DID YOU KNOW?
The earliest known examples of ice hockey date back to the Middle Ages or perhaps farther to ancient Greece and Egypt. Some people think that it sprang from an older game called hurling that was played in Ireland. However, the roots of ice hockey, like the beginnings of many other sports, are a mystery.
According to Phil Pritchard, who is the historian of the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto, there is a painting from the 1500s that depicts individuals playing a game on ice that seems to be hockey. Even sticks were available to them.
It is possible that “chamiare,” also known as shinty, which was a stick-and-ball game played on ice in Scotland in the early 1600s, is the sport’s most direct progenitor. Around the middle of the 18th century, people on the eastern plains of England played a game called bandy on the ice. During the winter months, participants competed on iron skates on ice that formed on flooded meadows and other surfaces across the area. This game eventually made its way to London, and in the 1850s, British troops stationed in eastern Canada introduced it to the locals there. During the 19th century, Native Canadians played a game that was quite similar to this one.
Why Is It Called Ice Hockey and Where Did It Come From?
According to The Canadian Encyclopedia, the word “ice hockey” first appeared in print in the year 1773 in a book titled Juvenile Sports and Pastimes that was published in England. However, the name could have been in use before this oldest recorded occurrence. During this time period, a variation of the game known as field hockey emerged, which was played on the ground.
There is evidence that hockey was being played on ice in Great Britain as early as the 1840s, according to newspaper articles. In the year 1842, a Scottish newspaper reported on a tragedy that occurred during a game of hockey played on a canal that included around 20 players. The article said, “[T]he ice suddenly broke in, and many were plunged, but saved, except [one] unhappy youngster.”
The Prince of Wales participated in a game of hockey on a lake with a London skating club in the year 1864. According to an account published in a London newspaper, “the game was kept up with great energy until 2 o’clock,” at which point “the prince and the players adjourned to the Fishing Temple, where they partook in a delicious meal.”
In 1949, a journal published in the Soviet Union made the assertion that the sport was developed and perfected in Russia around the middle of the 19th century. But there is reason to doubt their assertions.
The First Ever Organized Game of Hockey
According to the International Ice Hockey Federation, the first organized game of ice hockey was played on March 3, 1875, between two teams of nine men each from Montreal’s Victoria Skating Club. The game was played on a rink that had been flooded with ice. Pritchard asserts that there is evidence that organized games were played in Canada and the United States earlier in this century.
“So that it should glide over the ice without rising, and therefore moving among spectators to their annoyance,” the Montreal Star stated that the teams used a flat, wooden block to play the 1875 game, which was a relative of the present puck composed of vulcanized rubber. In the past, the game was often played with a ball made of either rubber or wood.
The Star commented on the inaugural game by saying, “The game is like Lacrosse in one sense—the block needing to travel through flags put about 8 feet apart in the same fashion as the rubber ball—but in the main, the ancient rural game of shinty offers the greatest concept of hockey.”
In 1899, ice hockey had already achieved widespread popularity in the northeastern United States. According to a report by the Montreal Gazette, the level of interest in the New York City area has increased steadily “[w]ithout any special attempt to reach the sport-loving element, it has advanced steadily, numbering its enthusiasts by thousands last winter, where two seasons ago they could almost certainly have been counted by hundreds.”
Canada Has Become the Ice Hockey Capital of the World
Despite the fact that ice hockey was not invented in Canada, the sport eventually became one of the country’s national sports. Late in the 19th century, organized organizations began to emerge in Canada. These leagues were responsible for the development of the sport’s regulations, including the dimensions of the net and the number of players allowed on the ice at any one time (six per team with a goaltender). Over time, the rest of the globe came to follow the regulations established in Canada, which included the use of a rubber puck.
At the first ever Ice Hockey World Championship, which took place at the 1920 Winter Olympics in Antwerp, Belgium, a team from Canada emerged victorious.
In 1917, four Canadian clubs participated in the founding of the National Hockey League. It wasn’t until 1924 that the National Hockey League (NHL) welcomed its first American club, the Boston Bruins. Since then, the league has grown significantly.
The National Hockey League (NHL) has maintained its position as the premier professional ice hockey league in the world for more than a century. The National Hockey League (NHL) even has a trophy named for a prince who competed in ice hockey in the 19th century and is given to the winner of the Eastern Conference.
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