Category: 文化 Culture

Cultural Comparison: Canadian Ice Hockey vs. American Football, Part I

Vincent A. @ ELC Research International

 

 

Most Popular Sports in the U.S. and Canada

I am beginning to write this article while glancing at an American football game on my TV. I have no particular attraction to any particularly team nor am I familiar with the rules, but still I watch American football games on TV, at times. For, unlike rugby, forward passing is permitted in American football, and this makes the game quite speedy and dynamic. In addition to this, despite the fact that really gigantic men run at each other, surprisingly, there is no violence between players and skirmishes rarely occur. So, the game looks very pleasant. The progress of the game is never interrupted by meaningless squabbles, and one down (the situation in which the ball is judged halted as, for example, when the ball holder for the offense falls to the ground) is immediately followed by a subsequent attack. Thus, the players are in a hurry to prepare the next down and it makes American football look fast and energetic, too. American football is the most popular sporting event in America, the popularity being notably higher than that of baseball and basketball.

On the other hand, ice hockey is the most popular sport in Canada, and it is designated as the winter national sport in Canada. In fact, ice hockey is the sport in which Canada is strongest in international competitions. Ice hockey is characterized by speed and power. Since a hard puck is hit on ice, which has little friction, its speed is high, for professional players, 160 km/h or more. Because players skating on ice hit each other without lowering their speed, the impact is extraordinary, but such violent collisions are a popular part of this sport.

 

Every day in the season, games of the NHL (National Hockey League) are televised, and Canadians are so enthusiastic about the game that riots could occur over the results. However, I don’t like to watch hockey games. The reason is simple: because ice hockey is really full of violence.

Players engaging in fist fights is not unusual in ice hockey. What is more unpleasant is players’ intentional physical attacks. In ice hockey, a physical contact called a “body check,” blocking an opponent with an elbow or a shoulder so as to take the puck or to interfere with the motion of an opposing player, is allowed. But, the fact is that, under the name of body check, unnecessary and outrageous physical attacks meant to particularly hurt the opponent, or hitting the opponent with an elbow or stick while deceiving referees, are quite normal occurrences. It is clear that hockey players possess the mistaken idea that being violent is manly. But, violence in sports is totally unexciting.

American football originated from rugby football in Britain, evolving in the U.S. into American football as it is seen today, while ice hockey was born and developed in Canada. Currently, both American football and ice hockey are popular sports on the same North America continent, and both are games in which gigantic men collide with each other violently. Then, there is a mystery: very little unnecessary violence occurs in American football, whereas there are lots of gratuitous violent acts in ice hockey. Why are these games so different?

 

The answer is that American football and ice hockey are different not merely in the place where they grew; these are totally different in terms of their evolution as a sport. Namely, football and ice hockey have evolved in different ways due to their historical and cultural backgrounds which are totally different. The development of the former seems very American, whereas that of the latter seems very Canadian.

Here, I would like to refer to an excellent book concerning the history of American sports: “The Rise of Big-Ten College Athletics”, by Ronald A. Smith, published by Oxford University Press in 1988, as Smith describes how violence was overcome in college athletics. A Japanese edition of this book has been published with a title The Birth of College Sports, Yoshiro Shiraishi and Kouzo Iwata, supervising translators, published by Tamagawa university press in 2001. I was privileged to be included as one of the translators of the Japanese edition, and transcribed one chapter which describes how university authorities and faculties agonized over controlling the uninterrupted expansion of college athletics.

 

Copyright ©2013-2018 Japanese Canadian Community Organization of Victoria

 

This article is a revision of the article entitled “In-Depth Cultural Comparison, No. 1: Comparing Canada and America; Ice Hockey vs. American Football” printed in Japonism Victoria, vol. 8 no.2, 2013 published by Japanese Canadian Community Organization of Victoria.

