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The Stick: A history, a celebration, an elegy
Pick up a hockey stick. You hold an iconic symbol of the place that gave it birth, a tangible bit of Canadian culture, a link to Canada’s past. From the earliest one-piece sticks, carved from tree roots by the Mi’kmaqs of Nova Scotia, to the two— and three—piece models turned out in small towns in Ontario and Quebec, to the composite models now produced with scientific precision by Easton, the stick has always reflected something distinctly Canadian. Today it has become "cyber-product," globally sourced, anonymously produced, and expertly marketed.
As sporting tool, as weapon, and as cultural artifact, the stick is a part of Canadian history. Consider the London schoolteacher whose basement is a treasure trove of old sticks. The Calgary handyman who turns broken sticks into kids’ furniture. The NHL owner whose rec room floor is made of hockey sticks. The artist who sculpts oversized sticks out of granite. Dowbiggin introduces us to Stan Mikita, who invented the curved blade (or did he?); Jeremy Roenick, who lets no one else touch his stick; Adam Oates, who uses a stubby, cut-off blade; and Eric Lindros, whose stick is so stiff most people can’t even bend it. We discover how Carl Brewer helped bring European laminating expertise to North America and how Ken Dryden inadvertently changed the way sticks were marketed.
Full of love and lore, The Stick is a celebration of our past that’s destined to become as treasured as an autographed, game-used, Wayne Gretzky Titan 1002.
As sporting tool, as weapon, and as cultural artifact, the stick is a part of Canadian history. Consider the London schoolteacher whose basement is a treasure trove of old sticks. The Calgary handyman who turns broken sticks into kids’ furniture. The NHL owner whose rec room floor is made of hockey sticks. The artist who sculpts oversized sticks out of granite. Dowbiggin introduces us to Stan Mikita, who invented the curved blade (or did he?); Jeremy Roenick, who lets no one else touch his stick; Adam Oates, who uses a stubby, cut-off blade; and Eric Lindros, whose stick is so stiff most people can’t even bend it. We discover how Carl Brewer helped bring European laminating expertise to North America and how Ken Dryden inadvertently changed the way sticks were marketed.
Full of love and lore, The Stick is a celebration of our past that’s destined to become as treasured as an autographed, game-used, Wayne Gretzky Titan 1002.
200 pages, Hardcover
First published September 18, 2001
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13 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
April 11, 2020
Pandemic Book #2
If you want to read about men and their sticks... I suppose this may appeal to someone who really likes hockey. I just found it uninteresting; the chapter on violence and the hockey stick was interesting but hated how it implies all Canadians are violent.
If you want to read about men and their sticks... I suppose this may appeal to someone who really likes hockey. I just found it uninteresting; the chapter on violence and the hockey stick was interesting but hated how it implies all Canadians are violent.
September 16, 2020
Fascinating story about the origins of the hockey stick. I particularly liked the individual player stories and how each made contributions to the stick development over time.
March 26, 2023
An interesting history of the hockey stick from its beginnings to present day. There is a fair amount of general hockey history too, which is a bonus.
December 4, 2015
This book chronicles the interesting history of the hockey stick, it's origins and evolution. I'd recommend it for anyone curious about hockey history. However, for the fair-weathered fan it might be a little dry.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews