History of Floorball

Here are some facts about floorball for you to learn. The very first step in the history of floorball is its creation! Where exactly floorball started originally is largely debated. Canada, Sweden, and the USA all claim to have been the inventors of the sport. While the first modern floorball game took place in Gothenburg, Sweden in 1968, Canada and the USA both played a very similar version as early as the 1950's. In Canada is was simply called "ball hockey" game, while in America it was called "Cosom hockey," named after the stick manufacturer Cosom.

Cosom hockey sticks, as well as other early forms of floorball sticks, got their inspiration from the lesser known ice sport of bandy.

In the US, it's believed that Michigan was the first to incorporate this early form of floorball into its PE program. After the game modernized in Sweden, the version we know today was brought to MIT by a Swede who wanted to continue to play his favorite sport.

From there the program grew, and is still played there to this day. Other places such as NYC, Silicon Valley, and the Dallas/Fort Worth area of Texas where there are many Swedes and Finns were the first places to have large pockets of USA floorball activity.

The first official club in floorball history was Sala IBK, located in Sweden in 1979. Basic rules were established as the sport became more organized. Shortly after that, the first official rulebook was written in 1981. By 1989, Sweden had enough teams to hold the world's first floorball league.

In 1986 the IFF (International Floorball Federation) was founded by Sweden, Finland, and Switzerland, the first three countries to have a floorball association. From there, the Federation has grown to include 40 countries with associations that are ranked based on World Championship placement. The first World Championship was played in 1996 in Stockholm, Sweden.

Another form of floorball game, Manual Wheelchair Floorball, was a part of the ParaGames in 2011. Teams from Sweden, Germany, Czech Republic, and Netherlands participated, with Sweden being the eventual winner.

Floorball was played in the Special Olympics for the first time in 2017 with Czech Republic taking home the gold medal in Austria. Floorball is now an official sport in Special Olympics. Four teams from North America will compete at the next Special Olympics Winter Games, a huge event for floorball history. Arizona and Texas along with Jamaica and Trinidad/Tobago will be competing in international floorball competition.

Also in 2017, floorball was played in the World Games for the first time. Sweden won the six team mini tournament hosted by Poland. Both of these were crucial steps in floorball’s ultimate goal of getting into the Olympics. Floorball will be played at the World Games in 2022 (resheduled from 2021) which will be held in Birmingham, Alabama. This will be the first time that international floorball competition will be held in the United States (except for World Championship Qualifiers which have been held in the past between the USA and Canada).

The latest development for USA floorball history is the formation of the North American Floorball League (NAFL). This is the first professional floorball league in North America and it represents an exciting next step in the growth of floorball in the United States and Canada. The NAFL will begin play in June 2022.

Are you interested in playing a game of floorball yourself? Learn how to choose your first floorball stick and then purchase equipment from our online store!

Sources: Wikipedia, IFF.org, Floorballcentral.org, USAFloorball.org, innebandy.se, nafloorball.com