Lately, Philadelphia seems to just have it out for Montreal.
While also leading the Canadiens, 3-1, in the Eastern Conference Finals, practically putting to rest Canada’s lone hope for a Stanley Cup, Philly may have one-upped Montreal, and Canada, once more.
According to Swedish historians, new evidence has been found that suggests that Canada may not be the natural North American birthplace of hockey, and that it may have originated in Philadelphia.
Historians Carl Giden and Patrick Houda have found evidence of an ice stick-and-ball game named “hurly” played on the frozen Schuylkill river as early as 1785. The two award-winning historical detectives discovered published evidence of a future U.S. Naval hero, Stephen Decatur, playing “hurly” 15 years before the town of Windsor, Nova Scotia claims to have invented it.
The Philadelphia evidence gives proof that Philly has been playing a variation of the sport nearly a century before Montreal gave birth to the modern game in 1875. Other evidence has traced a variation of hockey dating back prior to 1785 in Scotland.
Chew on that for a second.
For more reading on this topic, check out the original story by Randy Boswell, Canwest News Service.
Phila.Bright 