![]() ![]() (These writers had already informally dubbed the club as the "Bears from Penn's Woods" when they visited Madison Square Garden to play the New York Rovers.) After a single season in 1932–33, that circuit reformed itself into a larger, seven-club Eastern Amateur Hockey League in which Hershey played first as the "Chocolate B'ars" (1933–1934), then again as the "B'ars" (1934–1936), and finally from 1936 to 1938 as the "Hershey Bears", a name adopted in response to criticism levied by New York sportswriters and the league that the "B'ars" moniker was too commercial. ![]() The first hockey team the organization iced was the amateur Hershey B'ars in the newly formed Tri-State Hockey League which included three other teams from Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Atlantic City. Hershey established the Hershey Hockey Club (now called the Hershey Bears Hockey Club) in 1932, which is now the oldest such continuously operating professional ice hockey management organization (the players themselves were ostensibly amateurs during the first few years) in North America outside of those operating the " Original Six" clubs of the National Hockey League in Montreal, Toronto, Boston, New York, Chicago, and Detroit, which were all established in or before 1926. Sollenberger, to bring pro hockey to Hershey by sponsoring a permanent team. ![]() The popularity of these amateur hockey matches prompted chocolate-maker and amusement park operator Milton Hershey and his long-time entertainment and amusements chief, John B. Blinco, a native of Grand Mere, Quebec, who came to Hershey the next season and would remain continuously associated with Hershey hockey for a half century as a player, coach, and manager. In the lineup that night for Crescent was a 23-year-old center named Lloyd S. Nine months after that successful inaugural contest, Swarthmore Athletic Club moved into the Ice Palace, where they played their first game on November 19, 1931, against Crescent A.C. and Villanova University faced off in the 1,900-seat Hershey Ice Palace. The first such formal hockey game ever played in Hershey took place on February 18, 1931, when Penn A.C. The history of Hershey hockey goes back to a series of amateur hockey matches played in Hershey between college teams beginning in early 1931. Team history The origins of "Hershey Hockey" Hershey Ice Palace 1932 amateur hockey program Hockey", once remarked, "Everybody who is anybody in hockey has played in Hershey," although he himself did not play there. Gordie Howe, who was selected into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1972 and was known as "Mr. Now called the Hershey Bears Hockey Club, it is a subsidiary of the Hershey Entertainment and Resorts Company (originally called "Hershey Estates" and later "HERCO"), the entertainment and hospitality division of the Hershey Trust Company. Now in its ninth decade, it has operated four teams in three pro leagues, including the AHL Bears. ![]() Hershey first established the "Hershey Hockey Club" in 1932 to manage professional hockey teams based in Hershey. They won their most recent title in 2023.Ĭhocolate manufacturer Milton S. (The arena was also the home to the EAHL Hershey Bears from 1936 to 1938.) The Bears have won 12 Calder Cups, more than any other AHL team. Since 2002-03, the hockey club's home games have been played at Giant Center, located less than half a mile west of Hersheypark Arena, the AHL club's previous home from 1938 to 2002. The Bears organization currently serves as the primary development club for the NHL's Washington Capitals since 2005-06. The current Bears club has played in the American Hockey League since the 1938–39 season making it the longest continuously operating member club of the league still playing in its original city. The Hershey Bears are a professional ice hockey team based in Hershey, Pennsylvania, a town located 14 miles east of the state capital of Harrisburg. Hershey Bears Hockey Club, a sub-division of the Hershey Entertainment and Resorts Companyīryan Helmer (de facto - VP of Hockey Operations) ![]()
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