 

> Canadian Ice Hockey vs. American Football, Part II

> Canadian Ice Hockey vs. American Football, Part III

> Canadian Ice Hockey vs. American Football, Part IV

> Canadian Ice Hockey vs. American Football, Part V

> Canadian Ice Hockey vs. American Football, Part VI

> Canadian Ice Hockey vs. American Football, Part VII

 

 

Cultural Comparison: Canadian Ice Hockey vs. American Football, Part II

Vincent A. @ ELC Research International

 

 

The American Revolutionary War and Developments of College Athletics

American football has been developed in the U.S. as part of college athletics. The greatest factor in the success of college athletics in the U.S. is that America won the Revolutionary War (1775-1783) against Britain. Actually, if America fell to Britain in the Revolutionary War or, alternatively, if the Revolutionary War itself had not happened, it is very doubtful that there would be American football as we see it today.

The significance of America winning the Revolutionary War is quite great. The influence thereof was not confined to the political arena. Rather, it deeply influenced the whole American society and peoples’ lives. One example is the success of college athletics in American universities, and American football was developed as a leading sport of such college athletics.

The Declaration of Independence promulgated in America in 1776, the year after the Revolutionary War began, declares that human beings are created equal and endowed with rights the of life, liberty and pursuit of happiness. But, in addition to this, it definitely asserts that, although the power of the government should be respected, it applies only when the government functions to protect these people’s rights. If the government becomes oppressive and ignores the people’s rights, people have a right to establish a new government. The spirit of the Declaration of Independence, which completely denies the British monarchy and which asserts that all human beings are equal and able to pursue happiness, gradually spread through American society after the United States won the Revolutionary War.

The “wind of freedom” blowing in American society then blew into American universities, and it bewildered university authorities and faculties a great deal. This was primarily because most American universities in those days were founded by religious denominations and almost all the trustees, presidents and faculties were church ministers.

 

 

Essentially, university authorities and faculties deemed students to be ill-natured, and they were devoted to educating the students so they became decent-living human beings by imprinting good behaviors on them and erasing evil behaviors. To this end, they used an educational method comprised of imposing strict duties and restricting undesirable behaviors. So, self-study hours were obliged in addition to class studies. As regards religion, attendance to religion classes and also to worship in the morning and evening was required. In addition, a wide variety of behavioral restrictions were put on every aspect of students’ dormitory life: drinking, smoking, dancing, card playing, physical activity for fun, and leaving without permission, among other things, were prohibited. Violators were punished severely. In addition, the class studies of the university were mainly based on recitation of Greek and Latin, which meant that leaning things by heart was crucial. For students, college life was therefore oppressive, choking up their breath.

Then, the “wind of freedom” blew into the universities. Students were awakened to the worth of freedom and indispensable nature of human rights, and they begun to rebel against the faculties who had suppressed them with obligations and restrictions. In fact, many disturbances happened among the student bodies of various American universities and students begun to carry out their activities by themselves, particularly extracurricular activities after school. Although more “gentle” extracurricular activities such as intellectual work or social activity started even before the American Revolutionary War, after America won, sports making full use of the body begun to attract the students’ enthusiasm. This was the origin of college athletics.

 

 

Copyright ©2013-2018 Japanese Canadian Community Organization of Victoria

 

This article is a revision of the article entitled “In-Depth Cultural Comparison, No. 1: Comparing Canada and America; Ice Hockey vs. American Football” printed in Japonism Victoria, vol. 8 no.2, 2013 published by Japanese Canadian Community Organization of Victoria.

 

Canadian Ice Hockey vs. American Football, Part I <

 

> Canadian Ice Hockey vs. American Football, Part III

> Canadian Ice Hockey vs. American Football, Part IV

> Canadian Ice Hockey vs. American Football, Part V

> Canadian Ice Hockey vs. American Football, Part VI

> Canadian Ice Hockey vs. American Football, Part VII

 

 

Cultural Comparison: Canadian Ice Hockey vs. American Football, Part III

Vincent A. @ ELC Research International

 

 

Why Football became a Leading Sport?

College athletics which were budding at American universities early in the 19th century grew soon to be intercollegiate athletics, and by the beginning of the 20th century, these were distributed widely throughout American universities. Among them, football had been developed into the most popular sport. There are some reasons for that.

