The 1970s, Hyper-Masculinity, and the Dark Ages of Hockey

Professional hockey in the decade of the 1970s was hyper-masculine to its institutional core.Pro hockey in the past was certainly tied closely to traditional notions of normative masculinity, but professional hockey in the 1970s, with its heavy and hyper emphasis on violence and intimidation was new and concerning, at least that was the view of sociologist Michael D. Smith, in a 1971 paper presented at the Third International Symposium of Sociology of Sport in Waterloo, Canada. 1 Among the traditional institutional values found in the hockey culture of the 1970s were stereotypically masculine qualities such as physical strength, stoicism, loyalty, and, of course, obedience to a male hierarchy.But new core hyper-masculine values emerged in the ethos including a commitment to hyper-violence and intimidation as key tactics.Hyper-masculinity was so deeply valued within 1970s hockey culture that it likely represented the most important and key central concept in a player's entire hockey world.In this paper, then, the historical analysis demonstrates that professional hockey in the 1970s was hyper masculinized, where hyper-masculinity was the new dominating cultural ethos guiding the gender performances of the players.The institutional hyper-masculine ethos was comprised of, and promoted notions of a 'real' man, based on external features of gender performance on the rink including physical size, increased willingness, and ability to fight, to intimidate others, and power and dominance over other men.To be sure, much more than in the past, a 1970s hockey masculinity was most effectively produced and reproduced through the exercise of hyper-violence, or via the threat of hyper-violence and a deep sense of retaliatory violence.Seen in historical perspective, the hyper-masculine ideology that underpinned the cultural fabric of hockey in the 1970s was evident in the attitudes and behaviours of the players and coaches.Values of the institution of hockey and those of some of the players and coaches combined to create a pervasive hyper-masculine atmosphere which functioned to produce a hyperviolent game, sometimes at the players' own expense.As such hyper-masculinity existed to shape the prevailing ethos and was key in structuring the experience of what constituted a 'real' hockey player in the professional ranks during the 1970s and ushered in the 'dark ages' of hockey.In this paper we explore some of the ideas embedded in Cassel's and Dryden's epigraphs.Hockey as a sport cannot be truly understood unless it is placed within its proper socio-political and historical context.In the following section, we briefly locate elite and professional hockey in the social, political, and historical context of the 1970s.