[3] That season, the team helped to form the first informal conference, the Intercollegiate Hockey Association, and wound up winning the league championship.

While there was no formal declaration at the time, Brown's title is sometimes referred to as the first ice hockey national championship.

Brown nearly repeated the feat three years later but ultimately fell to Yale in the first two playoff games ever contested for college ice hockey.

Though James Gardner only lasted one season behind the bench the team performed much better with a hand at the tiller and quickly built up to be a respected program.

Brown's team remained out of commission for the entire duration of the war and didn't return until several years after its conclusion, finally hitting the ice again in 1947.

Though they ultimately fell in the title game, Brown had become one of the better teams in college hockey and, excluding a brief period in the early '60s, would remain so for the next 30 years.

When the 1980s rolled around the Bears results started turning sour and Brown found itself looking up at the rest of college hockey.