Guess who's back with another hockey league. Yep, it's me, Kingsfan11. Hopefully, this league will last longer than the QAHL. Anyway, let's get to the backstory of how the ECHO came to be.

The Beginnings of ECHO
Shortly after the end of World War II in Europe and the surrender of Nazi Germany to the Allied Forces in 1945, Lawrence Adams, a Montreal-born businessman of English descent, set out to create an English-speaking hockey team in Montreal that could rival the French-speaking team owned by Phillipe St-Arnaud. Adams began recruiting players and coaches to form his new team's roster.

Unbeknownst to Adams, St-Arnaud had been talking to Jonah Roberts, a former hockey player from Quebec City who had bought his old team, about creating a new hockey league to replace the Quebec Hockey Association, which only contained the Montreal and Quebec City teams due to many teams ceasing operations during the Second World War. When St-Arnaud received news of Adams' efforts, he would contact him to invite him to a meeting in Trois-Rivières to discuss the new league alongside Roberts. At the meeting, St-Arnaud shared his vision of a league that included teams from all over Eastern Canada. However, at that point, he had not found other Quebec team owners willing to take their teams to a higher professional level. 

St-Arnaud first went to Halifax to meet with one of his business partners, Riley McCullough, who owned a team in the Atlantic Hockey League. St-Arnaud wanted to ask his friend if he would join this new league he was creating, but McCullough surprised him by bringing together the owners of the surviving teams from the Atlantic Hockey League. The group included Arthur King from Charlottetown, Archibald Cunningham from Moncton, and Cassius Griffiths from Saint John. These owners were interested in greater competition and saw St-Arnaud's proposal as a great opportunity. They agreed to join the new league, leading to the end of the Atlantic Hockey League. 

After the Halifax meeting, St-Arnaud informed Roberts and Adams in Trois-Rivières that he had successfully recruited four new teams for the league, which they were thrilled to hear. However, Adams was worried about having an odd number of teams in the league. St-Arnaud assured Adams that he would find another owner to bring their team into the new league and make it even. He then travelled to Ottawa to meet with another one of his business partners, Anthony MacDonald, who owned a team in the Ontario Elite Hockey League. MacDonald expressed disappointment with the league's focus on Toronto and feeling left out of league decisions due to his team's location. St-Arnaud listened carefully and presented MacDonald with a new opportunity - a chance to be the eighth owner of a new league that only needed one more team for an even number. MacDonald eagerly accepted the offer and thus became the eighth owner of the new league.

 In July, the eight club owners gathered in Trois-Rivières to discuss logistics for their new hockey league. They voted to name it the Eastern Canada Hockey Organization to avoid bias towards any team and their previous affiliations. The league was split into two divisions: the Maritimes Division, composed of the four teams from the old Atlantic Hockey League, and the St. Lawrence Division, composed of the three Quebec teams and Ottawa. They devised a schedule of 52 games, with the top two teams from each division moving on to the playoffs. As a playful nod to their abbreviation, ECHO, the league named the championship trophy the Sound Cup.


ECHO Name Submission Form
Up next: Team Reveals 

Last edited by Kingsfan11 (7/14/2023 11:08 pm)