The International Hockey League and the Professionalization of Ice Hockey, 1904-1907

Today, the sport of ice hockey in North America is dominated by its premier circuit, the National Hockey League (N.H.L.). However, at the beginning of this century, the sport had only begun its transformation into a commercially driven spectacle, which, according to Gruneau and Whitson, now sells everything from beer to national identity. Emerging during a period of rapid urbanization and industrialization in Eastern Canada,’ hockey underwent significant developments through the final decades of the nineteenth century, as more leisure opportunities for Canadians helped make hockey Canada’s favorite winter sport. It was within this context that the amateur hockey associations encountered a phenomenon present in most popular team sports of this period— professionalism. While Canadian amateur associations sought to forbid professionals in their clubs and leagues, a semi-professional league was formed in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, primarily furnished with players banned from the amateur ranks in Canada. In the meantime, the first openly professional team, the Portage Lakes Hockey Club, was formed in northern Michigan. Five communities in the United States and Ontario formed the International Hockey League (I.H.L.) in 1904, which would usher in a new era for the sport of ice hockey. The loss of high-caliber players to the new, U.S.-based league resulted in a battle for control of the rights of the top players of the day, concerns about the decline of amateurism in the sport, and outrage over U.S. influences on one of Canada’s national institutions. This league operated for only three seasons, disbanding in the fall of 1907. This paper will identify a number of reasons for the collapse of the league. Traditionally, the league’s demise has been attributed to a lack of spectators; however, as this paper will show, the primary reason the league disbanded was a loss of players. The elite Canadian leagues professionalized because the only way