First ice hockey game in a hall

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The first ice hockey game in a hall , passed down as such, took place on March 3, 1875. The venue was the Victoria Skating Rink in the Canadian city ​​of Montreal . The game was organized by James Creighton , a graduate of McGill University . Two teams with nine players each were involved. For the first time ever, a wooden puck was used. The equipment consisted of ice skates and clubs that were otherwise used for shinny - an informal variant of outdoor ice hockey that was then widespread in Nova Scotia , Creighton's home. The encounter was recognized as the first indoor game by the International Ice Hockey Federation in 2002 , as several features of the modern game originated here.

venue

Ice hockey game at the Victoria Skating Rink in 1883

The Victoria Skating Rink , an ice rink in Montreal , was an elongated two-story building with a domed roof that spanned the entire width of the ice rink. High, arched windows illuminated the interior in daylight, and 500 gas lamps made it possible to skate in the evening. Later these were replaced with electric lamps, making the Victoria Skating Rink the first public building in Canada with electric lighting. The ice surface was 204 feet (62.18 m) long and 80 feet (24.38 m) wide. So it was only slightly shorter and narrower than the playing fields used today in the National Hockey League . The ice rink was surrounded by a 10 foot (3.48 m) wide platform that was about a foot higher and on which spectators could stand or ice skaters could rest. At a later date, a gallery was added with a “Royal Box” for dignitaries.

The hall, built in 1862, was on Rue Drummond in the Anglophone part of the city, in the neighborhood of McGill University . This area, now known as the "Square Mile", was very affluent and at the time the preferred residential area for English-speaking manufacturers and business people. One block to the northeast was Dominion Square , which was home to outdoor sporting events in winter. The Windsor Hotel , located on this square, was for many years the center of social life and a meeting place for various sports organizations.

The game

James Creighton , a member of the Victoria Skating Club and figure skating referee, began organizing informal meetings in 1873 where club members and his friends from Shinny University played. This early outdoor variant of ice hockey, derived from the Shinty , was widespread in Creighton's homeland, Nova Scotia , and managed without a set of rules. For example, there was usually no goalkeeper , the team sizes were variable and balls were used. The unfamiliar setting and the fixed size of the ice field required the development of new rules of the game.

On March 3, 1875, Creighton organized a game in the hall of the Victoria Skating Club. Today it is generally considered to be the first ice hockey game in a hall. Several factors played a decisive role in shaping modern ice hockey: Two teams (each with nine players), goalkeepers and referees were involved. The playing time was limited to 60 minutes and there was an official final result. To avoid injury to the audience and damage to the glass windows, a wooden puck was played instead of a lacrosse ball - it may have been the first time such an object was used. The two teams consisted of club members and some students from McGill University. Clubs and skates were obtained in Nova Scotia. To announce the first game, an ad appeared in the Montreal Gazette :

announcement

Victoria Rink - Tonight a hockey game will be played in the Victoria Skating Rink, between two teams of nine from the ranks of the club's members. A lot of fun can be expected as some of the players are said to be highly experienced in the game. Some fears were voiced among the expected spectators that accidents could probably occur due to the lively flying ball and that onlookers would be exposed to impending danger. But we know that the game will be played with a flat, round piece of wood, so that any danger of it leaving the surface of the ice is averted. Subscribers are admitted upon presentation of their cards.

The following day the first match report appeared in the same newspaper:

Match report

HOCKEY - Last night a large audience gathered in the rink to watch a new kind of competition on the ice. The game of hockey on ice, though very vogue in New England and other parts of the United States, is not well known here, so the event was awaited with great interest last night. Hockey is commonly played with a ball, but yesterday, in order to avoid accidents, a flat wooden block was used so that it slid on the ice without lifting. In a way, the game is similar to lacrosse - the block must pass through two flags placed about 8 feet apart in the same way as the rubber ball. The players last night were eighteen - nine on each side - and were as follows: - Messrs. Torrance (Captain), Meagher, Potter, Goff, Barnston, Gardner, Griffin, Jarvis, and Whiting. Creighton (Captain), Campbell, Campbell, Esdaile, Joseph, Henshaw, Chapman, Powell and Clouston. The match was an interesting and quite competitive affair, with the players' efforts generating a lot of amusement as they circled and dodged each other. Despite the brilliant game by Captain Torrance's team, Captain Creighton's team won the game, winning two games to one game of the Torrance Nine. The game ended at half past nine and the spectators withdrew, very satisfied with the entertainment of the evening.

The playing of a hockey game in the hall and the smaller dimensions of the playing field resulted in extensive changes compared to the outdoor version. The size of the teams was limited to nine players. Up until then, there was no prescribed number of players in outdoor games. There were more or less as many people involved as fit in a frozen pond or river, often dozens. The team size of nine players lasted until the 1880s when it was reduced at the Montreal Winter Carnival tournament.

Not in the Gazette, but there was a post-game brawl reported elsewhere. It wasn't the opponents on the ice who fought. Rather, the argument broke out between the players, spectators and members of the skating club. The club members were against the use of the hall for ice hockey games, as this took away time from other ice skating activities and impaired the quality of the ice. According to the newspaper Daily British Whig from Kingston (Ontario) "shins and heads battered, smashed benches and the ladies in the audience fled in confusion." Were

Recognition by the IIHF

In July 2002, the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) announced that it would mark the location of the former hall, “with a memorial plaque or other mark for historical sites to inform passers-by about the existence of the Victoria Skating Rink, the birthplace of the organized ice hockey, to remember ”. On May 22, 2008, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper unveiled two plaques commemorating the game and James Creighton at the nearby Bell Center . In addition, the IIHF created the Victoria Cup , a trophy named after the venue that is played between the winner of the European Champions Hockey League and a representative of the National Hockey League.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Howard Shubert: Sports facilities. Canadian Encyclopedia , 2012, accessed August 31, 2013 .
  2. ^ Montreal hockey history. Hockey Heritage, accessed August 31, 2013 .
  3. ^ A b Michael McKinley: Hockey: A People's History . McClelland & Stewart, Toronto 2006, ISBN 0-7710-5769-5 , pp. 7 .
  4. ^ Edgar Andrew Collard: Montreal Yesterdays . Longmans Canada, Toronto 1962, p. 168 .
  5. ^ Donald Mackay: The square mile . Douglas & McIntyre, Vancouver 1987, ISBN 0-88894-562-0 , pp. 7 .
  6. ↑ Earl Zukerman: McGill's contribution to the origins of ice hockey. McGill Athletic, March 17, 2006, archived from the original March 16, 2008 ; accessed on August 31, 2013 .
  7. ↑ a b `Father 'of ice hockey honored. Toronto Star , May 23, 2008, accessed August 31, 2013 .
  8. ↑ Michael McKinley: Hockey: A People's History. P. 9.
  9. ↑ Victoria Rink. Montreal Gazette, March 3, 1875, p. 3.
  10. ^ Hockey. Montreal Gazette, March 4, 1875, p. 3.
  11. ↑ Hockey Game. Daily British Whig, March 4, 1875.
  12. ↑ World federation weighs in on hockey's origins. CBC News , July 5, 2012, accessed August 31, 2013 .