While hockey has been a well-established fixture in
Hershey for two-thirds of a century, not one game would
have likely ever been played here without the vision
of two most remarkable men. Milton S. Hershey and his
long time chief entertainment and amusements man, John
B. Sollenberger. Both men were known for being willing
to take a risk when they believed in something. And
both believed that ice hockey could and would-be a
success in Hershey. Seven-decades later their prescience
continues to prove itself over and over again as a
quarter-of-a-million hockey fans regularly enter Giant
Center every year to watch the Bears play AHL hockey.
The sport of ice hockey came to Hershey, Pennsylvania
during the depths of the Depression in 1931. The first
game was played on February 18, 1931, when Penn A.
C. faced off against Villanova in the Convention Hall/Ice
Palace. The first team to officially call Hershey its
home was the Swathmore A.C., playing in the 1931-32
season. They continually played before sellout crowds.
Milton S. Hershey and John B. Sollenberger then determined
that hockey was here to stay. The Hershey Hockey Club
was named the HERSHEY B'ARS and team colors were maroon
and silver, just like the famous Hershey Bar. The following
season, the HERSHEY B'ars joined the Amateur Hockey
League and played regularly scheduled games against
teams from Baltimore, Atlantic City and Philadelphia.
Hershey had its own club as a member of the newly formed
Tri-State League, and competed against teams from Baltimore,
Atlantic City and Philadelphia. Atlantic City won the
championship that season, and went on to win the national
championship. In 1938, the BEARS officially joined
the American Hockey League and have remained a fixture
in the AHL for 70 consecutive seasons. At the start
of the 1936 season, the B'ars were officially renamed
the Hershey Bears because the New York sportswriters
and the Eastern Amateur League felt the name HERSHEY
B'ars was too commercial. The name the "BEARS" originated
from being referred to as "the Bears from Penn's
Woods" when the team played at Madison Square
Garden. The BEARS were also the first, on December
19, 1936; to skate onto the ice of newly built Hershey
Sports Arena, now referred to as HERSHEYPARK Arena.
Since that time, over eight hundred men have proudly
worn the Hershey Bears' sweater. The Hershey
Bears winning tradition started when they clinched
the Eastern Amateur Hockey League championships in 1935-36,
1936-37 and 1937-38 and concluded their last year in
the amateurs by winning the 1937-38 National Amateur
Championship.
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