Field Lacrosse - History

History

Known as the "fastest sport on two feet", lacrosse is a traditional Native American game. According to Native American beliefs, playing lacrosse is a spiritual act used for healing and giving thanks to the "Creator". They would also play the game to resolve minor conflicts between tribes, that were not worth going to war for. Thus the name little brother of war. These games could last several days and as many as 100 to 1,000 men from opposing villages or tribes played on open plains, between goals ranging from 500 yards (460 m) to several miles apart.

The first Europeans to observe it were French Jesuit missionaries in the St. Lawrence Valley, in the 1630s. The name "lacrosse" comes from their reports, which described the players' sticks as like a bishop's crosier—la crosse in French. The Native American tribes used various names: in the Onondaga language it was called dehuntshigwa'es ("they bump hips" or "men hit a rounded object"); da-nah-wah'uwsdi ("little war") to the Eastern Cherokee; in Mohawk, tewaarathon ("little brother of war"); and baggataway in Ojibwe. Variations in the game were not limited to the name. In the Great Lakes region, players used an entirely wooden stick, while the Iroquois stick was longer and was laced with string, and the Southeastern tribes played with two shorter sticks, one in each hand.

In 1867, Montreal Lacrosse Club member William George Beers codified the modern game. He established the Canadian National Lacrosse Association and created the first written rules for the game, Lacrosse: The National Game of Canada. The book specified field layout, lacrosse ball dimensions, lacrosse stick length, number of players, and number of goals required to determine the match winner.

Women's lacrosse, a non-contact version of the sport originating in Scotland during the 1890s, is played by twelve players per side, on longer fields and with less protective equipment than the men's game requires. In the 1930s Canadian businessmen established a version called box lacrosse to create business for ice hockey arenas during the summer months. Box lacrosse is played indoors, with smaller nets, between two teams of six players, and strongly resembles the game its areas were designed for.