1915/16

The 1915 offseason was pretty uneventful with the only things of note coming just a few months before the start of the season. Firstly, the Minneapolis Millers baseball team won their 4th American Association pennant. Secondly and more seriously on September 15th the SS Onoko departed Duluth with 110,000 bushels of wheat bound for Toledo. She sprang a major leak off Knife Island about 15 miles from Duluth and the crew was forced to abandon ship. Thankfully there were no injuries or fatalities but the ship did end up sinking to the bottom of Lake Superior.

In the MAHL there were another 6 expansion clubs granted admission into three leagues, two teams per league with four new teams in the North and two in the South. It was a busy offseason for adjustments with a whopping 18 identity changes, including 5 teams adopting official nicknames. We also had one team move into a new home rink and a new rivalry trophy in St. Paul.

The aforementioned new rink was built in Frazee, called the Frazee Town Rink. The new rink was built downtown and features wooden bleachers that can seat up to 250 spectators. Frazee had been playing their home games on Town Lake since their inaugural 1907 season but concerns about ice quality led to the town coming together to build a new rink during the offseason.

There are six expansion clubs joining the MAHL this offseason. We'll start in the North where two new clubs are joining the Central Lakes Hockey League.

Pine City Hockey Club
The Pine City Hockey Club is based in Pine City, MN. Pine City is a city of about 1,300 and is the county seat of Pine County. Located on the Snake River, the city has become a center for the logging industry. It isn’t all lumber though with mills on the river, dairy farms becoming more prominent, and even a button factory in town using clamshells collected from the nearby Lakes Pokegama and Cross Lake.

The club opted for simple all-white uniforms with a green pine tree sewn on the front and numbers in black on the back. The team will play their home games at the Pine County Fairgrounds which can seat up to 250 spectators.




Sandstone Hockey Club
The Sandstone Hockey Club is based in Sandstone, MN. Sandstone is a village of about 1,500 on the west bank of the Kettle River. The Ojibwe call the city “Asiniikaaning”, meaning “at the quarrying place”, due to the sandstone quarry at the edge of town. The village was built around a large sandstone quarry which gave the community its name. Outside of quarrying, logging is the other major industry in town with railroads transporting sandstone and lumber out of town.

The team decided on crimson and black striped duds with the village name spelt out inside a stripe across the chest and they will play their home games at the 250 seat Sandstone City Rink.

Finally we head to the South Region for our final set of expansion clubs set to join the Twin Cities Hockey Association.

Highland Park Hockey Club
The Highland Park Hockey Club is based in the Highland Park neighborhood of St. Paul, MN. Highland Park is a neighborhood in the southwestern corner of St. Paul along the Mississippi River just north of Fort Snelling. The name “Highland” comes from the neighborhood's location above the Mississippi River on the bluffs. The area that is now Highland Park was the last to be developed in St. Paul with settlement was banned in the area until the 1840s as it was part of the Fort Snelling reservation. It has since been developed, at least a little bit, and the residents of the neighborhood came together to form their own team.

Their uniforms are primarily gold with a single black stripe on the sleeves, hem, and socks along with black shoulders and collars. The neighborhood’s name is arched on two lines on the front, also in black. Home games will be played at the aptly named Highland Rink which can seat up to 250 fans.




Nokomis Hockey Club
The Nokomis Hockey Club is based in the Nokomis (noh-KOH-miss) neighborhood of Minneapolis, MN but also represents the bordering neighborhood of Longfellow. Nokomis is a neighborhood in the southeastern corner of Minneapolis. Like Highland Park, Nokomis is the new kid on the block in their city with European settlement in the area restricted for years with a native american community being situated between Lake Nokomis and Lake Hiawatha until 1880 and the city not buying the communities namesake lake until 1907. The area is best known for its nature and for quiet living in the big city. The small but growing community takes its name from Lake Nokomis while the famous Minnehaha Falls sits on the border between Nokomis and Longfellow.

The club went with red for their primary color with navy striping throughout their uniforms. The neighborhood name is spelt out in white inside a chest stripe. The club will join the rest of their Minneapolitan brethren and play their home games at Nicollet Park, the 4,000 seat home of the Minneapolis Millers baseball team during the summer.




Let me know what you think, comments are always appreciated!

Thehealthiestscratch wrote:

Pine City got everything perfect right out of the gate.

Haha I'm glad you like them!

Heading over to the Headwater Hockey Association we had two clubs make adjustments.

Frazee Hockey Club
The chest stripe has been tilted and is now a sash with the club’s F mark moved over the players hearts inside the sash. A single white stripe is also added to the sleeves and the socks are inverted to better match the jersey.


Old Jersey