History of field hockey
Field hockey is a popular sport nowadays. But do we know where it came from? How were the rules formed? This game has quite an interesting past, so let’s find out.
The modern version came to us from the 19th century: 2 teams with 11 players that are supposed to score goals by maneuvering a ball into the opponent’s net. In 1886 the Hockey Association was found in England. Field hockey was included into Summer Olympic games in 1908 and was excluded in 1924. That’s when the Federation Internationale de Hockey sur Gazon (FIH) was created, which still exists to this day. Since 1949 a professional hockey club was based in London. In several years Teddington HC introduced a new shape for the ball.
The second country where field hockey became extremely popular was British Colonial India. The country’s first professional club was opened in 1885. This sport was becoming more and more popular every day. In 1928 when field hockey was included into Summer Olympic Games once again, India was winning gold medals every year from 1928 until 1956. The sport is now popular in Australia, New Zealand, Egypt, Hong Kong and the USA. It also gained its popularity among women in Canada and the USA. Men’s and women’s teams were formed in colleges, so within a short period of time field hockey was recognized by over 250 USA colleges.
The NCAA sets the amount of scholarships each college program can hand out per year, currently this total is set to 12. So over 1200 scholarships are available for high school players who are willing to play at the college level.