The ECHL started out modestly as a 5-team loop in 1988 when three of the more talented teams of the weak All-American Hockey League decided to jump ship and try to create yet another version of East Coast hockey.

The league capitalized on the growing interest in hockey in the US and expanded rapidly adding new teams every year. By 1993, it had remarkably grown into a 19-team league.

The league took a breather in 1994, the only year it has not added an expansion team. However, the following season it was back at it adding another three new teams and welcoming back the idled Louisville franchise who relocated to Jacksonville.

Not only was the ECHL growing, it was gaining credibility and was establishing working relationships with NHL teams. Today, most of the franchises have some lose affiliation with an NHL club.

Despite seeing the end of the rapid expansion era in hockey in the US, the ECHL continues to defy the odds and in general grow. While it has lost a few weak franchises, it has gained more than it has lost and is now the second largest league in professional hockey at 29 teams and should exceed the size of the NHL in the near future with it's adsorption of the WCHL in 2003.

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