The American Amateur Hockey League was an amateur ice hockey league in the United States. The league was founded in 1896, and was based in New York City and New Jersey, until 1914, when the Boston AA joined the league. In the 1900–01 season a team from Philadelphia, the Quaker City Hockey Club, also played in the AAHL. The league ceased operations after the 1916–17 season.
Players Hobey Baker, famous American athlete and inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1945, played two seasons in the league for the St. Nicholas Hockey Club between 1914 and 1916. Sprague Cleghorn, another Hockey Hall of Fame member, spent the 1909–10 season with the New York Wanderers, as did his brother Odie Cleghorn.
During St. Nicholas Hockey Club's inaugural season in the league, in 1896–97, the team was represented by several notable American tennis players, among them William Larned, Henry Slocum, Malcolm Chace and Robert Wrenn. Canadian middle-distance runner and Olympic gold medalist George Orton played for the Quaker City Hockey Club in 1900–01, as did 1906 US Open tennis champion William Clothier.
A great bulk of the players in the AAHL came from different Ivy League schools such as Harvard, Princeton, Columbia and Yale. Among them were United States Senator Leverett Saltonstall and prominent businessman Harold Stanley. The league also had many Canadian players on its teams, among them Tom "Attie" Howard, George Orton, Bob Wall, Bill Dobby, Artie Liffiton and Riley Casselman.
Teams
Crescent Athletic Club, "Brooklyn Crescents", 1896–97, 1899–1917 Brooklyn Skating Club, 1896–1906 New York Athletic Club, "Winged Footers" or "Mercury Footers", 1896–1912 New York Hockey Club, 1897–1917 New York Wanderers, 1903–1905, 1907–1910, 1911–12, 1913–14 St. Nicholas Hockey Club, 1896–1903, 1905–1917 Montclair Athletic Club, New Jersey, 1897–1899 New York Naval Reserves, 1899–1900 Quaker City Hockey Club, Philadelphia, 1900–01 New York Irish-Americans, 1912–1915, 1916–17 Boston Athletic Association, 1914–1917 Harvard Club, Boston, 1915–16 Boston Arena Hockey Club, 1916–17 Boston Hockey Club, 1916–17
Champions 1896–97: New York Athletic Club 1897–98: New York Athletic Club 1898–99: Brooklyn Skating Club 1899–1900: Brooklyn Crescents 1900–01: Brooklyn Crescents 1901–02: Brooklyn Crescents 1902–03: Brooklyn Crescents 1903–04: New York Wanderers 1904–05: Brooklyn Crescents 1905–06: Brooklyn Crescents 1906–07: St. Nicholas Hockey Club 1907–08: Brooklyn Crescents 1908–09: New York Athletic Club 1909–10: New York Athletic Club 1910–11: Brooklyn Crescents 1911–12: Brooklyn Crescents 1912–13: New York Hockey Club"After eighteen years of trying Hockey Club wins a championship" Brooklyn Daily Eagle, p. 20, March 20, 1913 1913–14: St. Nicholas Hockey Club 1914–15: St. Nicholas Hockey Club 1915–16: Boston Athletic Association 1916–17: Boston Athletic Association
Source:Spalding's official ice hockey guide 1918 at archive.org
References League profile Society for International Hockey Research at sihrhockey.org
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