When was hockey started

Windsor, Nova Scotia, even managed to get the Ministry of Transport to put up a highway sign saying it was the birthplace of hockey. Kingston claimed to be the birthplace of hockey. Halifax, Deline — in the Northwest Territories — all these places claimed hockey. Everybody in Canada has a claim to hockey, and you can find one, or two, or perhaps three references supporting each claim.

But then you look at England, and all of a sudden there are hundreds and hundreds of references to hockey being played all over the country — some dating back as far as the s. It took place at Victoria Skating Rink on March 3, , with two teams of nine players each. James Creighton organized the game and even captained one of the teams. While it is documented as the first indoor organized game of hockey in Canada, all signs point to Europe as the birth place of the beloved game — controversial or not.

Along with Martel, who is a full-time computer analyst, Swedes Carl Giden a physician and Patrick Houda a journalist joined Martel in uncovering the truth about who invented hockey. As mentioned, their research reveals the possibility that the first game could date back as far as the s in Britain. It may also settle the old controversy as to whether Halifax or Montreal was the birthplace of the game. Hockey on ice had been second nature with Maritimes, records show, long, it seems before the game became common in centralist communities.

The Indian game was languidly taken up here; typically tried on skates. Misstatements by Central magazines and broadcasts are quite common but unfortunately there is a tendency to refuse to make corrections. In fact, you can verify that for years, and after, that thousands of pairs of skates and hundreds of bundles of Indian-made hockey sticks were regularly shipped from Dartmouth, Halifax, and Saint John to sporting goods houses in New England, Montreal, and Toronto for local distribution.

Mainly because ice sports in these regions were relatively in infancy, so to speak, and manufacturing had been long overlooked. Hockey or Hurley did not start in the Maritimes at Confederation, but long before. They brought together players from two areas of Canada, Halifax and Montreal, where hockey originated and developed, and also from the two centres where it first spread, Quebec and Ottawa, and produced dedicated players who were dispersed to other non-playing centres throughout North America.

Commenting on the C. That in no way gives McGill a right to a claim, for McGill had neither a team nor an ice rink at the time. When Orlich claimed that Ice Hockey started in Montreal in , he may not have realized that it had been played in Nova Scotia for decades before that time. In the background, figures skate and play games on the ice. Wikimedia Commons. Some people have mistaken the game depicted here as an early version of ice hockey. Cropped from original image.

Previous Next. That year, the British royal family returned from exile in the Netherlands, bringing a passion for skating back with them. Before long, bandy was adapted for playing with ice skates. According to historian Charles Goodman Tebbutt, people were probably playing bandy on ice since the mids in the Fens. But it was not until the great frost of —14 that tradition gives place to certainty.

He also spoke to Richard Brown, who had been the umpire of a game between Willingham and Bluntisham-cum-Earith in Bandy was also played on ice in other parts of England at the time. In February , for example, the Chester Chronicle in Chester, England, reported that people were playing bandy on the frozen Dee River.

But what about hockey itself? Whether played on the ground or on ice, the games of hurling, shinny and bandy were usually played with a hard wooden ball, which caused frequent injuries to shins. However, around the midth century, at least in England, balls were starting to be replaced by cork-bungs barrel plugs.

An engraving printed by Joseph Le Petit in London in shows such a bung being used for ice hockey. This engraving, which was published by Joseph Le Petit Jr. Throughout much of the 19th century, hockey and bandy were considered interchangeable terms. However, hockey appears to have become the more popular term, particularly in the London area.

In the s and early s, field hockey was played at most of the important schools in the London area, including Eton and Harrow the first set of rules for field hockey were likely written at Harrow in Hockey thus became a common activity, on ground and occasionally on ice, and its popularity spread out of London. Several instances of ice hockey are documented in England in the 19th century. In , naturalist Charles Darwin mentioned hockey in a letter to his son, William Erasmus, who was then away at school.

Hockey was also popular amongst the royal family. As the 19th century progressed, and the game of hockey became more popular in England, it also became increasingly organized. Yet in most winters it was possible, at least for a few days, to play hockey or bandy on ice. The activity was very popular in some areas, with newspapers reporting the game results as early as — on Saturday, 5 February of that year, the Huntingdon Bedford and Peterborough Gazette reported a bandy game between Colne and Bluntisham, which the former team won.

Then, on 3 February , teams from Swavesey and Over met on Mare Fen for a game of bandy as well as some skating races. The exact score is not known, but the local newspaper reported that Swavesey won and listed the names of all the players, eleven per side.

This indicates a high level of formality in the organization of the game in England by at least the early s. By that time, at least two books had been published containing instructions for playing bandy or hockey — the two terms being considered interchangeable at the time — and indicating that it could be played on ice with skates. As in the earlier edition, hockey was still enthusiastically promoted as a winter sport to be practiced with ice skates.

These books clearly predate the rules published by the Montreal Gazette in and should therefore be considered the first sets of rules for ice hockey.

The HA oversaw the practice of field hockey , but its rules were also used in England for ice hockey until , when the National Skating Association published its own set. Joseph Woll did enough to help his team regroup as the Toronto Maple Leafs scored late in regulation to defeat the Buffalo Sabres.

Whether it be bounce-back campaigns by goaltenders, rookies starting to shine through or veterans providing a good value, it was another interesting week in the world of fantasy hockey. Let's take a look at some notables players from the past week:.