Modern field hockey developed in
 19th century England from earlier
 forms of the game which included
 a curved stick and a ball. 
 Originally, the game was played
 with cricket balls, until special balls
 were developed.  The ancient Irish
 game of hurling is probably a
 forerunner of field hockey.  While
 the English dominated the earliest
 Olympics, by 1928 India had
 become the preeminent field
 hockey team, winning 6
 consecutive Gold Medals. The
 Indian stick, made of mulberry,
 with its thin handle and tight bend,
 contrasted with the traditional
 English stick made of ash, a wood
 that cannot be as successfully
 compressed.  By 1948, the Indian
 stick had supplanted the English
 one in England and all over the
 world. After their phenomenal run,
 India was defeated, in 1960, by
 Pakistan, a country that had been
 carved from India in 1947.   The
 Pakistanis have taken Gold in Field
 Hockey three times, and these are
 the only Gold Medals ever won by
 that country.