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Evolution of Hockey
No major professional sport in North America produces more confusion about its origins than ice hockey. The forerunner of hockey could be any number of ball-and-stick games from countries all over the world. The French, for instance, played a game with a curved shepherd's hook than was known as a hoquet, possibly a predecessor to the word hockey.
Some historians consider ice hockey a descendent of an old European pastime know as bandy. Bandy, like lacrosse, is a game traced back to North American Indians. Each time a brave was hit he would say "Hoghee!" which meant "Ouch!" Some claim the word hockey came from that exclamation.
Others believe the game is an ice version of hurling, a wild Irish game with loose rules and injuries galore. Hurling, dating back centuries, was played with a brass ball, a stone, or a cow patty, and members of the losing team were often executed.
Ice hockey may also be an offshoot of field hockey. Some form of the sport was known in Athens at least 500 years B.C. In 1922, archeologists uncovered a relief than depicts six young men holding sticks in what is unmistakably a hockey-like game. Two of the men are crouching in what seems to be face-off positions.
In addition to its roots in ball-and-stick games, the history of ice hockey is intertwined with the history of ice-skating. Dating back 20 centuries, ice-skating probably started in the Scandinavian countries as a by-product of skiing, which is even older. The first skates were made from the shank or rib bone of elks, oxen, reindeer, and other animals long before the discovery of iron.
Although the origins of ice hockey are uncertain, one verified fact is that it was developed and popularized in Canada. An informal ice game called shinny was played in Canada as recently as the 1830's. It was named shinny because the players had a habit of hitting each other on the shins. Shinny is the most direct ancestor of today's ice hockey.
As ice hockey gained popularity in Canada, universities began to form teams. McGill University in Montreal developed the puck along with many other facets of modern ice hockey. It is said that one day in the late 1870's, a player, sick of chasing the rubber ball hundreds of yards beyond the playing area, cut the ball into two flat surfaces; thus, the puck was created. With teams and official rules, ice hockey was starting to shape into the sport we know today. The rest, of course, is legendary.
Click here for links to our professional Canadian ice hockey teams.
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