Everyone has a favorite sport, but not many are aware of the history behind their favorite one. In this series we try to present history of some of the major sports in the world. We will continue from our previous article. Today we cover another sport: Ice Hockey.
Ice hockey as the name suggests is a team sport played on ice with players using sticks to drive the puck in to the rival team's goal. Ice hockey requires a seasonal and reliable ice cover. That is one of the reason it is quite popular in Northern United States, Canada and Nordic states.
There have been accounts of ancient hockey like game (with a ball and not the puck) being played between Mi'kmaq First Nation in Canada. Hockey games played by soldiers stationed in Kingston and Halifax during mid 1850s are the first recorded accounts of the game.
The first sets of rules were laid down by students of the McGill University (W. L. Murray, Richard F. Smith et al) in Montreal. These rules included restricting teams to 9 players per side and replacing the ball with a wooden puck.
The word puck, as per Austin Hockey Association, is derived from word "puc" (Scottish word) or "poc" (Irish word), meaning to poke, punch or deliver a blow.
The first indoor game ever played was organized at Montreal's famous Victoria Skating Rink. The game's popularity led to the first world championship being organized at Montreal in 1883 with McGill giving the "Carnival Cup".
It is safe that though origins of the game have been somewhere else, Montreal has been in the centre of development of hockey in the form we see today.
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