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Hockey >> Fun Facts
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- Where did this sport begin?
- What's the estimated number of participants of this sport in the USA?
- How old is this sport?
- Until the mid-1980s, it was generally accepted that ice hockey derived from English field hockey and Indian lacrosse and was spread throughout Canada by British soldiers in the mid-1800s. Research then turned up mention of a hockey like game, played in the early 1800s in Nova Scotia by the Micmac Indians, which appeared to have been heavily influenced by the Irish game of hurling; it included the use of a "hurley" (stick) and a square wooden block instead of a ball.
- The name hockey--as the organized game came to be known--has been attributed to the French word "hoquet" (shepherd's stick). The term rink, referring to the designated area of play, was originally used in the game of curling in 18th-century Scotland.
- Early hockey games allowed as many as 30 players a side on the ice, and the goals were two stones, each frozen into one end of the ice. The first use of a puck, instead of a ball, was recorded at Kingston Harbour, Ont., in 1860.
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