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From gifting a hat to tossing them onto the rink, a history of hat tricks in sports
A hat tossed onto the hockey rink after a hat trick was scored.
Bruce Bennett/Getty Images North America
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Bruce Bennett/Getty Images North America
The men’s hockey tournament at the 2026 Milan Cortina Games is underway and many fans are hoping to see the exciting feat of scoring three goals in a single game, better known as a hat trick.
“ I’m curious to see over in Italy for the Olympics, if we’ll see a hat trick to begin with, and then second will people throw their hats?” said Ty Di Lello, a hockey historian based in Winnipeg, Canada.
The international sporting event will mark the return of National Hockey League players after a 12 year absence. It comes as the NHL set a new record for the most hat tricks in a single month this January.
Hat tricks have a rich history in the world of hockey, but it didn’t start there. In fact, the phrase originated in cricket and spread to many sports, including soccer, darts and horse racing.
In this installment of NPR’s Word of the Week series, we trace hat trick’s some 150-year-history and why it’s particularly special on a hockey rink.
How ‘hat trick’ was coined in cricket
In cricket, a hat trick refers to the dismissal of three batters by the same baller with three successive balls. Rodney Ulyate, a spokesperson for the Association of Cricket Statisticians and Historians, compares it to when a pitcher in baseball gets three consecutive strikeouts.
“I gather it’s a very common thing in baseball. I think you call it a no hit inning,” he said. “But in cricket, trust me, it is vanishingly rare.”
A gentleman playing cricket, depicted in a drawing by John C. Anderson from 1860.
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Hulton Archive/Getty Images/Hulton Archive
Now, it remains unclear who coined hat trick, but its origin did indeed involve headwear.
In the 19th century, there were reports in British newspapers of cricketers being given a hat after achieving what is now known as a hat trick. Ulyate said at the time, cricketers earned very little for competing, so their pay was often supplemented with material prizes like bats, balls and watches.
By 1874, hat trick was the common term for taking three wickets in three consecutive balls — beating out expressions “hat feat” and “bowling a gallon.” The latter stemmed from some cricketers being awarded a gallon of beer.
“ I must say that given the quantities of beer that cricketers are notorious for drinking … it’s surprising that ‘bowling a gallon’ didn’t take off,” Ulyate said.
It’s also a mystery why “cap trick” didn’t catch on since cricket players commonly wore caps, Ulyate added.
Over the years, cricketers were gifted all kinds of headwear, from a straw hat to a green felt, feathered Tyrolean hat. While the phrase hat trick remains in cricket, hat prizes themselves began to disappear in the early 1900s, during the interwar period.
“It’s pretty hard to imagine today that any millionaire cricketer would be very impressed by the gift of a hat,” Ulyate said.
An ice crew member cleans hats off the ice after a hat trick by David Pastrnak #88 of the Boston Bruins during the third period against the Seattle Kraken at Climate Pledge Arena on Feb. 26, 2024 in Seattle, Washington.
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Hat trick’s special place in hockey
In hockey, a hat trick not only refers to scoring three goals or more in a single game, but it’s often followed by spectators hurling their beanies, caps and other headwear onto the rink.
Like in cricket, the phrase hat trick in hockey also began with a free hat. But who exactly introduced the term? Well, that’s up for debate between two hat shops in Canada — Sammy Taft: World Famous Hatter store in Toronto and Henri Henri in Montreal. In both origin stories, the owners began gifting hockey players a hat from their store as a marketing opportunity.
Co-founder of Henri Henri, Jean-Maurice Lefebvre (R), shakes hands with Montreal Canadiens coach Elmer Lach (L) on the rink of the Montreal Forum, in 1947.
Henri Henri
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Henri Henri
“Once that connection between three goals and hats was established, fans basically took it over themselves,” said Di Lello who has written about hat tricks.
“That probably started happening gradually in the late ’40s and ’50s as hockey crowds got bigger and traditions started forming,” he added.
Marie Lansiaux, assistant hatter at Henri Henri, said at the time, spectators who flung their hats onto the ice would go retrieve their headwear at a counter after the game.
That gave the owner of Henri Henri another idea: hand out cards that can be tucked into a hat’s sweatband. On one side, the card listed the schedule of the Montreal Canadiens games, while the other side read “Like Hell it’s yours! Put it back and try another.”
“And you could write your name on the card and prove that it was your hat, so that way nobody could pinch your hat out of the boxes,” Lansiaux said.
Nico Hischier #13 of the New Jersey Devils is congratulated by teammates on the bench after he scored a hat trick on Nov. 25, 2024 in Newark, New Jersey.
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Nowadays, the tossed hats are given to the player who scored the hat trick, or they are put on a display in the foyer of the arena, according to Philip Pritchard, vice president and curator of the Hockey Hall of Fame.
“It’s a great unwritten rule in the game of hockey,” he said.
Pritchard added that while other sports have abandoned the free hat tradition, the fact that hockey fans have kept it alive speaks to what he loves most about the game: its reverence to tradition.
