The History of Ice Hockey

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Ottawa Hockey Fever… (part 7)

The History of Ice Hockey

Article by jion smith

The earliest records about ice hockey appeared on the publications of Holland in the 17th century describing that the gentlemen slide on the frozen river surface with a round wearing ice shoes tied by the blade made of bones. In the early times of 19th century, there were some records about similar games by Micmac Indians who used the sticks and wood round.

There is another statement that ice hockey dates from the ancient American sports-lacrosse. However, the most well-known and acceptable is that ice hockey evolves from the field hockey which dates from North America with the history of more than 500 years and was introduced by the English soldiers stationing in Canada. In 1855, there was a popular game in Kingston of Canada that the participants chased each other to strike the ball made of wood pieces on the frozen river surface with hockey stick in hands and wearing shoes bond with ice skates. In the game, two wooden poles are used as the goal, and the ball should be kicked into the goal with no restrictions on the number of people. This is the predecessor of modern ice hockey.

On December 25th in 1855, it was the first ice hockey contest set up in Kingston of Canada while in 1858 this sport was introduced to Europe. Balls of rotary type began to be used in Canada in 1860. The first formal ice hockey contest was hold up between two teams of McGill University in Victoria ice stadium of Montreal on March 3rd in 1875. At that time, there were 30 team members. In 1879, W.F.Robertson, a student from McGill University and Professor R.F.Smith made the rules together that 9 members for each team.

In Canada, ice hockey quickly became the most popular sport. The first amateur ice hockey association was established in 1885 which everybody interested in ice hockey can participate in. However, it was unreasonable to impose money on the amateurs. Up to this period, the athletes began to use more protective equipments to keep safe such as leg guard and mask were used by the goal keepers.

Later, the sport was spread to the United States and the Europe. It was the first performance of Canadian team in America in the year 1893.The first ice hockey club of Europe was established in Switzerland in 1902. Ligue Internationale de Hockey sur Glace was built up in Paris while now changed as the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) and the headquarters in Zurich. The first European Ice Hockey Championship was hold in 1910 and England won the champion. After seven years, National Hockey League (NHL) was established and only six teams took part in contests until 1967 which has become a very successful professional and commercialized league in the world.

In 1912, national ice hockey association created the six-people ice hockey for the first time which was used by international hockey league until now. And the influence of NHL is becoming more and more powerful, and like NBA in the basketball world, the Stanley Cup has become the honor with miracle.

The women hockey began in 1960s. The first women hockey contest was hold in Toronto in 1892. In 1916, the first international women hockey contest for Canada and America was hold in America. And from 1990, the World Women’s Hockey Championship was hold.

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