In the days before intercollegiate athletics began and football was merely a college activity, football was already an event arousing students’ enthusiasm. In those days, football was carried out every autumn by all college students as games called “class battles.” In fact, these were not just a sport but a scuffle organized by upperclassmen to haze freshmen. Football was an annual event for thoroughly persecuting freshmen in order to instill in them the superiority of the upperclassmen. Major tactics were hitting opponents with fists or kicking their shins so that they could not run any more. Quite naturally, every year the games were bloody, with a lot of students injured. So, the first Monday of every September when the class battles were carried out was called “Bloody Monday.”

American universities in those days had a small number of students, and every year, all the freshmen were assembled into one and the same class. The class was unchanged till graduation, which meant that every year till the graduation the students would fight in the bloody class battles together with the same classmates. Because of the fierceness of the fight, the “comrades-in-arms” who fought together would naturally have a strong fellowship. However, such solidarity was not merely shared by classmates. Even students of different classes of the whole university, fighting each other, had some solidarity in the sense that they were fellows who fought each other in the same fierce battle. By virtue of the significant function football had, football was loved by students even though it was really a “dangerous game.”

In 1852, a regatta game was held between Harvard and Yale, and this was the first intercollegiate athletic game. Around a thousand spectators came to a lakeside resort town and, as a result, the owners of a railroad company, hotels, and lake ships and so on made a large profit. So, it was discovered that intercollegiate athletics lead to commercial profits. Taking this opportunity, enterprises and cities or towns begun to contribute an item or a sum of money as a prize to help hold various intercollegiate athletic games and the popularity of college athletics soared.

 

 

On the other hand, the success of intercollegiate athletics, in which students competed in front of a large number of spectators, brought a profit to the university as well. The profit was not merely that the name of the university was spread widely; intercollegiate athletics improved the image of the university. That is, although at that time the university was believed to be an institution for educating pale and feeble intellectuals, this image of the university was replaced by one of an institution educating well-rounded youth, superior both intellectually and physically. Among all college athletics, football had the largest effect because of its power and physicality. Since the roughness of football was well suited to the mentality of Americans at that time, when they had a preference for toughness and manliness, football gained a wide popularity and took the leading role in college athletics.

Just at that time, in the 19th century, the number of universities was increasing, and collecting a sufficient number of new students was a problem for every university. So, for the university, the significance of winning in intercollegiate athletics was increasing.

As the success in the game became more important, the tactics of football were improved more and more. However, the rough and tumble aspect did not decrease. Rather, it was greatly intensified. Faculties attempted to abolish what they considered the barbarous game of football many times, but since football was high in popularity, was accepted socially and also was profitable for the university, the abolition efforts failed. But, why and how did football, which was so crude in those days, evolve to being as sophisticated as it is at present?

I believe that it is the consequence of the fact that, on one hand, American college athletics had a lot of contradictions and dilemmas and, on the other hand, that university faculties, particularly, have struggled with these dilemmas quite sincerely while, at the same time, being anguished by them. Indeed, it can be said that the present shape and prosperity of American football arose from the very history of anguish of the people who fought to overcome the contradictions and dilemmas presented, historically, by the game. More details on this subject will be forthcoming in the later part.

 

 

Copyright ©2013-2018 Japanese Canadian Community Organization of Victoria

 

This article is a revision of the article entitled “In-Depth Cultural Comparison, No. 1: Comparing Canada and America; Ice Hockey vs. American Football” printed in Japonism Victoria, vol. 8 no.2, 2013 published by Japanese Canadian Community Organization of Victoria.

 

Canadian Ice Hockey vs. American Football, Part I <

Canadian Ice Hockey vs. American Football, Part II <

 

> Canadian Ice Hockey vs. American Football, Part IV

> Canadian Ice Hockey vs. American Football, Part V

> Canadian Ice Hockey vs. American Football, Part VI

> Canadian Ice Hockey vs. American Football, Part VII

 

 

Cultural Comparison: Canadian Ice Hockey vs. American Football, Part IV

Vincent A. @ ELC Research International

 

 

In the preceding parts, I first raised the question that, while ice hockey and American football have a similarity in that they are both the No. 1 sports in Canada and America, respectively, there is a clear difference in that violence such as fights occur frequently in ice hockey games whereas these seldom occur in American football games. Why is this? Then I pointed out that the history and cultural background that have guided the development of sports are totally different in America and Canada, and described particularly the influence of the American Revolutionary War in the U.S.A. In Part II, I would like to explain how American football, which was originally a very bloody sport, has overcome its brutality, and then compare it with ice hockey.

