Ottawa City Hockey League

The Ottawa City Hockey League (OCHL) was an amateur ice hockey league with junior, intermediate and senior level men's teams in Ottawa, Canada. Founded in 1890 by the local Ottawa Hockey Association (Ottawa HA), the OCHL was created to organize play within the city of Ottawa. It is considered the second ice hockey league to form in Canada.

The senior league operated until 1945 and the junior league operated until 1957. Today the Ottawa region is administered by the Ottawa District Hockey Association (ODHA).

The local Ottawa Hockey Association (Ottawa HA) created the OCHL with five teams for its first season:

The Ottawa HA's Ottawa Hockey Club had existed for some time, forming to compete in the 1884 Montreal Winter Carnival ice hockey tournament (considered the Canadian championship at the time), later competing in the challenge-based (rather than regularly scheduled) Amateur Hockey Association of Canada. Ottawa HC was the dominant team in the OCHL, winning the OCHL's inaugural and consecutive league championships.

In the early days, the OCHL had a relationship with the geographically larger Ontario Hockey Association (OHA), which also formed in 1890. The OCHL champion would compete for the OHA Championship at the end of each season. As OCHL champion, Ottawa HA's own Ottawa Hockey Club were the representatives to – and winners of – the OHA Championship in 1890, 1891, 1892 and 1893. Ottawa HC made the costly trip to Toronto for both the 1892 and 1893 OHA finals, so the OCHL requested that the 1894 OHA Championship game be held in Ottawa. When the OHA refused, the OCHL resigned from the OHA and since that time the Greater Ottawa area (now including Southwestern Quebec) has operated separately from the OHA which organizes amateur hockey for most of Ontario.

The OHA had been founded based on an idea of Arthur Stanley, son of the Governor General of Canada, the Lord Stanley of Preston. After the OCHL's Ottawa Hockey Club won its third consecutive OHA championship, Lord Stanley signaled the creation of today's Stanley Cup by sending the following message to the victory celebration held on March 18, 1892, at Ottawa's Russell Hotel:

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