Birthplace of Ice Hockey

Legend tells of icebound Irish fishermen perhaps as far back as the 16th c. rolling up a pair of socks and knocking it around on the ice with their hurley sticks!

 

However the first "official" game of hockey was played at Long Pond in Windsor, N.S. by the students

of Canada’s first college, King’s College School. The first Principal of King’s College School was an Irishman named William Cochran. During his time there he introduced the Irish game of Hurling, the world’s fastest field game, to the students who adapted it to the ice of the skating ponds and created a new game of Hurley on Ice.  This developed into Ice Hockey, using flat wooden pucks.

 

The native Mi'kmaq craftsmen who had been making sticks for a similar game of their own called Oochamkunutk, made the sticks for the new game of "Hurley on Ice" which they called Alchamadyk.

 

The first “organized game” of Ice Hockey was played on March 3rd, 1875 in Montreal.