NIHF was founded September 18, 1934 and has been a member of the International Ice Hockey Federation since January 20, 1935.
The first President of the NIHF was Rolf Gjertsen from the club Trygg. The first vice president was Ludvig Christiansen, also from Trygg. The ten teams that founded the NIHF were: Forward, Furuset, Gjøa, Hasle, Holmen, Strong, Trygg, NTHI, Trond and Trondheim.
The inaugural game was played at Furuset Stadion on January 4, 1935 between Gjøa and Furuset. Gjøa won 5–0. The referee was Johan Narvestad.
Norway has yet to win a medal during its twelve appearances at the Olympic games. Their best result was in 1972 when they finished in 8th place.
In the 1980 Winter Olympics, the team competed in the top division for the first time since 1952. They lost their first four games of the tournament to Czechoslovakia (11-0), West Germany (10-4), USA (5-1) and Sweden (7-1), and then came from behind to tie Romania (3-3) for a point in the standings.
Today, Norway competes in the top tier for the World Championships.
