Naming the PCHA

Before the Pacific Coast Hockey Association started play in 1912, it went through a bewildering number of provisional names. Some may have been generic ones that newspapers invented, without any involvement from the Patricks. But in each of the following examples, the names were capitalized, suggesting someone at least thought it was official.

• Vancouver Daily World, March 10, 1911: Western Canada Hockey League

• Vancouver Province, March 10, 1911 and Toronto Star, March 11, 1911: Western Canada Ice Hockey League

• Nelson Daily News, May 8, 1911: Northwestern Canada Hockey League

• Victoria Colonist, July 25, 1911: Western Ice Hockey Association

• Vancouver Province, Sept. 26, 1911: Western Canada Hockey Association

• Vancouver Province, Oct. 12, 1911: Coast Hockey League

• Victoria Colonist, Oct. 14, 1911: Pacific Coast Ice Hockey League

• Vancouver Province, Nov. 24, 1911: Pacific Coast Hockey League

Finally, on Dec. 8, 1911, the Vancouver Province, Victoria Times, and Winnipeg Tribune all carried stories calling the league the Pacific Coast Hockey Association, or PCHA. This followed the formal organization of the league the previous day in Vancouver.

However, there was still some confusion: the Toronto Star of Dec. 11, 1911 called it the Western Canada Professional Hockey League, and accidentally or in jest, the league was referred to a few times as the Patrick Coast Hockey Association. In March 1912, several newspapers called it the Pacific Northwest Hockey Association. That is also the name the Spokane Chronicle habitually used between August 1918 and February 1919, presumably in error.

One thing the PCHA never seemed to have was a league logo. The NHL adopted a logo from the get-go in 1917 that is not too far removed from the one it still uses, but I’ve never seen anything similar for the PCHA. So I asked ChatGPT to generate one and this is what it came up with. Not bad, except I’m not sure what it was trying to do with the numerals.

Updated on Jan. 13, 2025 to note the league being misidentified after it started play.