 

Dilemmas That Annoyed Faculties

American college athletics, which were budding as extracurricular activities for university students early in the 19th century, achieved great popularity as intercollegiate athletic games began to be played. In particular, football became the leading competition in college athletics because of its physical power. However, football was really, at that time, a violent sport and casualties occurred frequently. Why did such a dangerous sport evolve into one, as we can see now, where brutality is almost gone? I believe it is because, on one hand, college athletics, including football, were part of the controversial area of extracurricular activities for students and, on the other hand, that university faculties had struggled to resolve the problems posed by extracurricular activities quite sincerely although quite distressed by them.

The most fundamental dilemma with regard to college athletics, bothering faculties, was an antinomy that the more college athletics expanded, the more the mission of the university in society became difficult to achieve.

The mission of the university, higher education, is in a wider sense, to create and preserve knowledge and pass on it to society and younger generations. To achieve this mission, faculties need to work hard in their education and research activities and students in their learning activities. However, as college athletics expanded, winning in popular intercollegiate athletic games became about more than just the honor of players. It became a good opportunity to enhance people’s recognition of the name of the university and to create a powerful appealing image of faculty who were shaping youth who had superiority not only in the intellectual realm but also in the physical one. But, despite the degree to which college athletics acquired wide popularity or the reputation of the university was boosted, college athletics were, in the end, extracurricular activities for students.

The principal occupation for students was to attend the classes and worship as well as to study in their dormitories during prescribed hours, as most American universities in those days were private schools founded by religious denominations and had students living in dormitories. However, in order to participate in intercollegiate athletic games, students had to be absent from classes or worship at times. Furthermore, if the game was held in another town, remote from the university, they had to travel there to attend. Faculty attempted to control the students’ activities by using the authority given to them, as much as possible: by limiting exercise hours; by not approving students’ absence from classes or worship; and by objecting to students’ participation in intercollegiate games. However, they could not easily control the enthusiasm of university students who had recognized the value of the freedom which had been revealed by the American Revolutionary War. Furthermore, most American universities were private schools and they had to secure fresh students every year in a society in which there was a trend toward a growing number of universities. So, the universities had to make themselves sufficiently attractive for both the students and the parents. As a result, Faculty were not allowed to unconditionally forbid students’ sports activities or participation in intercollegiate athletic games because these were a strong attractor for the university. The faculties were caught in this dilemma for decades.

 

 

You may not think of it as a serious conflict between the universities’ mission and the faculties’ worry that extracurricular sports would get in the way of the accomplishment of that mission. However, those who are members of college faculties, like myself, could be said in general to be relatively sensitive to the role their jobs play in society. This may be slightly different from people engaged in non-academic jobs in society. Besides, most faculties in those days were comprised of more or less earnest church ministers. It is not difficult to imagine that they were quite nervous about the adverse effects of college athletics on the students’ studies.

Another dilemma that bothered the faculties was the conflict between amateurism and both commercialization and professionalization of sports. The question of commercialization can be divided into the issues of large prizes (of cash or goods) and game ticket receipts, and professionalization into the issues of employment of paid professional coaches, the eligibility of players and holding games with professional teams. Actually, American college athletics had been exposed to huge waves of commercialization and professionalization, since its beginnings.

More specifically, when intercollegiate athletics gained great popularity and it was discovered that college sports lead to commercial profits or stimulation of the local economy, enterprises or cities/towns begun to financially support and help hold intercollegiate athletic games. Also, some organizations would offer a large prize to the winner of the game. Because the prize was so attractive to student athletes, it created in them a trend of craving the victory for the prize, an attitude which was totally incompatible with amateurism.

