Violence in ice hockey has been an identifying staple in the sport since “the first hockey leagues formed in the mid-1880’s,” (Ice Hockey Origins, Growth and Changes in the Game). Since the modern era of hockey, and the creation of the Stanley Cup, hockey has been viewed as one of the most violent sports in western civilization. Clarence Campbell, former NHL President has even said that “[w]ithout violence, there would be no such thing as hockey,” (Coakley). To an extent hockey is unmatched in illegal assaults by any other sport, in both amateur and professional leagues, (Colburn). This does not mean that the contact in other sports is not as intense as hockey, for example rugby and football are both very “violent” sports, but this “violence” is carried out within the rules of the game.
Hockey is different because it allows fistfights, which are acts of violence that are carried out outside the rules of the game. Hockey fights occur during stoppages of play, or if one breaks out during the play, the play is whistled down immediately in order to break up the fight. What makes this phenomenon interesting is the fact that in many amateur leagues and most professional leagues a five-minute penalty is assessed to the players involved in a fight. In other sports, where similar interactions between players do occur occasionally, an immediate ejection from the game is the penalty. What this does is “tacitly permit fighting by imposing a relatively lenient penalty,” (Colburn).
During the early years of hockey’s creation, people that watched hockey enjoyed the rough and tumble style of play. As a result the sport had a small and loyal fan base that enjoyed the violence of the sport, including the fistfights that occurred throughout games. As the years went on hockey began to grow in popularity across North America and as a result it began to get more publicity in the