The origins of ice hockey can be traced back to the stick and ball games played back in the day Middle Ages or even ancient Greece And Egypt. Some believe that this game evolved from the ancient Irish game of hurling. But the beginnings of ice hockey, like those of many other sports, remain obscure.
“There’s a painting from the 1500s of people playing on ice that looks like hockey,” says museum curator Phil Pritchard. Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto. “They even had sticks.”
Perhaps the closest ancestor of this modern sport is “chamiare”, or shinty, a stick and ball game played on ice in the early 1600s in Scotland. In the mid-1700s, a game called bandy was played on ice in the eastern plains of England. In winter, players competed with iron skates on ice formed on flooded meadows and elsewhere. This game spread to London, then in the 1850s to eastern Canada, where it was played by British soldiers. At 19th century, the Native Americans of Canada played a similar game.
Where does the name “Hockey” come from?
River scene in winterwith skaters, a horse-drawn sleigh and people playing a version of ice hockey, v. 1660.
The term “hockey” according to the Canadian Encyclopediacan be traced to a 1773 book published in England titled Youth sports and hobbies. But the name may predate this first known reference. A version of the game played on field – field hockey – also evolved during this period.
In Britain, as early as the 1840s, newspapers made reference to ice hockey. A Scottish newspaper in 1842 reported a death during a hockey game involving about 20 participants skating on a canal: “(T)he ice suddenly broke, and several were submerged, but saved, with the exception of an unfortunate boy. »
In 1864, the Prince of Wales played lake hockey with a London skating club. “The game continued with great excitement until 2 p.m.,” reported a London newspaper, “when the prince and the players repaired to the Fishing Temple, where they took part in a sumptuous luncheon.”
In 1949, a Soviet Union magazine claimed that the sport was invented and perfected in Russia in the mid-19th century.th century. But these claims may be dubious.
The first organized hockey game
THE first ice hockey match organized, according to the International Ice Hockey Federation, took place on March 3, 1875 between two teams of nine men each from the Victoria Skating Club of Montreal. But there is evidence that organized games were played at the turn of the century in Canada and the United States, Pritchard says.
In the 1875 game, teams played with a flat block of wood – a cousin of the modern vulcanized rubber puck – “so that it would slide across the ice without lifting, and thus pass among the spectators to their discomfort,” THE Star of Montreal reported. Previously, the game was often played with a wooden or rubber ball.
Added The star about the first game: “The game is like The Crosse in one sense – the block has to pass through flags spaced about 8 feet apart in the same way as the rubber ball – but overall the old country game of shinty gives the best idea of hockey.
By 1899, ice hockey had become popular in the northeastern United States. “(Without any special attempt to reach sports fans, it has grown steadily, counting its enthusiasts in the thousands last winter, whereas two seasons ago they could barely have been counted in the hundreds,” said The report. Montreal Gazette reported interest in the New York area.
Canada becomes the epicenter of ice hockey
The Canadian ice hockey team scored in the final game in which they defeated the United States 6-1 to win the gold medal at the 1924 Olympic Games.
Although ice hockey did not originate in Canada, it has become one of the national sports of the country. At the end of the 19th century, organized leagues formed in Canada, where the rules of the sport evolved, including the size of the net and the number of players on the ice at a time (six per team with a goalie). Canadian rules, including the use of a rubber puck, were eventually adopted worldwide.
In 1920, a Canadian team won the first world hockey championship, organized at the Winter Olympics in Antwerp, Belgium.
In 1917, the National Hockey League shape with four Canadian teams. In 1924, the Boston Bruins became the first American team in the NHL, which expanded several times over the years.
For over 100 years, the NHL has been the most important professional hockey league in the world. The NHL even awards its Eastern Conference champion the Prince of Wales trophy, a nod to this 19thRoyal ice hockey competitor of the last century.
LEARN MORE: “Miracle on Ice”: When the US Olympic Hockey Team Stunned the World
