Official Site of the Kings · Feb 9, 2016
50 Years Ago Today
There was the Original Six.
Then came the Kings.
It all boiled down to a meeting on February 9, 1966, where the NHL’s Board of Governors scanned over their options for the league’s expansion to 12 teams, eventually awarding Jack Kent Cooke a franchise in Los Angeles.
50 YRS AGO TODAY: Expansion era began when Owners-Governors awarded 6 conditional franchises. From meeting minutes: pic.twitter.com/p5gPSdQ4sY
— NHL Public Relations (@PR_NHL) February 9, 2016Cooke, who was the Lakers’ owner at the time and a native Canadian, exclaimed, “I feel like I’m now one echelon above the President of the United States.”