The British Columbia Hockey League (BCHL) is a Junior A ice hockey league from British Columbia under Hockey Canada and BC Hockey. Founded in Vernon in 1961, the BCHL now includes 18 teams. From 1993 to 2021, the league was a member of the Canadian Junior Hockey League (CJHL), an association of Junior A leagues across Canada that would play for the National Junior A Championship. The winner of the BCHL playoffs (Fred Page Cup) would continue on to play the Alberta Junior Hockey League champion in the Doyle Cup for the right to then compete in the National Junior A Championship. In 2021, the BCHL left the CJHL. History In 1961, the heads of four junior "B" hockey teams in the Okanagan region of British Columbia got together and formed the first Junior "A" league in British Columbia's history. The Okanagan-Mainline Junior "A" Hockey League (OMJHL) originally consisted of the Kamloops Jr. Rockets, the Kelowna Buckaroos, the Penticton Jr. Vees, and the Vernon Jr. Canadians. In 1967, the league expanded out of the Okanagan region, bringing in the New Westminster Royals and the Victoria Cougars of the original (1962–1967) Pacific Coast Junior Hockey League. With the expansion, the league decided that since it was no longer solely in the Okanagan region that it need a new name, becoming the British Columbia Junior Hockey League (BCJHL). A year later, the Vancouver Centennials joined the league. In the 1970s, the Victoria Cougars jumped to the Western Hockey League and the New Westminster team was forced to fold due to the relocation of the Estevan Bruins into their arena. In 1972, the Bellingham Blazers and the Nanaimo Clippers expanded the league to eight teams. Meanwhile, in the early 1970s, the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association separated the two tiers of Junior A hockey. The BCJHL, being a Tier II league, was then disallowed from competing for the Memorial Cup, which had traditionally been the National Junior A Championship trophy. Consequentially, the Tier II Junior A leagues across Canada agreed to compete for a new trophy called the Centennial Cup. The 1970s also saw the rise of a rival league for the BCJHL, the Pacific Coast Junior Hockey League (PCJHL), which briefly existed in the 1960s, was resurrected by Fred Page for the 1971–72 season. Page had roots in managing junior hockey leagues, and today there are two championship trophies named for him –