London Lions

The London Lions based out of London, England was an independent professional ice hockey team that played 72 games during the 1973-74 season against the top European hockey teams. It was started by Detroit Red Wings owner Bruce Norris with a vision of building a league to be affiliated with the National Hockey League. Norris' Vice-Chairman of the team was John Ziegler who went on to become President of the National Hockey League in 1977.

The Lions played their home games at Wembley Arena and had a record of 52 wins, 13 losses and 7 ties. They toured Europe to promote the proposed European professional hockey league originally scheduled to start for the 1974-75 season. The original plans for this new league was to have the top teams participate in the Stanley Cup playoffs against the traditional North American NHL teams. The league did not gain support and never started play.

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References

#Note|Note1 [http://www.iihf.com/news/iihfpr4905.htm International Ice Hockey Federation mention of London Lions]
# [http://www.angelfire.com/space/u_line/london.htm London Lions page by Mikael Uhlin]