The Columbia Lions men's ice hockey is an

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

team club in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

, associated with

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

since its establishment in 1896. It went dormant following its 1937 season, but was eventually revived as a club team. It remains active in the 2020s.

History

Columbia was one of the first colleges in the

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to play ice hockey. The team benefitted from being virtually next door to the

St. Nicholas Rink The St. Nicholas Rink, also called the St. Nicholas Arena, was an indoor ice rink, and later a boxing arena in New York City from 1896 until 1962. The rink was one of the earliest indoor ice rinks made of mechanically frozen ice in North America ( ...

, one of the earliest artificial ice rinks in the country. Columbia played continually from 1896 through 1915, routinely competing against the best programs in the nation. They brought in experienced players to help improve the team like Tom Howard and Percy LeSueur but a disagreement between college administrations dealt a mortal wound to the program. Early in the 20th century, the

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

's precursor was formed to set down rules that all schools would abide by. At the time Ice Hockey was not governed by a national body (the NCAA would ignore the sport until after

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

) which left the few schools that fielded teams able to decide the rules for themselves. The major competitors, the teams that would later form the

Ivy league The Ivy League is an American collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference of eight Private university, private Research university, research universities in the Northeastern United States. It participates in the National Collegia ...

, decided that they would prohibit freshmen from participating and limit players to 3 years of varsity play. Of the schools that were members of the

Intercollegiate Hockey Association The Intercollegiate Hockey Association was a loose collection of ice hockey programs from schools in the Northeastern United States. Each college involved would play every other team at least once during the season, and the team with the best rec ...

, only Columbia did not agree to the rules. As a result, the Lions were expelled from the IHA. The team's removal then caused the operators of the

to close their door on the team, putting the program in dire straits in the middle of the 1912–13 season. While the IHA would collapse entirely after the season, Columbia had not been a big draw to the Rink over the previous few seasons and the St. Nicholas operators were hesitant to give the Lions any additional ice time. After playing an entire season on the road, Columbia managed to get a 'test' game at the Rink in order to prove that the ice hockey team was enough of an attraction. The Lions played what was described as an exciting game, but the audience was too small and the team was forced to find another home. Columbia struggled for several years, battling poor weather conditions and a lack of facilities. but were unable to play a single game between 1915 and 1921. The team finally returned when they were able to secure the 181st Street Ice Palace as a home. The rink was mostly used for speed skating and was smaller than most ice hockey rinks of the time. The team played well in spite of their circumstances but, just three years later, they were forced to halt playing once again. The team remained dormant for most of the next decade but was revived in the mid-1930s. By that time the administration was no longer prepared to support the team and the Lions were compelled to perform as a club team and played under that distinction for three years. In 1937 the school decided to sponsor the program again and Columbia played a schedule composed mostly of amateur clubs but did perform well at times. After the season the two players responsible for resurrecting the team, Chris McFadden and Jack McMahon, both graduated. Without their presence, or a head coach to keep the team alive, the program was allowed to wither away and vanish. Several years later the team resurfaced as a club team once more but the university had not made any plans to promote the program to varsity status (as of 2022). In the 2021–2022 season, the Columbia Lions defeated Sacred Heart 9–3 to win the MCHC Championship, its first conference championship in program history. The club departed from the American Collegiate Hockey Association and was promoted to Division II status under the Amateur Athletic Union for the 2023–24 season, where it would compete in the Empire Collegiate Hockey Conference. The team spent the 2023-24 season operating independently under the organizational name "New York Collegiate Ice Hockey Club" after temporarily losing its recognition status with the University. After returning to the University for the 2024-25 season, the club went on to win its second conference championship and achieve its first ever National tournament appearance, reaching the national semifinals.

Season-by-season results

* Winning percentage is used when conference schedules are unbalanced.
¿ Information on the 1899–1900 season is incomplete.

Footnotes

References

External links

* {{Columbia Lions men's ice hockey navbox American Collegiate Hockey Association Defunct ice hockey teams in New York (state) Former college varsity men's ice hockey teams 1896 establishments in New York City Ice hockey clubs established in 1896 1938 disestablishments in New York (state) Ice hockey clubs disestablished in 1938