United States Central Hockey League


The United States Central Hockey League was a semi-professional ice hockey league that operated from 1955 to 1961.

History

In 1955, the Minnesota Hockey League rebranded as the 'United States Central Hockey League' with all four active members joining the new league. The league was fairly stable for the first few years but by the end of the 50s, began experiencing turmoil. In 1959, three of the five member teams were based out of the twin cities. That changed when the St. Paul Capitols withdrew from the league and joined the International Hockey League. As a consequence of the move, the Minneapolis-Lincoln Culbertsons, who already had to split time between two home cities, folded. The USHL was squeezed further when, during the next season, the Denver Mavericks relocated to Minneapolis and took the name of the Minneapolis Millers.
The USHL had attempted to solve the battle for attendance by expanding into Wisconsin with two teams but both were gone after one year. Instead, the Saints and Millers partnered with USHL to operate affiliate teams in the league. The USHL's Millers became the Minneapolis Jr. Millers while the St. Paul Jr. Saints were founded in 1960. The experiment lasted just one season before both clubs were shuttered. After that Walter Bush Jr., a former president of the league, helped found the United States Hockey League out of the ashes of the USCHL.

Teams

Timeline


DateFormat = mm/dd/yyyy
ImageSize = width:1500 height:auto barincrement:20
Period = from:01/01/1947 till:12/31/1981
TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal
PlotArea = right:10 left:5 bottom:50 top:5
Colors =
id:line value:black
id:in value:rgb # current member
id:out value:rgb # former member
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width:15 textcolor:black shift: anchor:from fontsize:s
bar:1 color:out from:07/01/1954 till:06/01/1955 text:
bar:1 color:in from:07/01/1955 till:06/01/1958 text: Minneapolis Bungalows
bar:2 color:in from:07/01/1955 till:06/01/1957 shift:-90 text: St. Paul Peter's Meats
bar:2 color:in from:07/01/1957 till:06/01/1958 text: St. Paul K.S.T.P.
bar:2 color:in from:07/01/1958 till:06/01/1959 shift:110 text: St. Paul Capitols
bar:2 color:out from:07/01/1959 till:06/01/1975 text:
bar:3 color:out from:07/01/1954 till:06/01/1955 text:
bar:3 color:in from:07/01/1955 till:06/01/1958 text: Minneapolis Culbertsons
bar:3 color:in from:07/01/1958 till:06/01/1959 shift:60 text: Minneapolis-Lincoln Culbertsons
bar:4 color:out from:07/01/1947 till:06/01/1955 text:
bar:4 color:in from:07/01/1955 till:06/01/1961 text: Rochester Mustangs
bar:4 color:out from:07/01/1961 till:06/01/1970 text:
bar:5 color:in from:07/01/1958 till:06/01/1960 text: Minneapolis Millers
bar:5 color:in from:07/01/1960 till:06/01/1961 shift:60 text: Minneapolis Jr. Millers
bar:6 color:in from:07/01/1958 till:06/01/1961 text: Des Moines Ice Hawks
bar:6 color:out from:07/01/1961 till:06/01/1975 text:
bar:7 color:in from:07/01/1959 till:06/01/1960 text: Green Bay Bobcats
bar:7 color:out from:07/01/1960 till:06/01/1981 text:
bar:8 color:in from:07/01/1959 till:06/01/1960 text: Marquette Sentinals
bar:10 color:in from:07/01/1960 till:06/01/1961 text: St. Paul Jr. Saints
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color:black layer:back
at:07/01/1955
at:06/01/1961
ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:5 start:1950