Field hockey

“ The boys were getting so much sport out of 129 ice hockey that—as the league approved of that form of exercise—the physical instructor introduced it on the girls’ athletic field. The field could be flooded, and had been; now it was a perfectly smooth piece of ice and upon it those of the older girls who were already good skaters, had a chance to learn the mysteries of hockey. ”

“ When we consider that before 1901 field hockey for women was hardly more than a name in and around Philadelphia, and that since that year enthusiasm for the game has so steadily grown that we have now perhaps the finest hockey league in the country, we may justly feel optimistic on the subject of athletics for women. ”

“ But Hugh had been wise to this fact, and posted Mr. Leonard, the coach; who, meanwhile, taught them a few new little wrinkles that were calculated to disturb the calculations of Belleville when the time came for the meeting. As in football, ice hockey presents a fruitful field for diplomacy and clever tactics; and the wisest general usually manages to carry his team to victory over those who may be much more nimble skaters and even smarter with their sticks, but not so able in the line of strategy. ”

“ Everybody knows what a hockey-stick is like. It is a tough fellow, made of oak or crab-apple tree, and turned up at the end in a crook, flattened somewhat at the convex side. It is a formidable weapon, and it is very disagreeable to receive a blow from it on the shins. In some places a cork bung is used, but I have always seen and played with a light ball made on purpose, and covered with leather. We were very particular at Grafton Hall about our hockey balls. Though late in the year, the weather was fine, so we played in the cricket-field. ”

“ Space [Pg 323] will not allow of a very lengthy description of the game, but in a few words a rough idea of the sport may be given, and a book of the rules with fuller information can doubtless be obtained of any dealer in sporting goods.
A Canadian Hockey team consists of seven players, who are known as Goal, Point, Cover Point, Centre Forward, Centre, Left Wing, and Right Wing, arranged on the field, or rather on the ice, in the following positions:
Instead of the ball which we use in ice polo, the Canadians play with a rubber disk about an inch thick and some three inches in diameter. ”

“ Bert saw the gymnasium, above the schoolroom, the laboratory downstairs, the heating and lighting plant, the snow-covered athletic field and finally the two rinks where, by the time they arrived, some dozen and a half fellows were hard at work practising hockey.
“That’s the House Team over there,” explained Lanny. “Ben’s captain. This is the Day Team. The captain’s that short, round-faced fellow, Billy Spooner. The first match comes off a week from next Saturday. Do you play hockey?” ”

“ The baseball candidates and the track and field fellows were, perhaps, not over-enthusiastic about it, and those who played golf made derogatory remarks anent it, but some seventy boys who swung hockey sticks each afternoon asked nothing better. The river was frozen five inches deep and provided even better ice than the first team had on shore. Two rinks were established opposite the boat house and on those the four class teams skated and slashed and shouted every afternoon in preparation for the three or four games which would later decide the school championship. ”

“ CHAPTER IV THE HOCKEY MATCH WITH A SCRATCH SEVEN There was a large crowd present to watch the local hockey match that morning. Not only were Scranton High pupils interested, but many of the town folks seemed to find it convenient to stroll around to the field that, during the recent summer, had been the scene of bitterly contested baseball games.
Even a number of gentlemen were on hand to criticize, and also applaud, according to what their judgment of the work of the young athletes proved to be. Some of these men had been college players, or, at least, interested in athletic sports. ”

“ A match is begun by the referee throwing up the ball in the centre of the field, after which it must not be touched other than with the bandy until a goal is scored or the ball passes the boundaries of the course, in which case it is hit into the field in any direction excepting forward from the point where it went out by the player who touched it last. If the ball is hit across the goal-line but not into a goal, it is hit out by one of the defenders from the point where it went over, the opponents not being allowed to approach nearer than 25 yds. ”

“ Lacrosse and canoeing for the warm bright days of summer, snow-shoeing and tobogganing for the crisp cold nights of winter, these make up a quartette of healthy, hearty sports, the superiors of which, in their appropriate season, any other country might safely be challenged to show. But apparently this ambitious colony is not content with the laurels already won, and in the bringing of the game of rink hockey to perfection would add another to her garland; for this fine game, as played in the Canadian cities to-day, is, without question, a distinctly home product. ”

“ The pure air, the bright lights, the merry, laughing girls, the noisy enthusiastic boys, and age that's not too old to still enjoy the pleasure of a fascinating game, all combine, with the keen ice and the fast play, to make hockey the king of infatuating sports. ”

“ Take it all in all, there is perhaps no winter sport exclusively for men that is destined to become more popular, or have more enduring favour. In Canada new associations are rapidly springing up, and local leagues that arrange a schedule of matches for the season. The boys are taking hold of the game with great zest, closely imitating the tricks and artifices of their big brothers, and it is safe to say that hockey has definitely taken its place among the national sports of Canada. ”

“ As first played in Canada, hockey went by various names, some of which were apparently merely local—hurley, shinny, rickets, and so forth, It was played only upon the ice in winter-time, and there was not much pretence to rules, each player taking part as best he knew how. No effort toward systematizing the game appears to have been made until the year 1875, when the members of the Montreal Football Club, in search of some lively athletic amusement for the long winter months, recognized in hockey the very thing they wanted. ”

“ With the facilities afforded hockey players and beginners in every city in the Dominion, the game will boom. Every athletic club will have its teams, and universities, colleges and schools will buzz on the ice at their favorite sport, while hundreds and thousands, eager to enjoy the sight, will flock to the rinks and cheer their sides to victory. ”

