Description

The rush was on; the fever had hit! Only a few years after people first strapped blades to their feet; only a few years after the first game was ever played, hockey arrived in Belleville. Played on natural ice, all was subject to the vagaries of Mother Nature. It began as a gentleman’s game with high praise for orderly conduct, a far cry from the game of today. But the excitement mounted. Finally, a winter sport. More and more athletes hurried to join the play. As the momentum continued to roll, it became a runaway hit with hockey teams and leagues springing up throughout the city. Play became rougher and with no protective equipment, injuries became more frequent. There were victories and there were losses, yet fans by the hundreds supported this new sport in good times and in bad. Picture this: open air rinks, fans arriving by train or on foot in bitter winter weather to stand on snowbanks to cheer the team on! Such was the lust for hockey action.

Author, Richard Hughes, leads the reader through thirty years of amazing change and progress. It all begins with the new and popular activity of ice skating, purported to improve general health and certain to banish the winter doldrums. Hughes goes on to tell a lively tale of the evolution of hockey, the often-changing rules and the dawn of a new era with the end of natural ice. Whether open- air or enclosed, rinks both for skating and for hockey became cultural centres and provided vitality to city life. With 70 photos, Hughes also highlights some of the city’s more prominent hockey families. He shoots! He scores!

 138 pages