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Birthplace of Ice Hockey
Windsor,  Nova  Scotia, Canada - c. 1800
by Garth Vaughan © 2001
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Origin   Evolution   Hockeyists   Windsor

Origins

Overview

Written Evidence

Dispelling
transparent pixel gifOther Claims

Original
Equipment
"MicMac" Sticks
Wooden Pucks
N.S. Box Net
 Skates
spacerStock
spacerStock vs Starr
spacerStarr Hockey

Further Evidence

 

Starr "Hockey" Skates

Starr Hockey Skate - 1866 Starr Hockey Skate - 1866 Forbes Patent 1866 Forbes Patent 1866

In 1866, a skate especially designed for Ice Hockey was developed with a rounded front and back on a wider blade. It was these skates that the rest of Canada's hockeyists used as they first learned and then honed their skills at playing Nova Scotia's wonderful winter game. Starr "Hockey" skates scored with Canada's Ice Hockey players, and facilitated the development of the game like nothing else before or since.

McGill University's First Hockey Team 1881 McGill University's First Hockey Team 1881

Indeed, when McGill University first photographed its hockey team on ice in 1881, a close look at the players' feet shows them wearing both Starr "Acme Club" Skates and Starr "Hockey" Skates, the only ones of that type available in the world at that time.

Edmonton Ladies 1899 Edmonton Ladies 1899

In 1899 when the Edmonton Ladies' Hockey Team arranged a similar photograph, the centre of interest is the ladies applying their world-famous Starr "Acme Club" Skates.

Puck Stop "Puck Stop"

In the 1890s, Starr developed a steel mound on the upper part of the skate blade especially for the Goal Tender, in order to prevent the puck from scoring by passing through the skate blade. The so-called "Puck-Stop" has been used on "goalie" skates to this very day. At the turn of the century, The Starr Mfg. Co., which by then was selling single blade skates which attached to boots (bought separately) with small screws, developed a light-weight steel tube skate which was attached to boots at the factory.

The The "Silver King" Tube Skate - 1900
The "Silver King" tube skate was the favourite of skatists and hockeyists alike as it appeared in 1900. As late as 1927, legendary NHL manager Art Ross was still endorsing Starr "Hockey" Tube Skates for the entire Boston Bruins Hockey team.

Starr Manufacturing - Plaque Starr Manufacturing - Plaque

In 1938, because of cheaper imported skates from Europe, and a narrowing margin on wholesale profits, the Starr Mfg. Co. bowed to these pressures and ceased producing the famous Starr skates. Likewise, the company, which had been producing and distributing hand-made Micmac hockey sticks, long the favorite of Canada's hockeyists, succumbed to the pressure of both lower prices and superior goods produced mechanically by other factories elsewhere in Canada.

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All text contained in the birthplaceofhockey.com website © by Garth Vaughan 2001. All rights reserved. All images contained in the birthplaceofhockey.com website © Garth Vaughan 2001. All rights reserved. No part of the contents of this site may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including printing, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system without written permission from Garth Vaughan, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review.