Who invented hockey?

The origins of ice hockey can be traced back to the ball and stick games played in the Middle Ages or even Ancient Greece and Egypt.

Ice hockey played.

Some have suggested that the game evolved from the ancient Irish game of hurdling. But the beginnings of ice hockey, like other sports, are still unknown.

'There's a painting in the 1500s of people playing something on the ice that looks like hockey,' said Phil Pritchard, curator of the Hockey Hall of Fame in Toronto. In the mid-1700s, a game called bandy was played on ice in the eastern plains of England. In winter, players compete in irons on ice sheets that are formed in flooded grasslands. That game spread to London and was played by British soldiers. In the 19th century, Native Americans in Canada played a similar game with sticks'.

Winter river scene with skaters, horse-drawn carriages and ice hockey players.

The term 'hockey' according to the Canadian Encyclopedia is derived from a book published in 1773 in England called Adolescent Sports. A version of the game played on the ground - field hockey also developed around this time.

In England, newspapers written in the 1840s mentioned ice hockey. A Scottish newspaper reported in 1842 about a death in a hockey game in which about 20 participants skated on a canal.

In 1949, a magazine in the Soviet Union claimed that the sport was invented and perfected in Russia in the mid-19th century, but those claims are still unproven. The first ice hockey match was held on March 3, 1875, with two teams participating, nine each from Montreal's Victoria Skating Club. But there is also evidence that the games were previously played in Canada and the United States.

The image of the Montreal hockey club was taken in 1893.

By 1899, ice hockey had become popular in the Northeastern United States. 'There is no special effort to motivate players to participate in this sport but it is still growing steadily, the number of people who are passionate about this sport is in the thousands,' the Montreal Gazette reported on the success. public interest in the sport of hockey in the New York City area.

Although ice hockey did not originate in Canada, it has since become the country's national sport. At the end of the 19th century, leagues were formed in Canada. Rules for the sport were also formed including the size of the net and the number of players on the ice at the same time. The rules of the sport in Canada were eventually adopted around the world.

In 1920, a team from Canada won the first ever hockey world championship at the Winter Olympics in Antwerp, Belgium. In 1917, the Canadian National Hockey League formed with four teams. In 1924, the Boston Bruins became the first American team in the NHL (North American ice hockey league). For over 100 years, the NHL has been the premier professional hockey league in the world.