 

Amateurism was, originally, a discriminatory and exclusive concept devised by people of the British aristocracy to shut those of the working classes out of the “elegant play” of sports. It was based on the thought that those who needed to work to earn their daily bread should not be eligible to participate in sports. During the American Revolutionary War, America sent a “Dear John letter”, more specifically, “the Declaration of Independence” to Britain, a letter from a nation in which there was no aristocracy as there was in Britain. Therefore, amateurism in America was not as rigid as in Britain. Nevertheless, the American universities had to appear to society as if they were respecting the spirit of amateurism. This was necessary so as avoid criticism of commercialization and professionalization of college athletics.

The employment of paid professional coaches was a very difficult issue. As the significance of winning the game became greater, the game strategy and the training methodology needed to increase in sophistication. In fact, Yale and Harvard which were the most prestigious schools in college athletics employed professional coaches in their regatta teams as early as the 1860’s. Since the beginning, the incompatible ideas that college athletics had to appear to society to be respecting the spirit of amateurism on one hand, while they had to take professional methods in order to win the games on the other hand, had been an uninterrupted annoyance for college faculties.

The third dilemma that was annoying faculties was an ironic one, and I believe this must be the most serious issue: in order to make college athletics exactly as the faculties desired, it was necessary to control every detail of the students’ activity and, of course, the faculties wanted to do that. However, in reality, they had no spare time to administer the students’ extracurricular activities, or special knowledge of how to do it. Thus, in the end, they had no option other than entrusting the operation of college athletics to students. For example, even a single intercollegiate athletic game required complicated management procedures including negotiation with the opponent school team, approval of the faculties, reservation of an athletic ground, reservation of transport facilities, reservation of accommodations, etc. Furthermore, with regard to the training regime, in order to devise an effective training method when victory was regarded as quite important, adequate technical knowledge was required. The faculties, who had no spare time for the students’ extracurricular activities, or skills for organizing them, were able to interfere with the college athletics only by restricting the students’ self-governing activities based on their ability to grant or deny approval.

 

 

Copyright ©2013-2018 Japanese Canadian Community Organization of Victoria

 

This article is a revision of the article entitled “In-Depth Cultural Comparison, No. 2: Comparing Canada and America; Ice Hockey vs. American Football” printed in Japonism Victoria, vol. 8 no.3, 2013 published by Japanese Canadian Community Organization of Victoria.

 

 

Canadian Ice Hockey vs. American Football, Part I <

Canadian Ice Hockey vs. American Football, Part II <

Canadian Ice Hockey vs. American Football, Part III <

 

> Canadian Ice Hockey vs. American Football, Part V

> Canadian Ice Hockey vs. American Football, Part VI

> Canadian Ice Hockey vs. American Football, Part VII

 

 

Cultural Comparison: Canadian Ice Hockey vs. American Football, Part V

Vincent A. @ ELC Research International

 

 

Modernization of Football

College students in those days were forced to live an oppressive life in which classes were mainly comprised of recitation of Greek and Latin (rote learning) while dormitory life was full of rules, so extracurricular activities were the only thing they found in their college life to which they could devote themselves for personal reasons. Those students who loved college athletics, and the idea of making full use of their physical power so intensely, had to spend their surplus energy in extra hours in ways other than games or exercises, if they were not playing. Thus, intercollegiate athletic games were commonly associated with student misconduct such as drunkenness, turmoil and breaking things. It caused great distress to college faculties, too.

In addition to these, since football was really a “dangerous sport” causing many casualties, it was frequently questioned by faculty with regard to the violence and brutality. In fact, several deaths occurred every year in football games. Although the death toll in the earlier years is unavailable, a record shows that in 1905 there were eighteen deaths in football games. It could be three in intercollegiate athletic games according to Watterson (*1). Since football was a terribly dangerous sport, and college athletics themselves were troublesome things, it is not hard to imagine that for college faculties football was the worst sport to deal with.

The college faculties repeatedly argued to ban the violent game of football. In fact, some universities abolished football. Eventually, an incident called the “Football Crisis,” which is very famous in the history of American sports, occurred. It was in the autumn of 1905.

