About The Founder

Jay Jarvis grew up on New York’s Long Island in the 1960’s and early 1970’s. His first exposure to professional hockey was at the old Long Island Arena in Commack, about a twenty-minute drive from his home in St. James. The Eastern Hockey League’s Long Island Ducks played in the 4,000 seat Quonset hut shaped building from 1959 until 1973, followed by the NAHL Long Island Cougars for two seasons. It was during this time that Jay began to play ice hockey on frozen ponds when weather permitted and street hockey whenever and wherever the opportunity presented itself. Jay became a fan of the New York Rangers and Eddie Giacomin became his favorite player. When his high school (St. Anthony’s) fielded it’s first team in 1971, Jay played for the fledgling team, although only as a defenseman as the team already had two very capable goalkeepers. While St. Anthony’s was not the powerhouse it is today in high school hockey, Jay has fond memories of his time on the ice playing against standouts like Rich Campisi who later played at Providence College and Val James, who went on to play professional hockey in both the AHL and NHL.

After relocating to Georgia in 1975, Jay became a fan of both the Atlanta Flames and Atlanta Knights, who won the IHL Turner Cup in 1994. Witnessing the championship game followed by a chance meeting with Knights goaltender Mike Greenlay gave Jay the desire to take up the sport again, this time as a goaltender in the Atlanta Amateur Hockey League. After two seasons in the AAHL, and driving up to two hours from Macon to Atlanta for games, the CHL awarded Macon a franchise to begin play in the 1996-97 season. Jay and friend Marty Smith founded the Amateur Hockey Association of Central Georgia. Jay played one season before a job transfer took him to northwest Georgia, where he continued playing for a men’s league team in Atlanta. He retired from playing following the 2001 summer league season.

Since 2010, Jay began collecting hockey jerseys and other memorabilia from Georgia pro teams. That interest intensified after he retired from state government, gradually making connections within the collector community and acquiring more items. Inspired by a fellow collector, Carl Phinney, who started the Texas Hockey Museum, Jay created the Georgia Hockey Museum, an online webpage that seeks to preserve the history of professional hockey in Georgia. The website now features a section dedicated to collegiate hockey programs in Georgia, and hopes to add a Georgia Hockey Hall of Fame in the near future.