North American Hockey League (French Trafalgar, British Waterloo)

The North American Hockey League (NAHL) is an incorporated not-for-profit organization created to organize the now 26 member clubs across the North American Continent. Founded in Toronto, in 1909 to organize six teams through Canada and the North-Eastern United States. Despite suspension of play during both of the World Wars, the league managed to grow and prosper, eventually accepting reams from in 1918 and  in 1921. The 25th and 26th teams were created and accepted in 2006.

History
The NAHL was founded on September 7, 1909 when the "First Six" clubs (the Montreal Canadiens, the Toronto Blueshirts, the Boston Buccaneers, the Halifax Cruisers, the Detroit Flying Wings and the Buffalo Lakers) met in Toronto to discuss the formation of an association to organize games between the six clubs, which had been a rather unorganized mess before, with teams playing against each other when the managers negotiating with the the other clubs agreed to certain times, which conflicted with other teams. The leadership of the new organization was given to current Toronto Blueshirts manager Eddie Livingstone, who quickly organized a four month season from November to February, with playoffs between the top two teams in March. The season was rocky from the start, with Halifax owner P. Vincent (Vince) Coleman claiming it was unfair that his team had to spend much higher costs to travel to other cities to play, when very few games were played in Halifax itself. Livingstone claimed that he tried to keep the same number of home and away games, and exclaimed that "Coleman is trying to destroy everything we are working toward with the NAHL." But when the Toronto Blueshirts managed to win the championship in March on several technicalities, an investigation by a private agency revealed that Livingstone had paid off some of the referees to make sure that his team would always get the favorable treatment. This scandal forced Livingstone to resign, and Coleman was named the new Chairman (he promptly resigned as manager of the Halifax Cruisers to organize the League).

Coleman managed a successful 1910-1911 season, and was prepared to start the next season when the broke out in July of 1911, and the majority of the players on all six teams were called up to service. Coleman himself, named a Captain in the Canadian Army, announced that the NAHL would be suspended until after the war. Through the war, many of the players on both sides were killed, severally depleting the ranks of the best hockey players. The defeat of Canada and her allies by 1916 caused the three Canadian teams to forfeit all games in the US due to the hostility caused by the war in a hastily organized 1916-1917 season, and vice versa for the American teams. But Coleman, promoted to Brigadier by the end of the war, said he would organize a new season for 1917-1918 to foster the return to peace. The season got off to a tepid start, but by December all six teams were once again fighting for the championship peacefully.

In 1918, the first Assiniboian team was welcomed, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. To counter this another American team, the Minneapolis Steamers, was added as well. Also in the 1918-19 season, the championship was given a trophy, which was named the Coleman Cup after Vince Coleman. In 1921 the first Alysekan team was added, the Vancouver Trappers. Another Assiniboian Team, the Brandon Wheat Kings, as well as another Canadian and American Team, the Ottawa Commoners and the New York Americans, bringing the total to 12. Coleman then organized the first "divisions", composed of East and West, which changed the championships so that the best two teams of each division would skate against each other, then the winners of the divisions would then battle each other for the Coleman Cup.