The Pentagonal League was 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 ...

–only United States–based collegiate conference. The league was formed by Dartmouth,

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...

Princeton Princeton University is a private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the Unit ...

and

Yale Yale University is a private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, and one of the nine colonial colleges ch ...

as a way of determining which team, among the oldest ice hockey programs, was the best. The league is a precursor to 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 ...

History

The four schools involved can trace the beginning of their ice hockey teams to at least 1905 with Yale's inaugural season in 1895–96 serving as the unofficial dawn of college ice hockey. All four teams were able to lay claim to a championship since their inception but no formal structure existed to dictate whether one team was superior to another. At the height of the depression, while many programs were in danger of ending, the ice hockey teams at four of the wealthiest institutions in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

were able to stabilize their schedules by forming the Quadrangular League, an outgrowth of the previous

Triangular Hockey League The Triangular Hockey League began as an agreement between Harvard, Princeton and Yale to play one another in best-of-three series during the season. History The Triangular League followed a similar pattern to the Intercollegiate Hockey League, ...

. The four team league remained in place until 1943 when both Harvard and Princeton suspended their ice hockey programs due to America's participation in

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 ...

. The league resurfaced after the war and was expanded by the addition of

Army An army, ground force or land force is an armed force that fights primarily on land. In the broadest sense, it is the land-based military branch, service branch or armed service of a nation or country. It may also include aviation assets by ...

for the 1946–47 season, becoming the Pentagonal League. The Cadets left the league after two seasons and were promptly replaced by

Brown Brown is a color. It can be considered a composite color, but it is mainly a darker shade of orange. In the CMYK color model used in printing and painting, brown is usually made by combining the colors Orange (colour), orange and black. In the ...

. The league continued in this fashion until 1955, a year after the

was formally created. Because the Ivy League never officially supported ice hockey as a sport, the Quadrangular and Pentagonal league are considered informal organizations and not recognized as NCAA conferences.

Members

† both Army and Dartmouth have changed their athletic team names in the years since the Pentagonal League was dissolved.

Membership timeline

DateFormat = mm/dd/yyyy ImageSize = width:800 height:auto barincrement:20 Period = from:01/01/1932 till:06/01/1955 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal PlotArea = right:30 left:0 bottom:50 top:5 Colors = id:men value:rgb(0.6,0.6,1) legend:men id:women value:rgb(0.5,0.8,0.5) legend:women id:both value:rgb(0.5,0.8,0.8) legend:both id:line value:black id:bg value:white PlotData= width:15 textcolor:black shift:(5,-5) anchor:from fontsize:s bar:DAR color:men from:06/01/1932 till:06/01/1943 text: Dartmouth (1932–1943, 1946–1955) bar:HAR color:men from:06/01/1932 till:06/01/1943 text:

(1932–1943, 1946–1955) bar:YAL color:men from:06/01/1932 till:06/01/1943 text:

(1932–1943, 1946–1955) bar:PRI color:men from:06/01/1932 till:06/01/1943 text:

(1932–1943, 1947–1955) bar:DAR color:men from:06/01/1946 till:06/01/1955 text: bar:HAR color:men from:06/01/1946 till:06/01/1955 text: bar:YAL color:men from:06/01/1946 till:06/01/1955 text: bar:PRI color:men from:06/01/1947 till:06/01/1955 text: bar:ARM color:men from:06/01/1946 till:06/01/1948 text:

(1946–1948) bar:BRO color:men from:06/01/1948 till:06/01/1955 text:

(1948–1955) ScaleMajor = gridcolor:line unit:year increment:2 start:01/01/1932

References

{{NCAA Division I hockey conferences Defunct NCAA Division I ice hockey conferences Sports in the Eastern United States

History

Members

Membership timeline

See also

References