Some time before, several faculties attempted to set up an inter-institutional athletic committee comprised of representatives of several universities to discuss general rules and regulations with reference to football, the game which caused the most casualties. This was because football was considered too dangerous and the problem too difficult for the participating universities to deal with individually. However, since the universities had their own policies with regard to college athletics and the supervision of students, the inter-institutional committee plan finally ran aground.

 

 

Meanwhile, in the autumn of 1905, a photograph of a bloody face of a college student Bob Maxwell who got injured in an intercollegiate athletic game of football was carried by a newspaper. President Theodore Roosevelt was enraged by the brutality and the lack of sportsmanship in football, and called college gownsmen to the White House and threatened to prohibit football unless it was reformed. This was called the “Football Crisis” by the general public. In this affair, Roosevelt was spoken of as a savior who saved football from the crisis of abolition.

Anecdotes featuring a politician rarely mention them this favorably, and in this football crisis as well, the facts are a bit different from the public perception. In the first place, the President had no authority to abolish sports. Rather, Roosevelt himself was fond of football, and before the injury to Maxwell was reported, he thought about how the bloody sport could be reformed. Finally, he invited representatives of Harvard, Yale and Princeton, which were major college athletics schools, to a lunch in the White House and suggested to them to found an inter-institutional committee (*2).

Furthermore, everything was not solved by the “words of authority” from Roosevelt at all. Although the gownsmen began to move toward starting an inter-institutional committee, since major universities were competing with each other and people had their own expectations, things did not go on smoothly. After many twists and turns, the National College Athletic Association (NCAA) finally started in 1906, the next year. Since football was the leading sport in college athletics, the NCAA afterwards developed into a top organization governing the whole of college athletics. However, ad initium as it started, Harvard and Yale engaged in a struggle for power and did not participate in the NCAA. Thus, the launch of the NCAA was very uncertain. Several years were needed until the administration of the NCAA got on track and major universities agreed upon reform of football. Furthermore, casualties continued in football games afterwards, and football crises occurred many times. Every time, the rules were reformed and, finally, as late as in the latter half of the 20th century, unnecessary roughness of football had almost gone.

 

 

The NCAA was founded a half century after the regatta game was held between Harvard and Yale, which was the first intercollegiate athletic game in American history. During this half century, while the college faculties were agonizing over the several dilemmas involving college athletics, they struggled with these difficult problems quite sincerely. It could be said that the efforts of the faculties finally succeeded in and lead to the foundation of an inter-institutional committee, the NCAA.

Walter Camp is known as the “Father of American Football”. He was a famous football player and became afterwards the athletic adviser of Yale. He made a great contribution to the development of football in the area of establishing rules, for example. He was critical about the participation of university authorities/faculties in college athletics, and stated as follows: “Neither the faculties nor other critics assisted in building the structure of college athletics. It is a structure which students unaided have builded.”

According to Camp, what the faculties did would be nothing but interference in college athletics. For sure, the faculties had neither the time for administering the students’ activities in detail nor technical knowledge sufficient to do it. Thus, they might be able to participate in the college athletics only by imposing restrictions on the students’ activities. However, the reason why football was able to overcome its most serious defect, violence, and lack of sportsmanship is very much because faculties interfered with college athletics, including football. Camp was an outstanding football player, and he seems to have had a pre-modern aesthetic of “being strong is manliness.” However, probably due to such pre-modernity, the authority of Camp in the world of football faded rapidly after the foundation of NCAA, that is, the beginning of modernization of football.

 

*1:  “College Football”, John S. Watterson, published by The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, 2000

*2:   ibid, “College Football”

 

 

Copyright ©2013-2018 Japanese Canadian Community Organization of Victoria

 

This article is a revision of the article entitled “In-Depth Cultural Comparison, No. 2: Comparing Canada and America; Ice Hockey vs. American Football” printed in Japonism Victoria, vol. 8 no.3, 2013 published by Japanese Canadian Community Organization of Victoria.

