Images of Sports In the rich professional sports history of Cleveland, only baseball has existed longer than ice hockey. When the International Hockey Leagues Cleveland Indians took the ice in 1929, it began a storied professional hockey history that includes one of the most successful American Hockey League teams ever, the Cleveland Barons, who won nine Calder Cup championships in fewer than 40 seasons. In the 1970s, Cleveland was also briefly home to the World Hockey Associations Crusaders and the National Hockey Leagues Barons. The current Lake Erie Monsters continue the hockey tradition in northeast Ohio as the areas sixth professional team, spanning 10 decades and four different arenas.