Origins of Hockey - A Cornucopia from the 16th~19th Centuries in the US & Canada

James Laverance

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Feb 12, 2013
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Hockey Played in Washington in 1845.
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Bedford Street Budget
 

James Laverance

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Feb 12, 2013
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Early Dakota Ball Play.

"The favorite and most exciting game of the Dakotas is ball playing. It appears to be nothing more than a game which was often played by the writer in school-boy days, and which was called “shinny.” A smooth place is chosen on the prairie or frozen river or lake. Each player has a stick three or four feet long and crooked at the lower end, with deer strings tied across forming a sort of a pocket. The ball is made of a rounded knot of wood, or clay covered with hide, and is supposed to possess supernatural qualities. Stakes are set at a distance of a quarter or half mile, as bounds. Two parties are then formed, and the ball being thrown up in the centre, the contest is for one party to carry the ball from the other beyond one of the bounds. Two or three hundred men are sometimes engaged at once. On a summer's day, to see them rushing to and fro, painted in divers colors, with no article of apparel, with feathers in their heads, bells around their wrists, and fox and wolf tails dangling behind, is a wild and noisy spectacle. The eyewitnesses among the Indians become more interested in the success of one or the other of the parties than any crowd at a horse race, and frequently stake their last piece of property on the issue of the game."
Collections of the Minnesota Historical Society
 
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Pominville Knows

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Sep 28, 2012
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So i am a guy that has not clicked these threads in a long time. Have any of them by now actually shown to have any relevance to the origins of hockey?
 

James Laverance

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Hockey played by the Inuit in 1721.

"It was not till 1721 that any attempt was made to ascertain the religious condition of the Eskimos, or to Christianize them.
The "wild" Eskimos of the Arctic regions believe in the existence of two great and a number of inferior spirits. The chief ofthese, "Tongarsuk," the great spirit, is supposed to give power to the "angerkok," or priest, who is the medium ofcommunication between him and the people, by whom he is only known by name, which is never mentioned without becoming reverence.
This great spirit is supposed to assume different forms, —at one time that of a man, at another that of a bear,while often he is spoken of as purely spirit. The other great spirit, supposed to be the principle of evil, is represented as a female, but has no name.
The angerkoks profess, by means of their familiar spirit, to charm away bad luck from the hunter, to change the weather, or to heal the sick. The lesser spirits are believed to control the different elements, and from their ranks Tongarsuk selects the familiars for the priests. One of these lesser spirits, who rules the air, is supposed to be so vicious, that the Eskimos are loath to stir out after dark for fear of offending him.
They suppose the sun and moon to be brother and sister, who having quarrelled, the sun bit off one of his sister's breasts; and the maimed appearance presented by the moon is caused by her turning her wounded side to the earth. The aurora borealis is supposed to be the game of " hockey," played by the departed spirits of their friends and relatives."
Good Words and Sunday Magazine
 
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Killion

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Hockey played by the Inuit in 1721...... They suppose the sun and moon to be brother and sister, who having quarrelled, the sun bit off one of his sister's breasts; and the maimed appearance presented by the moon is caused by her turning her wounded side to the earth. The aurora borealis is supposed to be the game of " hockey," played by the departed spirits of their friends and relatives."
Good Words and Sunday Magazine

Isnt that fascinating..... wow. So much that was unrecorded, history all verbal and handed down through the ages by the indigenous peoples of the world much of which is considered as being allegorical, fantasy, stories told over fires often containing lessons, moral codes, fantastical explanations for that which they couldnt explain. Legends & lore. Often misinterpreted by the first contact Europeans, many of whom were Missionaries with deeply rooted & arcane Christian beliefs who felt it their mission to eradicate the belief systems they encountered. Yet if you scratch the surface & do some digging, there always exists with these legends & lore no small amount of actual truth. Based on real events, happenings, developments.
 

James Laverance

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Feb 12, 2013
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Hockey played on the Hudson River in 1658.

"In 1658 Schout or Sheriff Nicasius D'Sille complains to the court of Burgomasters of the dogs making dangerous attacks upon him in his night rounds, and moreover that there was much "hallooing of the Indians in the streets and cuttings of ' hockies' by the boys, all which, being against good order, should be remedied." Mr. Valentine considers the Dutch term "hockies" untranslatable "although tradition has handed down a similar term among truant boys in some of the villages on the Hudson River." We presume it is our old school boy phrase "playing hookey," which survives to this day in Manhattan."
The Literary World
 
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James Laverance

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Feb 12, 2013
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The Knickerbocker Club of New York was formed by Canadians in living in New York City in 1869.
In 1870 The club played some games indoor on ice on skates and by 1871 the Knickerbockers Lacrosse team disbanded.

"As far back as 1863 an effort was made, but without marked success, to introduce lacrosse in the United States. A series of games were played between two teams of St. Regis Indians, though when the same players visited England shortly after the projectors of the scheme met with better success, teams being formed in several places there. The first local club of which there is any reliable record was one which was composed of Canadian residents of New York and Brooklyn, who afterward divided into the Knickerbockers and Manhattans. These were in existence from 1869 to 1871; and when in the latter year the Knickerbockers visited Canada and were defeated in several games both teams disbanded, and for six years lacrosse was in absence."
Outing; Sport, Adventure, Travel, Fiction

Here's a report of one of their first matches.
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The New York herald. (New York [N.Y.]), 02 Oct. 1869.
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030313/1869-10-02/ed-1/seq-3/

By March of 1870 the Knickerbockers translated the game onto ice indoors at the Empire Skating Rink The results are below.
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This might have been one of there last games before disbanding in 1871
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Canadiens1958

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Lake Memphremagog, QC.
The Knickerbocker Club of New York was formed by Canadians in living in New York City in 1869.
In 1870 The club played some games indoor on ice on skates and by 1871 the Knickerbockers Lacrosse team disbanded.

