Ice Hockey: Uniforms


Figure 1.--Early hockey uniforms varied. These Canadian boys are playing ice hockey in Montreal during 1904. They wear knee-length pants. Other boys wore shoerter-length shorts more like basketball pants.

Modern uniforms are heavily padded. We are less sure about early uniforms. A Canadian reader tells us that the uniform evolved from the kneepants and long stockings that boys once wore, even during the winter. We are not sure as to when the current uniform became an accepted convention. One source suggests that Canadian high schools in 1912 introduced short pants with long stockings for the game instead of long pants. The idea was to give the players greater freedom of movement and to facilitate greater speed in skating. The stockings were held up by an elastic garter belt with four garters attached (still standard equipment today). The boys wore shin guards under the stockings below the knee which they secured originally by rubber strips made from inner tubes (see closeup of the lower leg in the insert). Today velcro straps are used instead. Note that in this photo the boy wears his hockey jersey with a belt and the jersey is tucked into his shorts. Later it was discovered that boys would have more freedom of movement if they wore suspenders to hold up the shorts and then wore the jersey on top without being tucked in, which is what boys now wear during games. We notice schools playing with these short pants uniforms into the 1930s. An example here is the Holderness School in 1930-31.

The 1890s

The note an ice hockey team at the Loyal Catholic School located in Montral Canada. Their portrait was taken in 1899. They wear light-colored kneepants and black long stockings. We are not positive, however, that they actually played in these uniforms.

The 1900s


A Canadian reader tells us that the uniform evolved from the kneepants and long stockings that boys once wore, even during the winter. We are not sure as to when the current uniform became an accepted convention. The boys here in 1904 are wearing kneepants (figure 1). They are, however, uniform pants and not the boys regular pants. Kneepants were very common for even older boys in the 1900s.

The 1910s

One source suggests that Canadian high schools in 1912 introduced short pants with long stockings for the game instead of long pants. Perhaps the short pants worn for basketball were an influence here. The shorts worn for soccer may have been another factor, but we are unsure how popular soccer was jn Canada at the time. It was not very popular in America. The idea was to give the players greater freedom of movement and to facilitate greater speed in skating. The stockings were held up by an elastic garter belt with four garters attached (still standard equipment today). The boys wore shin guards under the stockings below the knee which they secured originally by rubber strips made from inner tubes (see closeup of the lower leg in the insert). Today velcro straps are used instead. Note that in this photo the boy wears his hockey jersey with a belt and the jersey is tucked into his shorts. Later it was discovered that boys would have more freedom of movement if they wore suspenders to hold up the shorts and then wore the jersey on top without being tucked in, which is what boys now wear during games.

The 1920s


The 1930s

We note quite a number of articles touching on hockey during the 1930s. The uniform shorts tended to be shorter than is the case in modern hockey uniforms. There also was a notable lack of padding and prorective equipment. Several appeared in the Boy Scout magazine Boys Life. Hockey was even featured on the cover in a depictiin of Winter sports (January 1930). We notice schools playing with these short pants uniforms into the 1930s. An example here is the Holderness School in 1930-31. An illustration for a hockey story in Boys Life (January 1932) shows the boys playing in a short pants uniform. Of course illustrations are not as definitive as actual photographs.

The 1980s

Modern uniforms are heavily padded. We are less sure about early uniforms.






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Created: 4:02 AM 9/10/2004
Last updated: 9:55 PM 8/7/2005