For more than a century, hockey historians have found that accurately tracing the sports origin is not only a difficult task but, is virtual impossibility. Ice hockey is traceable to games played on fields as far back as nearly 2500 years ago. In 478 BC, a Greek soldier, Hemostocoles, built a wall in Athens which contained a sculpture scene portraying two athletes in a face-off like stance holding sticks similar to those later used in field hockey. Perhaps native Americans were the first to play hockey like games. The Indians of Canada invented the field game lacrosse, which is known to us as Canada's national sport. The Alogonquins who inhabited the shores the St. Lawrence River played an ice game that was similar to lacrosse called "baggataway," played without skates and with an unlimited number of participants. French explorers who visited the St. Lawrence River area and northern areas of United States in the 1700's witnessed these matches. According to the dictionary of language of Micmacs Indians, published in 1888, the Micmacs of eastern Canada played an ice game called "oochamkunutk," which was played with a bat or stick. Another ice game played by the Micmacs was "alchamadijik," which was referred to in legends of the Micmacs. Early hockey-like games that came from across the Atlantic include the Field game Hurley from Ireland, field hockey from England, and the ice games English bandy and Kolven from Holland. Hurley is a ground game that is still popular in Ireland. It was originally played by an unlimited number of players representing one parish against another. A flat field hockey-like stick and a large ball were used. Irish immigrants, who came to work on the Shubenacadie Canal near Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, in 1831, brought Hurley to Canada. Field hockey was played in 1870 in England, as well as Egypt and India. Despite the fact that the rules for field hockey play a major role in the early evolution of ice hocke...