"As far back as 1863 an effort was made, but without marked success, to introduce lacrosse in the United States. A series of games were played between two teams of St. Regis Indians, though when the same players visited England shortly after the projectors of the scheme met with better success, teams being formed in several places there. The first local club of which there is any reliable record was one which was composed of Canadian residents of New York and Brooklyn, who afterward divided into the Knickerbockers and Manhattans. These were in existence from 1869 to 1871; and when in the latter year the Knickerbockers visited Canada and were defeated in several games both teams disbanded, and for six years lacrosse was in absence."
Outing; Sport, Adventure, Travel, Fiction

Here's a report of one of their first matches.
full

full

full
The New York herald. (New York [N.Y.]), 02 Oct. 1869.
http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83030313/1869-10-02/ed-1/seq-3/

By March of 1870 the Knickerbockers translated the game onto ice indoors at the Empire Skating Rink.
View attachment 143379
View attachment 143383

Interesting reference to the St. Regis
Indians. Their reserve straddles the Canada/USA border.
 
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nnynetpotato

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Sep 9, 2008
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Wonder if they were already working on construction.In the skyscraper era they became known for working at great heights without any visible fear.
 
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James Laverance

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Hockey on Ice as written down in 1839 in ancient Scandinavia.

"When Norway belonged to Denmark, previous to 1814, it had two regiments of Skee-runners, each consisting of 480 men, whose services in a winter campaign might have been turned to excellent account. One Arnliot Gellina is said to have been so expert that he would let two others stand on his skees and yet run as fast as an ordinary person alone. In short the ancient Scandinavians were skilful in almost all athletic exercises. In foot-races, in which men of the first rank and kings themselves were wont to take part. Olaf Tryggesen, and King Harald Gille, an Irishman, were particularly celebrated in this and all similar feats, as well as in skaiting and leaping. The Nials Saga speaks of one Icelander who, in complete armour, could leap higher than he stood, of another who sprang twenty-four feet over a river, although the banks on both sides were frozen and slippery. Dances too were frequent with the Northmen, and amongst others a sword-dance, which required considerable dexterity. Wrestling was also common in all its branches, exactly as it still exists with us. Bowls, and a kind of hockey, were played on a plain, or, in winter, on the ice, and rowing was a favorite pastime."
A manual of Scandinavian mythology
 
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James Laverance

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This is probably the oldest written account of the term "Hockey" in the United States.
It appears that George C. Shattuck of Boston played the game at Round Hill School in 1825 who most likely introduced it to St.Paul's School in Concord,New Hampshire in 1856 during the School's opening year.

GYMNASTICS AT ROUND HILL, SCHOOL IN 1825.

"I am greatly indebted to the venerable Dr. George C. Shattuck, of Boston, who was a pupil at Round Hill, for the following account of the physical training pursued there."

"Dr. Beck, the teacher of Latin, afterward the professor of Latin in Harvard University, was the teacher of gymnastics. A large piece of ground was devoted to the purpose and furnished with all the apparatus used in the German gymnasia. The whole school was divided into classes, and each class had an hour three times a week for instruction by Dr. Beck. At the same time there were a dozen riding horses and classes for riding three times a week. Gardens were assigned the boys, in which they raised plants and vegetables. A piece of land was set apart for building huts. Baseball, hockey, and foot-ball were the games. I remember playing in a match game at the time of the Presidential election in which Adams and Jackson were candidates. The Jackson boys beat. You notice how much was done for physical training. I remember Mr. Edward Everett speaking at an annual exhibition and telling us how much better a school, how much greater advantages we enjoyed than Mr. Cogswell and himself had at Exeter. Though the school had only an existence of twenty years or less, and failed from want of pecuniary support, I believe that its influence has survived, and a great stimulus was given by it to the cause of education. Developing the bodily powers and strengthening the constitution were there first recognized as of great importance in the education of boys. The boys were very healthy. I only recall one death, from typhoid fever."
Circulars of Information of the Bureau of Education
 

James Laverance

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Feb 12, 2013
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This is from a passage of the German Expedition of Eastern Greenland in 1869.

"We managed to skate on the rough ice, and in fine weather we strengthened our constitution by gymnastic games. The men, for example, amused themselves thoroughly with ball-play; which in twenty-seven degrees of cold and bright sunshine covered their foreheads with beads of perspiration."

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The German Arctic Expedition of 1869-70
 
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tarheelhockey

Offside Review Specialist
Feb 12, 2010
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Bojangles Parking Lot
Strange that sand and cinders, plus other natural abrasives were readily available at that time but not used to make the streets safer.

Could be a matter of Carlisle PA being too small a place in 1890 to quickly organize a response to severe weather. Even today a lot of small towns are paralyzed by ice storms, because they just don't have the resources (human and material) to respond effectively.
 

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