The Origins of Hockey

The Origins of Hockey

For my first post I thought it would only be right to talk about the history of hockey, to see where it all began and how it has grown and expanded over the years. I, being a hockey player myself have always wondered this and so I decided to find out.

Even though they are drawings found in caves of men playing a simpler version of hockey which date back 4,000 years, the game of field hockey that we know today was only modernized in the 1700's in England.  The game was introduced to primary school children and soon became a popular sport. In fact the first professional hockey club was founded in England in 1849. It was Blackheath hockey club in London. However, like any sport, many changes were made to the game of hockey over the years before it was the game it was today. For example another hockey club called Teddington changed the shape of the ball from a rough cube to the spherical ball we all know today. They also introduced the striking circle, now know as 'the D' where we shoot from in order to score goals. Over the years as the British Empire began to grow, so did the game of field hockey.



https://www.flickr.com/photos/83850382@N02/11170983334

The first ever international hockey match took place in 1895 with Wales versus Ireland. In the end Ireland won 3-0. Field hockey was first introduced for men in the 1908 Olympics in London. However at the time there were only three team: England of course along with Ireland and Scotland. The game was dropped in 1924 but later permanently made apart of the Olympics in 1928 in Amsterdam. However it wasn't until further down the road that women's hockey came out and made part of the Olympic Games in Moscow in 1980.

Uploaded on 23 Aug 2010

From Leni Riefenstahl's "Olympia: Festival of Beauty

Today hockey is the second largest team sport in the world and it is played in over 100 countries. It is the third most popular sport in the world and approximately 2 billion people in the world today play field hockey. The governing body of international hockey, the International Hockey Federation, known as the FIH, is still the same group that was made in France all those years back in 1924. However a few things have changed. Back then its original members included France, Belgium, Spain, Czechoslovakia, Austria, Hungary and        Switzerland. Today the FIH has 112 members.  

I hope you have enjoyed reading about the origins of field hockey and are looking forward to my next post on my blog: The Geography of Hockey.

Thank you for reading. I hope you enjoyed it. Until next time....