Detroit

In Detroit, Jaffe and Cotro visited the Detroit Olympia, a newer barn-like structure built of red brick that had opened in 1932 for the short-lived Detroit Hockey Club. The Club had fizzled out with the onset of the Great Depression and the NHL's reluctance to continue building in the United States, leaving the Olympia in considerable debt, and like many similar buildings of the era, had been sent to receivership after defaulting on an $800,000 bond note. The previous owner, Charles Hughes, was desperately hopeful that a new party could take the vision and after hearing about the upstart new league decided to help Jaffe and Cotro with their search.

They centered their focus on one Fred Ransom, 58, a powerful Detroit-based retired attorney and politician who had grown up in Lansing and had graduated from the University of Michigan. Ransom was a confidant and ally to all of the big Detroit-area automobile manufacturers along with having connections in high places in Michigan government. Despite his vast Rolodex, Ransom's reputation was that of not being afraid to get into the trenches alongside the workingman in negotiating deals during the frequent strikes of the automobile industry. Out of all available candidates, Ransom carried the name-power to make a deal for the heavily-indebted Olympia and prompt the city to green light a plan to bring hockey back to Detroit. Jaffe also hoped that having Ransom in the fold would give the League a bit of negotiating muscle and offered him a minor stake in the League in exchange for representation services if he made the deal. Cotro was against the offer, citing Ransom's power-hungry reputation as a potential future detriment if the league showed success but Jaffe was adamant.

For an undisclosed sum, Ransom founded a new holding company which took over control of the Olympia and personally added a $100,000 stake into the League for the fourth official club. A Detroit-native and fellow Michigan grad and former hockey player who had worked for Ransom's other companies, Don Cashwell, was named president of operations of the new venture, allowing Ransom his preference to be the name and face while Cashwell would be in charge of running it.

Satisfied with the arrangements, Jaffe took a train to St. Louis while Cotro, still fuming, took a separate train back to New York. Before Jaffe made it to St. Louis, he received word that his father's health was failing and that his family hoped he would visit immediately. Jaffe took the next available train and made it to his boyhood home of Philadelphia two days later but his father had already passed away. In the aftermath, with his own health deteriorated from the intensive travel of the past months, Jaffe decided to stay in Philadelphia for the time being to attend to his family while Cotro, who sent his regards and condolences, continued working on league business and setting up a genuine central headquarters in Manhattan.

Philadelphia

While staying in Philadelphia and helping settle his father's estate, Jaffe met with a close friend of the family, one Bruno Leone, 56, a wealthy businessman with ties in radio networks, printing, publishing, and early television experiments. Leone's son Steve was Jaffe's age and they had grown up in the same neighborhood as children and had both attended Princeton. Bruno and Steve had heard about the new league and hoped to buy-in, expressing that Jaffe's father had expressed a similar desire before he fell sick and that it would be to honor the great Dr. Jaffe. While Jacob Jaffe was suspicious of the veracity of their claims, he also realized that the summer was quickly closing and it was unlikely he would be able to do all of the travel he'd intended to drum up interest for additional inaugural franchises for the league. He sent a letter to Cotro asking his opinion of the matter and Cotro decided to join him in Philadelphia to help.

Jaffe, Cotro, and the Leones visited several locations in Philadelphia that were large enough or housed ice rinks and none were up to the standard of the other cities signed to the league. The Philadelphia Civic Center was noticeably larger and more ornate but lacked any permanent refrigeration machines and city officials estimated the capacity would be less than imagined, likely topping out at 7,000-8,000 with a full sheet of ice and temporary grandstands. Meanwhile the Philadelphia Arena had recently gone into receivership for the third time and did have accommodations for permanent ice but was very cramped and needed repairs. The Arena had once hosted more than 10,000 for boxing matches but likely would top out at just over 8,000 for ice hockey even with some major upgrades. Minor league hockey clubs had garnered meager interest at best, often to tiny crowds at the Arena.

Jaffe was unconvinced of the viability of the pitch and even less of such a close family friend owning a franchise. However, Cotro could see the value of having Bruno's broadcasting and publishing connections for the upstart league, and envisioned a future where the mass reach of hockey rivaled that of baseball. With summer deadlines approaching, Jaffe decided to approve the Leone bid and add Philadelphia as the fifth and final founding franchise in an effort to expedite getting the league started and up off the ground. Both Jaffe and Cotro agreed it was wise not to overcommit during the tenuous times of the Depression. Meanwhile, Bruno and Steve Leone took over receivership of The Arena on speculation via a local bank note and added their $50,000 stake into the League fund.

By the end of August 1933, Jaffe and Cotro officially invited all of the new owners and club personnel to the inaugural League Convention to be held September 15th in New York.


tl:dr the Fed adds Detroit and Philadelphia to finalize the five founding franchises, will host first League Convention to set rules and build the teams.

Salary Cap

Before the team personnel gathered to present identities and craft rosters, Jaffe and the Board had approved a salary cap of $75,000 per team, with a maximum player salary capped at $7,500 per year, and each team allowed one maximum salary player per season. The Board hoped this would help keep the teams competitive and promote league parity. Rosters would be capped at 15 players, with each team being required to roster two goalies, unusual for most leagues of the time. Jaffe wanted to limit overuse and give backups a chance to develop for future league expansion. Each team would be required to name one player team captain a given season. The slightly expanded roster caps compared to other hockey leagues would also help promote usage of rotating lines which had recently come into vogue and Jaffe hoped such a style would create a more exciting pace of play. Another innovative provision requested by Jaffe was that teams have at least two full-time assistant coaches on staff in addition to a primary head coach, who was also allowed to act as general manager if the team desired. This was again to grant experience for future coaches in expansion teams.

Boston



The first team to present their identity was Boston. The Crowley brothers decided to name their team after their shipping company and call them the Boston Hibernians, a reference to the Latin name for Irish, in hopes that it would help promote their business. Colloquially they'd be known as the Hibs. The Crowleys chose green for their sweater which would be adorned with an arched city name and short nickname underneath it with simple serifed numbers on the back. A simple white Northwestern-style stripe would be on the sleeves, hem, and socks, along with a white collar. Jaffe commissioned a local artist named Walton to craft roundels for each team which could be used as patches, pins, or other memorabilia, and the Hibs' roundel featured an Irish harp with the team name.

The Crowley brothers hired a fellow Boston College alum named Ned Donahue, 45, to be head coach. Another BC alum, Craig Earle Cole, 53, was named assistant coach along with former Northeastern coach Ed Hammons. The Crowleys signed centerman Johnie Frost at a salary of $6,500. Frost, 26, also graduated from BC and was an excellent two-way center with strong passing and leadership skills. He was named team captain.



The Hibs' roster featured extensive college experience from every player, a testament to collegiate hockey programs in Massachusetts, and the roster was jokingly dubbed “The Old Collegians” by Percy Cotro with the average age of the roster north of 27. Goaltender Billy Wibbenmeyer, wingers Connie DeMarco and Heath McLean, and defenseman Jimmie Janway were all from Boston College. Notable players included Harvard grad Mike Messer, 31, as the top veteran defenseman, being paid $4,400 per year, and center Tim Garmon, 27, who was signed for $4,300. The overall roster doesn't look especially speedy but features plenty of smarts and toughness which will give Boston a good foundation at just a total of $43,300 with the Crowley's focusing on value contracts.

Note: Despite Jaffe's rule of two goalies, most teams have assigned goalies the same #1 since they won't ever be in the game together, and most teams will likely use a single starter for the season.

the hibs look great! I love the classic aesthetic paired with the weird old-timey quirk of having both the city name and nickname on the jersey. keep it comin!

Glad to see the love for the Hibs! I must credit Darknes for the excellent name suggestion and profession for the Crowley brothers. We'll continue now with New York.

Detroit



Before the other owners could get a chance, Fred Ransom jumped the line to present his Detroit team next. Ransom had decided to name the team in honor of his father, Charles Ransom, who had served as an officer in a Detroit-based regiment of Michigan's famed Calvary Brigade in the Civil War and other conflicts, known as the Lancers. Ransom chose a dark blue sweater to be the team's primary color in honor of those Union soldiers. The Lancers would feature a heavy serifed D with an arrow through the middle as the team's logo on the front of the sweater, paired with a white quadruple striping pattern that Ransom thought made them look “more expensive” compared to other teams. White heavy serifed numbers would adorn the back of the sweater. The team's roundel featured the D-Arrow logo with the team's name around it with the founding year spaced horizontally across the middle.

He officially introduced Don Cashwell as the team's acting manager and head coach. Cashwell, 44, hired a full cast of fellow Michigan alumni starting with assistant coaches Dan Harrington, 49, and Herb McPherson, 63. He then scoured for former Michigan Wolverines and brought in goalie Chuck Wyman, a veteran starter at 30 years old, on a $3,500 contract and a pair of top-flight wingers in Johnny Orlando and Jed Voss, along with veteran defenseman Harry Hathaway. He gave Hathaway a $3,500 deal and signed the wingers at matching $5,000 contracts. Orlando was a lightning-fast skater with good hands while Voss was like a massive rhinoceros on skates.



Despite Cashwell's strong Michigan leanings, he found an incredible centerman from Michigan Tech named Vic Stovall who immediately displayed the type of skill and leadership he was looking for in a center and signed him to a $5,000 deal and named him team captain. Against Ransom's directives for speed and to spare no expense, Cashwell filled out the rest of the roster very cheaply and locked in on heavy bruisers like “Mean” Dean Kenton who weren't especially skilled but could control a game through hitting and slow it down through excessive penalty minutes. Cashwell's Lancers come in at $43,000 on the season and look very top-heavy with a good top line and nothing much in the way of scoring elsewhere.



C&C appreciated!