American Amateur Hockey League

American Amateur Hockey League
Countries	United States
Region(s)	New York; New Jersey; Massachusetts; Pennsylvania
Founded	1896
First season	1896–97
Folded	1917
Most successful club	Brooklyn Crescents (9)

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 edit

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 Castleman.