Historians place the roots of hockey in the cold climate of
northern Europe, specifically Great Britain and France, where field
hockey was a popular summer sport more than 500 years ago.
When the ponds and lakes froze in winter, it was not unusual for
the athletes who fancied that sport to play a version of it on ice.
An ice game known as kolven was popular in Holland in the 17th
century, and later on the game really took hold in England.
In his book, Fischler's Illustrated History of Hockey, veteran
hockey journalist and broadcaster Stan Fischler writes about a
rudimentary version of the sport becoming popular in the English
marshland community of Bury Fen in the 1820s.
The game, he explains, was called bandy, and the local players
used to scramble around the town's frozen meadowlands, swatting a
wooden or cork ball, known as a kit or cat, with wooden sticks made
from the branches of local willow trees.
Articles in London newspapers around that time mention increasing
interest in the sport, which many observers believe got its name
from the French word hoquet, which means "shepherd's crook" or "bent
stick." A number of writers thought this game should be forbidden
because it was so disruptive to people out for a leisurely winter
skate.
The rules of modern ice hockey were devised by Canadian J G A
Creighton. In 1875, the first game of ice hockey with Creighton's
rules was played in Montreal, Canada.
Today, Ice hockey is an Olympic sport and the most popular team
sport played on ice. Ice hockey is played with two opposing teams
wearing ice skates.
Unless there is a penalty, each team only has six players on the ice
rink at a time.
The aim of the game is to knock the hockey puck into the opposing
team's net. The net is guarded by a special player called the
goalie.
