The origins of Lacrosse

Seems our great game goes back a long way even before the wild west was born according to this snippet I found in the newsgroups:

The evolution of the Native American game into modern lacrosse began in 1636 when Jean de Brebeuf, a Jesuit missionary, documented a Huron contest in what is now southeast Ontario, Canada. At that time, some type of lacrosse was played by at least 48 Native American tribes scattered throughout what is now southern Canada and all parts of the United States. French pioneers began playing the game avidly in the 1800s. Canadian dentist W. George Beers standardized the game in 1867 with the adoption of set field dimensions, limits to the number of players per team and other basic rules. So it really began before there was a Canada or USA.

Who cares where it comes from. It's still a great game.

Lacrosse rules.

Ed

Lacrosse and the Olympics

Found the post in the newsgroups:

In the early years of the Olympics the schedule of events was essentially established by the host country. In 1904 and 1908 the Olympics were held in the US and England where Lacrosse was a vital sport. Thus Lacrosse was on the Olympic calendar.

After 1908 the games moved to European continent where Lacrosse was non-existant and it was not included in the competitions. This was not a value judgement on the sport, but rather the reality of where the sport was played.

It wsn't until 1928 that Lacrosse made a comeback in Amsterdam - largely through the influence of the British olympic people. In 1932 in Los Angeles Lacrosse was again on the schedule of events. For both of these events Lacrosse was only a demonstration sport. By that time the calendar of events was established by the IOC and hosts could only include sports of their choice as demonstration sports.

In 1976 in Montreal, Lacrosse was played as an exhibition sport which meant it was restricted to participation from host country only. Here's a bit of trivia. The commemorative coins from the Montreal Olympics has Lacrosse as the sport on the $10 coin. To the best of my knowledge Lacrosse is the only non-olympic sport ever to be shown on an olympic coin.

-- Michael Lachapelle General Manager Canadian Lacrosse Association e-mail - micha...@lacrosse.ca

Hopefully, one day we will once again see our great sport displayed at the Olympics again.

That's my view,

Ed