| Issue #3- April 13, 2007 |
The Y Factor with Christian McLean
Men With Sticks
Baseball may be America’s pastime, but lacrosse is America’s
heritage. Forged in a forgotten time, this sport was more than just
a game. Played by almost fifty Native American nations, to some it was
called “The Creator’s Game,” while others, like the
Cherokee, called it “Little Brother of War.” It was played
to resolve tribal and inter-tribal conflicts, to prepare for warfare
and even to heal the sick.
The Cherokee played on massive fields, sometimes miles in size, with
teams that spanned from tens into the hundreds – occasionally,
entire tribes participated and the matches went on for days. While this
was the extreme end of the spectrum, the Iroquois of New York and Southern
Canada played a game more similar to the modern sport (with a maximum
of only fifteen players and a field that spanned 120 yards).
When the French began to settle in North America, they were in awe of
this intense, somewhat violent, sometimes bloody game. The first European
documentation of the game was in 1636, when Jean de Brebeuf, a Jesuit
missionary, noted a match involving the Huron tribe of Ontario, Canada.
It wasn’t long after that trappers and settlers began to participate
in competitions.
It was around this time that the game took on a new name. While the
Iroquis called it baggataway or tewaraathon, the French would christen
it la crosse. The words directly translate into “the stick,”
and it is generally believed that the name stems from the French term
for playing field hockey, jeu de la crosse. Others note that the shape
of the original lacrosse stick resembled that of a bishop’s crozier
(staff), known in French as la crosse. Either way, the game was being
integrated into colonial life.
Fast-forward 200 years, when official games began to be played in Ontario
between Montreal’s Olympic Club and the Native Americans. By 1867,
the rules of the game had been officially changed among the citizens
of the fledgling countries of North America. George Beers, a Canadian
dentist, created set regulations on field size, number of participants
(twelve, at that time) and positions. That same year, Caughnawaga Indians
traveled to England to play a match for Queen Victoria and, soon after,
the sport picked up speed throughout England.
In the United States, colleges and high schools began to play the game.
The first school to organize a team was New York University in 1877,
and while there is some discrepancy, it is believed the first collegiate
game was played between them and Manhattan College that November. The
Ivy League schools caught on and established their own teams soon after
– some argue that the first game was played between Harvard and
Princeton. On the high school level, the Lawrenceville School (New Jersey),
Philips Exeter Academy (New Hampshire), and Philips Academy, Andover
(Massachusetts) adopted the game soon after.
In 1904 and 1908, it was played as an Olympic sport, but since then
it has only seen contests in the Olympics as a demonstration sport,
due to the small number of international teams. Sadly, it was about
this time that Native American lacrosse declined. Gambling (which had
always been a part of the game) took on a more serious role and matches
were turning more violent. The most extreme example of this is when
the Oklahoma Choctaw started attaching lead weights to their sticks
in order to crack open their opponents’ skulls.
Plastic sticks were introduced in 1970, and in the past 37 years, the
technological aspects of the equipment have evolved tremendously, including
the use of design materials borrowed from aircraft manufacturing and
a slew of metals and alloys you would need a Periodic Table of Elements
to understand.
Lacrosse is played in over 400 colleges and universities and nearly
1,500 high schools in America, and the sport continues to grow. International
competition is increasing, and has become popular throughout Europe,
Australia and Asia. Today, the closest it gets to the traditional game
is in woman’s lacrosse, where the use of wooden sticks is still
legal and there are technically no field boundaries. While the high
school and college seasons are well underway, remember the path that
this sport has traveled.
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