Though the basic elements of hockey span back thousands of years, the first true indications of what would later be called hockey appear in early 1800s. The first known mention of the term hockey is documented as just before the turn of the 19^th century in 1999. It is believed that hockey developed out of necessity more so than planned innovation. As immigrants settled in the Great White North, they were influenced by the stick and ball games they had learned from the natives of the land, i.e. lacrosse, which uses a stick and ball. Due to snow and ice filled conditions, it was tough to play using the traditional rules and equipment, needing to evolve a game to better suit the Canadian winter. Soon with skates on their feet, sticks crafted by local native populations, the first hockey players in the world began to popularize the game. Though at this point, the game was much more rudimentary, dividing the players into two teams with the central objective not to score the ball but to advance it all the way down to the other end of the ice, perhaps closer to modern day ultimate Frisbee than what we would associate with hockey.Of course early in hockey’s history, few if any set rules had been developed or standardized. Hockey as we know it today and see on the professional level would not begin to take shape until much later. The first organized indoor hockey game took place in 1875 on March 3, in Montreal, Canada. Two lineups of 9 player teams met on the ice, using a flat puck instead of a ball during their contest. The now famous puck shape was originally designed with spectator safety in mind, as no boards were in place for their protection. Goals were in place, 6 feet from post to post, though this was not the first use of goals in a hockey game, rather implemented soon after the much more basic version of the game saw the light of day. Two years later in 1877, the rules were standardized even further when a group of McGill University students set official rules based on the similar game of field hockey. Upon completion they founded the world’s first ice hockey club, the McGill University Hockey Club, as other club teams formed around them soon after. By 1883 the game had become so popular the first hockey “world championships” were allowed into the Montreal Winter Carnival.