Great Lakes Junior C Hockey League

The Great Lakes Junior C Hockey League was a Junior "C" ice hockey league in Ontario, Canada, sanctioned by the Ontario Hockey Association. The champion of the Great Lakes competed for the All-Ontario Championship and the Clarence Schmalz Cup. It is now a division in the Provincial Junior Hockey League.

The league got its start as the Border Cities Junior Hockey League in 1968. It became a Junior B and C league under the Great Lakes name in 1970 before strictly Junior C in 1974.

Out of the ashes of the old Bluewater Hockey League, a local league that sometimes operated at Junior D and Juvenile levels, came the Border Cities Junior Hockey League in 1968. In 1968-69, the league operated on both sides of the Canada-United States border. The Leamington Flyers joined the league after a lackluster year in the Western Jr. B League, with the Blenheim Golden Blades, Petrolia Jets, and Dresden Jr. Kings on the Canadian side. The American teams did not participate in the OHA playoffs. Blenheim would win the Border Cities Jr. B crown with a 4-games-to-2 series win over Petrolia, while Dresden would beat Leamington 3-games-to-2 with 2 ties for the Junior C crown.

In 1969-70, the league operated as two different, but interlocked, identities - the Border Cities League and the Michigan Junior Hockey League. The Canadian teams stayed with the BCJHL and added a fifth member - the Tilbury Bluebirds. Petrolia was named Junior B champions at the end of the year, uncontested, and went on to the Sutherland Cup playdowns, while Leamington beat Dresden for the Junior C championship, and Blenheim beat Tilbury for a Junior D title.

During the summer, the league opted to separate from its Michigan brethren, who went on to form their own league. The league received an offer from a new team, the Windsor Royals. In the Fall of 1970, the league renamed itself the Great Lakes Junior C Hockey League.

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