 

 

Canadian Ice Hockey vs. American Football, Part I <

Canadian Ice Hockey vs. American Football, Part II <

Canadian Ice Hockey vs. American Football, Part III <

Canadian Ice Hockey vs. American Football, Part VI <

 

> Canadian Ice Hockey vs. American Football, Part VI

> Canadian Ice Hockey vs. American Football, Part VII

 

 

 

Cultural Comparison: Canadian Ice Hockey vs. American Football, Part VI

Vincent A. @ ELC Research International

 

 

Ice Hockey: A Sport Having Missed the Bus for Modernization

 In contrast to football, ice hockey missed the “bus for modernization”, I believe. Players’ fighting with fists during ice hockey games is not unusual at all, and this is essentially the same as football games in the 19th century. Clearly, players and coaches in ice hockey are dominated by a pre-modern ethos or spirit of “being strong is manliness.” In fact, among modern sports, except martial arts, ice hockey is the only sport in which players fighting with fists in front of the public is allowed (*3).

It is very hard for me to think that Canadians being gentle at heart and loving “Tim Hortons” (*4) so much are essentially fond of violence. But, I am a bit confused with one mystery. In Canada, when a film or video including violence or sexuality is shown on TV, a message warning that viewer discretion is advised is displayed so that nothing inappropriate is seen by children. However, why are such thoughtful Canadians so unconcerned about the repeated fights during televised ice hockey games which are shown without any warning? It is a real mystery to me. Is ice hockey some kind of exception?

As far as ice hockey is concerned, it seems as if time halted in the 19th century. Why? What does it mean?

 

 

I believe that probably it is indeed one aspect of the Canadian culture. But, why is it so? Probably, this results from Canada’s extraordinarily lucky history that Canadians have had little experience of being driven into a corner or a really miserable situation.

The meaning is as follows. Canada did not need to take a stand against Britain as America confronted Britain in the American Revolutionary War. Namely, since Canada remained in the British Commonwealth, Canada didn’t need follow the U.S. that entirely denied the authority of the British sovereign and opposed to Britain to establish a government based on the people’s will. On the other hand, however, Canada was able to at least partially import the fruits of the democracy born and nurtured in America, the neighboring country. As a result, while there are differences in the details, Canada have been able to build a democratic nation generally analogous to the U.S. Thus, Canada got the fruits without making substantial sacrifices.

This is, so to speak, a schema: Americans being driven into a difficult situation have to strive desperately to find certain measures to resolve the difficulties; then the results are imported into Canada to enrich Canadian society. We can see such a schema in evidence in various places in the society of Canada.

In such a schema, it is very natural that Canadian people are attentive to trends in America. For, there might be some “fruit” there which can be imported into Canada. The TV news programs in Canada include a lot of reports about matters happening in the U.S. A typical example is the fact that in Canadian news programs the U.S. President appears more frequently than Canadian Prime Minister. This can be regarded as a sign of the behavioral tendency of Canadian people, keeping their antennas directed toward America.

 

 

The same schema applies to the college athletics described above. In college athletics as well, Canada was very lucky, because most Canadian universities were public schools founded by provinces, and there was no need to attract a sufficient number of fresh students every year as in private schools. Therefore, compared to American college faculties, the faculties of Canadian universities were not annoyed by the same problems as in American college athletics and were not forced to struggle with them. However, on the other hand, the fruits of the modernization of football, which was born from the anguish of the faculties of American universities, was fully imported into Canadian football. Here, Canada got the fruits without making sacrifices, again.

However, as far as ice hockey is concerned, unfortunately, there was no model in America that could be imported into Canada. The ice hockey was born in Canada and, naturally, there was no model of “modernized ice hockey” in America. So, Canadian ice hockey had no opportunity of being modernized at all.

Furthermore, at least up to now, most Canadians have deemed ice hockey as a sport having no major problem needing to be considered seriously. Thus, ice hockey has been frozen for too long, maintaining its pre-modern status.

 

 

*3:    The current rules prescribe a very light penalty for violence, and do not function to stop violence. The frequent occurrences of fights are evidence thereof. For instance, when some player is subject to sitting out of the game as a penalty, a substitute player can participate, in his place, immediately. Thus, the pursuit of victory is not affected at all.

