Origins Of Hockey

The Origins Of Hockey:
An Introduction

One of the first questions asked by visitors to The Hockey Museum (THM) or one of our exhibitions is, "How old is hockey?" The question is nigh impossible to answer and it would depend on what is meant by "hockey". The organised game that we might recognise today undoubtedly started in the 1870s. Earlier forms of a team game, mainly in schools, was played for over a century before that. However, one of the most natural things for a human being to do as a recreation is to take up a stick, a club or a bat to strike an object. Such recreation definitely takes us back millennia, certainly back to Egypt around 2000BC and most likely well before that. Such activity is known to have taken place on at least four continents. THM is bringing together a collection of images and objects that is helping to capture this ancient history of our sport. Various examples of these appear elsewhere on this website but this article aims to bring them together in an occasional series, though not in chronological order.