in 1921, the edmonton eskimos and calgary tigers of the big four league saw their league collapse on allegations of pay for amateurs. together with the regina capitals and saskatoon sheiks the teams organized the openly professional western canada hockey league (wchl). the league was organized under the presidency of e. l. richardson of calgary, with wesley champ of regina, robert pinder of saskatoon, k. c. mackenzie of edmonton, and j. lloyd turner of calgary, becoming the directors. the league, like the national hockey league (nhl), played six-man hockey, without the old 'rover' position. at the time, there was not yet a clear distinction between "major" and "minor" professional leagues in any north american sport other than baseball and the new league was recognized as a comparable league to the existing pacific coast hockey association (pcha). the winner of a series between the champions of the two leagues would go on to face the winner of the nhl for the coveted stanley cup.