Records exist of it having been played in Persia in 2000 BC. In mediaeval Europe, pictures of men playing a game with hooked sticks appear on stained-glass windows at both the Canterbury and Gloucester cathedrals. It became so popular by the Middle Ages that it was banned in England for a time because it interfered with the practice of archery, which was the basis for national defence.

The first hockey club is considered to be the Blackheath Football and Hockey Club in south-east London, which dates back to at least 1861, and possibly the 1840s. The first groups to organise the game were formed in Great Britain. These included the National Hockey Union that was located in the Bristol area from 1887-1895, and the national governing body, the Amateur Hockey Association, that was formed in London in 1886.

Hockey truly developed as a British sport, before being carried to the four corners of the British Empire by the nation's armed forces and other workers. Most of the dominant nations in the sport are, or were, members of the British Empire. This includes India, Pakistan, Australia, New Zealand and England. Other nations have come to the fore in more recent times to make the game a truly worldwide sport.

(BOCOG)