International Hockey Hall of Fame

The International Hockey Hall of Fame (IHHOF) and Museum is a museum dedicated to the history of ice hockey in Canada, located in Kingsgton, Ontario. The IHHOF was originally planned to be the one Hockey Hall of Fame but events led to the establishment of the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto instead.

History of the IHHOF
The International Hockey Hall of Fame was founded on September 10, 1943, and incorporated as a non-profit charity by the National Hockey League and the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association. It was established through the efforts of James T. Sutherland, a former President of the CAHA, who sought to establish it in Kingston because he believed that the city was the birthplace of hockey. In 1943, the NHL and CAHA reached an agreement that a Hall of Fame would be established in Kingston. The first players were inducted on April 30, 1945, although the IHHOF still did not have a permanent home.

Kingston lost its most influential advocate as permanent site of the Hockey Hall of Fame when Sutherland died in 1955. By 1958, the IHHOF organizers had still not raised sufficient funds to construct a permanent building in Kingston. Clarence Campbell, then President of the NHL, grew tired of waiting for the construction to begin and withdrew the NHL's support, subsequently reaching an agreement with the Canadian National Exhibition to establish a new Hall of Fame building in Toronto.

Despite this major setback, the Board of Directors of the International Hockey Hall of Fame moved forward. In 1962, a grant was awarded by the City of Kingston for the construction of a new building. In 1965 the International Hockey Hall of Fame moved into their new building located on the Memorial Centre grounds in Kingston. In 1992, the IHHOF added new exhibits from the International Ice Hockey Federation. The IIHF exhibits were located at the IHHOF from 1992 through 1997. The IIHF relocated them to the HHOF in Toronto, in 1998.

Exhibits
The museum had two floors at their original home at 277 York Street. The first had exhibits about Bobby Orr, Don Cherry, the Original Six, Wayne Gretzky and others. The second floor had a display of the Hall of Fame's inductees, plus exhibits about Kingston and area professional hockey players, the World Hockey Association, and the evolution of ice skates and hockey sticks. Artifacts included jerseys worn by Gordie Howe, Rocket Richard and others, skates and sticks from the 1800s and the championship banner of the 1914 Toronto Blueshirts. Outside of the building was an over-sized square "puck".

The York Street building was demolished in 2012. Since then, some of the collection has been on display at the Invista Centre (1350 Gardiners Road) with the remainder in storage offsite.

Inductees
The IHHOF inducted 9 builders and 32 players, but only two since 1952 and none since 1966.

Historic Hockey Series
Each February since 1969 the IHHOF presents its annual Historic Hockey Series. The series is both a competition and demonstration of the first organized hockey game played on the Kingston Harbour in 1886 between Queen's University and the Royal Military College of Canada. The original style sticks and uniforms as well as the original rules of that era are used including a square puck, seven players per side and with no forward passing. Queen’s University and the Royal Military College of Canada compete along with the 2nd Regiment from the Royal Canadian Horse Artillery from Petawawa who represent the garrison soldiers stationed in Kingston in the 1880s in a round-robin tournament. The 38th Annual Historic Hockey Series took place on Sunday February 5, 2006 on the new outdoor rink at Kingston’s downtown historic Market Square.