California
1917 - Seattle Metropolitans win Stanley Cup
Circa 1914-1920 - International Skating Union served as governing body
1920 - US Amateur Hockey Association formed
1920 - US wins silver medal at Olympic hockey tournament
1920-1925 - USAHA League contested
1924 - Boston Bruins join NHL
1925 - Pittsburgh Pirates and New York Americans join NHL
1925-1926 - Central Hockey League contested
1925-1933 - California Hockey League contested
1926 - Chicago Black Hawks, Detroit Cougars, New York Rangers join NHL
1926-1936 - CAHL contested
1926-1928 - New England Hockey League contested
1926-1942 - American Hockey Association contested
1929-1936 - International Hockey League contested

Early hockey locations: Michigan, Minnesota, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, Baltimore, DC, Cleveland, New York City, St. Louis, Boston, Portland, Seattle, Spokane, Chicago, California, Montana, Wisconsin

Useful Links​

Articles - Wisconsin Hockey History
Yahoo! Groups
https://archive.org/search.php?query=Official rules for ice hockey, speed skating
The Americana Supplement
The Strangest One Of All: Baltimore Hockey History: First Artificial Ice
Los Angeles Herald 3 March 1909 — California Digital Newspaper Collection
1900s
http://library.la84.org/SportsLibrary/JSH/JSH2006/JSH3302/jsh3302e.pdf
Encyclopedia of Ethnicity and Sports in the United States
NCAA Division I All-Time Team Index
Roots
Early Games
Ice Polo | HockeyGods
When Harvard Met Brown It Wasn't Ice Polo

Other Early American History Threads​

Beginnings Potpourri; Indoor Ice-Hockey in Milwaukee / Shinny in Cincinnati etc....
http://hfboards.mandatory.com/threads/early-ct-new-england-michigan-great-lakes-hockey.1956919/
OT: - Washington Redskins 2017 Season
Montana State Hockey League 1910
California, Montana etc... State X State Hockey Ancestry
Early Hockey in Stoneham Mass
Indoor Organized Ice-Hockey Boston 1884
New York City Hockey in 1860
America v.s Canada Ice Polo Series 1894-95
Harvard Hockey in 1881+ Puck Invention

Click to read more...

 

[Killion]

^^^ Very nice, comprehensive. I'm sure some of the Members here with interests in the origins of the game in the US & its history through the 17th, 18th, 19th & 20th centuries will be along to contribute. Well done.

 

[Canadiens1958]

Excellent. Some parallels with Canada. Specifically Quebec City banned shinny or hockey on its streets about 10 - 15 years previous to the Brooklyn Skating Club. Contrast between a municipal issue and a club issue, an indication of popularity.

When did hockey or shinny start moving inland from offshore(ponds and other frozen waterways) in the USA?

 

[WhiteTiger]

Excellent. Some parallels with Canada. Specifically Quebec City banned shinny or hockey on its streets about 10 - 15 years previous to the Brooklyn Skating Club. Contrast between a municipal issue and a club issue, an indication of popularity.

When did hockey or shinny start moving inland from offshore(ponds and other frozen waterways) in the USA?

The first reference to any organized inland activities I've found is the ice polo that was played in Philadelphia in 1879. The sport was later played in Minnesota in 1883 and an ice polo league featuring teams in many Midwestern towns was underway a year later. So I would say hockey-like activities had definitely spread inland by 1884.

The first game played indoors on an artificial rink was in Baltimore in December 1894. 1894-95 is when more "modern" hockey began to take hold. Ice polo was mostly phased out by the turn of the century.

 

[Robert Gordon Orr]

Great timeline !

Some of the states can be pushed further back in time.
(It depends on how organized you want the activities to have been)

1835 – Bandy played in District of Columbia
1835 – Bandy played in Virginia
1843 – Shinney played in Indiana
1848 – Bandy played in Kentucky
1858 – Hockey played in Massachusetts
1859 – Shinny played in Connecticut
1860 – Shinney played in Pennsylvania
1860 – Hockey played in New York
1866 – Shinney played in Ohio
1876 – Hockey played in Minnesota
1884 – Hockey played in Iowa
1887 – Ice Polo played in Maine and New Jersey

All played on ice with skates.

Terms used in the contemporary newspapers (with different spellings like Shinny and Shinney)

There are of course numerous biographical books where the authors described playing hockey/shinney/hurley/bandy etc on the ice (with skates) in the 1820-30s in places like Massachusetts and Pennsylvania for example.

There are earlier instances for some of the above mentioned states, but not contemporary that I can find in my files at the moment. With a little bit of research it shouldn't be hard to find even earlier accounts for some of these states.

Also, we have the 1810 letter from Princeton, New Jersey describing some youths playing ball on the ice on skates (with sticks), the name of the game wasn’t mentioned though. They played "Shinney" in Princeton almost 25 years earlier (1786), but no confirmation of skates being used.

 

[WhiteTiger]

Great timeline !

Some of the states can be pushed further back in time.
(It depends on how organized you want the activities to have been)

1835 – Bandy played in District of Columbia
1835 – Bandy played in Virginia
1843 – Shinney played in Indiana
1848 – Bandy played in Kentucky
1858 – Hockey played in Massachusetts
1859 – Shinny played in Connecticut
1860 – Shinney played in Pennsylvania
1860 – Hockey played in New York
1866 – Shinney played in Ohio
1876 – Hockey played in Minnesota
1884 – Hockey played in Iowa
1887 – Ice Polo played in Maine and New Jersey

All played on ice with skates.

Terms used in the contemporary newspapers (with different spellings like Shinny and Shinney)

There are of course numerous biographical books where the authors described playing hockey/shinney/hurley/bandy etc on the ice (with skates) in the 1820-30s in places like Massachusetts and Pennsylvania for example.

There are earlier instances for some of the above mentioned states, but not contemporary that I can find in my files at the moment. With a little bit of research it shouldn't be hard to find even earlier accounts for some of these states.

Also, we have the 1810 letter from Princeton, New Jersey describing some youths playing ball on the ice on skates (with sticks), the name of the game wasn’t mentioned though. They played "Shinney" in Princeton almost 25 years earlier (1786), but no confirmation of skates being used.

Thanks for the additions. Great stuff. It is very interesting to see just how far back the history of hockey goes in the US. Definitely holds its own compared to Britain and Canada.

In fact, is it fair to debate whether there are more pre-1875 references from the US than Canada? I know about the 1825 John Franklin letter, 1843 Kingston, ON writings, and the 1859 article about hockey in Halifax published in Boston, plus various early reports of native "stick and ball" games on the ice, but not a whole lot else, when it comes to contemporary references.

I think there is an interesting debate that can be had at least. There is no doubt that hockey on an organized level was played earlier in Canada (starting in 1875), but there seem to be a lot of early American references.

 

[Theokritos]

Nice work, folks. This is a great thread. I've included it in the Historical Resources and Source Material sticky.