Hockey

I grew up playing hockey on a lake. It was always a tough slog as the reeds frozen in the ice and the persistent covering of snow would make for difficult skating. And for strong legs.

During this time, periodically the lake would freeze before the snow would fall. During these rare instances, my friends and I would put a “boom box” in the middle of the lake and play a lake-wide game of tag. The sound would carry across the whole lake. Under cover of darkness, with no place to hide, we would chase each other for miles to the sound of the music. I remember being able to hear the ice crack. The crack starting somewhere in the dark distance and carrying toward you like a frozen earthquake.

Hockey was an integral part of my life. From age four until age 29, hockey was defining. Recently, after a 25-year run and a 14-year absence, I started to play hockey again. As I sat in the locker-room that first night back, I stared in awe at the Kevlar-shin pads and the heat-formed skates. Where were the time-honored garter-belts?

I think the guys in the locker room thought I was staring at other things.

But my how times have changed. A little hockey equipment history:

Skates

The first skates probably came from Scandinavia, over 2,000 years ago. But it was 18-year-old James Whelpley, of New Brunswick, who invented the Long Reach Skate in 1857. The blades had to be fastened to a skater's boot with leather straps and buckles. In 1865, John Forbes of the Starr Manufacturing Company came up with the first self-fastening skate. This blade clamped into place quickly. It wasn't until the invention of the tube skate, in 1900, that blades began to be attached to the bottom of a skating boot with rivets.

I recently purchased skates that were baked onto my feet. When I was young, we used to soak our skates in water and then put them in the oven in order to form fit them. Today, you go to a skate shop where they measure and fit a plastic-based skate, they put the skate in a custom oven, you fit the skate on your foot and sit for 15 minutes. The skate forms around your foot.

Helmets

Before 1928, some players wore headgear for looks -- and it wasn't always helmets that the players put on. Quebec's Herb Scott wore a pink hankerchief around his head in a game against Ottawa in 1892. Expecting rough play in a Stanley Cup game in 1905, referee Mike Grant wore a construction worker's hard hat. Defenceman Johnny Crawford hid a bald head under a leather helmet in the 1940s.

Going without a helmet was a dangerous thing to do. Countless injuries could have been avoided and more than a few hockey careers wouldn't have ended so early, if all players had worn helmets. It wasn't until the 1970s that the NHL created a rule that any players signing on for the NHL after June 1, 1979, had to wear a helmet. Those already playing were allowed to make their own choice about whether or not to wear a helmet. Craig MacTavish, of the St. Louis Blues, was the last bareheaded NHL player, skating his final season in 1995-1996.

Pucks

Hockey pucks weren't always made of black rubber like they are today. The early pucks were probably balls, but other objects were also used, such as stones, lumps of coal, or frozen cow or horse poop. Wooden pucks were used for many years. Mothers sometimes put hot baked potatoes into their children's skates so that the skates would be cozy and warm when the children reached the rink or pond. The potatoes were not thrown away. They eventually froze and were used as pucks.

Nets

The first hockey goal didn't have a net at all. The goal was just two rocks placed on the ice at each end of the rink. Eventually the rocks were replaced by two posts. As early as 1896, Niagara players from the Southern Ontario Hockey Association used a fishing net, fastened to the goal posts, to avoid arguments over goals.

Sticks

The first hockey sticks were carved by Mi'kmaq natives of Nova Scotia. They used a wood called hornbeam, also known as ironwood because it is so strong. The best trees for making sticks had roots that grew out in the correct angle for a stick blade. When the hornbeam was used up, the carvers turned to yellow birch, another hard wood. The early sticks looked more like today's field-hockey sticks, with a blade that curved up. They were also shorter and heavier.

Lord Stanley’s Cup

The English Governor General of Canada, Lord Stanley of Preston, was so impressed that in 1892 he bought a silver bowl with an interior gold finish and decreed that it be given each year to the best amateur team in Canada. That trophy, of course, has come to be known as the Stanley Cup and is awarded today to the franchise that wins the National Hockey League playoffs.