04 December 2008

Finds like this are why I started on this

Another thanks to Tom at the EHL webpage for hooking me up with NewspaperArchive. I've been so torn on what little revelation to put up here, but I think this one takes the cake. From the Charleston Daily Mail, November 5, 1940:

"Formation of a six-team hockey league in which the Charleston Comets would play 20 league games plus seven home matches with Huntington is the goal of James R. Chandlee, who will direct hockey activities this season at the Ice Sports rink.

At a meeting held recently at Pittsburgh, plans were discussed for organizing a league composed of teams from Charleston, Huntington, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Akron and Johnstown.

John Harris of Pittsburgh, manager of Duquesne Gardens and owner of the Hornets' hockey team, expressed enthusiasm over the proposed league, saying he will enter his Smoky City skaters.

Owners of the Cleveland arena will enter their Cleveland Barons. Akron's new rink will lie
completed about Dec. 1 and Rubber City hockey entrepreneurs are eager to join the loop. In fact, so enthusiastic are the Akronites about West Virginians, they will feature Charleston and Huntington in opening-night matches.

Johnstown hns a rink but has never had a hockey team, though visiting professional teams have played there periodically in the past. The Johnnies are eager to organize a team and enter the league.

The proposed league would operate under the jurisdiction of the Amateur Hockey Association, which withdrew from the A.A.U. three years ago. While carrying the rating of amateur hockey, the teams would actually be semi-pro.

Chandlee said he hopes to have one of the best teams in the league and offer Charleston a high-class brand of hockey.

A proposed schedule and other details will be worked out at a meeting to be held next week. Among those who have indicated they will attend the next meeting are directors of hockey at New York's Madison Square Garden and P.E.M. Thompson, president of the Amateur Hockey Association and owner of the Atlantic City Sea Gulls."