Hockey History

The exact origins of ice hockey are unclear. However, it's widely accepted that the British are responsible for bringing hockey to North America. Soldiers stationed in Nova Scotia, Canada, played the earliest games.

By the 1870s, a group of college students at McGill University in Montreal were organizing games and had developed the first known set of hockey rules. In accordance with this new set of regulations, known as "McGill rules," a puck was substituted for a rubber ball, and the number of players on a team was set at nine.

In 1885, Montreal became the site for the first national hockey organization. The Amateur Hockey Association of Canada was founded and further reduced the number of players to seven. The sport's first league of four teams was formed that same year in Ontario.

Ice hockey migrated south to the United States in the 1890s. The first known hockey games took place between Johns Hopkins and Yale Universities in 1895.

Although hockey was a national pastime in Canada, the United States was the first country to organize a professional league. Formed in 1903 and based in Houghton, Michigan, the Pro Hockey League included teams and players from both Canada and the U.S. The league folded three years later, and in 1910, the National Hockey League, the NHL, was formed.

Women's Ice Hockey

Most people are surprised to learn that women's hockey has a history that dates back more than 100 years, beginning with the earliest known film image of women involved in a game of ice hockey -- featuring Isobel Preston, daughter of Lord Stanley Preston (of Stanley Cup lore) playing hockey on a flooded lawn in the winter of 1890.

There is little doubt that women played the sport well before the first newspaper account of a game between two unnamed women's teams appeared in the Ottawa Citizen on February 11, 1891. That game is regarded as the start of women's ice hockey.

Over the span of a century, girls and women have pursued their interest in the sport, and today that segment continues to be one of the fastest growing in ice hockey.

Hockey at the Olympics

Ice hockey joined the Olympic program at the 1920 Antwerp Summer Games. Four years later, in 1924, men's hockey made its Winter debut in Chamonix and has been part of every Winter program.

Women's hockey became an Olympic event at the 1998 Nagano Olympic Games.

Hockey Links

NHL.com
The official NHL site. They've done a good job with it. There are separate pages for each team with hockey jerseys, collectibles, hats, t-shirts, etc.