Hockey

As I was searching for something to blog about this week, I realized that nothing happened this week. Ok, not true, things did happen; despite common knowledge something happens every day. But I could not find something really riveting that I wanted to blog about this week. March 8th marks the anniversary of the first Russian Revolution, but I already blogged about the event marking the February date corresponding to the Russian calendar.

So I find myself in a predicament; I really want to find a good topic to blog about this week since I didn’t really do anything too historical last week.

So, as I’ve been searching, for something, anything really interesting not only for me to learn about (Because surprisingly I actually learn quite a lot about random history by doing this blog) but also something interesting for my readers.

And the best I found under the circumstances were a lot of hockey events happening this week. So I’ll take the bate, and look a little closer at hockey this week and how it came to be a major sport not only in the U.S. but around the world.

Personally, hockey is not one of my favorite sports, and beyond watching the game between the U.S. and Canada at the Olympics, don’t really follow the sport. However, just like football which I blogged about earlier, Hockey has a long interesting history.

In my search through websites Hockey began to be played as far back as 4000 years ago, and it was known as the “ball and stick game.” That does make sense, you try to hit a ball with a stick, I do know that much about the sport (I really do know more than I’m letting on). Hockey was played in Egypt, Rome, Scotland and South America, although it was referenced differently in each location. The Irish dubbed the name “Hockie” and the term stuck. I see the similarity, hockie to hockey… pretty crafty.

In the 17th and 18th Centuries in England the game became fierce, with nearly 100 players on one team, and some games lasting as long as half a month. Eventually hockey was organized more and rules were introduced to the sport from Eton College in England, and in the year 1875 the Hockey Association was formed.

The sport really began to grow in North America, where it spread first to Canada then the United States. In 1875 the first game of ice hockey was played, and the origins of the sport are credited to J.G. Creighton. The first rink for ice hockey was used for curling, and initially there were as many 30 players on each team and the goals were two stones frozen on one side of the ice.

The game eventually traveled to America by 1893 and traveled to Europe by the 1900’s.

Speaking of the latest Olympic games, once the game was introduced to the Olympic games in 1924 that the sport grew in popularity. Back then only male teams were allowed to play.

The NHL was formed in 1917, with 30 teams, 24 that are in the U.S. and the others in Canada.

Once again, I do not frequently watch Hockey, I only watched a couple games in middle school because everyone loved hockey. Back then Colorado had a great team, and then there was the walk out, and the game got changed dramatically. Even so, today Ice Hockey is one of the most popular sports in the U.S.

I am sorry if my knowledge of hockey is not up to par, but more than anything I hope that after reading this you know a little more about where the game came from and the sports long history. Next week I have a very interesting blog planned. Until then I wish everyone a great week, and as always happy history!