Los Angeles Monarchs
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The Los Angeles Monarchs were a professional ice hockey team, active from 1944–1950, in the Pacific Coast Hockey League (PCHL). The Monarchs are the first professional ice hockey team to win a league championship for the city of Los Angeles. They played in the southern division of the PCHL, alongside teams from the neighboring cities such as the Pasadena Panthers, the Hollywood Wolves, and the San Diego Skyhawks. The southern division also included the San Francisco Shamrocks, Oakland Oaks and, in 1947, the Fresno Falcons.[1]
The Monarchs played their home games in the Pan Pacific Auditorium, which was located on Beverly Boulevard, next to the Hollywood Stars baseball field, Gilmore Field. The auditorium was also near Gilmore Stadium where football and midget auto races were held. Gilmore Stadium was the home field for the Loyola Marymount University football team and several professional football teams, including the Los Angeles Bulldogs, Los Angeles Mustangs and the Hollywood Bears, on Los Angeles's Westside. As ice hockey was a new sport in Southern California, the team enjoyed a decent amount of popularity during its tenure in Los Angeles.[1]
The first Los Angeles Monarchs team was part of the Pacific Hockey League (PHL) in the 1920s. The PHL was more of an amateur-level league made up of young and old players from Canada and the Northeastern United States. The teams were formed by local athletic clubs and league games were more like weekend recreational games, rather than a competition of professional contenders. By 1929, at the dawn of the Great Depression, most of the teams folded. Only a few schools, most notably the University of Southern California, the University of California, Los Angeles and Loyola Marymount University still supported local hockey programs.[2]
Beginning in 1930, after a large ice arena was built in Sacramento, California, attempts were made to re-form the league, but poor economic conditions and a shortage of ice arenas stymied attempts and forced hockey organizations to compete on an amateur local level. Most clubs still in existence were either from colleges or small athletic associations. Since ice arenas were in short supply, games were played late at night and fan support was small.[1]
It wasn’t until 1938, with the opening of the Pan Pacific Auditorium, that a new Los Angeles Monarchs team emerged. The Pan Pacific was capable of seating 6200 spectators for ice hockey games. The Monarchs shared the arena with the Hollywood Wolves and Pasadena Panthers. With three viable teams competing in Los Angeles, other teams in San Francisco, Sacramento, and Fresno joined to recreate the PHL. But the league was short-lived and again folded after the 1941 season.[1]
Los Angeles joins the Pacific Coast Hockey League
The Pacific Coast Hockey League (PCHL) existed twice before, from 1928 to 1931, and from 1936 to 1941. The league first folded due to the Great Depression. In 1941, U.S. and Canadian involvement in World War II forced it to shut down. The teams were all based in Western Canada and the U.S. Pacific Northwest.[1]
In 1944, as signs indicated the war would be ending soon, and citizens would be able to resume normal life again, league owners decided to start the PCHL back up again. The Monarchs joined the reborn PCHL in 1944. By this time there was a much larger number of people living in Southern California – in order to support the war industries and military bases – who had transplanted from the northeast U.S., where hockey was very popular. These transplants created a much larger demand for ice hockey entertainment. The league wanted to expand south and take advantage of the growing economic and hockey fan base in California. Combined with the availability of larger ice rinks like the Pan Pacific (in Los Angeles) and the Cow Palace (in South San Francisco), ice hockey games could be offered to spectators in larger numbers and at more convenient hours.[1]