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Early Hockey Rules


james laverance

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Headline reading WINTER SPORTS IN NOVA SCOTIA

                                                       

                                                             (From the Boston Evening Gazette November 5th 1859)                         

In Nova Scotia the time for fun is during the months of December, January and February. The lakes are then frozen and the ground generally covered with snow, although but seldom is there snow enough before Christmas to make sleighing. Skating is the favorite pastime during December and, indeed, all through the winter, if - as is sometimes the case - there is not a great deal of snow.

There are some excellent skaters in the Provinces, particularly in Halifax. I have seen young men who could cut their name in German text, or write the Lord's prayer with skates on the ice easier than most skaters could cut the "outside edge." I don't like to be uncharitable, but I have known some skaters who, I think, would not be able to do it without a written or printed copy before their eyes. Throwing a somersault on skates is almost an impossibility, yet I once saw it done successfully.

Fancy skating is not so much practiced in Nova Scotia now as formerly; more attention is paid to games on the ice. Ricket is the favorite pastime, and is played thus. Two rickets are formed at about the same distance, one from the other, that cricketers place their wickets. If there are many players, the rickets are further apart. A ricket consists of two stones - about as large as the cobble stones with which some of our streets have been lately paved - placed about three or four feet apart and frozen to the ice. Sides are then formed by two persons - one opposed to the other - tossing or drawing lots for first choice of partners. The one who obtains the first choice selects one from the crowd, the other party then chooses another, and so on alternately, until a sufficient number is obtained on each side. Any number can play the game, and, generally, the "more the merrier." Each ricketer is provided with a hurley (or hockey, as it is termed here,) and all being ready, a ball is thrown in the air, which is the signal to commence the play, previous to which, however, a ricket is chosen by each side and placed in charge of a man whose duty it is to prevent the ball from passing through. The game may be 10, 15 or 20, or any number agreed upon, the side counting the number first being winners. The counting consists in putting the ball through your adversary's ricket, each time counting one. From the moment the ball touches the ice, at the commencement of the game, it must not be taken in the hand until the conclusion, but must be carried or struck about ice with the hurlies. A good player - and to be a good player he must be a good skater - will take the ball at the point of his hurley and carry it around the pond and through the crowd which surrounds him trying to take it from him, until he works it near his opponent's ricket, and "then comes the tug of war," both sides striving for the mastery. Whenever the ball is put through the ricket the shout "game ho!" resounds from shore to shore and dies away in hundreds of echoes through the hills. Ricket is the most exciting game that is played on the ice.

"It might be well if some of our agile skaters would introduce this game. It would be a fine addition to our winter sports, and give a new zest to the delightful exercise of skating. We have sent down for a set of hurleys preparatory to its introduction. -Eds. Gazette.

http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/hockey/024002-119.01-e.php?&id_nbr=530&&PHPSESSID=64hjlug9l56u6gro3ptf74pa53

http://www.birthplaceofhockey.com/evolution/rules-1859/

 

This comes from a Boston magazine called "Our Young Folks" in 1867.

hockey-livery.jpg

https://books.google.ca/books?id=4eOvXvxRjZYC&pg=PA245&dq=hockey+is+a+game+with+hickory&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiD9pPNqarOAhVm7oMKHUDNDOUQ6AEILzAD#v=onepage&q=hockey is a game with hickory&f=false

St.Paul's School, Concord, New Hampshire Ice Hockey Rules for 1875 and 1883.

large.Screenshot_20160905-202421.png

Mcgill rules in 1877.

http://publications.mcgill.ca/reporter/2014/01/this-week-in-history-mcgill-hockey-team-played-first-game-on-jan-31-1877/

Finally the rules at SPS in 1885.

I. The game shall be played by eleven on a side.There shall be one umpire, whose decision shall be final in all cases.
II. At the beginning of a game, and after a goal has been obtained, the block shall be put n play by being knocked off from the centre of the field.At this knock-off all players must be their own side.
III. The goal posts shall be placed ten feet apart, and when the block passes over a straight line drawn between these posts a goal shall be scored, except from a knock-off or a knock-out, no matter by whom the block is knocked.
IV.  A safety  shall be scored when a player puts the block behind the line of his own goal, but if he knocks it between his own goal posts it shall be scored as a goal for the opposite side. The side making a safety shall knock out the block from their own goal line.
V. When the block goes out of bounds, the player who first picks it up  shall have the privilege of allowing any one on his own side to put it in play by throwing it in parallel to the goal line.If the block be touched before it strikes the ice, it shall be thrown in again.
VI. At both Kock-off and Knock-out a player of the opposite side shall not be whithin ten yards of the block, which shall be knocked at least that distance.
VII. The hockey must not be raised above the hips except by the Knock-off or Knock-out.
VIII. The umpire shall disqualify any player whom he has already warned twice for breaking Rule VII, or for unfairly interfering with any of his opponents, and, moreover, the umpire shall be obeyed.
IX. The block, while in play, shall not be touched by the hand.
X. A goal shall count three points;
every safety shall count one point.
XI. If any one of the opposite side shall be considered by the umpire lagging, he shall be warned, and be disqualified for the third offense.
XII. The umpires shall be appointed by the captains of the contesting Elevens.

                                        Early SPS photo's

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And now we have a CBA that is 11,397KB long... and they are still making changes.  

 

 When did the early games stop using a ball to using a puck and when did the game officially get the name 'hockey' ?  ( My historical knowledge is completely lacking.)  :blushing:

 

These blogs are all interesting ... keep them coming.

 

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"When did the early games stop using a ball to using a puck and when did the game officially get the name 'hockey' ?"

 

They stopped using a ball in replacement of a circular wooden puck cut from tree branches around 1860 in Nova Scotia.

http://www.birthplaceofhockey.com/origin/wooden-pucks/

 

Then in 1879 Mcgill University devised the first rubber puck by cutting off the top and bottom of a lacrosse ball shown in picture below in 1881.

https://books.google.ca/books?id=w5GZ75j_3fsC&q=rubber+puck+1879&dq=rubber+puck+1879&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj86Iib2vrOAhWHXh4KHXiHAzgQ6AEILTAD

 

original.png?1448245315

 
The oldest written account of the term Hockey(As in Ice-Hockey) was in Worcester, Mass in 1858.
 
Although the is another story of a Colonel John Hockey who was stationed in Windsor, Nova Scotia around 1857 where he supposedly trained his troops by playing Shinny then renamed Hockey after him.
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I think most people are unaware that hockey and football have a common ancestor in rugby, but as those above demonstrate, they do. I do find it funny how so many sports can share a common origin, and yet be so different. Hockey and football have very little resemblance now.

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1 hour ago, ScottM said:

I think most people are unaware that hockey and football have a common ancestor in rugby, but as those above demonstrate, they do. I do find it funny how so many sports can share a common origin, and yet be so different. Hockey and football have very little resemblance now.

 

Indeed. One is thrilling and fun to watch.

 

 

 

 

 

The other is football.

 

;)

 

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On 9/6/2016 at 1:03 PM, JR Ewing said:

 

Indeed. One is thrilling and fun to watch.

 

 

 

 

 

The other is football.

 

;)

 

The stuff I go to on Friday nights is fun. The NFL? *yawn* Lol

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