The History of Ice Hockey

Podcat Transcript

One of the most popular sports in North America and Northern Europe is ice hockey.

Ice hockey, like all popular sports, has undergone considerable changes since its inception. In fact, hockey has a rather surprising origin and a relationship to other sports that many people are unaware of.

Today, professional hockey is a multibillion-dollar business. It is also played internationally and at the Olympics by both men and women.

Learn more about ice hockey and its origins on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.

Unless you are from Canada, ice hockey probably isn’t the most popular sport in your country. However, given the geolocation data I have on this podcast, most of you live in a country where hockey has a high degree of popularity.

I’ve covered the history of many different sports on this podcast and one of the things they have in common is that sports which seemingly have little in common often had the same origins.

It is sort of like how a fish and an elephant can have the same evolutionary origin if you go back far enough.

The very early origins of ice hockey actually come from the long history of stick and ball games. So, believe it or not, ice hockey is very distantly related to games such as baseball, cricket, and hurling.

You might be wondering, “But hockey doesn’t use a ball”. I’ll get to that in a bit….

Stick and ball games have been played throughout the world with a host of different rules and objectives. However, for the purpose of this episode, we’ll start with the stick in ball games in Europe.

Field hockey, bandy, which is a similar sport on ice, and Scottish shinty are among the likely ancestors.

I should give a brief mention of the game of bandy. Bandy is played with a ball, on an ice surface, similar to a soccer field, with 11 players per team. It emphasizes speed and passing, and body checking is not allowed. The rules resemble soccer more than hockey.

It does resemble ice hockey at first glance, but the players don’t wear as much padding, there is a ball, bigger goals, and a much bigger rink.

Some combination of these games was brought to North America by European settlers.

However, the most significant contributions to the game we know as ice hockey came from the Mi’kmaq people of Nova Scotia, who played a stick-and-ball game on ice called “ricket” or “algame.” They crafted early hockey sticks from hornbeam wood, and their style of play influenced colonial games in the region.

So, while there is definitely a European influence, there is also a major native influence, similar to the origins of lacrosse.

In the 18th and early 19th centuries, informal ice games using various rules and equipment were common throughout eastern Canada. British soldiers stationed in Nova Scotia also played a version resembling bandy. These early games had no standardized rules and often took place on frozen lakes, ponds, or rivers.

Here, I should note the heavy French influence that existed in this part of Canada at the time.

The exact etymology of the word “hockey” is uncertain, but it likely derives from the French word hoquet, meaning “shepherd’s crook” or “bent stick”, referring to the curved shape of early hockey sticks.

The term was used in English as early as the 18th century to describe stick-and-ball games. The first known published use of “hockey on ice” appeared in England, not Canada, in the early 1800s. However, that doesn’t mean the word wasn’t also used in Canada as well.

In England, hockey usually refers to field hockey. Today, if you just say “hockey,” what you are referring to will depend on where you live.

As an aside, hoquet might also be the origin of the word croquet.

By the 1870s, a single version of the game is believed to have been imported from Nova Scotia to Montreal.

This game was the game that eventually caught on and killed off all of the other informal stick and ball ice games that were being played in Canada.

The first recorded indoor game of ice hockey occurred on March 3, 1875, at the Victoria Skating Rink in Montreal, Quebec. This game is considered the beginning of modern organized hockey.

It was played with a flat wooden puck instead of a ball. Nova Scotia-born James Creighton is often credited with organizing the game and codifying early rules.

Here, I should briefly note the evolution of the puck.

In the 19th century, early forms of ice hockey were often played with a rubber or wooden ball, similar to the balls used in field hockey or bandy.

However, at the first organized indoor hockey game at the Victoria Skating Rink, the organizers faced a problem: a ball bounced unpredictably and could easily fly into the stands, posing a danger to spectators and damaging property.

To solve this, the players flattened a wooden ball into a disk, creating the first “puck.” This shape kept the object on the ice surface, reducing bounce and improving control during gameplay. The flat puck also allowed for a faster, smoother game that better suited the confined space of indoor rinks.

The sport spread rapidly across Canada in the 1880s and 1890s. The Amateur Hockey Association of Canada was formed in 1886, creating the first organized league structure.

In 1893, Governor General of Canada Lord Stanley of Preston donated a trophy, originally called the “Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup”, to be awarded to the best amateur hockey team in Canada.

The trophy would later become known as the Stanley Cup, the most prestigious prize in professional hockey.

The Stanley Cup was established with trustees, so even today, the Cup is not technically owned by the NHL. In the original rules, the cup was to be given to the most recent winner, and it does not permanently remain with the winning team. A tradition that still exists today.

As the 20th century dawned, hockey evolved from an amateur pastime to a professional sport. The first professional league was the International Professional Hockey League (IPHL), established in 1904 in the United States and Canada. However, the league ended up folding in 1907.

The National Hockey Association (NHA) was formed in 1909. Key developments during this period included the introduction of six-man hockey (eliminating the rover position), the establishment of blue lines, and the creation of formal penalty systems.

