The first confirmed use of word hockey was in 1773 Howard there are some scholars who dispute this and say that the word hockey was used far before death Harry nobody really knows the true origin of the word one possible explanation may be that the word hockey is derived from the middle French word okay meaning curved stick most likely referring to the hockey stick used for the game ball and stick games or proto hockey games could be found all around.
Europe dating back as far as 2,000 years ago from Greece to Russia from Sweden to Britain each place had its own form of some sort of a stick and ball game the Dutch British and Russians came closest to imitating today’s modern hockey however all of these proto hockey games were quite a bit different from today’s hockey the Dutch ball and stick game resembled more golf on iced and hockey and the Russian game called bandy was played with no ice skates.
Round ball instead of a puck the British game of hare Lee had some similarities to today’s hockey Hart was played on a field instead upon pice Howard a Scottish game of shinty resembled the rules of today’s hockey the closest this game was predominantly played during the winter holidays when entire villages live together to watch the game of shinty it was from shinty that hockey got its stick shapes checking the ability to use both sides of the stake and being able to play the puck in the air in the end none of these games evolved directly into hockey but they all paved the way for many ball.
Stick games played today like field hockey floorball floor hockey bandy adductor for the creation of hockey itself it took the colonisation of Canada by Russians British and Dutch immigrants to bring all these proto hockey games together it was during this time that the word shinty got abbreviated to shinny and get merged with bandy and Hurley and started to be played on ice with ice skates however even though resembling water hockey there were still many different games of shinny being played all around.
Canada some still used the ball some it would impart some had nine players per team on the ice had more and some headless it took one man James Crichton to be inspired by the game of rugby and apply it to shinny creating his own version of shinny where chicking was allowed and passing could be only done backwards he rented out the Victoria skating rink in Montreal and with his friends played the first official organized game of hockey in 1875 from there the game slowly took off with newspapers printing about this new and exciting game.
The tournament being held at the Montreal Winter Carnival hockey was still mostly played by Montreal gentlemen of McGill University as many people didn’t have time to spend for playing in sports power the game became very popular with the younger generation who had the time to spend the long winters combined with the cheap strap on shoe skates and makeshift sticks meant that the game was accessible and easy to pick up for kids and so these kids were the children of Frederick Arthur Stanley the governor of Canada his kids were so infatuated with hockey that when they were all dirt and were playing in a pro hockey league they controlled their father to pay $50 for the creation of the Stanley Cup.
The cup that for generations will be thought over by hockey teams all around North America it was during the end of the 19th century when the rule of only passing backwards was abandoned and the rules for hockey became more standardized due to the plethora of new Hockey League’s emerging all around Canada a particularly important one was the National Hockey Association which later on evolved into the NHL we have today during the 20th century the game spread all the way to Europe more precisely Sweden Finland Czechoslovakia.
The Soviet Union each of these countries had their own version of proto hockey most notably bandy how was the arrival of hockey many players quickly shifted to the new game and so the power struggle between the fourth hockey nations in Europe was for defense weeds and czechoslovaks we’re the first ones to pick up on modern hockey starting around the world war one era the Soviet Union would join the world of hockey later after World War two to show the world through hockey.
That communism is a superior option and even though this may seem like a crazy idea it wasn’t only through hockey that the Soviets were trying to do this today’s hockey had a very complicated history there was no one events that created Hockey Britain wasn’t Oh Lucien over time they gave us the hockey world that we have today in the end hockey is in a game that was shaved by other games or politics but it is a game that was shaped by the people who played it who enjoyed it the people that believed that this game had a future so this September when you see your team out there on the ice representing your country remember the history the electric duck one great moment because great moments are born from great opportunity now go up there and take it you.
