California Hockey Ancestry

[james laverance]

The first recorded visit of a European to California occurred when Diaz crossed the Colorado River in 1540. Cabrillo, Drake, Vizcaino, and others visited the California coast during the same period."

https://books.google.ca/books?id=3A8QAQAAMAAJ&dq=1540+Cabrillo+drake&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=colorado+1540+Cabrillo+drake+

"Then, too, where the "concrete basis of life" was as simple as among most California inland peoples."

"They indicate only that the precontact peoples made use of certain artifact types which were still employed, but not necessarily exclusively, by the modern Yokuts."

"These would include : 35 Occasional use of portable stone and hopper mortars; stone balls for gaming ; wooden shinny pucks."
https://books.google.ca/books?id=PR5KAPT0xVwC&q=grooved+inference+tighlty+wooden+shinny+pucks&dq=grooved+inference+tighlty+wooden+shinny+pucks&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjP4bb_hZHLAhXjr4MKHSUxCkcQ6AEIHDAA

"Games for adult men and women were shinny, played with a curved stick and a puck of oak gall or pepperwood nut."
https://books.google.ca/books?id=I6b6EEE1YlIC&pg=PA201&dq=curved+shinny+stick+native+california&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjSqqzgoJHLAhWEvoMKHd8lBRYQ6AEIJzAC

"As in field hockey, the ball was struck with a curved stick. The average length of the playing sticks was about thirty-six inches, and the striking end was curved, widened, and flattened. Usually carved out of wood, shinny sticks were brightly painted with symbols of significance to the player or tribe."

"Shinny was played on a rectangular area usually two to three hundred yards long , but sometimes much longer. For example, the longest shinny field on record was a seven-and-a-half-mile field used by the Mono Indians in California."

https://books.google.ca/books?id=4v4TBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA280&dq=shinny+field+retangular+,+used+by+the+mono&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjA58qVpJHLAhUqsoMKHfztDs0Q6AEIIjAB

 

The San Francisco Ice Polo League of 1894.

http://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=SFC18940425.2.129&srpos=6&dliv=none&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN-Polo+on+ice+skates+-------1

Indoor Yacht Club Hockey Team 1916 
Bay Counties Amateur Hockey Association 
San Francisco, California, USA

Team Roster 
1 - Ted Clark, 2 - E. M. Borden (coach), 3 - Reuben E. Carey, 4 - Joseph S. Lewis (manager), 5 - Robert Dufort, 6 - J. S. Peters, 7 - O'Shaughnessy, 8 - Charles Robert 'Bob' Percival, 9 - Corey

The 1st artificial rink in San Francisco was opened under the name Techau Tavern Ice Palace on May 1, 1916 with a feature presentation of "Alpine Nights" supplemented with a skating ballet.

The Bay Counties Amateur Hockey Association was formed on July 10, 1916 at the Techau Tavern with the following officers duly elected from local clubs. 
Honorary Presidents - William Greer Harrison (Olympic Club), and Edward H. Sinclair (Canadian Club), President - Dr. Arthur Beardslee (Olympic Club), 1st Vice President - James A. McDonald (Caledonian Club), 2nd Vice President - Corbett Moody (Polo Hockey Club), 3rd Vice President - J. H. O'Keefe (Canadian Club), Secretary Treasurer - A. C. Morrison (Polo Hockey Club), Executive Committee - John H. Thomlinson (Caledonian Club), Harold Hoeber (Indoor Yacht Club), C. H. Minto (Canadian Club), J. S. A. Macdonald (San Francisco Hockey Club), Sven Philip (Olympic Club), A. C. Morrison (Polo Hockey Club).

The pioneer season was set to play on each Tuesday evening starting July 18, 1916 to October 24, 1916 with the following teams - Polo Hockey Club, Olympic Club, Caledonian Club, Indoor Yacht Club, San Francisco Hockey Club and the Canadian Club.

A new rink was opened called the Winter Garden, which had a ice surface of 210 by 90 feet, and The California Amateur Hockey Association was also formed in 1916 in the San Francisco Bay area of California.

The 1st President was Robert W. Dodd - Vice-President Merrill E. Andrews and Wendel Kuhn a former Princeton player was named Secretary Treasurer.

The California Amateur Hockey Association started play on November 14, 1916, and was to continue for a period of 18 weeks, also playing their games on Tuesday evenings.

The first teams to play were the Olympic Club, Indoor Yacht Club, Pacific Club and the Canadian Club - Stanford University and the Caledonian Club were also members of the association.

IT SHOULD BE NOTED - The 1st Ice Hockey game played in Southern California was on May 13, 1916 in San Diego, on the ice rink at the Panama-California International Exposition (in the former Alhambra Cafeteria building).

The group of men who lined up for that game was composed of a local sportsman, an aviator from the Government aviation school, two men from the United States Marine Corps, a concessionaire from the Isthmus, a map maker, a physician, a army officer and several prominent business men. They were men from Canada, from Europe and from Eastern & Northern States, and they had played ice Hockey from Nova Scotia to China. They called themselves the Exposition and San Diego teams.
http://hockeygods.com/images/12379-Indoor_Yacht_Club_Hockey_Team_1916___San_Francisco

 

It appears that hockey was played in LA earlier than I thought shown here in 1917...

http://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=LAH19170314.2.502&dliv=none&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN--------1