The Pacific Coast Hockey Association was formed in 1911, which was a rival to the NHA. It had teams in the western United States and Canada.

The disbanding of the NHA in 1917 led to the rise of the National Hockey Leage. It was established in Montreal after a dispute among NHA team owners. It originally included four Canadian teams. The league gradually expanded into the United States during the 1920s, with the Boston Bruins becoming the first American NHL team in 1924.

1924 was also the year that the Pacific Coast Hockey Association disbanded.

The NHL survived the Great Depression and World War II, and by 1942, the league consisted of six teams—the era of the so-called “Original Six”: the Montreal Canadiens, Toronto Maple Leafs, Boston Bruins, Chicago Blackhawks, Detroit Red Wings, and New York Rangers.

This six-team arrangement lasted until 1967 when the league finally expanded.

Ice hockey wasn’t just about the professional game. Amateur hockey also expanded in the early 20th century.

Ice hockey was included in the Summer Olympics in 1920 before being moved to the Winter Olympics in 1924. Canada dominated the early Olympic tournaments, but by the 1950s and 60s, the Soviet Union emerged as a global hockey powerhouse, reflecting the sport’s growing international reach.

The first Ice Hockey World Championship took place in 1930

The six-team NHL wasn’t enough to meet the demand for hockey, especially in the United States. In 1967, the league doubled in size, adding six new teams: the Los Angeles Kings, the California Seals, the Minnesota North Stars, the Philadelphia Flyers, the Pittsburgh Penguins, and the St. Louis Blues.

The 70s saw a great deal of expansion with new teams being added in 1970, 72, and 74.

The World Hockey Association (WHA) formed in 1972 as a rival league, driving up player salaries and accelerating the sport’s professionalization. The WHA’s merger with the NHL in 1979 brought four teams into the established league: Edmonton Oilers, Hartford Whalers, Quebec Nordiques, and Winnipeg Jets.

The 70s also saw the growing internationalization of hockey and its use as a proxy for national competition during the cold war.

The Summit Series of 1972 between Canada and the Soviet Union captivated global audiences and demonstrated the high level of play in different hockey systems. The Olympics began including professional players in 1998, further elevating international competition.

European leagues, particularly in Sweden, Finland, Russia, and the Czech Republic, developed sophisticated systems that produced NHL-caliber talent.

The United States defeated the Soviet Union at the 1980 Winter Olympics in a game which has often been called the Miracle on Ice. The US team was comprised of true amateur players, and the Soviets were a dominant team who were the equivalent of professionals.

Women’s hockey dates back to the late 19th century. The first recorded women’s ice hockey game took place in 1892 in Barrie, Ontario, and by the early 20th century, women’s teams were forming across Canada, particularly in university settings.

However, it was largely a men’s sport for most of the 20th century.

Interest surged in the 1980s and 1990s as more organized competitions were established. The first IIHF Women’s World Championship was held in 1990, and women’s ice hockey debuted at the Winter Olympics in 1998, with the United States defeating Canada for the gold.

In 2000, the NCAA announced that it would finally recognize women’s hockey and held the first women’s Frozen Four in 2001.

Since then, women’s hockey has experienced significant growth internationally, particularly in countries such as Canada, the United States, Finland, and Sweden.

The creation of professional women’s leagues, such as the Premier Hockey Federation and later the Professional Women’s Hockey League in 2023, has opened new opportunities for female athletes and further legitimized women’s professional hockey.

The 1990s and 2000s brought significant changes to the NHL. The 1994-95 lockout exposed the economic tensions within professional hockey, followed by another lockout in 2004-05 that resulted in the cancellation of an entire season. These labor disputes led to salary caps and revenue-sharing systems that changed the sport’s economic structure.

Rule changes following the 2004-05 lockout emphasized speed and skill over defensive systems. The elimination of the two-line pass, stricter enforcement of obstruction penalties, and shootout implementation for tie games created a faster, more offensive style of play.

Today’s NHL comprises 32 teams across North America, with expansion continuing into non-traditional markets. The NHL generates approximately $6.3?billion, an increase of nearly 8.6% compared to the previous year, thanks to strong sponsorships, gate receipts, and mostly media rights.

The average NHL franchise is valued at $1.9 billion and the team with the highest estimated value is the Toronto Maple Leafs at $3.8 billion.

Ice hockey is played all over the world today in amateur leagues, even in places that you wouldn’t think of as hockey countries. Australia and South Africa have hockey leagues like many Asian countries such as Japan and China.

Unlike other sports like soccer, which just require a field, or basketball, which requires a small court, ice hockey requires a special rink if you want to play in a warm climate or outside of winter.

This, plus the gear, makes playing a much more expensive endeavor compared to other sports, which need little more than a ball.

Ice hockey has come a long way. The native Micmac people in Nova Scotia and the early European settlers who played with balls and sticks on ice could never have imagined that what they were doing would one day be enjoyed by millions of people.