A Brief History of Lacrosse
Created by Indigenous Americans, lacrosse was considered by many tribes to be excellent practice for war -- the Cherokees even called it "the little brother of war." Teams could consist of as many of hundreds, or even thousands, of players. Goals were often miles apart. Games lasted as long as three days. Most players were unable to get close to the ball, and so took to concentrating their efforts on using their stick as a weapon.
The Six Tribes of the Iriquois, in the area which is now southern Ontario and western New York, called their version of lacrosse "baggataway" or "teewaraathon." This was much more organized than in most parts of the country, including the limitation of only 12 to 15 players per team and defined boundaries, including goals about 120 feet apart.
According to many sources, the first Europeans to witness baggataway were French explorers who felt the stick resembled a bishop's crozier -- "la crosse, in French" -- so baggataway took on the new name. Other sources, perhaps more accurately, claim lacrosse is derived from the name of a field hockey game the French played -- "jeu de la crosse."
In the early 1800s, Europeans in Canada began playing the game. Montreal's Olympic Club organized a team in 1844, specifically to play a match against an Indigenous team. Similar games were played in 1848 and 1851. The first step lacrosse took towards becoming a legitimate, modern sport came when the Montreal Lacrosse Club (formed in 1856) developed the first written rules.
George Beers of the MLC thoroughly rewrote the rules in 1867, making official a limit of twelve players per side, and named those positions: goal, point, cover point, first defense, second defense, third defense, centre, third attack, second attack, first attack, out home, and in home. Beers, known as "The father of Lacrosse," also replaced the hair-stuffed deerskin ball with a hard rubber ball and designed a stick better equipped for catching and accurately passing the ball.
Canada's National Lacrosse Association, also established in 1867, quickly adopted Beers' rules. The same year, a team from the Caughnawaga tribe went to England and played a game for Queen Victoria. The sport quickly became popular in such locales as Bristol, Cheshire, Lancashire, London, Manchester, and Yorkshire. The English Lacrosse Union was organized in 1892.
Lacrosse in the United States
White players in upstate New York began playing lacrosse around 1868, and the sport soon spread to the New York City area, where several teams were soon organized. The first intercollegiate game in the United States was in November 1877, pitting New York University against Manhattan College. Other colleges in the Northeast soon added teams, including Boston University, Columbia, Cornell, Harvard, Princeton, and the Stevens Institute.
The U.S. Amateur Lacrosse Association adopted the Canadian rules upon creation in 1879, and seven colleges fromed the first Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association three years later. In 1905, the ILA was replaced by the Intercollegiate Lacrosse League, which renamed itself the U.S. Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association (USILA) in 1929.
Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore was a major ice hockey college in the 1890s before lacrosse was introduced there in 1893 by students who had seen a game on Long Island, and lacrosse quickly became popular throughout Baltimore. In 1900, programs were developed for all age groups and the city has been a lacrosse hotbed ever since.
Ice hockey and lacrosse are actually closely connected. The rules of ice hockey were patterned after those of lacrosse, and many famous hockey players over the years are or were accomplished lacrosse players.
Did you know that the national sport of Canada is not just hockey? It is also lacrosse! They are co-national sports, with hockey the official winter sport and lacrosse the summer one.
Until 1971, when the NCAA began conducting an annual tournament, a national collegiate champion was chosen by committee. A Division III championship began in 1980, and the Division II tournament is back after a hiatus from 1983 to 1992.
