Mention the word "hockey," and it's a safe bet people will think of an NHL team or the Stanley Cup. And while that might touch off a debate over whether Wayne Gretzky or Bobby Orr is the greatest ever to play the game, one thing is for certain: Everyone talks about ice hockey, and no one talks about field hockey.

America's love affair with all things sports-related has somehow skipped over field hockey, a game ancient Egyptians depicted in hieroglyphics more than 4,000 years ago. It doesn't receive the attention or fanfare showered upon other sports. There are no snappy sneaker ads or sports drink promos featuring the world's best field hockey players, no ESPN "Field Hockey Tonight" shows or field hockey trading cards.

Still, about 100,000 people play the game in America. In 1999, 5,472 women played for 240 teams at the NCAA level, which makes it one of the more populated niche college sports, like rowing and lacrosse. But unlike those sports, field hockey lags in popularity, lacks a male counterpart and competes with the higher profile fall sports of soccer and volleyball.

The sport's uncanny ability to face all of those factors and continue to survive and even grow in this country spawns two intriguing questions: Why do players stick with field hockey and what drew them to the sport to begin with?

The answers are vague.

Shanna Vitale, a member of the Lock Haven University field hockey team, said, "It's fun and different, very challenging."

In her pre-college days, Vitale said she was a two-sport athlete -- until she played field hockey. "As soon as I picked up a stick, I dropped the other two," she said.

Vitale's claims mirror those of Sharon Taylor, chair of the Division II Field Hockey Committee, director of athletics at Lock Haven and the soon-to-be president of the United States Field Hockey Association (USFHA). "Field hockey's really unique," Taylor said. "It's a bit difficult, but once girls try it and get into it, they love it."

In truth, the same could be said of any sport. Perhaps the love for field hockey lends itself less to verbal expression and more to a sort of cerebral experience, understood and appreciated only by those who play it.

Historical influence

Whatever the reason, field hockey has maintained healthy numbers in each of the three NCAA divisions and seems in no danger of dwindling any time soon. Every year at the junior level, girls take their sticks to fields across America and battle for coveted spots on the USFHA Futures program. In time, many of them look for a college team to call their own.

Sue Chapman, chair of the Division III Field Hockey Committee and associate athletics director at Worcester State College offered up this rationale: "It's the game itself...There's just something about that stick/ball game."

Something indeed.

Americans might be surprised to know that field hockey is second only to soccer as the most popular participant sport in the world, thanks to the British military. In the 1800s, when Great Britain was amassing its empire, its military introduced the modern game of field hockey in whatever area it occupied. That is how India, with a population of almost 1 billion, picked up the sport and became an international powerhouse from the 1940s through the 1980s. Currently, Australia is tops in both the men's and women's game.

The modern game of field hockey was developed long after America departed from the British Empire. The game's introduction here followed an indirect path, and, quite possibly, that has made all the difference in its status.

In 1901, an English physical education instructor, Constance Applebee, introduced the sport to the United States while attending a seminar at Harvard University. From there, it spread among private women's colleges and prep schools in the East. By 1920, the U.S. women's touring field hockey team participated in its first international competition. The first official men's field hockey tournament took place in 1928.

With such rapid progression, it seemed inevitable that field hockey would become widely popular for both men and women. Instead, the growth remained regional (Northeast) and predominantly female.

"I think it never really caught on here because it was introduced by a woman and because men were never exposed to it," Taylor said.

To back up her theory, Taylor points to the fact that more men than women play field hockey everywhere throughout the world, except the United States. Roughly 90 percent of the USFHA's membership is female.

And when it comes to coaching, women lead most teams. Taylor said that happens most likely because American boys don't play field hockey and men therefore don't have the knowledge or experience base to coach it.

And in a society where male athletes set the bar for sport, Taylor said, "Field hockey's out of the culture."

The regional gap

The Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) and the USFHA jointly sponsored the first college field hockey national championship in 1975. At around the same time, women's volleyball and basketball were finding their way into the college arena, but they had two added advantages: both sports were founded by men here in America, and both sports spread through YMCAs and male country clubs before trickling down to women.

At present, the college participation rates for women's volleyball and basketball triple that of field hockey.

As for the claim it always has been and always will be just a regional sport, a look at the participants in the early AIAW championship reveals otherwise. Oklahoma State University, Central Washington University and the University of Arizona are just some of the Western schools that at one time sponsored field hockey teams. Today, only Stanford University, the University of the Pacific (California) and the University of California, Berkeley, sponsor field hockey in the West.

"The three of us really have to work hard to get people to come here and play us," Pacific coach Linda MacDonald said.

Institutions such as the University of Pennsylvania, Boston College and Miami University (Ohio) will make the trip out West this season to play all or some of the California trio. But as MacDonald said, "They don't have to come out here to play us; there's great hockey already where they are."

A veteran of the sport, MacDonald said she remembers when more Western schools sponsored field hockey. She said she also remembers when schools began to drop those same programs.

"I think back then athletics directors didn't know what the sport was or understand it, and it was dropped," she said.

The loss of the programs had serious implications for the remaining schools.

"When everyone dropped, (Western schools) lost their automatic bid to the NCAA championship. Those four or five years were a little shaky for us," she said.

Pacific, Stanford and California will be part of a newly formed conference for institutions classified as independents. She said that should provide some security and a better opportunity to get into the NCAA tournament.

MacDonald said she isn't concerned about the survival of field hockey in the West. "There's plenty of high-school and club hockey out here," she said.

The problem is that there are not enough field hockey-sponsoring institutions to accommodate those players. "A lot of top players get recruited to top 20 schools back East," MacDonald said.

Although it is promising to see schools such as the University of California, Los Angeles; Pepperdine University; and California Polytechnic State University add club teams, MacDonald said, "I think it's key for us to get one more school to sponsor an NCAA program. Then, we could have a West region."

With institutions more inclined to add rowing and women's water polo in efforts to comply with Title IX, MacDonald said it is unlikely that a burst in field hockey sponsorship will happen soon.

"I love the sport," she said. "I wish we had done something differently a long time ago before women's soccer came along and started to compete with field hockey. It's too bad we didn't have foresight."

Best-kept secret

To encourage and sustain growth of the sport, USFHA has extended its efforts at grass-roots development. And if the increase in junior players is any indication of field hockey's future, USFHA organizers might have cause for optimism. Taylor said the USFHA is seeking larger facilities to host playing clinics and national team selection camps. She said, eventually, that might translate into more athletes seeking to play in college.

Regardless of what the future holds, some players say they are content with playing a low-profile sport. Lock Haven field hockey's Tara Beach, who comes from a family of field hockey players, said she was drawn to the sport's "tradition of excellence."

Besides, the sport's obscurity presents a challenge.

"I like the fact that field hockey is still unknown here and we get to mold and shape the future of the sport," she said.

The prospect of participating in a sport that allows players to continually improve and define the game could be its strongest selling point. That, in turn, could shed a positive light on its current state. And that might serve to prevent the field hockey faithful from having to answer the question of why they love it so much.

"I can't really explain the phenomenon," said Taylor. "It's just something that touches their core."