Modern ice hockey is often credited as being invented in 19th-century Montreal, in the Canadian province of Quebec. The first “world championship” was awarded at a Montreal winter carnival in 1883.
From there, the game expanded into the United States, with communities in Michigan and western Pennsylvania adopting the game. Eventually, the National Hockey Association (NHA) was formed in Montreal in 1910, then reorganized into the first iteration of the NHL in 1917.
Older forms of hockey can be traced back thousands of years to various parts of the world. Evidence of a crude form of hockey, played mostly with sticks, has been found in Ethiopia, Egypt and modern-day Iran.
The invention of hockey is on the mind of many sports fans after a memorable commercial in Super Bowl LVII highlighting the historical contributions of Canadians.