Today’s hockey is known through big stars such as Sidney Crosby who started his career at 18 years old, and today at the age of 23, has been to Lord Stanley’s cup twice returning with a championship ring on his finger; but what most people don’t know is it all started 4000 years ago in early Rome, Egypt, and Scotland villages with a very different name, Ball and Stick. Ball and Stick, or Hockey, did not start as a well organized family outing as it is today, and you were never served popcorn and a coke. Hockey of yesterdays used to be a brutal village sport.
In early England, Ball and Stick used to be played against other villages to proclaim their manhood and pride. The teams would comprise of 100+ players and the games would last for weeks on end. The fields would consist of dirt or grass where today’s “ice” rink was not thought of yet. Ice Hockey was not in the works till the year 1875 and was the brain child of J G Creighton. In Ball and Stick injures were so prevalent and severe that rules had to be written in order to keep the players and bystanders “safe”, giving birth to today’s field hockey.
In 1875 at Eton College of England a rule book was in the works for the newly founded sport of Hockey; latter adopted by J G Creighton for ice hockey; the rules were that no more than 30 players could consist of the team. Also giving the Authority to enforce all rules to a third party figure (Referee) to make vital calls and make the game run smoothly and safely. In the year 1875 the Game of Ice Hockey was also invented. They took to the ice on frozen lakes and ponds, there was no need for the “ice rink” in the frozen countries of Greenland, Scotland, and Russia. However as the sport moved to North America and Canada, ice would melt as temperatures increased in the summer and thus the search for a indoor ice rink that wouldn’t melt on hot days was on. They found it in the form of a curling rink. Although they had to make a few adjustments to make the rink playable for hockey, but the basic idea was adopted and the Hockey Rink was born.
During early Hockey games the equipment was primitive and very unreliable. They used a long stick to hit a ball down the field or rink. In the late 1800’s the first hockey stick was invented with a flat blade for a hitting surface on the end of shaft, making hitting the ball a lot easier taking the game to a all new level of competition. Also in that time the ball then became a flat round disc known today as the “puck”. The puck was invented to try and keep the ball on the ice, increase the drag on the ice to give the player better control of the puck, and to reduce the amount of “Bounce” the old ball had. Also in today’s hockey pads and helmets are a huge part of player safety, however they were not used until the 1970’s and not enforced by the National Hockey League until 1980 after a fatal accident where the NHL lost the life of a critical player.
During the birth of Hockey, the masterminds of the first hockey teams were thinking of a way to enforce and uphold the rules of Hockey and to keep track of all up and coming National teams. The National Hockey Association was the first group to do just that. It was founded in 1909 but was very quickly replaced by the NHL or National Hockey League in 1917 in the town of Quebec. Their first order of business was to establish a Competition that all hockey teams registered to the NHL database could compete for and become the top team in the “world” (really just the USA and Canada), so they then changed the old tournament called The Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup (established in 1875) to the Stanley cup challenge(1947). They got the Name “Stanley” from the first governor of Canada, Lord Stanley of Preston (1888), who was appointed by the Queen of England, who latter donated money to begin one of Canada’s first Hockey teams.
Hockey like some other sports today have “farm” teams or The American Hockey League (AHL) affiliates. These “farm” teams didn’t begin forming until the late 1930’s when hockey became more well known around the United States as an entertaining and fast paced sport. The first AHL team(Buffalo Bisons) popped up as the primary affiliate of the Montreal Canadiens in 1936, which was one of 8 starter teams. Today the AHL consists of 31 teams and have produced many a Hockey “great” to their respective NHL teams.
Ice hockey was only played in select villages in Europe and Africa. Today the game of hockey is played around the world in most all countries. The challenge of skating on ice, the fiery competition, and the excitement of the game have made hockey a rapidly growing sport in the United States and over the past few years became a highly watched sport thanks to the Winter Olympics. The NHL started out with 8 teams and playing for the glory of the win, where now days hockey is viewed as a career and played for the pride and for a salary. In 2009 The NHL has recorded 31 teams in the running for the stanley cup in the 2009-2010 season including the defending Stanley Cup Champions, the Chicago Blackhawks.
Whether you like fierce competition, rough hits, or the colorful history of a sport, hockey today is a rapidly improving and fast paced sport that began as a traditional tribal right of passage and today becoming one of Canada's national past times. At hockey games you will find a round aerodynamic puck, sleek fiberglass hockey sticks, body pads, and face masks,when hockey was not always high tech. History teaches us how a sport got its roots and explains the tradition and customs of the sport.
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