Hockey

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Games which resemble ice hockey are known in the 1500s and may have been played even earlier in Europe. In 1565 Bruegel the elder who was a prominent painter during that era painted skaters with curved sticks playing a game with one player hitting an object on the ice. At that early time skates were often made from bone but in the 1500s iron blades are known to have been used.

The beginnings of an organised ice hockey type game probably were in North America in the latter part of the 1700s. A game like ice hockey was being played in Newfoundland around that time. Dartmouth and Windsor in Nova Scotia are other places where at least a primitive version of ice hockey was being played by 1827. The city of Montreal claims to be the site of the first well documented ice hockey game played between two teams with known members and with a recorded score. This claim is supported by the International Ice Hockey Federation. This game took place at the Victoria Ice Rink in Montreal on 3rd March 1875.

The records do not show any earlier hockey games than this one with a recorded score. At the same venue another game followed this one two weeks later. In February 1877 written rules for the game of ice hockey were published and in the same year the McGill Hockey Club began in Montreal. Another milestone in the history of hockey was the formation of the Amateur Hockey Association of Canada in the city of Montreal in 1886.

The actual origin of hockey is a question which is still much discussed at present. A definition of the game of ice hockey, meant to include early types of game, has been proferred by The Society For International Hockey Research. This definition is any game played between two opposing teams of skaters,using curved sticks to drive a ball, small disc or other small block into or through the opponents goal.

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