First Girls' Hockey Team, 1985
1950's Hockey Practice Without Ice
1922 Varsity Hockey
1885 Roller Polo
The recent cold spell has put winter on my mind, as well as winter sports, which have a fairly long history here at the Governor's Academy. While ice hockey began as a sport in Canada in the mid to late 1800's, we have no records of the sport being played here that early. The earliest signs of hockey on campus began in 1885, when the academy sponsored what was known as roller polo, the precursor to roller hockey. By the 1920's, when the NHL had its first games in the US, Governor Dummer had its first ice hockey teams, both varsity and junior teams. These boys' teams played for many years until finally, in 1985, 14 years after the first girls were admitted to the academy, the boys were joined by the first girls' ice hockey team.
Hockey has also changed venues several times during its history at the academy. Players have played on a pond near Parsons, a rink next to Ingham, an outdoor rink, later enclosed, behind Perkins, and their current luxurious accomodations in the Whiston-Bragdon arena. For those who are able, a display of photographs related to our school's hockey history, along with newspaper clipping and skates from 1950 alum Charles Bowen, are on display currenly in the Phillips Building display case in the Cobb Room. Please stop by and check them out. For those of you unable to pass by the Cobb Room display, a sampling of photos from the display are included above.
