I am currently studying the physical changes in professional hockey players as a process of the historical development of the sport-industrial body. With co-authors I recently analyzed a historical database of the height and weight of 3763 male Canadians who played major league hockey from 1909 to 2010, and we found that players’ bodies grew in height, weight and body mass index (BMI) over the century, with significant differences based on birth cohort and region of birth. We also uncover a process of specialization by playing position, provide a possible explanation for discrimination against French-Canadian players, and show that while there was a size premium to hockey bodies, the growth trend mirrored the secular trend in the population at large, at least until recent decades when there has been a distinct divergence due to NHL rule changes and the secular obesity epidemic.
