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   Lacrosse has one of the most complicated and extensive histories of all the major sports in the world today. Lacrosse was first played by the Native Americans before Europeans even knew that North America existed. It was mainly created by the Iroquois and the Huron tribes. These two tribes lived near the St. Lawrence River , in the New York and Ontario areas. There have been speculations that the games was adapted from many of the Meso-American rubber ball games, however, nothing has been proven. The Native Americans played the game for recreation and occasionally to settle scores between people. For these reasons, lacrosse was often referred to as a substitute for war because it was so violent, brutal, and vicious. It was also considered military training because of how cruel and aggressive it is. Players often came off of the field with welts the size of baseballs from the hard, hair-stuffed deerskin ball, so, naturally, women were not allowed to play.

   Lacrosse was not formally played by non-native peoples until the mid 1850’s. English speaking people from Montreal , Canada were the first whites to attempt to “civilize” the sport. In 1856, the Montreal Lacrosse Club was organized. This organization contained a small amount of amateur teams. However, by the next year, the amount of teams rose dramatically to 80 teams, forcing a new league, called the Canadian National Lacrosse Association. At this time, the hair-stuffed deerskin ball was replaced by a hard rubber ball. In 1860, Parliament declared lacrosse the official sport of Canada.

   However, despite the popularity of lacrosse in Canada, the first official team was not established in America till 1877 at New York University. In 1879, the United States National Amateur Lacrosse Association was created by John Flannery. This league consisted of eleven college and club teams. As a growing sport, lacrosse was featured in the 1904 St. Louis Olympics and the 1908 London Olympics. Canadian teams won the gold medal in both years. However, it was removed from the Olympics until 1928 when it returned as an exhibition event.

   In 1905 the United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse League was formed by the merge between the Intercollegiate Association and the Inter University Lacrosse League. A new set of rules was formed that led to faster, and safer, game play. The league was dominated by the John Hopkins University team, winning their division four times and winning the league championship three times. Eleven years later, in the 1932 Olympics, 80,000 people sat in the crowd to watch a game between the John Hopkins team, representing the United States, and the Canadian national team. John Hopkins won earning them the gold and to this day, there has never been that many people attending a lacrosse games.  

   By 1950, lacrosse continued to grow in popularity so that there were a total of 200 college, club, and high school teams. However, the sport was not only growing on the east coast, but it was becoming popular along the eastern coast as well. By 1959, the California Lacrosse Association was formed, officially bringing lacrosse to the west coast.

  Later in 1959, the Lacrosse Foundation (has now become U.S. Lacrosse) and the Lacrosse Hall of Fame was formed. They were a nonprofit organizations committed to the development of lacrosse in the United States .  

   Probably the one of the biggest events in lacrosse history was when the National Collegiate Athletic Association made the NCAA Lacrosse Championships. This was a tournament that placed the top 12 Division 1 lacrosse teams in a tournament to determine the champion. Before, lacrosse championships had been determined by a committee vote.

   Lacrosse continued to grow at a steady pace until the late 80’s and early 90’s when it experienced a considerable jump in attendances. This was mostly due to the exciting play of the Gait twins, Paul and Gary. With their incredible, never before seen moves, such as the Air-Gait (the equivalent of a slam dunk in basketball) they dominated lacrosse for three years. Over that time, their team, the University of Syracuse won three consecutive championships from ’88-’91. This helped increase the popularity of lacrosse because for the first time, lacrosse was getting worldwide media attention. This drew more athletic players to the game, which resulted in an increased amount of players not only showing stick skills, but showing natural ability as well.

Paul Gait