Ottawa City Hockey League

The local Ottawa Hockey Association (Ottawa HA) created the OCHL with five teams for its first season:

• Ottawa Hockey Club (future Stanley Cup champion Ottawa "Silver Sevens/Senators") owned in the beginning by the Ottawa HA itself
• Rideau Hall Rebels
• Dey's Rink (Dey's Rink Pirates)
• Ottawa College Garnet and Greys
• Ottawa Capitals - Ottawa Capitals Lacrosse Club

Source: Montreal Gazette[2]

The founding meeting was held on November 25, 1890, at the Ottawa Amateur Athletic Association. Each club paid CA$3 for the purchase of a pair of championship flags. The clubs agreed to follow the rules of the Amateur Hockey Association of Canada (AHAC), play only once per week, players can only play for one team unless permitted otherwise, and play each other no more than two times.[2]

The Ottawa HA's Ottawa Hockey Club had existed for some time, forming to compete in the 1884 Montreal Winter Carnival ice hockey tournament (considered the Canadian championship at the time),[3] later competing in the challenge-based (rather than regularly scheduled) Amateur Hockey Association of Canada. Ottawa HC was the dominant team in the OCHL, winning the OCHL's inaugural and consecutive league championships.

In the early days, the OCHL had a relationship with the geographically larger Ontario Hockey Association (OHA), which also formed in 1890. The OCHL champion would compete for the OHA Championship at the end of each season. As OCHL champion, Ottawa HA's own Ottawa Hockey Club were the representatives to – and winners of – the OHA Championship in 1890, 1891, 1892 and 1893. Ottawa HC made the costly trip to Toronto for both the 1892 and 1893 OHA finals, so the OCHL requested that the 1894 OHA Championship game be held in Ottawa. When the OHA refused, the OCHL resigned from the OHA and since that time the Greater Ottawa area (now including Southwestern Quebec) has operated separately from the OHA which organizes amateur hockey for most of Ontario.

The OHA had been founded based on an idea of Arthur Stanley, son of the Governor General of Canada, the Lord Stanley of Preston. After the OCHL's Ottawa Hockey Club won its third consecutive OHA championship, Lord Stanley signaled the creation of today's Stanley Cup by sending the following message to the victory celebration held on March 18, 1892, at Ottawa's Russell Hotel:[4][5][6]

I have for some time been thinking that it would be a good thing if there were a challenge cup which should be held from year to year by the champion hockey team in the Dominion (of Canada).

There does not appear to be any such outward sign of a championship at present, and considering the general interest which matches now elicit, and the importance of having the game played fairly and under rules generally recognized, I am willing to give a cup which shall be held from year to year by the winning team.

I am not quite certain that the present regulations governing the arrangement of matches give entire satisfaction, and it would be worth considering whether they could not be arranged so that each team would play once at home and once at the place where their opponents hail from.[5]

Ottawa HC repeated as OCHL and OHA Champions in 1893, and competed in the challenge-based, rather than schedule-based, Amateur Hockey Association of Canada (AHAC). The AHAC's Montreal Hockey Club defeated Ottawa HC in a mid-season challenge, and were awarded the first Stanley Cup.

Like the creation of the Stanley Cup, teams and leagues in Ottawa would influence other aspects of the creation of modern hockey.

While the Ottawa HA was the driving force (and a team owner) behind the OCHL, a rival sports association would appear in Ottawa in the 1890s. The Capital Hockey Association (Capital HA) helped found the Central Canada Hockey Association (CCHA) league. Like the Ottawa HA, Capital HA owned a franchise – the Ottawa Capitals – in its own league. Like the Ottawa HA, the Capital HA's team would be the dominant club in their own league, challenging for the Stanley Cup in 1897.

The Capital HA attempted to have their Capitals join the Ottawa HC in the senior AHAC in 1897 and again in 1898. When the Capitals were granted membership by the AHAC executive in 1898, Ottawa HC and the rest of the AHAC teams resigned and formed the Canadian Amateur Hockey League (CAHL).[7]

In 1914, the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association(CAHA) was formed, and Ottawa's associations (including OCHL and CCHA) were placed under the Quebec Amateur Hockey Association. Attempts to form a separate organization from Quebec took several years. In 1919, in a ruling from the CAHA, the rival Capital HA's CCHA teams were forced to join the OCHL, ending the feud that had caused the dissolution of the AHAC in 1898.

The OCHL became the sole senior league for the district, ending the CCHA. In 1920, the Ottawa District Hockey Association (ODHA) was formed to oversee Ottawa hockey, and in 1921, was granted membership in the CAHA. The City League continued to exist as the senior league of Ottawa and district. The ODHA is known today as Hockey Eastern Ontario.

During World War II, the league admitted senior teams from the armed forces stationed at Ottawa. These teams, which had NHL players, were temporary, but would enter championship play and several won the Canadian Allan Cup amateur senior men's ice hockey championship. The famous 'Kraut Line' of the Boston Bruins played for the Ottawa RCAF Flyers and won the Allan Cup. This was the last hurrah of the City League, which folded after the war and league play was re-organized under the auspices of the ODHA.

Many famous players have graduated from, or played in the league, including Punch Broadbent, Eddie Gerard, King Clancy, Bill Cowley, Syd Howe, Aurel Joliat, Frank McGee, Ken Reardon and Milt Schmidt.