An English Rose in Georgia: Hockey on ice

A close friend who dates back to my university days and I have challenged each other to try to do ‘new things’ as we ‘mature’ (we refuse to use the word ‘older’). This ranges from simple things like trying a new recipe or reading a new author to planning an African safari. Most of the new things we do are somewhere in the middle, which leads me to how we ended up at the Enmarket arena in Savannah watching the ‘Ghost Pirates’.

Let me clarify one thing before I get into the interesting world of playing hockey on ice. In the UK the word ‘hockey’ is used to describe what Americans call “field hockey”. What is more, traditionally most UK hockey players are school children, and a great deal of hockey involves freezing on a muddy playing field during one’s formative years, especially in private schools. Yes, it can be simply described as children aggressively chasing a ball armed with hockey sticks. This appears to be on the decline since my school days and according to recent data, only one in twenty British children play hockey today.

What Americans describe as hockey must always be referred to as ‘ice hockey’ in the UK. To give you an idea of how unusual ice hockey is back in the land of my birth, statistics show that even today in the UK field hockey is played by 12 times more people than ice hockey. International Ice Hockey Federation statistics also show that 43 times more people play ice hockey in the US than the UK!

So how did it all begin? Ice hockey first started in the freezing winters of Canada, but the sport quickly gained popularity in the United States in the late 19th century. The first recorded indoor game in the USA was played on Christmas Day 1894 in New York City.

At that time, the game was still largely informal, with no standardized rules or equipment. Players used sticks made of wood or metal, and a puck could be made from a frozen cow dung or even a rock.

As the popularity of the game grew, so did the need for standardization.

The Amateur Hockey Association of the United States was founded in 1920 to regulate and promote the sport, and the first official United States national championship was held that same year.

The game continued to evolve and become more organized throughout the 20th century, with the introduction of protective equipment, such as helmets and face masks, and changes to the rules to improve safety and fairness.

After World War II, hockey in America experienced a period of rapid growth and…