ICE HOCKEY

Wairarapa Times-Age, 22 April 1939, Page 5

ICE HOCKEY

POPULARITY IN CANADA. ARTIFICIAL RINKS INCREASE POSSIBILITIES. MONTREAL. Canada may well be called the father of ice hockey. This present-day popular game appears to have commenced when a nondescript game of “shinny” took place on McGill University grounds here, back in 1879. A student of the university is credited with producing the first puck. The first real ice hockey game, as is known today, is said to have taken place in Kingston, Ontario, nine years later. Since then this popular Canadian game has spread to the United States, England and Continental Europe, and previous to hostilities was even played on artificial icc at Shanghai. Artificial icc rinks have greatly increased the opportunities for the game. The popularity and growth of ice hockey has developed into a million dollar sport in Canada. This amount includes equipment, public attendance, buildings, salaries, and various other phases connected with this winter pastime. In addition it has given rise to a highly specialised and intricate system for the gathering and dissemination of information as to the results of the various games, telegraph circuits being provided direct from rinks for the stories sent out by sports writers for their respective newspapers, as well as circuits for radio network broadcasts.