In 1903 George L. "Jack" Gibson, a dentist in Houghton, Michigan, organized the International Hockey League, the world's first professional hockey organization. His team, the Portage Lakers, won the league championship from 1904 to 1907. In their first year the Portage Lakers won twenty-four of twenty-six games. Considered to be one of history's greatest hockey teams, the Portage Lakers challenged Stanley Cup winners, the Ottawa Silver Seven in 1905 and the Montreal Wanderers in 1906, to championship series, but both Canadian teams refused to contest the American club from the coal fields of northern Michigan.

Source:

Dan Diamond and Joseph Romain, Hockey Hall of Fame: The Official History of the Game and Its Greatest Stars (New York: Doubleday, 1988).