What started as an American Indian substitute for war, is now played for enjoyment and competition all over the world. Lacrosse is the fastest growing college and high school sport in the United States. From the year 2000 to 2014, women’s college lacrosse has grown 109 percent and men’s college lacrosse has grown 95 percent. It is often called the fastest sport on two feet. Lacrosse is most popular on the East Coast, however, it is gaining popularity in the Western United States very quickly. All over the world, people are starting to play lacrosse.
Right now, there are 54 countries that are members of the Federation of nternational Lacrosse. In the past, lacrosse was only played by men, but now the sport is popular among women as well. Lacrosse, the oldest American sport, is a long-established, traditional ball and stick game that has gone through many changes; specifically the changes implemented by Dr. William George Beers eliminating the warlike traits of the game and dramatically modernizing the sport. Modern day lacrosse was derived from an American Indian game, so there are many traditions and traits that go along with the sport.
American Indian lacrosse so closely resembled war and fighting that tribes alled it “little brother to war” and “brother of war”. They used the game to settle land arguments and any disputes between tribes. Death and critical injuries were considered normal in the game. In the 1890’s, “to play ball against them” was a slang term to declare war on another tribe. A former Creek lacrosse player, James Hill, said that, “Match game pretty near like war. Like United States make war ‘gainst ‘nother nation and United States whip other nation. Only men were allowed to play the game and the women had to serve hot coffee to players and encourage then throughout the game. The women could whip players with quirts (riding whips) if they thought that the player wasn’t playing hard enough. On the field, players were free to settle any disputes that they may have, so often times players would drop their sticks and just get into fist fights. Tribes treated it like war, so the playing fields could be miles long and there could potentially be thousands of players.
The two teams wouldn’t immediately try to score, they would try to disable as many opposing players as possible, then they would try to score to win the game. This said, it was more of an individual game ith only a few players scoring goals and the rest of the team fighting other players. In American Indian games, players could use any part of their body except for their hands. Many players would kick the ball into the goal or kick it to a teammate. This part of the game highly resembled soccer. As far as game length goes, here was no set duration.
The two teams would agree on a number of goals to be scored and if that set number of goals wasn’t reached by sundown, the game would be continued the next morning. No matter how long the game lasted, the women watching would clap and cheer for the last oal scored. In different American Indian tribes there were slightly different traditions, as well as the common traditions regarding to game length, basic rules, and the war-like roots of the game played.
After a victory, Creek players would run around their own goal and chant, “llatito’ to’ to”, meaning “he is dead, dead, dead. In order to look tough, Cherokee players would scratch themselves until the bleed before games. Ojibwe players would make their ball out of a knot in a tree. They would make two holes in the ball so the ball makes a whistling sound when they throw it at their opponent’s head. Choctaw players would tie feathers of keen birds into their hair so they would have good eyesight during games. Even though different tribes had many different traditions going along with the game, there was one recurring theme; American Indian lacrosse was equivalent to war.
Lacrosse is a very different game than it has been in the past, and it is still changing today; however, the biggest changes of the game were by Dr. William George Beers in the early 1860’s. Beers was one of the first people to modernize and regulate lacrosse, and he certainly had the greatest effect on the game. Dr. Beers lived in Canada and was a member of the Montreal Lacrosse Club. The Montreal Lacrosse Club often played games with the tribes in Canada; but Beers dreamed of playing other organized teams and not having to argue with the Indian teams on the rules prior to the games.
In turn, he decided to make specifications about the game and he wanted to turn lacrosse into an organized sport. He limited the number of players on the field to 12 people and assigned them all names. This is when people first started training for specific positions. Players would train to be goalies and some layers were trained for defense and offense. Beers also make the field smaller and changed the strategy of the game. The game now involves more of a team effort rather than an individualistic strategy.
After those rules, teams started passing and catching the ball with one another on the field. The players were getting faster on defense, so running the ball was no longer an option. Even though Dr. Beers made all of these regulations, there was no way for everyone to follow them unless the rules were made game-wide. In 1860, the rules were published and the new game rules were slowly being picked up y lacrosse teams worldwide. After this, the game was officially modernized and turned into a more of a recreational sport. This was the start of a whole new game.
Today, women’s and men’s lacrosse are highly developed and both have their own sets of rules and specifications about gameplay, different types of equipment, and different teams and leagues. In women’s lacrosse, there more players allowed on the field. Women play with twelve players on the field consisting of four defenders, four attackers, three midfielders, and one goalie. Men play with 10 players on the field with the positions of: defense, attack, idfield and goalie. Women and men both have to use protective equipment to prevent injuries while playing.
Women wear eye goggles to protect the eyes and nose and a mouthguard to protect the teeth. Men wear helmets to protect the head and face, a mouthguard to protect the teeth, gloves to protect their fingers, shoulder and arm pads to protect from hard contact, and sometimes chest pads are required. For women’s lacrosse sticks, the depth of the pocket is legal if you can see the ball over the sidewall of the head, however, men’s lacrosse sticks can have a deeper pocket than women’s lacrosse sticks. In both sports, goalies are required to have the same equipment.
They wear helmets, throat protectors, padded gloves, mouth guards, and a chest protector. They also have a specific goalie stick that has a wider head than normal sticks. In girls lacrosse under high school level, goalies are required to wear shin guards and thigh protection. Also, in both games, a small rubber ball is required, but the men’s lacrosse ball is slightly heavier than a women’s lacrosse ball and it is usually white instead of the yellow or orange ball that women’s teams use. Lacrosse is played in recreation teams, competitive year ound teams, college teams, high school teams, national teams, and sometimes professional teams.
It was played in the 1904 and 1908 Olympics by the US, Britain, and Canada. It was later not played because not enough countries had teams. From 1967 to the present, there have been men’s World Lacrosse Championships (WLC) as a substitute for the Olympics. From 1969 to 1982, there were women’s lacrosse world championships, but they were turned into the Women’s Lacrosse World Cup that happens every 4 years. Even though the men’s and women’s lacrosse are completely different, there re some qualities that are similar and the game played today still resembles the American Indian game.
In the past 150 years, the popularity of lacrosse has taken off and the game has completely changed. Even though the modern day game is nothing like the American Indian game, it is always important for players to understand the roots and traditions of the sport. Knowing the game’s history can help players understand the current strategy of the game and it gives them a connection with history. The roots of modern day lacrosse have shaped the sport into what it is today and will shape the game into what it will be tomorrow.
