Thanks to my roommate, I've become something of a NY Rangers fan. Granted, I'm not the worlds biggest hockey fan, but I'm growing to love it more and more. Most of my hockey experiences growing up were watching the Seattle Thunderbirds, who oddly enough seemed to be perpetually playing the Kelowna Rockets. Western Hockey League games can be a little underwhelming.
Mike and I have often wondered about Seattle's lack of an NHL team. It seems to make more sense than, say, Carolina, Tampa Bay or Phoenix. But for whatever reason Seattle has never had a professional hockey team.
Or at least that's what I thought.
Today as I was reading several articles about how Clay Bennett is a big douche (I hate to use that word, but it really is the only one that accurately describes the man), I came across this one and learned something that I'd never learned in an entire childhood of Seattle sports fandom: Seattle had a "pro" hockey team. That's right, from 1914 to 1924 the Seattle Metropolitans represented my fair home town in the Pacific Coast Hockey Association. Now, if you haven't heard of this league, well, you're not the only one. But as it turns out, the PCHA was good enough to begin competing in 1915 with the National Hockey Association (the precursor to the NHL) for the Stanley Cup. And to make a long story short (yeah, probably too late for that), in 1917, the Seattle Metropolitans became the first American team to win the Stanley Cup. Bet you didn't know that! Eventually, in 1924 the team folded, and a year later so did the PCHA.
So why is it that I've never heard this before? Why is it that all during my growing up years I never once heard anything but "Seattle's only won 1 major league sports title"? Clearly, we've won two. 8 if you want to count the 6 championships that the Seattle Rainiers won before the NL expanded to California in 1958 and essentially put an end to the PCL.
What's that you say? We have a WNBA championship too? News to me.
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