history of hockey
History Of Hockey For more than a century, hockey historians have found that precisely tracing the sports origin is not only a difficult task but, a virtual impossibility. Therefore I can only try to deduce for myself, from the records, claims, and accounts, which are available to me, when, where, and by whom the first ice hockey was played. ... Ice hockey is traceable to games played on fields as far back as nearly 2500 years ago. In 478 BC, a Greek soldier, Hemostocoles, built a wall in Athens which contained a sculpture scene portraying two athletes in a faceoff-like stance holding sticks similar to those later used in field hockey. (Hubbard & Fischler, page17) Perhaps native Americans were the first to play hockey like games. ... (Hubbard & Fischler, page18-19) Early hockey-like games that came from across the Atlantic include the Field game Hurley from Ireland, field hockey from England, and the ice games English bandy and Kolven from Holland. ... A flat field hockey-like stick and a large ball were used. ... (Dolan page 21-26) Field hockey was played in 1870 in England, as well as Egypt and India. Although the rules for field hockey play a major role in the early evolution of ice hockey in Canada. But most students of the game doubt that field hockey was the forerunner of ice hockey, for the reason that both sports started around the same time. Despite its overwhelming popularity as primarily a womans sport in North America, field hockey didnt arrive in America until 1901, (when Miss Constance Applebee of England arrived at Harvard summer school and organized a game with the group of students and teachers. (Dolan page 29-31) The English played a game called Bandy, which is a hockey-like game, who have been playing it as far back as the late 18th century and it is still played today in Russia, Sweden, Norway, Finland, and the United States (Minnesota). Many of the stars of the early Soviet hockey teams had been Bandy players. ... Another hockey-like game played on both sides of the Atlantic was shinny. ... Ever since the advent of organized ice hockey, the name shinny has been used to describe on organized will or sandlot (if you will) hockey. There is an ongoing debate among hockey historians as to whether or not some of the first hockey ever played claims where actually ice hockey or instead, one of hockey-like games like shinny. The committee appointed of the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association Concluded that the first hockey was played in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1855, by the royal Canadian rifles, an imperial army unit stationed at Kingston. ... Apart from shinny, the precursor to ice hockey in the United States was ice polo, a purely American creation that was derived from the indoor sport of roller polo. ... By the turn of the century, ice hockey had replaced ice polo in the U. ... (Fischler page 47) The first organized indoor ice hockey game supposedly took place in Canada on March 30, 1875. ... Creighton of or post ice hockey to instead and ordered sticks to be shipped from Halifax to Montreal for the event.