History of Ice Hockey

Until the mid-1980s it was usually accepted that ice hockey was derived from English field hockey and Indian lacrosse and was spread throughout Canada by British soldiers in the mid-1800s. Research then turned up a mention of a hockey very similar to hockey, played in the early 1800s in Nova Scotia by the Micmac Indians, it appeared to have been mainly influenced by the Irish game of hurling; it included the use of a "hurley" (stick) and a square wooden block instead of a ball.

It was most likely that this game then spread throughout Canada via Scottish and Irish immigrants and the British army. The players adopted elements of field hockey, such as the "bully" (later the face-off) and "shinning" (hitting your opponent on the shins with the stick or playing with the stick on one "shin" or side); this later evolved into an informal ice game later known as shinny or shinty. The name hockey--as the organized game came to be known--has been attributed to the French word hoquet (shepherd's stick).

HISTORICAL FACTS ABOUT ICE HOCKEY

The term rink, referring to the playing area, was originally used in the game of curling in 18th-century Scotland. Early hockey games allowed as many as thirty players a side on the ice at any one time, and the goals were two stones, each frozen into one end of the ice. The first use of a puck instead of a ball was recorded at Kingston Harbour, Ont., in 1860

Rules were set by students at McGill University in Montréal, Canada, in 1879, and several amateur clubs and leagues were established in Canada by the late 1880´s. The game is believed to have been 1st played in the United States in 1893. By the beginning of the twentieth century the sport had spread to the UK and other parts of Europe. The modern game developed in Canada, and is now very popular in the USA and Eastern Europe.

The National Hockey League [NHL] is the most important league in the world; it comprises teams from the USA and Canada, but for many years almost all NHL players were Canadians. The winning team of this competition is awarded the Stanley Cup trophy. Ice Hockey was added to the Olympic Games in 1920, being one of the most popular events at the Winter Olympics.