Everybody knows that true sports fans show their team spirit through clothing, Jerseys, player action figures etc. Basically whoever has the coolest stuff is the better fan (or so the mentality goes.) But where did this all start? Glad you asked.

It all starts with what makes a possession so valuable, either monetary wise or sentimentally. Basically this boils down to who was the previous owner. A wooden bat from a sports store could be worth 50-100 dollars, but the same bat is worth millions in the hands of Babe Ruth.  But why do people spend a fortune on something just because a famous person touched it? The answer is emotion. The bat from the sports store gives you little to no joy because there are no memories connected to it, therefore no emotions are triggered from holding it. That being said, the Babe Ruth bat instantly brings back memories of watching him play, your first baseball game, your first home run, etc. People basically pay high prices for objects that give them a dopamine rush, and business see this as an opportunity. Websites like Amazon and other sports memorabilia stores thrive on this emotion based spending.

Now before you get all defensive i am just laying out the facts. I too own sporting memorabilia and for the same reason. They make us feel good and that's ok. It is just important to understand why.

Hockey is believed to be derived from medieval stick and ball games that more closely resemble today's field hockey. The Irish game of hurling is a perfect example of this. The evidence of people actually playing on ice however was not uncovered until 1797 by Carl Giden. He had uncovered a carving that depicted people on the St.Lawrence river with skates on and looked to be engaged in a game of shinny. No equipment was depicted and was believed to not be invented until the early 1800's. 

While people know the hockey is Canada's national winter sport, most of them don't know that Montreal is actually the birth place of modern day hockey. This is were the first game was held in 1875 I believe in Victoria indoor rink. Instead of a puc, they used a flat piece of wood (which was rounded of course) and used teams with 9 players aside. Now if you think that was crowded, they only spaced the nets about 8 feet apart. so ya not a lot of room for some of the fancy footwork that we see today.

The team that started it all off was non other than the hard hitting Boston Bruins. They are the oldest US based team still playing today starting their career in 1924.

The U.S. amature hockey league was what started the actual organization of hockey, with rules and regulations it started to become more than just shinny. The first game was between Yale and Josh Hopkins collegiettes which also seen the first professional hockey player as per definition. 

American football is believed to be derived from the highly popular, similar game of rugby. It wasn't until Walter Camp that the rules changed to a more recognizable format. Camp is deemed un-officially, the father of football. The most important of the changes that he introduced were the line at which the players started (line of scrimmage) and the 1st down distance.

A man nick named Pudge was the first man to actually e paid to play the game, during a match between Allegheny and Pittsburg in which the sum was 500 dollars. The exchange of money could be charted as the first "pro football contract". 

1932 was the first NFL playoff game. It was at this time that yard lines were introduced as well as the repositioning of the goal post. 

Even before rugby, there was a similar game in Rome in which the 2 were believed to stem from. The game was called "Harpastum". The game was played with a hard, softball sized ball and was deemed to be very aggressive.