"This book is a staggering amount of research" (Editor)
Where did hockey really start? You might think that answer has been solved. Not really.
Montreal between 1850 to 1880 is presented as the most innovative hotbed of sports in history. In just 30 years this city "invents" hockey, lacrosse, American football, and if James Naismith had continued teaching at McGill University one more year - perhaps basketball. What is the coincidence that four of the five major North American sports were all founded in Montreal in a thirty year period? How is that possible? The obvious answer is that it wasn't. Nothing was "invented" in Montreal.
So what happened regarding the supposed "first game of organized hockey" in 1875? I realized that three very important questions have never been properly answered. Why Montreal? Why 1875? Why James Creighton? Then I began to get into the research and found: outright lies, misdirection, pasted and doctored photographs, and everywhere I would turn another secret or esoteric society would show up? What was going on? Even the origin of the Stanley Cup in 1893 has unanswered questions and strange coincidences.
There also seems to be covering over of the Native American stick-and-ball ice games, particularly those of the Mi'kmaq of Nova Scotia. They might be the true originators of hockey. Yet, they have a story that may link them to Ancient Egypt, Norwegian Vikings and the Knights Templar. What began as a simple examination of the origin of hockey, became a dive into the history of the 1800s.
Be prepared to be surprised!