March 3, 2025: Hockey Histories: Origin Points

[On March3rd, 1875, the first organized ice hockey game was played. So thisweek for the sport’s 150th anniversary I’ll AmericanStudy a handfulof hockey histories, leading up to a weekend post on some SportsStudiers we canall learn from!]

On threetelling and compelling layers to that first organized game.

1)     James Creighton: Railwayengineer and lawyer Creighton is known as the father of organized hockey, as hecertainly didn’t invent the sport itself (compared for example to JamesNaismith and basketball); an informal, outdoor version known as both hockeyand “shinny”was already being played on frozen ponds in the 1850s Nova Scotia of Creighton’syouth. But as I discussed with baseball’s 19th century evolution in my recent podcast (the ThirdInning in particular), it took a while for that local, community version of thesport to become organized, and a key step in that process was Creightongathering groups of players (many from nearby McGill University) and providingsticks for workouts at Montreal’s VictoriaSkating Rink in the early 1870s (he knew the rink from his work there as a judgefor figure skating competitions). After years of practicing together, thoseplayers were finally ready to put on a full, organized game, with Creighton captainingthe Montreal Football Club against the Rink’s home team.

2)     The Game: The pre-game announcementin the Montreal Gazette noted a specific change that would significantlyreshape the sport’s future: “Some fears have been expressed on the part ofintending spectators that accidents were likely to occur with the ball flyingabout in too lively a manner, to the imminent danger of lookers on, but weunderstand that the game will be played with a flat circular piece of wood,thus preventing all danger of its leaving the surface of the ice.” Thataddition of the puck would be more than enough to make this 1875 game a trueorigin point for the sport (with shinny/pond hockey, which uses a ball, almosta distinct sport in its own right that likewise endures to this day), but the Gazette’s follow-up report on the game makesclear that its play was also quite representative of how the sport wouldevolve, as exemplified by the phrase “the efforts of the players exciting muchmerriment as they wheeled and dodged each other.”

3)     TheMelee: Of course, hockey players don’t always dodge each other, and theirhits aren’t limited to in-play collisions. I’ll write more in tomorrow’s postabout the overall history and place of fighting in the sport, but it’s prettytelling that this first organized game likewise concluded with an extendedbrawl. The fact that this fight wasn’t just between players—instead, playersfrom both teams apparently brawled with Victoria Skating Club members who were angrythat the rink had been used for this purpose—only reiterates how much fighting waspart of hockey’s collective DNA from the outset. As the Daily British Whig newspaper described this telling postgamescene, “Shins and heads were battered, benches smashed, and the lady spectatorsfled in confusion.”

Nexthockey history tomorrow,

Ben

PS. Whatdo you think? Hockey histories you’d highlight?