“The hat trick is just another part of it and another story on why the human side of the game really shows in the game of ice hockey,” he said.
new video loaded: Americans Exposed to Hantavirus on Cruise Ship Arrive in United States
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Americans Exposed to Hantavirus on Cruise Ship Arrive in United States
Eighteen passengers who were aboard the MV Hondius, a cruise ship with a deadly hantavirus outbreak, landed in Omaha on a U.S. government medical flight. The passengers were being monitored at medical facilities in Nebraska and Georgia.
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We’re working diligently to ensure no one leaves the security in an unsecured way at an inappropriate time. No one who poses a risk to public health is walking out the front door of the streets of Omaha or beyond.
By Axel Boada
May 11, 2026
The man charged with attempting to assassinate President Donald Trump at the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner last month pleaded not guilty at a Monday arraignment in federal court.
Cole Tomas Allen, 31, wearing an orange shirt and trousers, was handcuffed and shackled as he was brought into the courtroom in Washington, D.C., federal court. His handcuffs were attached to a chain around his waist, which clanked as he was led to the defense table.
Speaking on behalf of Allen, federal public defender Tezira Abe said her client “pleads not guilty to all four counts as charged,” including attempting to assassinate the president of the United States, in connection with the April 25 incident at the Washington Hilton hotel.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles Jones advised the court that they plan to start producing their first tranche of discovery to the defense by the end of the week.
Officials said Allen, a California teacher and engineer, was armed with multiple guns, as well as knives, when he sprinted through a security checkpoint near the event where Trump and other White House officials had gathered with journalists.
He was arrested after an exchange of gunfire with a U.S. Secret Service officer who fired at him multiple times, a criminal complaint said. Allen was not shot during the exchange. The officer, who was wearing a ballistic vest, was shot once in the chest, treated at a hospital and released.
Trump and top members of his Cabinet and Congress were quickly evacuated from the room as others ducked under tables.
Allen was initially charged with attempting to assassinate the president, transportation of a firearm and ammunition through interstate commerce with intent to commit a felony, and discharge of a firearm during a crime of violence. On Tuesday, a federal grand jury indicted him on a new charge in the shooting of a Secret Service agent.
Moments before the attack, Allen had sent his family members a note apologizing and criticizing Trump without mentioning the president by name, according to a transcript of some of his writings provided to NBC News by a senior administration official. Allen also wrote that “administration officials (not including Mr. Patel)” were “targets.”
He also appeared to have taken a selfie in his hotel room. Prosecutors said Allen, who was dressed in a black button-down shirt and black pants, was “wearing a small leather bag consistent in appearance with the ammunition-filled bag later recovered from his person,” as well as a shoulder holster, a sheathed knife, pliers and wire cutters.
Officials have said they believe Allen had traveled by train from California to Washington, D.C., before checking into the hotel.
Allen’s sister, Avriana Allen, told law enforcement that her brother would make radical comments and constantly referenced a plan to fix the world, but said their parents were unaware that he had firearms in the home and that he would regularly train at shooting ranges.
Records show that he had purchased a Maverick 12-gauge shotgun in August 2025 and an Armscor Precision .38 semiautomatic pistol in October 2023.
After his arrest, Allen told the FBI that he did not expect to survive the incident, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Jocelyn Ballantine. He was briefly placed on suicide watch at the Washington, D.C., jail, where he’s being held.
Allen is expected to appear in court for a June 29 hearing.
At Monday’s arraignment, his legal team said they plan on asking for the “entire office” of the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia to be recused because of U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro’s apparent involvement in the case in a “supervisory role.” Federal public defender Eugene Ohm said some of the evidence they receive from the government will further inform that decision.
Note: Map shows the area with a shake intensity of 3 or greater, which U.S.G.S. defines as “weak,” though the earthquake may be felt outside the areas shown. The New York Times
Shake intensity
Pop. density
A cluster of earthquakes have struck near the U.S.-Mexico border, including ones with a 4.5 and 4.7 magnitude, according to the United States Geological Survey.
As seismologists review available data, they may revise the earthquake’s reported magnitude. Additional information collected about the earthquake may also prompt U.S.G.S. scientists to update the shake-severity map.
Subsequent quakes have been reported in the same area. Such temblors are typically aftershocks caused by minor adjustments along the portion of a fault that slipped at the time of the initial earthquake.
Aftershocks detected
Quakes and aftershocks within 100 miles
Aftershocks can occur days, weeks or even years after the first earthquake. These events can be of equal or larger magnitude to the initial earthquake, and they can continue to affect already damaged locations.
The New York Times
When quakes and aftershocks occurred
Sources: United States Geological Survey (epicenter, aftershocks, shake intensity); LandScan via Oak Ridge National Laboratory (population density) | Notes: Shaking categories are based on the Modified Mercalli Intensity scale. When aftershock data is available, the corresponding maps and charts include earthquakes within 100 miles and seven days of the initial quake. All times above are Pacific time. Shake data is as of Saturday, May 9 at 11:55 p.m. Eastern. Aftershocks data is as of Sunday, May 10 at 11:54 p.m. Eastern.
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