Ice Skating

Kearney Daily Hub

November 24, 1891 –
An Ice Skating rink was about to be opened.
The tank was 100 x 40 [half as wide, just as long as the VEC rink], 8 inches deep.
A band stand at the south end
Located in the old Central rink building

Saturday, November 28, 1891 –
Water was run into the tank and water froze solid by morning
Management was confident that if the weather held good they would open on Tuesday
Entertainment on opening night was to be a full brass band.

December 7, 1891 –
Ice skating rink was to open that night at 21st st.

December 8, 1891 –
The ice skating rink opened and about 150 young people skated. After everyone left it was flooded again for use the next day.

December 26, 1891 –
Apparently the rink was closed for a week to put in some improvements.
The ice was now 10” thick
A concession stand was put in the cloak room
Miller’s band would furnish music

January 11, 1892 –
The ice skating rink was to open that evening, The next night there would be a private party.

The street grader was being used to remove snow from the street car track.

February 21, 1908 –
City of Kearney passed an ordinance making it against the law to wear roller or ice skates on city sidewalks or crosswalks within city limits. Fine was up to $100.

December 15 & 17, 1921
Area at 22nd Street and 10th Ave. flooded for ice skating rink

January 5, 1925 –
Bodinson Hardware advertised skates both shoe and strap on, and hockey sticks

 

Ice Polo
 

Kearney Daily Hub

Saturday, January 16, 1892 –
Two teams, the Midways and the Phil Kearnys will cross sticks in a polo game on the ice Wednesday. There will be 5 men on each team because of the size of the ice. There would be additional music for the event.

“Polo is a game full of excitement from start to finish and when played aright is as scientific a one as may be numbered among strictly North American games.”

Tuesday, January 19, 1892 –
Postponed to Friday because the financial secretary had la grippe

Websites:

http://advance.uconn.edu/2002/020211/020211hs.htm

… ice polo - a game similar to hockey but with shorter sticks and a ball instead of a puck. This photo is of the Storrs Agricultural School ice polo team in about 1891, playing on the Duck Pond (Swan Lake). Ice polo, which developed in the United States, was replaced by ice hockey - which developed in Canada - early in the 20th century.

http://www.library.unh.edu/special/index.php/hockey/spalding-guide

1898 Spalding Ice Hockey & Ice Polo Guide
Printed in 1897, the 1898 Spalding Ice Hockey and Ice Polo Guide, is probably ice hockey’s earliest guidebook, predating any similar Canadian guidebook by two years. Now, thanks to a generous loan from the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame, the guide is publicly available for the first time, digitized by the University of New Hampshire’s Charles E. Holt Archives in conjunction with the UNH Library’s Digital Collections Initiative.

The Canadian guide, published in 1899, went digital a few years ago on the National Library of Canada Web site. “We wanted to match that with the American counterpart. It is our little birthday gift to Hockey East,” says Steve Hardy, UNH professor of kinesiology and faculty adviser to the Holt Hockey Archives.

The guide includes rich descriptions of the then-emerging game of hockey (“all the rapidity and great variety of action to be seen in lacrosse and polo [on horseback] without the roughness of the former or danger of the latter”), rules, and team photos, statistics and standings. A review of amateur hockey around the country proclaims Baltimore to be the nation’s most enthusiastic hockey city, and advertisements at the end of the guide offer hockey sticks (75 cents), pucks (50 cents), skates ($5), and miscellaneous sports equipment ranging from cycling saddles to boxing gloves.

In addition to the Spalding Guide, the Holt Hockey Archives is the official repository of Hockey East, the American Hockey Coaches Association, and the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) records. The collection holds NCAA rules committee meeting minutes back to 1929, ballots for the Hobey Baker Memorial Award, and “one of the best runs of hockey guidebooks anywhere,” says Hardy.

http://watterston.unh.edu:1801/view/action/singleViewer.do?dvs=1264719196241~980&locale=en_US&application=DIGITOOL-3&frameId=1&usePid1=true&usePid2=true - [photocopy of the book]

Examples: