Modern lacrosse in Canada has been a popular sport since the mid 1800s. Only field lacrosse was played until the 1930s, when box lacrosse was invented. In 1994 Parliament passed the National Sports of Canada Act which declared lacrosse to be "Canada's National Summer Sport", with ice hockey as "Canada's National Winter Sport".[1]
Lacrosse was played by First Nations in Canada before the arrival of European colonists. The first documented description of the game was in 1637. The game was called baggataway and tewaarathon, which was played by two teams with 100 to 1,000 men each on a field that stretched from about 500m (1,600ft) to 3km (1.9mi) long.[1]
The Anglophone middle class of Montreal adopted the game in the mid 1800s. The first known game between Europeans and First Nations took place in 1843.[2][3][4]
In 1763, a lacrosse tournament between two First Nation tribes was utilized as a strategy to stage an ambush on the British Fort Michilimackinac during the Pontiac Rebellion. According to American historian Francis Parkman, "This was no chance stroke. It was part of a pre concentrated stratagem to inspire the surprise and destruction of the garrison…The shrill cries of the ball-players were changed to the ferocious war-whoop." Lacrosse challenged the typical British attitudes towards sport which saw games as refined and gentlemanly, while lacrosse was much more aggressive and brutal. Canadian nationalists like George Beers began advocating for lacrosse to become the national sport instead of cricket as was being pushed by British settlers.[5]
In 1856, the Montreal lacrosse club was established; by the mid-1860s there were active teams in eastern Ontario. The National Lacrosse Association was formed in 1875; in 1880 the league became the National Amateur Lacrosse Association.[6] By the 1880s the organized sport was found nationwide, and had become a popular spectator sport. To deal with the violence, middle class promoters spoke in Social Gospel terms about the ideal of "muscular Christianity." As working class players and spectators became more prominent, the rhetoric focused on winning at all costs.[7]
The 1860s the Montreal Shamrocks introduced a new level of aggressiveness; it was Irish, Catholic, and fought to win.[8] During the 1870s and 1880s the Shamrocks had bloody confrontations with the middle-class Protestant Montreal and Toronto Lacrosse Clubs. Field lacrosse was spread across Canada by Anglophone migrants from Ontario and Quebec. In February 1887, the Toronto Lacrosse Club began using hockey as a form of exercise during the winter months.[9] By the early 1890s it was the most popular summer game in Canada; the 1900s were the golden years, as two professional leagues were set up.[10] Escalating violence led to the collapse of the professional leagues in 1914, and the game's base of support shrank to Montreal, Victoria, Vancouver, New Westminster, and a few small-towns. Its failure to establish a solid base derived from a thin organizational infrastructure; for example, it was not played by schools or churches.[11] The Canadian Lacrosse Association, founded in 1925, is the governing body of lacrosse in Canada. It presently conducts national junior and senior championship tournaments for men and women in both field and box lacrosse.
In 1931, big city hockey promoters introduced "box lacrosse" to turn winter hockey fans into a year-round audience. Box lacrosse was played in a smaller indoor arena space, and competitions could also be held in baseball stadiums, and again, the play was violent. Not enough cities could support teams, however, and the hard times of the Great Depression in the 1930s reduced the number of fans. Entrepreneurs, while failing to make a major commercial success, transformed Canadian amateur lacrosse, making it quite different from field lacrosse as played in the United States, Britain, and Australia. In 1987 the National Lacrosse League began; it has clubs in twelve cities in the United States and Canada.[12]
21st century
In 2003, Canada participated in the inaugural World Indoor Lacrosse Championship.
The CLA along with 5 other National sporting association had their charitable status revoked in June 2010 as part of a Revenue Canada crackdown on Parklane Financial's tax shelter scheme, in which charitable organizations issued receipts far in excess of any material donations. The fact that the CLA Board of Directors agreed to participate in such a scheme may in part be due to the fact that the CLA Board of Directors is largely made up of elected lacrosse representatives, with no particular expertise in legal or financial matters of governance.
At the provincial level, the Ontario Lacrosse Association controls the majority of lacrosse in Ontario. The OLA is governed by a larger Board than the CLA, though also populated largely by members with a strong lacrosse background. OLA lacrosse officials are sanctioned by the OLA, and represented by the Ontario Lacrosse Referees Association (OLRA). Unlike typical referee associations, the OLRA has a governing structure that is open only to Box lacrosse officials who officiate Junior/Senior/Major-series games, though the vast majority of officials do not officiate at that level. The OLRA is an extension of the OLA, and does not represent an independent officiating union.
In May 1964, former Canadian Amateur Hockey Association president and then current member of parliament Jack Roxburgh did extensive research to find if Canadian parliament had ever declared a national game, and specifically looked into whether lacrosse was officially declared. After going through parliamentary records, he found no law was ever enacted. The Canadian Press reported at the time that the myth of lacrosse as Canada's national game possibly came from a book published in 1869 titled Lacrosse, the National Game of Canada, and that the Canadian Lacrosse Association was founded in 1867.[13][14] His endeavour to declare hockey as Canada's national game coincided with the Great Canadian Flag Debate of 1964.[15] On October 28, 1964, Roxburgh moved to introduce Bill C–132, with respect to declaring hockey as the national game of Canada.[16]
Canadian Lacrosse Association members responded to the motion by calling it insulting and "out of line", and vowed to fight it.[17] On June 11, 1965, Bob Prittie replied by introducing a separate bill to have lacrosse declared as Canada's national game and stated that, "I think it is fitting at this time when we are considering national flags, national anthems and other national symbols, that this particular matter should be settled now".[15] The choice of Canada's national game was debated in 1965, but neither bill was passed when parliament was dissolved.[18] In 1967, Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson proposed to name national summer and winter games, but nothing was resolved. Finally in April 1994, Bill C–212 was passed to recognize hockey as Canada's official winter game, and lacrosse as its summer game.[15]
↑ Michael A. Robidoux. "Imagining a Canadian Identity through Sport: A Historical Interpretation of Lacrosse and Hockey". The Journal of American Folklore, vol. 115, no. 456, 2002, pp. 209–25. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/4129220. Accessed 2 Oct. 2023.
↑ Don Morrow, "The Institutionalization of Sport: A Case Study of Canadian Lacrosse, 1844–1914," International Journal of the History of Sport (1992) 9#2 pp 236-251
↑ Alan Metcalfe, "Sport and Athletics: A Case Study of Lacrosse in Canada, 1840–1889," Journal of Sport History, (1976) 3#1 pp 1-19.
↑ "Notes Of Sport", The Ottawa Journal, p.3, February 5, 1887, retrieved July 31, 2014
↑ Michael A. Robidoux, "Imagining a Canadian Identity through Sport: A Historical Interpretation of Lacrosse and Hockey" The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 115, (Spring, 2002), pp.209-225
↑ N. B. Bouchier, " Idealized middle-class sport for a young nation: Lacrosse in nineteenth-century Ontario Towns, 1871–1891," Journal of Canadian studies 1994 -
Fisher, Donald M. Lacrosse: A History of the Game (Johns Hopkins U.P., 2002)
Metcalfe, Alan. "Sport and Athletics: A Case Study of Lacrosse in Canada, 1840–1889," Journal of Sport History (1976) 3#1 pp 1–19.
Metcalfe, Alan. Canada Learns To Play: The Emergence of Organized Sport, 1807-1914 (1987).
Morrow, Don, and Kevin Wamsley. Sport in Canada: A History (2005). 318 pp.
Mott, Morris, ed. Sports in Canada: Historical Readings (1989).
Robidoux, Michael A. (2002). "Imagining a Canadian Identity through Sport: A Historical Interpretation of Lacrosse and Hockey". Journal of American Folklore. 115 (456): 209–225. doi:10.1353/jaf.2002.0021. S2CID144703704.
External links
Wikisource has original text related to this article:
Lacrosse is a contact team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game was extensively modified by European colonists, reducing the violence, to create its current collegiate and professional form.
Box lacrosse, also known as boxla, box, or indoor lacrosse, is an indoor version of lacrosse played mostly in North America. The game originated in the 1930s in Canada, where it is more popular than field lacrosse. Lacrosse is Canada's official national summer sport. Box lacrosse is played between two teams of five players and one goalie each, and is traditionally played on an ice hockey rink once the ice has been removed or covered. The playing area is called a box, in contrast to the open playing field of field lacrosse. The object of the game is to use a lacrosse stick to catch, carry, and pass the ball in an effort to score by shooting a solid rubber lacrosse ball into the opponent's goal. The highest level of box lacrosse is the National Lacrosse League.
Lionel Pretoria Conacher, MP, nicknamed "The Big Train", was a Canadian athlete and politician. Voted the country's top athlete of the first half of the 20th century, he won championships in numerous sports. His first passion was Canadian football; he was a member of the 1921 Grey Cup champion Toronto Argonauts. He was a member of the Toronto Maple Leafs baseball team that won the International League championship in 1926. In hockey, he won a Memorial Cup in 1920, and the Stanley Cup twice: with the Chicago Black Hawks in 1934 and the Montreal Maroons in 1935. Additionally, he won wrestling, boxing and lacrosse championships during his playing career. He is one of three players, including Joe Miller and Carl Voss, to have their names engraved on both the Grey Cup and Stanley Cup.
Sports in Canada consist of a wide variety of games. The roots of organized sports in Canada date back to the 1770s, culminating in the development and popularization of the major professional games of ice hockey, lacrosse, basketball, baseball, soccer, football and cricket. Canada's official national sports are ice hockey and lacrosse. Golf, baseball, tennis, skiing, ringette, badminton, cricket, volleyball, cycling, swimming, bowling, rugby union, canoeing, curling, squash, and the study of martial arts are widely enjoyed at the youth and amateur levels. Great achievements in Canadian sports are recognized by Canada's Sports Hall of Fame, while the Lou Marsh Trophy is awarded annually to Canada's top athlete by a panel of journalists. There are numerous other Sports Halls of Fame in Canada.
Ernest Harvey Pulford was a Canadian athlete at the turn of the twentieth century, winning national championships in ice hockey, lacrosse, football, boxing, paddling and rowing. A highly regarded defenceman with the Ottawa Hockey Club, where he was known for being a large and solid player who was excellent at checking opponents. With Ottawa he won the Stanley Cup four times, and also won championships or tournaments in every sport in which he played. When the Hockey Hall of Fame was founded in 1945, Pulford was one of the original nine inductees.
Gaylord Powless (1946–2001) was a Haudenosaunee lacrosse player from the Six Nations of the Grand River First Nation Indian reserve near Brantford, Ontario. His father Ross was also a highly regarded player. In 2017, Powless was awarded the Order of Sport, marking induction into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame.
The Ontario Lacrosse Association is a not-for-profit sport organization and a member association of the Canadian Lacrosse Association, the national governing body for lacrosse in Canada. The Ontario Lacrosse Association is the largest provincial lacrosse governing body within Canada. The mission of the OLA is to govern, improve, foster, and perpetuate the sport of lacrosse in Ontario. It was established in 1897.
The Founders' Cup is the championship trophy of Canada's Junior "B" lacrosse leagues. The custodial duties of this trophy fall upon the Canadian Lacrosse Association. The national champions are determined through a round robin format with a playdown for the final.
Roy Alvin "Red" Storey, was a Canadian athlete, referee and broadcaster. He played football, lacrosse and ice hockey. While active as an athlete, he turned to officiating in all three sports, and continued as an official after the end of his playing career. While he was a member of the Toronto Argonauts, the team won the Grey Cup Canadian championship twice. He refereed in the National Hockey League, and later became a radio and television commentator for Canadian television.
Major Series Lacrosse (MSL) is a Senior A box lacrosse league based in Ontario, Canada sanctioned by the Ontario Lacrosse Association. Most of the star players in the league play or have played in the National Lacrosse League. Each year, the playoff teams battle for the right to compete against the Western Lacrosse Association champion for the Mann Cup every September. The championship is hosted alternately between Ontario and British Columbia every year.
William Abraham Hewitt was a Canadian sports executive and journalist, also widely known as Billy Hewitt. He was secretary of the Ontario Hockey Association (OHA) from 1903 to 1966, and sports editor of the Toronto Daily Star from 1900 to 1931. He promoted the establishment of the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association (CAHA), then served as its secretary-treasurer from 1915 to 1919, registrar from 1921 to 1925, registrar-treasurer from 1925 to 1961, and a trustee of the Allan Cup and Memorial Cup. Hewitt standardized player registrations in Canada, was a committee member to discuss professional-amateur agreements with the National Hockey League, and negotiated working agreements with amateur hockey governing bodies in the United States. He oversaw referees within the OHA, and negotiated common rules of play for amateur and professional leagues as chairman of the CAHA rules committee. After retiring from journalism, he was the managing-director of Maple Leaf Gardens from 1931 to 1948, and chairman of the committee to select the inaugural members of the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1945.
James Thomas Sutherland was a Canadian ice hockey administrator, and founding father of the game in Canada. Sutherland was a pioneer of hockey's early years, helping to develop amateur hockey, and spread the game's popularity throughout the country, and into the United States. He played in the inaugural season of the Ontario Hockey Association, and later coached and refereed the game. He founded the original Kingston Frontenacs, and later became president of the Ontario Hockey Association, and then the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association. He was instrumental in founding the Memorial Cup in 1919, and was at the forefront of the discussion on the origins of hockey.
Carson Eric "Shovel Shot" Cooper was a Canadian ice hockey player who played 8 seasons in the National Hockey League for the Boston Bruins, Montreal Canadiens, Detroit Cougars and Detroit Falcons between 1924 and 1932.
William George Beers was a Canadian dentist who founded Canada's first dental journal and served as the founding dean of the Dental College of the Province of Quebec. In addition, he is referred to as the "father of modern lacrosse" for his work establishing the first set of playing rules for the game.
John Maxwell Roxburgh was a Canadian ice hockey administrator and politician. He organized minor ice hockey in his hometown of Simcoe, Ontario, co-founded the Ontario Juvenile Hockey Association in 1934, and the Ontario Minor Hockey Association in 1940. He served as president of the Ontario Hockey Association from 1950 to 1952, improved its finances to become profitable, and appointed Bill Hanley as a full-time manager to operate the association as a business. Roxburgh served as president of the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association from 1960 to 1962, arranged exhibition games between Canada and the Soviet Union amid an increased rivalry between the respective national teams, and pushed for the separation of politics and sport when the Cold War threatened to cancel the 1962 Ice Hockey World Championships. He was opposed to changes in the Olympic Oath and the international definition of amateurism, and later recommended the formation of a student-athlete team coached by Father David Bauer to become the Canada men's national ice hockey team.
Sylvester Patrick "Silver" Quilty was a Canadian football player, referee, coach and sport administrator. As a player, he won the Yates Cup in 1907 with the Ottawa Gee-Gees football team, and was credited as the first man to play the flying wing position. He also played with the Ottawa Rough Riders, and the McGill Redmen football team. After his playing career, he became a football referee and officiated the 10th Grey Cup, and also coached the Ottawa Rough Riders.
Miro "Medo" Martinello is a Canadian former professional box lacrosse player, coach, and ice hockey referee, born in Windsor, Ontario, Canada of Italian descent. He is a member of the Windsor and Essex County Sports Hall of Fame, Ontario Lacrosse Hall of Fame, and is a recipient of the Canadian Government 125th Anniversary of Confederation Medal "for outstanding Achievements on behalf of Canada".
The history of Canadian sports falls into five stages of development: early recreational activities before 1840; the start of organized competition, 1840–1880; the emergence of national organizations, 1882–1914; the rapid growth of both amateur and professional sports, 1914 to 1960; and developments of the last half-century. Some sports, especially ice hockey, lacrosse, curling, and ringette enjoy an international reputation as particularly Canadian. Although typically thought of as American, the origin of the sport of baseball began the Canadian town of Beachville, Ontario, and American football was initially developed by Canadians at McGill University before two different playing styles emerged, American football and Canadian football. Canadian sports attract large numbers of participants and huge audiences; hockey, played by 1.4 million Canadians, has become part of the national identity.
Ice hockey, simply referred to as "hockey" in both English and French in Canada, dates back to the 19th century. The sport is very popular and played year-round and at every level in the country. Born of various influences from stick-and-ball games brought from the United Kingdom and indigenous games, the contemporary sport of ice hockey originated in Montreal. It is the official national winter sport of Canada. Hockey is widely considered Canada's national pastime, with high levels of participation by children, men, and women at various levels of competition.
Lionel Fleury was a Canadian ice hockey administrator who served as president of the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association from 1964 to 1966. Under his leadership, the Canada men's national ice hockey team transitioned from student athletes coached by Father David Bauer into a year-round national team program. Fleury welcomed the Newfoundland Amateur Hockey Association as a new branch member of the national association in 1966, and changed the format of the Memorial Cup playoffs in Eastern Canada from an elimination bracket into a round-robin format to reduce travel costs and address concerns of imbalanced competition. He sought an end to the National Hockey League system of sponsoring amateur teams by replacing it with a draft of players who had graduated from junior ice hockey, and negotiated for a new agreement that was realized after his term as president concluded.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
