The empirical basis of the study is drawn from a series of interviews performed by the authors in 2012. The narratives along with several texts and articles from the media were defined using the framework and methodology of critical culture studies. The article begins by redifing the meaning of local hockey in Miercurea Ciuc/Csíkszereda/Szeklerburg, focusing on the reinterpretation of social history which surrounds hockey in the region. At the core of this understanding lies the ambition to bring forward the communal and ethnic nature of a „hockey culture” that has a strong tendency towards the traditional, harbors a persisting amateur spirit regarding its appearance and consolida¬tion in a socio-cultural and historical sense, and eventually to place it in a specific context. The study points out how local hockey (sub)culture lags behind in regards to current professional and modern¬ising tendencies, being rather embedded and influenced by strong and persisting local and regional, (neo)tradional mentalities. It’s important to note that the matter of focus here lies not on hockey per se nor on the subcultural aspects that surround it. Instead, the study sheds light and reveals the main role of hockey in Miercurea Ciuc/Csíkszereda/Szeklerburg, how it impacts the modeling of identities and preserves the community spirit altogether. We find how in sports various aspects of society are being revealed but this also goes vice versa, how sports become represented in society.
Keywords: sport; hokey; mentality; etnicity
