The sport's world governing body is working on a project to gather hockey history and memorabilia from around the world and is calling on anyone who wants to donate time, energy or hockey artefacts to get in touch.

It is working with the National Hockey Museum (NHM) in England, which houses equipment, books, magazines, pictures and cuttings - with some dating back more than 150 years, to collect anything that can go towards creating a rich source of heritage for one of the oldest team sports in existence.

"Hockey has a rich and diverse heritage and we are really pleased that this will be protected and preserved forever," Leandro Negre, President of the FIH, told insidethegames.

"A hockey collection displayed in a permanent gallery, alongside a regular programme of special exhibitions, provides an excellent platform for sharing our illustrious history.

"The FIH is really grateful for the perseverance of Mike Smith, Patrick Rowley, Dil Bahra, Katie Dodd and David Wareham in making this happen.

"The FIH archives, artefacts, stories and heritage are going to a good home."

Balbir Singh and John Peake met at the National Hockey Museum in 2012 after some 64 years ©National Hockey Museum


The NHM, which opened in January 2012 and hopes to produce a definitive history of hockey, has already acquired more than 200 items to date, including the oldest known image of the modern game - an 1805 copy of an engraving showing a schoolboy with a hockey stick - and Briton Gerald Logan's gold medal from the London 1908 Olympics, where the sport made its Games debut.

The museum, curated by Smith, has welcomed a number of eminent visitors and facilitated the meeting of Indian three-times Olympic hockey champion Balbir Singh and British Olympian John Peake in 2012 - the pair had last met when Singh's team took gold and Peake's silver at the London 1948 Games.

Negre, who visited the museum last year, has also donated a number of his own personal items, including one of his playing shirts and the home knitted jumper in Spanish colours that he always played in.

More information can be found on the NHM website here and to get involved email [email protected].

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