The first article in Finland to mention bandy was in 1894 when Charles Tebbutt visited Sweden and introduced the game there. Several articles published over the following years explained the game of bandy/hockey.
It was Vyborg (a former Finnish city now part of Russia) that pioneered the game and played internationally as early as 1899. They had great skaters. Helsinki tried the sport around the same time as Vyborg, but it took almost a decade before it really caught on.
Helsinki hosted an international winter sports competition that featured bandy in 1907. The tournament also featured teams from Sweden and St. Petersburg. The Finnish Football Federation, which also governed bandy in the country, was established in May.
The first national bandy championship in Finland was organized by the football federation and staged in the winter of 1908. It was staged as a knockout competition until 1931, when the SM-sarja was created as the national bandy league. Viipurin Sudet (Vyborg Wolves) won the championship 12 times between 1914 and 1930.
The SM-sarja competition in ice hockey was first contested in 1928, but as in other Nordic countries, the sport of bandy remained popular even after hockey also became an established sport.
The competition was set to include nine teams; four from Helsinki, three from Vyborg, and two from Turku. A new team, Helsingin Palloseura, was going to participate. The championship was slated to begin at the end of January, but was not contested as the Finnish Civil War broke out around the same time.
The first match between Vasa IS and Abo IFK in Vaasa ended 2-2. The football association ordered a rematch to be played the following Sunday in Turku. Vasa would have had to leave on Saturday to get to the match. The team had nine students whose principal refused to grant them the day off school, so Vasa was forced to forfeit the replay.
The first Workers' Bandy Championship was held in 1924. Five teams (four from Helsinki and one from Tampere) participated in the competition. Helsingin Jyry defeated Tampereen Kisa-Toverit 6-2 in the final.
