UHL (University Hockey league) is an initiative to create a Swedish equivalent to the IVY-league in the USA. IVY League, that consists of the eight greatest and oldest universities in the USA, got their name from ivy – the plant that coincidentally also grows on the walls of KTH buildings.
The thought is to stimulate the interest of sports and university studies simultaneously, by offering good athletes the chance to keep going with their sport on an elite level as they study. In the start, this league will feature the greater universities of Sweden and only focus on hockey, but the intention is to let it grow into other sports and universities as well.
For latest updates and standings in the league, follow the link below, or the Instagram account @UHL_Sweden :
History
UHL – university Hockey League- is a Swedish university ice hockey league that hold Swedish university championship status (Sveriges akademiska idrottsförbund) and is a part of Universitetsligan AB.
It has been played university ice hockey in Sweden since the 1940s, the eldest team is Chalmers McRangers with ancestry from 1942, but it took until 2011 before Sweden had a real university ice hockey league, UHL. The KTH student Joachim Ronneback Thomson and KTH Hockey founder took the initiative and created the UHL. During its first season, the league only consisted of two teams, KTH from Stockholm and Chalmers from Gothenburg. The final game of the first UHL season ended with a home team victory with a sold-out Danicahallen (453 people) on Östemalms IP in Stockholm. The game ended with 10-0 to KTH Hockey and the historical first goal was made by KTH student Adam Tvinghagen.
The second season of UHL, season 12/13, two more teams joined the league; Lund University and Högskolan Jönköping. This two teams together with KTH and Chalmers remained the only four teams that were a part of UHL before season 17/18 when several other universities show interest to join the league.
The most talented players of UHL is selected to represent Sweden in the annual Winter Universiade, that is held every other year. The Winter Universiade is organized by the International University Sports Federation (FISU).
The most recent editions were staged 2013 in Trentino, 2015 in Granda, Spain, 2017 in Almaty, Kazakhstan and 2019 in Krasnoyarsk, Russia. Click on the following link to access the statistical coverage: Universiade Main Results.
The next allocated events will take place in 2023 in Lake Placid, USA.
Universiade 2013 in Trentino, Sweden vs USA.
The winning university of UHL gets all players unscripted into the challenge trophy that consists of a whiskey barrel from the Swedish whiskey brand Mackmyra.
Winners of the UHL championship:
2011/12: KTH
2012/13: KTH
2013/14: KTH
2014/15: Lund University
2015/16: Chalmers
2016/17: KTH
2017/18: KTH
2018/19: KTH
2019/20: No winner, as the season was cut short due to the Covid-19 Pandemic.
2020/21: No winner, as the season was cancelled due to the Covid-19 Pandemic.
2021/22: No winner, as the post-pandemic rush limited the options for game-planning, and booking.
2022/23: Back to normal, and undergoing!