Membership timeline
| Conference | NCAA |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1966 |
| Ceased | 1972 |
| Sports fielded |
|
| Division | Division II |
| No. of teams | 5 (1966-70), 4 (1970-72) |
| Region | Massachusetts |
The Worcester Collegiate Hockey League was an intercollegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's College Division. The league was created in 1966 between 4 schools from around Worcester, Massachusetts as well as Nichols College, a few miles to the south.
In 1966 a few colleges in the Worcester, Massachusetts area began sponsoring ice hockey as a varsity sport. The schools immediately banded together to form the Worcester Collegiate Hockey League and included the already existing programs at Assumption College and Nichols College. After one season four of the members joined ECAC 2 as well but continued to hold their own conference tournament. Holy Cross left the conference in 1970 to play a more rounded schedule in ECAC 2 play and after a year the three remaining ECAC teams became founding members of ECAC 3. Worcester Polytechnic Institute dropped its ice hockey program after 1972 and the conference was dissolved.
The WCHL held a conference tournament each year of its existence.
| Location | Athletic nickname | Enrollment# | Colors | Founded | Joined | Left | Succeeding Conference | Current Conference† | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Assumption College | Worcester, Massachusetts | Greyhounds | 2,753 | 1904 | 1966 | 1972 | ECAC 3 | Northeast–10 | |
| College of the Holy Cross | Worcester, Massachusetts | Crusaders | 2,897 | 1843 | 1966 | 1970 | ECAC 2 | Atlantic Hockey | |
| Nichols College | Dudley, Massachusetts | Bison | 1,459 | 1815 | 1966 | 1972 | ECAC 3 | CCC | |
| Worcester State College | Worcester, Massachusetts | Lancers | 6,221 | 1874 | 1966 | 1972 | ECAC 3 | MASCAC | |
| Worcester Polytechnic Institute | Worcester, Massachusetts | Engineers | 4,177 | 1865 | 1966 | 1972 | Dropped Program | ||
# enrollment in 2018
† as of 2018
The annual NCAA women's ice hockey tournament—officially known as the National Collegiate Women's Ice Hockey Championship—is a college ice hockey tournament held in the United States by the National Collegiate Athletic Association to determine the top women's team in the NCAA. The 2020 championship was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
ECAC Hockey is one of the six conferences that compete in NCAA Division I ice hockey. The conference used to be affiliated with the Eastern College Athletic Conference, a consortium of over 300 colleges in the eastern United States. This relationship ended in 2004; however, the ECAC abbreviation was retained in the name of the hockey conference. ECAC Hockey is the only ice hockey conference with identical memberships in both its women's and men's divisions. Cornell has won the most ECAC men's hockey championships with 12, followed by Harvard at 11. Quinnipiac, which joined the league in 2005, already has 7 regular season championships. ECAC Hockey teams have won 10 NCAA Division I Men's Ice Hockey Championships, most recently in 2023.
The ECAC Northeast was an intercollegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's Division III as a hockey-only conference. For many years it was one of the three men's hockey conferences that operated under the umbrella of the Eastern College Athletic Conference; the others were the ECAC East, and the ECAC West. Member institutions were located in the New England region of the United States, in the states of Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
ECAC West was a college athletic conference which operated in the northeastern United States until 2017. It participated in the NCAA's Division III as a hockey-only conference. The conference ceased to exist after the end of the 2016–17 season when most joined the newly formed United Collegiate Hockey Conference or Northeast Women's Hockey League.
Nichols College is a private business college in Dudley, Massachusetts. Founded in 1815 as Nichols Academy, Nichols College offers both bachelor's and master's degrees, as well as certificate programs.
College ice hockey is played principally in the United States and Canada, though leagues exist outside North America.
The 2014 NCAA Division I men's ice hockey tournament was the national championship tournament for men's college ice hockey in the United States in 2014. The tournament involved 16 teams in single-elimination play to determine the national champion at the Division I level of the NCAA, the highest level of competition in college hockey. The tournament's Frozen Four – the semifinals and finals – was hosted by ECAC Hockey at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia.
The Holy Cross Crusaders men's ice hockey team is a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I college ice hockey program that represents the College of the Holy Cross. The Crusaders are a member of the Atlantic Hockey Association (AHA). They play at the Hart Center in Worcester, Massachusetts.
The Quinnipiac Bobcats men's ice hockey team is a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I college ice hockey program that represents Quinnipiac University. The Bobcats are a member of ECAC Hockey. They play at the M&T Bank Arena in Hamden, Connecticut.
The Princeton Tigers men's ice hockey team is a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I college ice hockey program that represents Princeton University. The Tigers are a member of ECAC Hockey. They play at the Hobey Baker Memorial Rink in Princeton, New Jersey. In 1999, future NHL player Jeff Halpern scored 22 goals to tie for the most goals in the ECAC and was co-winner of Princeton's Roper Trophy for athletic and academic achievement. In 2010–11, Andrew Calof was ECAC Rookie of the Year.
The American International Yellow Jackets men's ice hockey team is a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I college ice hockey program that represents the American International College. The Yellow Jackets are a member of Atlantic Hockey. They play at the MassMutual Center in Springfield, Massachusetts.
NCAA Division III women's ice hockey is a college ice hockey competition governed by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) as part of the NCAA Division III. Sixty-seven teams competed in NCAA Division III women’s hockey across eight conferences in the 2019–20 season.
The Bridgewater State Bears are composed of 22 varsity teams representing Bridgewater State University in intercollegiate athletics. All teams compete at the NCAA Division III level and all teams compete in the Massachusetts State Collegiate Athletic Conference (MASCAC), except for field hockey, tennis and swimming & diving which plays in the Little East Conference (LEC).
ECAC 2 was an intercollegiate athletic conference affiliated with the NCAA's College Division. The league was created as a way to fairly divide the upper- and lower-class programs that had been members of ECAC Hockey. In 1984 the conference was split in two, creating ECAC East and ECAC West as completely independent leagues.
The 1967–68 NCAA College Division men's ice hockey season began in November 1967 and concluded in March of the following year. This was the 4th season of second-tier college ice hockey.
The 1977–78 NCAA Division II men's ice hockey season began in November 1977 and concluded on March 18 of the following year. This was the 14th season of second-tier college ice hockey.
The WCHL Tournament was an ice hockey tournament for the Worcester Collegiate Hockey League hosted from 1967 to 1972.
The Middlebury Panthers men's ice hockey team represents Middlebury College in men’s hockey and has done so since 1922. The Panthers currently play at the Division III and have won the most championships (8) of any D-III program. For a time the team did play along with top-level programs but when men's ice hockey divided into separate tiers in the mid-1960s Middlebury left the upper echelon.
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