Providence, RI; The RI Hall of Fame has announced that separate legislation has passed both the RI Senate and House of Representatives to create and distribute an automobile license plate, as part of the State’s Charity License Plate program. The uniquely designed plate has subsequently been given approval for use by the RI Division of Motor Vehicles and RI State Police authorities. Pre-orders for the plates will commence in September, 2026 and will be available after 600 plates have been ordered.
The plates help celebrate and underscore Rhode Island’s place in history as the “Cradle of U.S. Hockey”. Research by the RI Hockey Hall of Fame and others place the dawning of ice hockey in the United States back to the Ocean State in the late 1800s.
The widely acknowledged “Father” of ice hockey in the United States, Malcom Greene Chace, was born and raised in Central Falls, RI. His “All Americans” barnstormed seven Canada cities in 1894 with exhibitions of their game of ice polo while learning the rudiments of ice hockey from their hosts. They returned to college with sticks and pucks in hand and dispersed, creating club teams at Brown, Yale, Harvard, Columbia and Cornell. The rest is Rhode Island and US history.
Among the many “firsts” the state can take claim to is the first official Intercollegiate Hockey League game played in the nation, which was won by Brown University over Harvard, 6-0, on January 18, 1898 and, in 1902, the RI Interscholastic League welcomed a seven-team hockey league, the oldest in the nation, into its fold. And, in 1964, Pembroke College, the coordinate women’s college at Brown, established the Pandas, the nation’s very first women’s intercollegiate hockey team.
Since the turn of the last century, Rhode Island has been a non-stop producer of world-class hockey programs, players and administrators, many of whom are enshrined in the RI Hockey Hall of Fame and other Halls of Fame throughout North America. From the National Hockey League and the Olympic stage to the NCAA and interscholastic programs, the smallest state in the country continues to have a major impact on the growth of the sport’s popularity, performance and diversity.
Founding Chair of the Hall of Fame, Vin Cimini, stated, “This is an extremely exciting moment in the short history of the RI Hockey Hall of Fame. Our state has a proud and historic relationship with hockey, and now all Rhode Island hockey fans can share their passion for the game we all love by acquiring one of our new plates. Rhode Island is the ‘Cradle of U.S. Hockey’, and we look forward to having that proudly celebrated on roadways across America.”