“ Of all the games that developed from the old Roman sport the British hockey alone shaped the destiny of ours. There can be but little doubt, but that "shinny," the forerunner of our scientific hockey, is the Canadian interpretation of the game played across the water, adapted in its application to the climate of the country. Hockey in England is played in the winter on the frozen ground. It consists in driving a ball from one point to another by means of a hooked stick. ”

“ Mentioning to some friends that hockey was the winter game par excellence in Montreal, he was induced to write for a puck and some sticks, and teach them the sport. This was in 1887, and in a few years the game that electrified the people of the east, was destined to secure a fast hold upon the sporting instincts of those in the west. From Toronto to Winnipeg, Hockey was received with great éclat. Clubs were formed in every city that boasted of the name, and unions and associations sprang up to regulate the games and to draw up schedules. ”

“ A few years ago, the sport was known only in a few cities of the Dominion—now, from far east Halifax to frigid Winnipeg the glorious game is played; most of our neighboring American cities boast of a hockey club, and even in distant Europe, teams have been organized in Glasgow, London and Paris. It is a regular occurrence for clubs to send their representatives thousands of miles to meet their adversaries in a friendly match. Teams from Manitoba and Nova Scotia have repeatedly visited Montreal, and clubs from the latter place have returned the compliment. ”

“ Just as that regiment whose soldiers rely upon one another is a better one than another, in which the members have no confidence in their comrades, so, in a hockey team it is absolutely necessary that each player should be able to depend upon his confrères.
A team should feel that it can defeat any seven that opposes it, and each individual man of a team ought to believe that, if necessary, he can pass any one of his adversaries. ”

“ But as the game developed, many changes were found necessary in adapting it to the requirements of a rink, and the rules now used by the Amateur Hockey Association of Canada are in the main original with it.
Starting from Montreal, the game has made its way to Halifax and St. John on the east, and to Ottawa and Toronto on the west, and from the enthusiasm with which it has been taken up at these cities, it actually threatens to displace tobogganing and snow-shoeing in the affections of the young men. ”

“ The year 1899 saw hockey the most universally popular game in Canada. With the erection in Montreal, of the Arena rink, of whose interior an excellent picture is given on the opposite page, new blood was infused into the old clubs, and young ones sprang into life like rabbits in California. ”

“ Essentially an exciting game, hockey thrills the player and fascinates the spectator. The swift race up and down the ice. the dodging, the quick passing and fast skating, make it an infatuating game. From the time that the whistle blows for the face-off until the exciting moment when the gong announces the end of the match, the players are rushing, struggling, and the spectators straining their eyes to catch every glimpse of the play. ”

“ During all this time, after our American cousins had awakened to the wonderful possibilities of hockey, the game made rapid strides in popularity. Colleges and schools took an interest in the game, and organized teams, schedules were drawn up, the public flocked to the rinks to see the games, and now it bids fair to be, in time, as popular a winter sport among the Americans as it is among ourselves. Artificial rinks are being built in the principal cities of the union, and they afford to the young players even a greater advantage than we enjoy in Canada. ”

“ Not that hockey is native to the soil in the same sense as lacrosse. In a simpler form, and under different names, it has long existed in England; but the difference between the game as played there on the green and played in Canada on the ice, is as great as that between an old-fashioned game of rounders and a professional game of base-ball. ”

“ Only those who are in good condition and at home on their skates should undertake to play hockey. It is a violent game, and tests both wind and muscle to the utmost. The player must make up his mind to many falls, and no lack of hard knocks on shins and knuckles; for such things will happen, however faithfully the contestants try to keep to the rules. At the same time, these very characteristics make hockey one of the manliest of sports. Strength, speed, endurance, self-control, shrewdness, are the necessary qualities of one who would excel in it. ”

“ When I came here six years ago, there was not even a baseball team in the place—the young fellows gathered on street corners in summer, loafing and idling, revelling in crazy, foolish degrading stories—absolute degenerations—now see them—on the tail of a blizzard, they dig out their lacrosse sticks and start the game on the second fine day. From the time the hockey is over now, until hockey time again—these fellows talk and dream lacrosse, and a decenter, cleaner lot of lads you won't find anywhere. Activity has saved them—activity is growth, it is life—it is everything! ”

“ But, last year, a different complexion colored the comparison between the clubs, because the senior New York teams had arrived at such a high degree of science in the game, that the excellence of their playing made them eligible to honorably compete with the peers of the game in Canada. Indeed, it seems that the day is not far distant when the holders of the highest honors in hockey matters will have to look to themselves if they wish to successfully defend their laurels against a worthy opponent. ”

“ That a book on our national winter sport has not yet appeared in Canada is a marvel. If hockey were a novelty to us, then we might not reproach ourselves for our tardiness in this respect, but it is our most popular winter game, long established, thoroughly appreciated, and it certainly deserves a place with the other athletic pastimes that boast of a hand-book. ”

“ EVERY game, any game, aids considerably in developing a player's mind, and for hockey, a follower of the game may claim all the good effects in mental training that any other branch of sport provides, and more. The very adhering to the rules, the spirit of fair play that characterizes a manly game, the overcoming of all fears and all difficulties, the modest victory, the frank acknowledgement of defeat, all tend to build up, to educate, the mental faculties, just as the long practice, the swift race, and the hard check help to develope the physical man. ”

“ It is surprising how many ladies' teams exist in Canada, and although we do not read of fast, exciting games between these graceful votaries of the sport, it is a slow, small town that can glory in not one such. Thus, hockey players may flatter themselves that their game is honored in a way that no other of the kind may claim. ”