Central Canada Hockey Association (governing body)

For the league that played for the 1896-97 season; please see Central Canada Hockey Association.

The Central Canada Hockey Association was a forerunner of the modern day Ottawa District Hockey Association and Hockey Eastern Ontario.

The organization was founded November 20, 1916 after issues with the Ontario Hockey Association

The roots of Hockey Eastern Ontario date back to the 1890s. In 1890, the Ontario Hockey Association was organized and a senior league was formed. At the same time, the Ottawa City Hockey League was organized. In 1894, the Ottawa Hockey Association, owners of the senior Ottawa Hockey Club and organizer of the OCHL resigned from the OHA over a dispute over the Cosby Cup. Several organizations came and went over the next twenty years, such as the Eastern Ontario Hockey Association, and the Central Canada Hockey Association for teams in Eastern Ontario. Teams also played in leagues with Quebec teams. In 1920, the Ottawa and Valley branch of the Amateur Athletic Union of Canada was formed. It eventually became the Ottawa District Hockey Association.

The Central Canada Amateur Hockey Association, the forerunner to the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association, was founded on December 4, 1914, and gave control of the Ottawa district to its Quebec branch. During the next five years, there were several attempts by Ottawa-based leagues to break out on their own. The Capital Hockey Association and the Ottawa City Hockey League, when not feuding with each other, both asked for independent status within the CCAHA. At its annual meeting on December 14, 1919, in the old Journal Building, the CCAHA attempted to settle the dispute once and for all. But, as one reporter put it, the meeting "failed to clean up the local hockey situation." The CCAHA, under the belief that two leagues could not operate successfully in one region, refused to accept an application from the Capital Hockey Association, instead insisting its member-teams join the Ottawa City League. However, it granted the City League the right to challenge for the Allan Cup, senior hockey's emblem of supremacy. The CCAHA also reasserted Quebec's control over eastern Ontario, but, as a conciliatory geture, gave the Ottawa Amateur Athletic Federation the right to represent Quebec's interests in Ottawa. "(Be it) resolved that the Ottawa Amateur Federation be given control of the amateur hockey in Ottawa and district...and that the Federation be delegated to act as the representative of the Quebec Branch in Ottawa and district," the Ottawa Citizen reported. The arrangement lasted less than a year. On Dec. 11, 1920, Capt. Archibald and W.H. Hutton of Ottawa, accepted the positions of president and secretary-treasurer, respectively, of a new association. The Ottawa Federation had asked for its own branch status within the CAHA, then a part of the Amateur Athletic Union of Canada.