The IHL was formed on December 5, 1945, in a three-hour meeting at the Norton Palmer Hotel in Windsor, Ontario.

Windsor dropped out in 1950, and expansion into the U.S. began again, with Toledo rejoining the league and new teams in Grand Rapids, Michigan (1950), Troy, Ohio, (1951), Cincinnati (1952), Fort Wayne, Indiana (1952), and Milwaukee (1952).

After 11 seasons as a strictly U.S.-based league, the IHL admitted two Canadian teams in 1963, with the Windsor Bulldogs and the return of the Chatham Maroons.

The Canadian Press cited him for turning around the league's financial situation and making it a top-tier development system for future NHL talent.

The IHL also entered markets that had existing NHL teams, such as Chicago, Detroit, and Los Angeles.

[8] A Fall 1994 article in Sports Illustrated praising the IHL and mocking the NHL only fueled the fire.

[10] With the loss of subsidized salaries, high expansion fees (by the end the league was charging as much as $8 million US for new teams), exploding travel costs and the NHL itself moving back into some of its markets, the league's rapid expansion proved a critical strain, and it folded after the 2000–01 season.

Six IHL franchises (the Chicago Wolves, Grand Rapids Griffins, Houston Aeros, Utah Grizzlies, Milwaukee Admirals and Manitoba Moose) were admitted into the AHL as expansion teams for the 2001–02 season.

As well, the Cincinnati Cyclones was readmitted to the East Coast Hockey League, which hosted the team from 1990 to 1992 before it moved to the IHL.