Oxford University Ice Hockey Club, sometimes known as Oxford Blues, is one of the world's oldest ice hockey

Ice hockey

Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...

 teams. Tradition places the origin of the club in 1885

1885 in sports

-American football:College championship* College football national championship – Princeton Tigers-Association football:England* FA Cup final – Blackburn Rovers 2–0 Queen's Park at The Oval...

, when a match is said to have been played against Cambridge University Ice Hockey Club

Cambridge University Ice Hockey Club

Cambridge University Ice Hockey Club at the University of Cambridge, Cambridge, England, is one of the oldest ice hockey teams in the world.While the team claims a history dating back to 1885, the first strong evidence for their existence comes on 16 March 1900, when they played Oxford University...

 at St Moritz. This date is recognised by the Hockey Hall of Fame

Hockey Hall of Fame

The Hockey Hall of Fame is located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Dedicated to the history of ice hockey, it is both a museum and a hall of fame. It holds exhibits about players, teams, National Hockey League records, memorabilia and NHL trophies, including the Stanley Cup...

, and prior to the 1985 Ice Hockey Varsity Match

Ice Hockey Varsity Match

The Ice Hockey Varsity Match is a longstanding competition between the Cambridge and Oxford University Ice Hockey Clubs.Tradition places the origin of the match in 1885, when a game is said to have been played in St Moritz...

, the International Ice Hockey Federation

International Ice Hockey Federation

The International Ice Hockey Federation is the worldwide governing body for ice hockey and in-line hockey. It is based in Zurich, Switzerland, and has 70 members...

 formally recognised it as the first ice hockey match played in Europe. However, there is no contemporary evidence that this match took place, and Oxford now claims that this was a bandy

Bandy

Bandy is a team winter sport played on ice, in which skaters use sticks to direct a ball into the opposing team's goal.The rules of the game have many similarities to those of association football: the game is played on a rectangle of ice the same size as a football field. Each team has 11 players,...

 match.

The oldest surviving evidence of their existence is a team photo and roster from 1895, when they played Cambridge in another bandy match. In 1900, they played Cambridge at Princes Skating Club in the first official Varsity Match, winning 7-6. Their captain

Captain (ice hockey)

In ice hockey, each team can designate an official captain for each game. The player serving as captain during the game wears a "C" on his or her jersey...

 in this match was future cricket

Cricket

Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...

er Bernard Bosanquet

Bernard Bosanquet (cricketer)

Bernard James Tindal Bosanquet was an English cricketer best known for inventing the googly, a delivery designed to deceive the batsman. When bowled, it appears to be a leg break, but after pitching the ball turns in the opposite direction to that which is expected, behaving as an off break instead...

.

With the introduction of the Rhodes Scholarship

Rhodes Scholarship

The Rhodes Scholarship, named after Cecil Rhodes, is an international postgraduate award for study at the University of Oxford. It was the first large-scale programme of international scholarships, and is widely considered the "world's most prestigious scholarship" by many public sources such as...

, the top Canadian players at Oxford University formed the Oxford Canadians, but after World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

, the Oxford University team included Rhodes Scholars. Such players included Lester Pearson, Roland Michener

Roland Michener

Daniel Roland Michener , commonly known as Roland Michener, was a Canadian lawyer, politician, and diplomat who served as Governor General of Canada, the 20th since Canadian Confederation....

, George F.G. Stanley, Clarence Campbell

Clarence Campbell

Clarence Sutherland Campbell OBE, QC was the third president of the National Hockey League from 1946 to 1977.-Early life and career:...

, Allan Blakeney

Allan Blakeney

Allan Emrys Blakeney, PC, OC, SOM, QC, FRSC was the tenth Premier of the Canadian province of Saskatchewan from 1971 to 1982, and leader of the Saskatchewan New Democratic Party .-Life and career:...

, Ronald Martland

Ronald Martland

Ronald Martland, CC, QC, AOE was a Canadian Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada.Born in Liverpool, England, he was the second Albertan ever to be appointed to the Supreme Court of Canada. Justice Martland attended the University of Alberta and obtained a B.A. in 1926 and an LL.B in 1928...

 and Otto Lang

Otto Lang

Otto Emil Lang, PC, OC, QC, is a Canadian politician.In 1963, he was appointed Dean of Law at the University of Saskatchewan, the youngest person to be appointed to that position, and served until 1969....

. Thus strengthened, it won the Spengler Cup

Spengler Cup

The Spengler Cup is an annual ice hockey tournament held in Davos, Switzerland. First held in 1923, the Spengler Cup is often cited as the oldest invitational ice hockey tournament in the world. The event is hosted by the Swiss team HC Davos and played each year in Davos, Switzerland, between...

 in 1923, 1925 and 1931. In 1933, they tied the tournament with LTC Prague

LTC Prague

LTC Praha was a famous ice hockey club founded in 1903 in Prague.The main sport in this club was originally tennis. This changed in 1927 when there was a quarrel among ice hockey players for Sparta Prague, and many elite players moved to LTC. The club then became very famous. Many players from LTC...

.

In 1931, the club entered the first English League

English League (ice hockey)

The English League was an early ice hockey league in England. It was founded in 1931 and operated until 1936 when it disbanded, being replaced by the English National League.A new league of the same name was founded during 1988 and continued on until 1997....

, winning both the inaugural season and the second. When the League disbanded in 1936, they did not follow most of the teams into the English National League

English National League

For the current league see English National Ice Hockey LeagueThe English National League was an early ice hockey league in England. It was founded in 1935 by most of the teams who had previously competed in the English League. It was suspended during the Second World War, but returned in 1946...

, but in 1938 joined the lower level London and Provincial League. From 1948 to 55, they played in the Southern Intermediate League. After a long break from league competition, they entered two seasons of the Southern League

Southern League (ice hockey)

The Southern League was the top-flight ice hockey league in England from 1970, when it was formed as the counterpart to the Scottish Northern League...

 in the 1970s, then joined the Inter-City League

Inter-City League

The Inter-City League, also known as the English League South, was the top-flight ice hockey league in southern England from 1978, when it alongside the English League North it replaced the Southern League...

 and finally played in the first season of the British Hockey League

British Hockey League

The British Hockey League was the top-flight ice hockey league in the United Kingdom from 1982 until 1996, when it was replaced by the Ice Hockey Superleague and the British National League...

.

Today, the University team is based at the Oxford Ice Rink

Oxford Ice Rink

Oxford Ice Rink is a 56 × 26m ice rink located on Oxpens Road in Oxford, England. It is a ten-minute walk from Oxford city centre and railway station....

. They continue to play an annual varsity match, and also compete in the British Universities Ice Hockey Association

British Universities Ice Hockey Association

The British Universities Ice Hockey Association was founded in spring term 2003 by a group of enthusiastic hockey players from the universities of Oxford, London, Nottingham and Newcastle.- History of the BUIHA :...

.

Other former players who are Wikipedia notable

• Charles Herbert Little
  Charles Herbert Little
  Commander Charles Herbert Little RCN, CD, FRCGS was Canadian Director of Naval Intelligence during the Second World War and an author.Charles Herbert Little was born and raised in Mount Forest, Ontario...
  
  
• Danny Williams
  Danny Williams (politician)
  Daniel E. "Danny" Williams, QC, MHA is a Canadian politician, businessman and lawyer who served as the ninth Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador between November 6, 2003, and December 3, 2010. Williams was born and raised in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador...