Spongee

Spongee or sponge hockey is a winter sport and a variant of ice hockey that is played on outdoor ice rinks without ice hockey skates. It is played almost exclusively in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, and has been played by thousands of players in dozens of leagues. The sport takes its name from the type of puck used, which is soft sponge puck as opposed to the hard vulcanized rubber puck used in traditional ice hockey.

Spongee

Nicknames	"sponge hockey" "tweeter"
First played	1950 (1950) First organized league founded by John Robertson in 1978
Characteristics
Contact	No
Type	Outdoors only Team sport Winter sport
Equipment	Soft sponge puck Ice hockey stick Ice hockey equipment Broomball shoes or winter boots/running shoes
Venue	Standard outdoor Canadian ice hockey rink
Presence
Country or region	Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Olympic	No
Paralympic	No
World Games	No

Equipment is generally the same as that used in ice hockey but player positions are different. The sport excludes bodychecking and is non-contact. The sport was at one time called "Tweeter" because of the sound the early pucks made. Since spongee's beginning in roughly the 1950s, players have increasingly begun to use broomball shoes instead of street shoes or winter boots.

Winnipeg's first organized spongee league was started in 1978 by Canadian, John Robertson, though the game itself is believed to actually date back to 1950s Winnipeg, making it younger than broomball but potentially older than the Canadian organized sport of ringette by about a decade. It is believed that the "Tumbleweeds" are Manitoba's oldest continuously active spongee team.

External links

• Sponge hockey rules
• Spongee: Checks Lies and Videotape, Part 1
• Spongee: Checks Lies and Videotape, Part 2