The History of Lacrosse

Lacrosse, as anyone who has ever played, coached, or been an avid spectator will tell you, is one of the greatest sports in our culture today. Long referred to as the fastest game on two feet, the sport is characterized by intense action, strategy, finesse and power. To make long looping passes at one end of the field/arena and short bullet-like passes at the other end, catch a pass over-the-shoulder while running at full stride, to hit the top corner of the net on the move, or to stop the shot that is aimed at the top corner through a collection of players in front of the net, requires a skill level that is unsurpassed in any other sport.

The all out, wide-open nature of the sport of lacrosse makes it truly one of the great spectator sports as well as participant sports. One of the best aspects of the game is the high number of climactic plays and scoring opportunities. As well, the nature of the sport is such that practice, if it is to be effective, is made up by a large part scrimmaging, making it more fun than many other sports to learn.

The roots of the sport of lacrosse are traceable to the Iroquois tribes located in southwest Quebec, eastern Ontario and northern New York State. Just how far back the rituals surrounding this activity known by various names such as baggataway or tewaraathon go is a matter for speculation and historians, as they easily pre-date recorded history.

European settlers and missionaries first came into contact with the game in the 17th century. Letters and reports back to the old countries referred to religious and ritual activities of the natives who gathered together in large groups to play a ball game which used implements similar to the Bishop’s crosse (crozier) to pass and carry the ball from one end of the field to the other. From these descriptions was born the name which eventually came to encompass the native game and the versions of the sport evolved from them LACROSSE

The exact nature of the native game of lacrosse varies as it served different purposes at different times. It has often been speculated that lacrosse alternately served as a preparation or substitute for war among the tribes, that it served religious purposes, or that it served as a negotiation tactic to resolve inter-tribal conflicts. Regardless of its specific nature, lacrosse was characterized by a deeply spiritual involvement and those who took part did so with dedicated spirit and with the highest ideals of bringing home glory to themselves and their tribes and honour to the participants and the tribes to which they belong. This was a somewhat universal sporting truth which centuries later dominated the thinking of one Pierre de Coubertin.

It was in the mid 1800’s that the Montreal townspeople became interested in this activity of the Mohawk tribes. In the 1840’s, the first games of lacrosse were played between the townsfolk and the natives. The action and skill of the game soon won the hearts of the locals and though it was many years before any significant wins were logged against the natives, the game of lacrosse was quickly winning the loyalty and interest of the newest North Americans.

By the late 1850’s and early 1860’s lacrosse had its foothold in the sporting society of the time and the first non-native lacrosse clubs were being formed. This quickly led to the formation of inter-city rivalries and challenges, and the competitive base of the sport of lacrosse was born. Following the flow of settlers across the country, lacrosse soon spread to pockets from Lower Canada to the British Columbia coast.

As is the nature of the European background, the white men soon felt that they needed more structure and stability. Through the 1860’s, largely due to the efforts of Dr. George Beers of Montreal, a uniform set of rules for the sport of lacrosse was developed and made known. This culminated in the Kingston Conference in 1867, at which representatives from across the country gathered to adopt the standard rules and form a national organization to oversee the sport and recognize national championships.

This was a highly significant development as the National Lacrosse Association, became the first national sport governing body in North America dedicated to the governance of the sport, standardization of rules and competition, and the running of national championships to promote good fellowship and unity across the country.

Through the late 1800’s lacrosse grew at a phenomenal rate until, by the turn of the century, it was the premiere sport in Canada. There were extensive amateur and professional leagues and teams traveled from as far away as the Yukon to take part in challenging for the national title. The young country and its great sport enjoyed their new found existence and popularity to the fullest and across the country cries rang out to proclaim lacrosse as the only true Canadian sport, the national game.

Following the war years, the sport began to decline in participation and became fractured in its organization and competition. The disputes between amateur and professional clubs, the inability to convince schools to include the sport in their curriculum, mostly because it was only played in the summer when the schools were in recess, and the new found mobility of the automobile were behind many of the problems of the sport. It soon found that it had declined to a point of serious concern. In 1925, the Canadian Lacrosse Association was formed and with a renewed vigour the organizers of the sport began to tackle the problems of the times. The single most important outcrop was the development of the box lacrosse game. This sport was the marriage of the two most popular sports ever in Canada. The skills and action of field lacrosse were combined with the speed and indoor action of hockey to create a fresh and exiting game. By the mid 1930’s, box lacrosse had virtually taken over from field lacrosse and the field game had all but disappeared from the Canadian sporting scene until the late 1960’s when world championships were initiated.

Over the past 60 years, lacrosse has continued to grow in Canada and throughout the world and in both cases, lacrosse participants are at their highest level of skill ever achieved. On the International scene, lacrosse is enjoying tremendous growth in established lacrosse countries such as England, Australia, Scotland, Germany and the United States in both field and box lacrosse and the International Lacrosse Federation has recently admitted Japan and the North American Natives as full members of the I.L.F., making them eligible to participate in the World Field Lacrosse Championships which take place every four years.

The sport of lacrosse has a long and proud tradition in Canada, the United States and throughout the world, and as it continues to grow at the amateur and professional level it will surely receive recognition as one of the great team sports played anywhere.

For more information on the history of lacrosse in Sudbury visit the Heratige Museams Sudbury Site.

For more information on the history of lacrosse in Canada visit the CBC Archives - Lacrosse: A History of Canada's Game.