*4:    “Tim Hortons” is the name of Canada’s largest fast food chain restaurant mainly featuring doughnuts and coffees. It is loved by many Canadians of a wide range of ages. The name comes from Tim Horton who was a famous professional hockey player in the mid-1900’s and who was one of the founders of the restaurant.

 

Proofreading: David Gordon-MacDonald

 

 

Copyright ©2013-2018 Japanese Canadian Community Organization of Victoria

 

This article is a revision of the article entitled “In-Depth Cultural Comparison, No. 2: Comparing Canada and America; Ice Hockey vs. American Football” printed in Japonism Victoria, vol. 8 no.3, 2013 published by Japanese Canadian Community Organization of Victoria.

 

 

Canadian Ice Hockey vs. American Football, Part I <

Canadian Ice Hockey vs. American Football, Part II <

Canadian Ice Hockey vs. American Football, Part III <

Canadian Ice Hockey vs. American Football, Part VI <

Canadian Ice Hockey vs. American Football, Part V <

 

> Canadian Ice Hockey vs. American Football, Part VII

 

 

Cultural Comparison: Canadian Ice Hockey vs. American Football, Part VII

Vincent A. @ ELC Research International

 

 

David Gordon-MacDonald, the proofreader of the articles, has given a quite interesting suggestion about the origin of Canadian ice hockey, as follows:

 

Ice hockey started on rinks made on village ponds and icy back yards. It was a community game but also a game played by people who considered themselves, in many cases, rough and ready frontiersmen. So, physicality was always a great part of the game. Hockey has always been a working man’s sport and did not have the early intervention from the educated classes that many other sports had. For instance, the British working man’s game, soccer football, had the first version of its current rules written down by a nobleman, as I recall. That kind of thing never happened in village sport of ice hockey.

It is thought that ice hockey started in Nova Scotia, the Scottish area of Canada in the 19th century as a version of Shinty, a Scottish Highland game with some similarities to field hockey, but played here on ice instead of grass. Shinty sticks are flat on each side and you can see how they could evolve into the modern hockey stick. However, even in Scotland, Shinty was a village game or a game played in communities of Highlanders who migrated to cities.

In fact, the game may have had similar origins to the Irish game of Hurling, as a Celtic warrior’s pastime. Games like Shinty in Scotland and Hurling in Ireland are related to stick-and-ball games used by the Celtic warrior class to keep themselves in shape without actual combat. In Ireland, there are traces of such games going back a couple of thousand years.

There has never been anything academic about either Shinty or ice hockey, unlike in the American collegiate athletics as discussed in this article. Canadian universities, today, have hockey programs, but it always seems like an imperfect fit.

 

 

Actually, the author had an experience of watching an ice hockey practice game by the rink, only once. The speed and the impact of the moving players and the puck shot by them, as well as the live sound of scraping off the ice surface, were so intense and powerful, which were totally different from those we could see or hear in the TV. I realize the reason why the ice hockey wins a great popularity in Canada.

But, for the very reason that the ice hockey is a quite attractive sport as such, it would be enjoyable even without a violence in the game. I would be happy if Canadian people realize this. Though the U.S.A. might not have had the model of ice hockey, since there is a good example of American football having been refined from a brutal sport wherein casualties occurred frequently to an advanced sport wherein the violence is well controlled, I believe the Canadian ice hockey had better pursue the modernization modeling after the football. It’s never too late.

 

 

Copyright ©2013-2018 Japanese Canadian Community Organization of Victoria

 

This article is a revision of the article entitled “In-Depth Cultural Comparison, No. 2: Comparing Canada and America; Ice Hockey vs. American Football” printed in Japonism Victoria, vol. 8 no.3, 2013 published by Japanese Canadian Community Organization of Victoria.

 

 

Canadian Ice Hockey vs. American Football, Part I <

Canadian Ice Hockey vs. American Football, Part II <

Canadian Ice Hockey vs. American Football, Part III <

Canadian Ice Hockey vs. American Football, Part VI <

Canadian Ice Hockey vs. American Football, Part V <

Canadian Ice Hockey vs. American Football, Part VI <