History - Why the Change? (Hamilton Huskies)

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PrintHistory - Why the Change?

The origin of the HUSKIES name dates back to when the Hamilton Minor Hockey Association (HMHA) was founded in 1971.
The founding members of the organization were Ken Evans, Ted Steenhof and Harry Fotheringham.
The charter for the organization was officially issued in 1973 and the original charter members were:

                K.J. Evans                            M. Baiton                           A.R. Leslie                          G.E. Young
                W.I. Mahoney                      R.W. Nichols                      P.W. Griffin                        M.J. Griffin
                                          D.W. Wales                                                                  T.W. Ribble 

 Past Presidents of the Hamilton Minor Hockey Association include:

                 1971-72  K.J. Evans                                                          1973-74  M. Baiton

                 1975-76  W.H. Nichols                                                     1977-78  G.E. Young

                 1978        B.J. Fritz                                                            1978-79  S.P. Dickinson

                 1979-81  Peter Jones                                                         1981-83  Ron Franceschini

                 1983-85  George Brohman                                                1985        Peter Jones

                 1986-88  Alice Perniac

    The Hamilton Minor Hockey Association joined the Hamilton Minor Hockey Council upon its formation in 1988. The Hockey Council was formed to create one umbrella for all minor hockey in the City of Hamilton. It was at this time that the Hub Tier was formed and the Huskies became the Representative Tier. The Huskies responsibilities with the newly formed Hockey Council were to continue to manage AAA and AA/A hockey in the City of Hamilton. The AA/A Tier Vice President at the time was Tim Morrison and the AAA Tier Vice President was Keith MacPherson.

    A few years later following the 1990-91 season an idea surfaced that the Rep Tier needed a change in identity thus the renaming of the Huskies to the Hamilton Reps. Prior to this change the AAA teams had maintained the Huskies name and for a while the AA teams had adopted the Hamilton Wings name.  This rebranding was never universally accepted and has always been quietly second guessed. The name change was questioned on the road as much as it was at home. Away at tournaments we would always hear “What happened to the Huskies”? At home people would ask “What is a Rep?” They would say Rep is a tier, not a team or a player.

    We began to hear this more and more over the last few years as many Huskies Alumni now have children playing in the system or are joining the coaching ranks. The idea gathered a lot of support lately and whenever there was discussion on the issue no one could offer any sound rationale as to why the change originally took place.  After deciding to go back to our roots and give the players and organization a more meaningful identity a new logo was designed and plans to implement the change between seasons in conjunction with our transitioning to a new Web Site Host were made.

    We hope that all will be pleased with these changes after giving it some time. The colors have remained the same as red and white were the original Huskies colors and blue was added with the Reps name and should be the part of the Reps era that remains. This will also minimize the cost for all as there will be no need to change equipment and outerwear only needs to be replaced as it wears out or at your discretion.

    Please navigate to the Home Page of the Hamilton Huskies and reset your bookmark / favorites as previous domain  hamiltonreps.ca will eventually be turned off.

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