Where Did Hockey Originate?

The game of hockey is fast paced and sometimes rough. The current rules and regulations governing professional and amateur hockey leagues prevent players from the excessive sports violence once associated with the game. But this game may once have been the sport of gentleman, and its origin may be the result of games played by the Irish, the Scottish and the Native Americans of Canada.

Hurling was, and still is, played by the Irish. Using an axe-shaped stick, called a hurly, players hit the ball into the opponents' net for a goal. Though played on a field, hurling shares the same principle, men with sticks and a small object and one objective, just like hockey. Shinty is a Scottish game played with sticks and a ball. The sticks in shinty more closely resemble those used in hockey, but like hurling, it's played on a field. In 1800, however, Scottish immigrants to Nova Scotia adapted the game of shinty to the ice. The English played field hockey as far back as the reign of King Charles in the 16th century. Again, the game was played on the field, but the principle was the same as seen in ice hockey. Like hockey itself, the origins of shinny, played by the Canadian Indians, are murky. The goal of the game is simply to keep the ball away from opponents by moving it around with a stick.

Throughout the ages, children and young adults have played some variation of what is now called hockey, whether on the ice or on a field. It is the organization of teams and the development of rules that eventually created the game as it is known today, taking elements from each of the cultural versions.

In 1825, Sir John Franklin (1786-1847), a British explorer, was in the Arctic. An entry in his diary notes, "The game of hockey played on the ice was the morning sport." Though the reference is ambiguous, it does infer there was knowledge of the sport among English gentlemen of the time. During the 1850s, British soldiers stationed in Kingston, Ontario, and in Halifax, Nova Scotia, recorded results in personal papers of hockey tournaments held for personal amusement. These locations are geographically quite a distance apart, yet soldiers in both places were familiar with the game. In 1859, the Boston Evening Gazette made reference in an article to hockey played in Halifax. The article was written by a visiting journalist, who describes the game in part: "From the moment the ball touches the ice, at the commencement of the game, it must not be taken in the hand until the conclusion, but must be carried or struck about the ice with the hurlies."

Earlier than these accounts in Halifax and Kingston of the game of hockey were those in Windsor, Nova Scotia, that indicated hockey as an organized sport was already born. Newspapers in Windsor from 1800 through to 1850 told of games played between military personal and Irish immigrants, and between students attending Kings College. Windsor, then, does lay claim as the birthplace of hockey.

However, Montreal, Quebec, may be the origin of hockey in its modern day version. It was James George Aylwin Creighton, a student at McGill University in Montreal, originally from Halifax, who devised and laid down the rules for hockey as a game for spectators to enjoy as well. On March 3, 1875, Creighton and 17 other students formed two teams and played a game of hockey in the Victoria Skating Rink in front of an audience. The Montreal Gazette promoted the game and the paper published the results. The formality that Creighton's rules brought to the game may give Montreal the bragging rights as the birthplace of hockey.