When did players start taping their sticks?

[meangene]

I watch clips of old games from the 70's, and most of the guys don't have tape on their blades, and the ones that do use it very sparingly, often covering just an inch or so of blade. When did taping sticks become mainstream?

 

[tarheelhockey]

Taping blades was already common by the mid-1920s. This photo is from 1924:

Just based on general viewing of photos and without thinking about it too carefully, I'd say it came into the "mainstream" sometime in the 1910s and was ubiquitous a decade later. Prior to the 1910s you see a lot of bare stick blades in photos.

While it does seem that the small-tape method was in style in the 1970s, fuller tape jobs were still pretty common. This is from the 1972 Summit Series:

Lots of variety there, from the full blade to what appears to be a single strip of white tape.

 

[Ohashi_Jouzu*]

I believe "the early 20s" is generally regarded as when players started taping sticks for grip and, indeed, blade protection/rigidity. I couldn't imagine such a material with an adhesive backing being available commercially much before that.

Given that there's actual function at some level in terms of protecting the blade from soaking up moisture and warping, it would surprise me if there wasn't a more "low tech" solution that preceded it, somewhere.

 

[tarheelhockey]

I believe "the early 20s" is generally regarded as when players started taping sticks for grip and, indeed, blade protection/rigidity. I couldn't imagine such a material with an adhesive backing being available commercially much before that.

I think you can safely push it back another decade, based on the photo evidence. This was in 1914:

Now, as you mentioned, the economy of tape may have been different then. These were some of the best players in the world, so they may have taken luxuries that average people didn't.

 

[meangene]

Taping blades was already common by the mid-1920s. This photo is from 1924:

Just based on general viewing of photos and without thinking about it too carefully, I'd say it came into the "mainstream" sometime in the 1910s and was ubiquitous a decade later. Prior to the 1910s you see a lot of bare stick blades in photos.

While it does seem that the small-tape method was in style in the 1970s, fuller tape jobs were still pretty common. This is from the 1972 Summit Series:

Lots of variety there, from the full blade to what appears to be a single strip of white tape.

Interesting. Just from looking at old pics the style of taping blades in the 90's was pretty crazy. Lots of guys who seemed to prefer very little tape. Wonder if that was just the style then or if the game was so different that it required different tape jobs.

 

[VanIslander]

Before duct tape was gaffer tape, used in early film production and ice hockey sticks.

A 1911 picture of the legendary Ottawa Silver Seven franchise with multiple HHOFers in the frame.

Nowadays sticks are stronger and don't need reinforcement.

 

[Ohashi_Jouzu*]

I think you can safely push it back another decade, based on the photo evidence. This was in 1914:

A 1911 picture of the legendary Ottawa Silver Seven franchise with multiple HHOFers in the frame.

Nice. 1914 and 1911 push it back significantly further than "early 20s". Really wonder how far we can go back now.

 

[Ohashi_Jouzu*]

Before duct tape was gaffer tape, used in early film production and ice hockey sticks...

Strictly speaking, "gaffers tape" is a World War II invention by Johnson&Johnson, so we're going much further back than that.

Now, as you mentioned, the economy of tape may have been different then. These were some of the best players in the world, so they may have taken luxuries that average people didn't.

Which is obviously to be expected. I'm just wondering exactly what the tape would have been at this point. "Cotton duck tape" was used to wrap cables on the Manhattan Bridge in 1902 according to the duct tape wiki, so I wonder if that's what we're looking at.

 

[tarheelhockey]

Really wonder how far we can go back now.

Just poking around on Google Images, tape starts to get scarcer as you get closer to 1900.

This fellow from 1899 is an exception to the apparent naked-blade standard of that period:

 

[Killion]

^^^ Yeah, Im going to guess early 1900's, circa 1900-1910.

 

[Ohashi_Jouzu*]

Right on, so we're officially at least as far back as 1899. That's pretty interesting, somewhat depending on exactly what it is on dude's stick there. Looks tapey enough to me. Wonder if it's a repair or not. I'm thinking of heading back into some of those roots of hockey threads to see if artists have even depicted such things at any earlier dates in some of those paintings/drawings/etc. I can't say as I recall any, to be honest, but that would be intriguing as well.

 

[tarheelhockey]

Ok, in my informal search these were the oldest I could find:

Both of these are from the 1896-97 season.

The very oldest is this photo of the Stanley Cup winning 1896 Winnipeg Victorias, with a little patch of white tape on the left.

Go back any further, and blade tape goes from scarce to nonexistent. I'm not saying definitively that nobody anywhere was using it, but it would have been quite the outlier at that point. So I'd say circa 1896 was the mainstream origin point, with increasing popularity over the following 25 years until nearly everyone finally got on board in the 20s.

 

[BenchBrawl]

Very interesting, I wonder what kind of material those old "tapes" were made of.

 

[Ohashi_Jouzu*]

Nice work. Those are some of the pics I remember, for sure. Interesting that so many of the NYAC hockey team seemed to have them taped in '96/97. Obviously a well-understood/prevalent element (whether for grip, structure, or both) even then.

 

[Ohashi_Jouzu*]

Very interesting, I wonder what kind of material those old "tapes" were made of.

Almost certainly cotton. But beyond that (rubber, powders, whatever else it could have been dipped in or treated with), it's really hard to say. In a time before manufacturing and distribution of such a thing, I would imagine there were myriad local solutions - no doubt borrowed from other intended use(s).