Various museums offer
evidence that a form of the game was played by Romans and Greeks, and by the
Aztec Indians in South America several centuries before Columbus landed in the
New World. So, one will be tempted to ask what at all is the ‘game of sticks’?
Hockey- as it is popularly known in the world of sports is was
first used hoquet, a middle French word for a shepherd's stave. Hockey
began to form clearer roots throughout England in the sixteen and seventeen
hundreds. These were treacherous games that often combined an entire village
versus another village and teams could often have up to a hundred players and
the players often played through major injuries and endured several days of
these games.
The modern game of hockey had evolved gradually from Eton
University in England when they actually began to formulate rules around 1860s
to govern the sport. Then the first Hockey Association and club in the history
of sport were formed in 1875 which clarified more rules. These rules also made
provisions for the game to accommodate eleven players aside on a field. Safety
equipment such as helmets, pads, mouth pieces and protective eye shield were
all introduced into the game.
The appeal for the game to appear on the international stage
grew tremendously after more clubs and leagues were created which eventually paved
way for the inclusion of hockey
in the Olympic Games, held in London
in 1908 with England, Ireland and Scotland competing separately . After having
made its first appearance in the 1908 Games, hockey was subsequently dropped
from the 1912 Stockholm Games, and reappeared in 1920 in Antwerp, Netherland,
before being omitted again in Paris in 1924. The Paris organizers refused to
include hockey on the basis that the sport had no International Federation.
Soon after, hockey had made its first
steps towards an International Federation when the Hockey Association in England
and the Belgium Hockey Association agreed to mutually recognize each other to
regulate international hockey relations. The French Association followed thereafter,
but this was not considered sufficient.
Following hockey's
omission from the 1924 Paris Games, Paul Léautey , a Frenchman, took the initiative
of advocating for the formation of a world governing body for the sport. Mr.
Léautey called together representatives from seven National Federations to form
the sport's international governing body. He succeeded in his venture and the
same year, International Hockey Federation was (IHF) established in Paris becoming
the first President of the International Hockey Federation. The six founding
members, which represented both men's and women's hockey in their countries,
were Austria, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, France, Hungary, Spain and Switzerland.
The growth of the
International Hockey Federation from its beginning has been very progressive
with other countries also joining making 127 members. The IHF serves as
the 'guardian' of the sport. It works in co-operation with both the national
and continental organizations to ensure consistency and unity in hockey around
the world. The IHF not only regulates the sport, but is also responsible for
its development and promotion so as to guarantee a secure future for hockey.
