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Believed to be the oldest stick-and-ball game, field hockey is played in many parts of the world. It has not as yet caught on to any great extent in this country. The game is supposed to have originated in Persia about 2000 B.C. and it was played in various parts of Europe during the Middle Ages. In England it was forbidden, along with certain other sports, because it interfered with practice in archery, the basis of national defense.

The modern game was developed in England around the middle of the last century and it has spread to many countries. It has been played in the Olympic Games since 1908, but by men only.

The game had been played in a desultory sort of way at various points in the United States prior to 1926. However, in that year a group in New York City and Westchester County, headed by Henry K. Greer of Rye, N.Y., took up the game and attempted to arrange regular matches between men's teams. They were introduced to hockey by Miss Louise Roberts, an English coach at Rosemary Hall School for girls at Greenwich, Conn., who later became Mrs. Greer.

On Oct. 28, 1928, at the Germantown Cricket Club in Philadelphia what is believed to be the first organized match between American men's teams took place, the participants being Westchester Field Hockey Club of Rye and German-town Cricket Club. Westchester was the victor, 2-1. Since then there has been regular competition and there now are regularly organized teams in Westchester County, New York City, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Washington. There also were six teams in and about Los Angeles before World War II but these have not been reorganized. The game is played on a less organized basis by other groups in various parts of the country.

In view of the fact that field hockey was to be played in the Olympic Games of 1932, the United States Olympic Committee asked the American group to organize themselves for Olympic competition. Accordingly, in 1930 the Field Hockey Association of America was formed to control the men's sport and this association became affiliated with the American Olympic Association and with the Federation Internationale de Hockey.

The United States has been represented by men's field hockey teams in the Olympic Games of 1932, 1936 and 1948. The caliber of the American Olympic teams has improved greatly since 1932. The Olympic teams of 1936 and 1940 gave good accounts of themselves. In actual place scoring they were not successful, but their standard of competition was high. In 1936 they lost to the great world champion team of India, 7-0.