Global Entertainment Corporation owned the mid-level professional hockey league called the Central Hockey League (CHL). The Allen Americans were its final champions.
The Central Hockey League’s 1992 incarnation was founded as a centrally-owned league by Ray Miron, Bill Levins and Bill Levins. Ray and Monte Miron managed the league, and Horn Chen, a Chicago businessman and entrepreneur in minor league sports, funded it. On October 7, 2014, the Board of Governors of ECHL voted in favor of accepting seven of the remaining members of the CHL as expansion teams to the ECHL.
Histories
Ray Miron and Bill Levins revived the Central Hockey League (CHL), with the idea of central ownership for both the leagues and teams. Both men had hockey backgrounds. Miron was the general manager of the New Jersey Devils, and in 1976, he briefly served as president of the Central Hockey League.
The inaugural 1992-93 season saw six teams in the league, including the Oklahoma City Blazers and the Tulsa Oilers. Also, there were the Tulsa Oilers and the Wichita Thunder. There were also the Tulsa Oilers and the Tulsa Oilers. The Thunder and Oilers, which were the original league teams, have been moved to the SPHL.
Following the demise of the SHL, the Central Hockey League was formed in 1996-97 by the Huntsville Channel Cats and the Southern Hockey League expansion teams Macon Whoopee, Columbus Cottonmouths, and Nashville Nighthawks.
The league’s championship trophy, which was awarded to the winner in the CHL playoffs, was lost after Levins’ death. It was renamed Levin’s Cup. Miron gordok business, who had been the league’s president for eight years before he retired in 2000, sold the league. The Ray Miron President’s Cup was created to replace the Levins Cup.
After many expansion attempts and a long struggle for players and markets with Western Professional Hockey League (WPHL), CHL merged in 2001 with WPHL.
Duane Lewis is the current CHL commissioner. He succeeded Brad Treliving as interim commissioner after Treliving resigned to take a position with NHL’s Phoenix Coyotes. Treliving founded the WPHL in 1996 and served seven years with the CHL after the merger. In June 2008, Lewis was appointed permanent commissioner.
The league announced on June 1, 2010, that it would merge into the International Hockey League. Originally referred to as a merger, the result was for the KOHL’s Bloomington and Fort Wayne franchises to join CHL. The IHL quietly folded afterward.
On October 7, 2014, the CHL and ECHL websites announced that seven CHL teams had been accepted into the ECHL as expansion teams. The CHL established a central hockey league Division, which included former CHL members.
