Early years The IHL was formed on December 5, 1945, in a three-hour meeting at the Norton Palmer Hotel in
Windsor, Ontario. In attendance were
Jack Adams (coach of the Detroit Red Wings),
Fred Huber (Red Wings public relations),
Frank Gallagher (amateur hockey organizer in Detroit and Windsor),
Lloyd Pollock (Windsor hockey pioneer), Gerald McHugh (Windsor lawyer), Len Hebert, Len Loree and Bill Beckman. The league began operations in the
1945–46 IHL season with four teams in Windsor and
Detroit, and operated as semi-professional league. In 1947, a team from
Toledo, Ohio, joined the league, and the following year the IHL expanded significantly, with teams in four additional U.S. cities. The expansion did not take hold, and for 1949–50, the league was back down to teams in Detroit and Windsor as well as two nearby Canadian cities,
Sarnia, Ontario, and
Chatham, Ontario. Windsor dropped out in 1950, and expansion into the U.S. began again, with Toledo rejoining the league and new teams in
Grand Rapids, Michigan (1950),
Troy, Ohio, (1951),
Cincinnati (1952),
Fort Wayne, Indiana (1952), and
Milwaukee (1952). At the same time, the last Canadian team left the league in 1952, when the
Chatham Maroons pulled out. Three new U.S. cities were added in 1953. The league would expand and shrink between five and nine teams through the 1950s, with another major expansion in 1959. In the 1962–63 season, the IHL played an interlocking schedule with the NHL-owned
Eastern Professional Hockey League, which itself folded after its 1962–63 season. After 11 seasons as a strictly U.S.-based league, the IHL admitted two Canadian teams in 1963, with the
Windsor Bulldogs and the return of the Chatham Maroons. Both teams dropped out after one season, however, and the league would not have a Canadian team again until 1996.
Major market expansion Bill Beagan served as commissioner of the IHL from 1969 to 1978.
The Canadian Press cited him for turning around the league's financial situation and making it a top-tier development system for future NHL talent. Starting in the late 1960s, the IHL's quality of play significantly improved. By the mid-1970s it was on par with the
American Hockey League (AHL), the longtime top feeder league for the
National Hockey League. Many IHL teams became the top
farm teams of NHL teams. In 1984, the league absorbed a few surviving members of the
Central Hockey League, which had ceased operations. In 1985, the league adopted the shootout to determine tie games in place of traditional overtime. The NHL would begin using the shootout to avoid tie games in 2005. Beginning in the late 1980s and continuing into the mid-90s, the IHL expanded or re-located existing franchises into major U.S. markets such as
Atlanta,
Cincinnati,
Cleveland,
Denver,
Houston,
Indianapolis,
Kansas City,
Las Vegas,
Minneapolis–Saint Paul,
Orlando,
Phoenix,
Salt Lake City,
San Antonio,
San Diego, and
San Francisco. Many of these markets had been previously served by the defunct
World Hockey Association or abandoned by the NHL. The IHL also entered markets that had existing NHL teams, such as Chicago, Detroit, and
Los Angeles. In 1996, the IHL moved its Atlanta and Minneapolis–Saint Paul franchises to
Quebec City and
Winnipeg, respectively, restoring the league's Canadian presence and filling the void left by the departure of the NHL's
Quebec Nordiques and the original
Winnipeg Jets. The minimum requirements for an IHL expansion team in 1995 were "a 10,000-seat arena, a population base of one million, and a $6 million franchise fee." As the league expanded into larger markets, many of the smaller-market teams (such as Fort Wayne, Peoria, Muskegon, Kalamazoo and Flint) left the IHL and joined lower-level leagues.
Decline and collapse The IHL's expansion into NHL markets put a strain on relationships between the leagues. There was some speculation that the IHL was intending to compete directly with the NHL, especially when a
lockout in 1994–95 threatened to wipe out the NHL season. However, in the 1995–96 season, the IHL's "soft"
salary cap was just $1.5 million, while the lowest NHL team payroll that season was $11.4 million. A Fall 1994 article in
Sports Illustrated praising the IHL and mocking the NHL only fueled the fire. In said article, IHL officials detailed plans to continue expanding the league to large markets in North America, as well as, "a six-team European league with franchises in England, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Sweden and France." In response, many NHL clubs shifted their affiliations to the
AHL, and by 1997–98, only four of 18 IHL teams had NHL affiliations. With the loss of subsidized salaries, high expansion fees (by the end the league was charging as much as $8 million US for new teams), exploding travel costs and the NHL itself moving back into some of its markets, the league's rapid expansion proved a critical strain, and it folded after the 2000–01 season. Six IHL franchises (the
Chicago Wolves,
Grand Rapids Griffins,
Houston Aeros,
Utah Grizzlies,
Milwaukee Admirals and
Manitoba Moose) were admitted into the AHL as expansion teams for the 2001–02 season. Between them, they have played for the AHL
Calder Cup seven times, winning four—including three in a row after their arrival. As well, the
Cincinnati Cyclones was readmitted to the
East Coast Hockey League, which hosted the team from 1990 to 1992 before it moved to the IHL. The
Orlando Solar Bears (the final IHL playoff champions) and the
Kansas City Blades were not admitted into the AHL because their owner,
Rich DeVos, who also owned the Griffins, was allowed to own only one AHL franchise. The league's other two teams, the
Cleveland Lumberjacks and
Detroit Vipers, ceased operations along with the league. Two former IHL teams that moved to the AHL have since relocated: the Utah Grizzlies moved to
Cleveland, Ohio, to become the
Lake Erie Monsters (rebranded as Cleveland Monsters in 2016) in 2007 and the Houston Aeros moved to
Des Moines, Iowa, to become the
Iowa Wild in 2013. A third team, the Manitoba Moose, temporarily relocated to
St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador to become the
St. John's IceCaps from 2011 to 2015. Three former franchises have been relaunched in lower-tier leagues since the IHL's demise. The
Utah Grizzlies name was revived by the former
Lexington Men O' War of the ECHL when they moved, and the
Orlando Solar Bears restarted as an ECHL expansion team. The
Peoria Rivermen have had three more franchises with an
expansion team in the
East Coast Hockey League from 1996 to 2005, a relocated
Worcester IceCats in the
American Hockey League from
2005 to 2013, and a fourth incarnation of the
Peoria Rivermen subsequently launched in the
Southern Professional Hockey League in 2013. ==Trophies and awards==